OK, last night's dinner was a lie. It was at the restaurant we had had lunch the day before and while it was very nice, was 2 courses for Anne and 3 for me and there were no dancing girls or men carrying banners.
After two days in the hotel, we were up early-ish, showered packed and gone by 9:30. Checking out of the hotel is only marginally easier than packing up the campground, mainly because you have to walk everything to the car from the hotel room, rather than having the car packed right beside the tent. You also have to check the hotel room to make sure you haven't left anything – and yes, we did nearly leave all the camping gear in the wardrobe in the hotel room – and that wasn't deliberate. We had taken it out of the car, because the roof won't go down with the camping gear in the boot and I couldn't be bothered moving it between the back sear and the boot everytime we stopped.
The hotel has been lovely for two days, but it did have an extraordinarily small bathroom – 75cm square is only just big enough for a shower and the toilet was wedged so tightly between the wall and the handbasin that you sort of had to corkscrew yourself by sitting with your legs pointing one way to avoid the wall and your upper body the other way to avoid the handbasin. This was more a mild source of amusement that annoyance and it was very nice to have the two days in the hotel.
The drive today was in the direction of Beaune (pronounced bone), with two stops along the way. The first stop was at the town of Autun, with it's cathedral. The drive to Autun took about two hours, which was very pleasant with the roof down. While we walked around Autun, the temperature was soaring into the 30's, but it was a dry heat, so pleasant to walk in.
After leaving Autun, we stopped 40ks down the road at a small town called Nolay – which we had been told had a nice campground. On closer inspection, it appeared to be quite a distance from the restaurants in town, so we decided to head to Beaune where we had been recommended a couple of campgrounds from our UK camping guide book that was within walking distance of the town centre. The drive from Nolay to Beaune was through wine country, with grape vines covering every square metre of the surrounding hillsides. Everywhere we've been outside of Paris has been a wine “region”, but this was the first time we'd seen grapes planted on such a massive scale.
We arrived in Beaune to darkening skies and at one stage on the drive, drove over a rode with steam rising off it and puddles, so although we didn't encounter any rain, rain was obviously in the air. The 5 minutes it took to pitch the tent was a sweat inducing affair and that was just to hit in the 12 tent pegs. After that, we headed into Beaune at about .2:30 for our first food and drink for the day.
Beaune is a lovely little fortified town in the heart of Burgundy. It has a bustling historic centre, with many restaurants, cafe's and bars. There are also many wine cellars within the walls of the city and many of these were offering tastings and tours. We opted for our usual wine sample of a bottle of the local (this time Pinot Noir, which was served chilled) with a pizza outside in the shade.
The heavens did eventually open, which saw us first sheltering under a shop awning in the late afternoon. The rain shower did very little to reduce the humidity and a repeat performance at 10pm, while we were sitting in the campground bar made only a slight difference, so it was a very warm sleep in our wee tent overnight.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday 29th – Week 3 – Vezelay sightseeing
Mulling over, as you do, the benefits and freedom of camping versus the luxury of staying in a hotel in Vezelay, it struck me how delightfully appropriate that we were staying in a hotel in a town called Vezelay. Anyway, We've decided to stay on an extra day in Vezelay. It's a nice town, with canals in the low lying countryside around it, so we decided that we'd go for a drive this morning, then have a relaxing afternoon round the town.
While we were walking round Vezelay yesterday, we noticed a brass clam shell embedded in the cobblestones. The clam shell is the symbol of the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrim walk we had seen in Northen Spain on our trip last year. The particular walk started from Lourdes in France and goes to Santiago De Compostela in the top north western corner of Spain. It appears that the Caminos can go from a wide range of places and one leaves from Auxerre and passes throufh Vezelay on the way, hence the clam shell on the road. As well as the Basillica, we've also seen a lot of nuns and monks around Vezelay and everyone was very well dressed when we were out on Sunday night, so it's obviously quite a religious town.
We got going after a relaxing breakfast in the hotel and headed on some very quiet back roads to the small town of Vermenton about 25ks north of Vezelay. We made a number of stops along the way in some tiny villages, but it was nice just cruising along with the roof down and the wind in your hair. At Vermenton, we got out and went for a walk around the town and found ourselves in their beautiful Parc Municipal Des Illes, which as the name suggests is a gardens set on island in the middle of the river Cure. The Cure is partly locked, so there were some river boats parked nearby and the park had some small waterfalls caused by the small dams needed to keep the river at the correct level for the locks. It was a very picturesque gardens and even had a boulorama, which is mass Boule courts for the town's people to play on.
After that, we headed along some even smaller back roads to a small town called Mailly Le Chateau, which is a tiny town with a (you guessed it) castle on the top of the hill. Having walked around the town, the outside of the castle, and taken some photos, we headed back to Vezelay at about 2:00pm – melting with the roof down in the 33 degree heat.
A very light lunch today of a baguette and a bottle of mineral water, was followed up by a walk around the town and then an extravagant 8 course meal with dancing girls and men carrying banners in the evening.
While we were walking round Vezelay yesterday, we noticed a brass clam shell embedded in the cobblestones. The clam shell is the symbol of the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrim walk we had seen in Northen Spain on our trip last year. The particular walk started from Lourdes in France and goes to Santiago De Compostela in the top north western corner of Spain. It appears that the Caminos can go from a wide range of places and one leaves from Auxerre and passes throufh Vezelay on the way, hence the clam shell on the road. As well as the Basillica, we've also seen a lot of nuns and monks around Vezelay and everyone was very well dressed when we were out on Sunday night, so it's obviously quite a religious town.
We got going after a relaxing breakfast in the hotel and headed on some very quiet back roads to the small town of Vermenton about 25ks north of Vezelay. We made a number of stops along the way in some tiny villages, but it was nice just cruising along with the roof down and the wind in your hair. At Vermenton, we got out and went for a walk around the town and found ourselves in their beautiful Parc Municipal Des Illes, which as the name suggests is a gardens set on island in the middle of the river Cure. The Cure is partly locked, so there were some river boats parked nearby and the park had some small waterfalls caused by the small dams needed to keep the river at the correct level for the locks. It was a very picturesque gardens and even had a boulorama, which is mass Boule courts for the town's people to play on.
After that, we headed along some even smaller back roads to a small town called Mailly Le Chateau, which is a tiny town with a (you guessed it) castle on the top of the hill. Having walked around the town, the outside of the castle, and taken some photos, we headed back to Vezelay at about 2:00pm – melting with the roof down in the 33 degree heat.
A very light lunch today of a baguette and a bottle of mineral water, was followed up by a walk around the town and then an extravagant 8 course meal with dancing girls and men carrying banners in the evening.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sunday 28th – Week 2 – Drive to Vezelay
French supermarkets are a bit different to ours. Firstly, they sell just about everything – clothes furnitire, camping gear, home appliances. It's sort of like Moore Wilsons on a Mega store scale and every town has several. Then there is the annoying habit of not having any wine cooled. We've now got into the habit of heading straight for the wine section, followed by the frozen peas basket of the freezer, before heading off round the rest of the supermarket to buy whatever else it is we need for the day. After about 10 minutes, we head back to the frozen peas to collect our now cooled bottle of wine. Next, there is the checkout. There is only ever a couple of aisles open, none of them are for 10 items or less and checking out is just another part of the French social scene, so don't expect it to be quick. Most people seem to come to the supermarket about once a week or fortnight, so they always have full trolleys, they never offer to let the person with 6 items go first – why would they remove this social opportunity from us. We've taken to Anne standing in the queue, with me standing in eyesight, but near the frozen peas. When she finally gets to the front of the queue, I come charging along with my chilled bottle of blanc ou rosé. Finally, they've got right away from plastic bags, so you have to bring your own recycled shopping bag.
Today we awoke to the sound of fire breathing dragons – at least that is what the locals call it. In fact, it's the hot air balloons flying overhead on their way to drift over the Chateaux at Chenonceau. They are on the go first thing in the morning or at the end of the day and obviously drift depending on the direction of the wind. 4 went over last night, while we were sitting at the bar – two very close together, which was a bit disconcerting. This morning there was just one, but it was right above us, so a fairly noisy way to start the morning. We were up and 7:00am and showered, packed, fed and on the road by 8:30.
The French roading system is excellent going up and down the country, but much more variable going across the country. As our trip today is from Chenonceaux to Vazelay, which is largely across country, we are taking a wide range of roads to cover the 270ks in 3.5hours. The first part of the road was dangerous – there have been 25 road deaths on it since 1999. We know this because as we were driving along, we saw these black wooden stick men with yellow flourescent X's on their chest. Just as I said, what do they mean. We rounded a corner and there was a sign advising us of the carnage. We saw several more of the black men before we headed onto the motorway, but not before getting Jane totally confused by a new motorway on ramp that wasn't on her map sent us on a 10 minute detour finding the correct route. Because today's trip is quite long, we've instructed Jane to get us there on the fastest route, so while the motorway covers about 2/3rds of this, the reminder is on an ever narrowing range of back roads, that got down to a single lane, but two way road. It certainly took us on some interesting roads, and the scenery was good. It wasn't a route that we would have chosen ourselves, but then we wouldn't have analysed 120,000 roads to determine the fastest way to get to Vezelay.
We are spending a night in a hotel in Vezelay, mainly because after two weeks in a tent we feel like it. The bit of luxury is certainly much appreciated and it makes us appreciate both the freedom and social contact that camping gives us and the luxury that the time in a hotel offers. Having had a quiet day yesterday and then a drive today, we realised that we have been going at the sightseeing pretty hard, so we intend to have a day in a hotel every week for a bit of variety.
We are now well and truly inland and the temperature is into the 30's. Boy is it hot, and boy can I feel the sympathy flowing out of New Zealand. OK, fair call, I won't go on, but it is really hot. We found a nice little restaurant in Vezelay and deposited ourselves there for a couple of hours enjoying a slow sunday lunch, with a bottle of Rosé – our drink of choice in France. Take note here, when in Burgundy, drink the red and not the rosé. Anyway, after lunch, we did a walk around the town, which is set on top of a hill with a Basillica at the top of it. The annual fair was on today, so we got to wander around that for a while, before retiring to a small cafe for a well deserved (non-alcoholic) drink. At 7pm, it was still stiflingly hot. Dinner was a pizza and a carafe of the red (got it right this time) wine.
Today we awoke to the sound of fire breathing dragons – at least that is what the locals call it. In fact, it's the hot air balloons flying overhead on their way to drift over the Chateaux at Chenonceau. They are on the go first thing in the morning or at the end of the day and obviously drift depending on the direction of the wind. 4 went over last night, while we were sitting at the bar – two very close together, which was a bit disconcerting. This morning there was just one, but it was right above us, so a fairly noisy way to start the morning. We were up and 7:00am and showered, packed, fed and on the road by 8:30.
The French roading system is excellent going up and down the country, but much more variable going across the country. As our trip today is from Chenonceaux to Vazelay, which is largely across country, we are taking a wide range of roads to cover the 270ks in 3.5hours. The first part of the road was dangerous – there have been 25 road deaths on it since 1999. We know this because as we were driving along, we saw these black wooden stick men with yellow flourescent X's on their chest. Just as I said, what do they mean. We rounded a corner and there was a sign advising us of the carnage. We saw several more of the black men before we headed onto the motorway, but not before getting Jane totally confused by a new motorway on ramp that wasn't on her map sent us on a 10 minute detour finding the correct route. Because today's trip is quite long, we've instructed Jane to get us there on the fastest route, so while the motorway covers about 2/3rds of this, the reminder is on an ever narrowing range of back roads, that got down to a single lane, but two way road. It certainly took us on some interesting roads, and the scenery was good. It wasn't a route that we would have chosen ourselves, but then we wouldn't have analysed 120,000 roads to determine the fastest way to get to Vezelay.
We are spending a night in a hotel in Vezelay, mainly because after two weeks in a tent we feel like it. The bit of luxury is certainly much appreciated and it makes us appreciate both the freedom and social contact that camping gives us and the luxury that the time in a hotel offers. Having had a quiet day yesterday and then a drive today, we realised that we have been going at the sightseeing pretty hard, so we intend to have a day in a hotel every week for a bit of variety.
We are now well and truly inland and the temperature is into the 30's. Boy is it hot, and boy can I feel the sympathy flowing out of New Zealand. OK, fair call, I won't go on, but it is really hot. We found a nice little restaurant in Vezelay and deposited ourselves there for a couple of hours enjoying a slow sunday lunch, with a bottle of Rosé – our drink of choice in France. Take note here, when in Burgundy, drink the red and not the rosé. Anyway, after lunch, we did a walk around the town, which is set on top of a hill with a Basillica at the top of it. The annual fair was on today, so we got to wander around that for a while, before retiring to a small cafe for a well deserved (non-alcoholic) drink. At 7pm, it was still stiflingly hot. Dinner was a pizza and a carafe of the red (got it right this time) wine.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Saturday 27th – Week 2 – Lazing around in Chenonceaux
It's been a busy couple of weeks, so today we've had a lazy day going for a walk up the river past the Chateau at Chenonceau for a couple of hours, followed by a slow lunch at a restaurant in Chenonceaux, followed by a snooze and finally dinner in the campground restaurant. Tomorrow we pack up and drive to Vézélay, where we are staying in a hotel for a night, before heading onto Burgundy, where we will be back in campgrounds again.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday 26th – Week 2 – Amboise and Leonardo Da Vinci
Hold the phones, we have a WINNER. And today's winner is......... dah, dah, dah, dah..... the man who has a remote control for his caravan. There's an old couple parked beside us with a very large caravan, which they had somehow turned completely around, so that the door faced towards the river and the nice view. As they are leaving this morning, we were all prepared for the manouverings of the 4WD and lots of heaving and grunting to hook the caravan up to the car, but no. Anne watched in stunned amazement as the man stood beside the caravan, remote control in hand and turned the caravan round to now face the correct way, then lined it up with the car, manouvered it over the tow ball and when all the work was done, simply connected it to his car.... Now that is impressive.
We appear to be living in something resembling a war zone, with little mounds of dirt piled up all round the place. New mounds appear every night, as the local mole population goes about their work digging up the ground all around the tent. This morning we awoke to find 3 new mounds and one resurrected mound. I flattened one yesterday, which obviously had a mole sleeping under it, cos it was all pushed back up again this morning. Apparently, worms love the sandy ground the campground resides on, and moles love worms, so its a happy mix – unless you're the campground owner. I'm kind of expecting one to pop his little head through a hole in the tent floor one night, while we're asleep.
I got in touch with my girly side today, when I bought 3 pairs of shoes. I think I made the sales ladies day, not by buying 3 pairs of shoes, but by requesting a pair of socks to try the shoes on with, and then when she had the drawer open grabbing a pair of women's stocking instead. There was a good reason for wanting the stockings, but who's going to believe me, so i'll leave it by saying that all the women in the shop had a great laugh at this man with his funny French trying out shoes in woman's stockings.
Incase you were wondering, we went to Amboise today. It's a pretty little village about 20ks away, with a chateau that we aren't visiting, because we're over them. But what it is most famous for is Clos du Luce, which is Leonardo Da Vinci's last residence. He lived there for 3 years before he died. The house is now a museum. It's a big house, it overlooks the Chateau that was the home of Francois I, who was the king of France. It had lots of his “inventions”, which were things that he sketched designs for, but because he had no means to power them, they were never able to be built. Being so far ahead of his time, he had drawn designs for things like parachutes, helicopters, machine guns, tanks, military (movable) bridges.
We spent most of the day in Amboise, because a.) it's a pretty little town, b.) I bought 3 pairs of shoes and c.) we had an awesome lunch. I had a goose gizard salad, which despite it's name was really nice. For my main, I had an very spicy sausage, which I suspect came from some equally exotic parts of a range of animals. Anne had a Terrine entree and salmon and hoki for her main.
We had a lite dinner at the campground again, and have now purchased a small table, in the form of a blue hard plastic box, so that we have something to put our nibbles on, while we sit on our camp chairs. We realise that this is letting the side down completely, as there are some very exotic camp tables that you can buy, but with our extremely restricted space, we don't have room for any of those sorts of things.
We appear to be living in something resembling a war zone, with little mounds of dirt piled up all round the place. New mounds appear every night, as the local mole population goes about their work digging up the ground all around the tent. This morning we awoke to find 3 new mounds and one resurrected mound. I flattened one yesterday, which obviously had a mole sleeping under it, cos it was all pushed back up again this morning. Apparently, worms love the sandy ground the campground resides on, and moles love worms, so its a happy mix – unless you're the campground owner. I'm kind of expecting one to pop his little head through a hole in the tent floor one night, while we're asleep.
I got in touch with my girly side today, when I bought 3 pairs of shoes. I think I made the sales ladies day, not by buying 3 pairs of shoes, but by requesting a pair of socks to try the shoes on with, and then when she had the drawer open grabbing a pair of women's stocking instead. There was a good reason for wanting the stockings, but who's going to believe me, so i'll leave it by saying that all the women in the shop had a great laugh at this man with his funny French trying out shoes in woman's stockings.
Incase you were wondering, we went to Amboise today. It's a pretty little village about 20ks away, with a chateau that we aren't visiting, because we're over them. But what it is most famous for is Clos du Luce, which is Leonardo Da Vinci's last residence. He lived there for 3 years before he died. The house is now a museum. It's a big house, it overlooks the Chateau that was the home of Francois I, who was the king of France. It had lots of his “inventions”, which were things that he sketched designs for, but because he had no means to power them, they were never able to be built. Being so far ahead of his time, he had drawn designs for things like parachutes, helicopters, machine guns, tanks, military (movable) bridges.
We spent most of the day in Amboise, because a.) it's a pretty little town, b.) I bought 3 pairs of shoes and c.) we had an awesome lunch. I had a goose gizard salad, which despite it's name was really nice. For my main, I had an very spicy sausage, which I suspect came from some equally exotic parts of a range of animals. Anne had a Terrine entree and salmon and hoki for her main.
We had a lite dinner at the campground again, and have now purchased a small table, in the form of a blue hard plastic box, so that we have something to put our nibbles on, while we sit on our camp chairs. We realise that this is letting the side down completely, as there are some very exotic camp tables that you can buy, but with our extremely restricted space, we don't have room for any of those sorts of things.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Thursday 25th – Week 2 – more of those bloody chateaus
We seem to lack a few of the true essentials that are required for camping. Sure we have the bare essentials, but looking around, it is obvious that we are not like these people and that we are really just pretenders to the title of “a true camper”.
First comes the attitude. I always thought that camping was about “getting away from it all, roughing it a bit”, but looking around me, that is obviously not the case. Real campers go out of there way to gather around them every little gadget that makes it possible to replicate as closely as possible the comfortable life they have at home, while doing so in such a way that enables you to up sticks and move to a new location every couple of days. This involves two things and they are divided very strictly along gender lines.
For the man, it's the gadgets – sky dish, multi-burner barbeque, fishing rod, a wide range of fully collapsable table, chairs and loungers, even a collapsable clothes line for her-indoors. Which brings me on to her indoors – an englishman's home may be his castle, but his caravan is the showroom where he displays to the world, like a peacock displaying it's feathers, the domestic heaven within which he resides. And this is where the wives seem to spend an inordinate amount of time sweeping, arranging, straightening anything and everything to do with their domain. Anne and I with our “this is where I lays ma head at night and I'l be gone for a days sightseeing first thing in the morning”, just don't fit. We haven't camped in New Zealand for over 20 years, so will be interested to see what things are like in NZ when we go camping next summer.
Today's sightseeing is to what is widely considered to be THE jewel in the Loire crown – Chenonceau (the town has an 'x' on the end, the chateau doesn't).
Chenonceau also has a great history. When Charles II came to the throne, he gave it to his mistress, Diane De Poitiers, who was 20-years his senior and a widow. Diane DP dressed in black and white, as was befitting a widow in mourning and such was her persuasive powers of C2, that she convinced him to do the same, much to the despair of the rejected and humiliated queen – Catherine de Medici. When C2 was unfortunately killed in tournament, Catherine de M took over as Queen and, you got it, Diane DP was given her marching orders. Now depending on which version of the story you read, DDP (mistress) was either sent to live in another chateau, or ended up living in abject poverty for the rest of her miserable days.
Anyway, once she got her hands on it, Catherine went on an extensive renovation program, which basically got the castle up to the spec that we see it in today. The chateau is by the river Cher, and DDP (Mistress) had built an arched bridge from the Chateau to the other side. CDM (new queen) upgraded the bridge to put a massive two story gallery above the bridge.
During WWII, free France and occupied France we divided at the Cher river and Chenonceau was the conduit by which many refugees were able to escape into free France. The Chateau was under constant threat of being blown up by the Germans, because of this.
Anne and I walked around the gardens and toured through the chateau for a good couple of hours enjoying the sites and the history of the place.
A quick baguette for lunch and we were off to Chaumont Sur Loire, where DDP (mistress) was said to have been sent by CDM (new queen) after C2 got bumped off (accidentally) in a tournament. By this stage Anne and I were completely chateau'd out (we were c(s)hattered), so we wizzed round the chateau and then headed back to the campground.
There you go, I am now completely up to date. Tomorrow, we are off to Amboise, which has a chateau, but more importantly has a market which we are hoping will be a good'un and a museum to Leonardo Da Vinci who lived in the town. We are here until Sunday morning, so we think we'll hire some bikes on Saturday and go for a quiet ride up the Cher, past Chenonceau.
First comes the attitude. I always thought that camping was about “getting away from it all, roughing it a bit”, but looking around me, that is obviously not the case. Real campers go out of there way to gather around them every little gadget that makes it possible to replicate as closely as possible the comfortable life they have at home, while doing so in such a way that enables you to up sticks and move to a new location every couple of days. This involves two things and they are divided very strictly along gender lines.
For the man, it's the gadgets – sky dish, multi-burner barbeque, fishing rod, a wide range of fully collapsable table, chairs and loungers, even a collapsable clothes line for her-indoors. Which brings me on to her indoors – an englishman's home may be his castle, but his caravan is the showroom where he displays to the world, like a peacock displaying it's feathers, the domestic heaven within which he resides. And this is where the wives seem to spend an inordinate amount of time sweeping, arranging, straightening anything and everything to do with their domain. Anne and I with our “this is where I lays ma head at night and I'l be gone for a days sightseeing first thing in the morning”, just don't fit. We haven't camped in New Zealand for over 20 years, so will be interested to see what things are like in NZ when we go camping next summer.
Today's sightseeing is to what is widely considered to be THE jewel in the Loire crown – Chenonceau (the town has an 'x' on the end, the chateau doesn't).
Chenonceau also has a great history. When Charles II came to the throne, he gave it to his mistress, Diane De Poitiers, who was 20-years his senior and a widow. Diane DP dressed in black and white, as was befitting a widow in mourning and such was her persuasive powers of C2, that she convinced him to do the same, much to the despair of the rejected and humiliated queen – Catherine de Medici. When C2 was unfortunately killed in tournament, Catherine de M took over as Queen and, you got it, Diane DP was given her marching orders. Now depending on which version of the story you read, DDP (mistress) was either sent to live in another chateau, or ended up living in abject poverty for the rest of her miserable days.
Anyway, once she got her hands on it, Catherine went on an extensive renovation program, which basically got the castle up to the spec that we see it in today. The chateau is by the river Cher, and DDP (Mistress) had built an arched bridge from the Chateau to the other side. CDM (new queen) upgraded the bridge to put a massive two story gallery above the bridge.
During WWII, free France and occupied France we divided at the Cher river and Chenonceau was the conduit by which many refugees were able to escape into free France. The Chateau was under constant threat of being blown up by the Germans, because of this.
Anne and I walked around the gardens and toured through the chateau for a good couple of hours enjoying the sites and the history of the place.
A quick baguette for lunch and we were off to Chaumont Sur Loire, where DDP (mistress) was said to have been sent by CDM (new queen) after C2 got bumped off (accidentally) in a tournament. By this stage Anne and I were completely chateau'd out (we were c(s)hattered), so we wizzed round the chateau and then headed back to the campground.
There you go, I am now completely up to date. Tomorrow, we are off to Amboise, which has a chateau, but more importantly has a market which we are hoping will be a good'un and a museum to Leonardo Da Vinci who lived in the town. We are here until Sunday morning, so we think we'll hire some bikes on Saturday and go for a quiet ride up the Cher, past Chenonceau.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday 24th – Week 2 – Loire Chateaus
The town of Chinon is near to the first nuclear power plant built in 1963. Because of this the campground has emergency procedure in case of nuclear disaster, although it appears to have suffered in the translation. The instruction is to “stay indoors and lead a retiring life”. Most of the campground occupants appear to be following the instruction, even though there is no nuclear emergency.
Irrespective of whether a nuclear emergency is imminent or not (and in a remarkable change of fortunes, the French now claim the “green” high ground because their nuclear power doesn't burn fossil fuels – a far cry from the derision heaped on it in the 70's and 80's), it was time to move on, so we checked out of the campground at Chinon and headed an hour down the Loire valley to Chenonceaux, stopping at two Chateaus along the way.
History as a succession of days, dates and names is one of the driest topics on the planet. It needs something to bring it to life and nothing does this better than a bit of financial skull duggery, rags to riches or riches to rags stories, death in extenuating circumstances or a bit of inappropriate shagging. The history of the chateaus that I find more interesting cover these topics in spades and it really does make for a lively tour (even if self guided by the Michelin Guide) if you can get the spiced up version of the story rather than the “official” sanitised one.
First stop on the day was the Chateau at Azay Le Ridau. Azay was called Azay Le Brulé (Azay the Burnt) after Charles VII was insulted on his way through by a guard. The town was seized, razed to the ground and 350 of the soldiers troops were executed to thank them for the insult. Later a chandellier fell onto the dining table while a visting Prussian Duke was visiting and thinking he was under attack, was all set to put it to a similar fate.
The existing chateau was resurrected from its burnt out shell by Gilles Brethelot, one of the great financiers of the time. The chateau was confiscated from Monsieur Brethelot after he was implicated in a financial scandal and fled leaving his wife and 6 children to cop the flak. See what I mean about “history at its best”.
Next stop was Villandry – one of the two jewels in the Loire crown according to us anyway. Villandry is rightly famed for its amazing gardens. The chateau had been left to ruin, when it was bought be an american heiress and her Spanish husband in 1905. They were both research scientists, but he gave up his time and she her money to restore the gardens at Villandry to their former glory. I've loaded quite a few photos, because it really is a beautiful sight.
Villandry is still owned by the family that bought it in 1905 and it very much has the feel of a family home. The parts of the house that are open to the public up are virtually un-roped so you can look out windows, sit on chairs and touch the walls, which is virtually unheard of in all the other chateaus. All the rooms have amazing bunches of fresh flowers (from their own gardens, I assume). Many of the other chateaus are stuffy and cold inside, with heavy curtains to protect the precious tapestries, but Villandry has none of that and you could imagine the family living in the rooms of the house when it had closed to the tourists for the day.
After Villandry, we drove to Chenonceaux to find our campground for the next four days. It is a 3-star and very nice – beside the Cher river, lovely big pitches, plenty of trees for shade, a restaurant on site, wifi internet access and the real bonus – fresh coffee and pain au chocolat and pain au raising delivered each morning – fantastic.
Irrespective of whether a nuclear emergency is imminent or not (and in a remarkable change of fortunes, the French now claim the “green” high ground because their nuclear power doesn't burn fossil fuels – a far cry from the derision heaped on it in the 70's and 80's), it was time to move on, so we checked out of the campground at Chinon and headed an hour down the Loire valley to Chenonceaux, stopping at two Chateaus along the way.
History as a succession of days, dates and names is one of the driest topics on the planet. It needs something to bring it to life and nothing does this better than a bit of financial skull duggery, rags to riches or riches to rags stories, death in extenuating circumstances or a bit of inappropriate shagging. The history of the chateaus that I find more interesting cover these topics in spades and it really does make for a lively tour (even if self guided by the Michelin Guide) if you can get the spiced up version of the story rather than the “official” sanitised one.
First stop on the day was the Chateau at Azay Le Ridau. Azay was called Azay Le Brulé (Azay the Burnt) after Charles VII was insulted on his way through by a guard. The town was seized, razed to the ground and 350 of the soldiers troops were executed to thank them for the insult. Later a chandellier fell onto the dining table while a visting Prussian Duke was visiting and thinking he was under attack, was all set to put it to a similar fate.
The existing chateau was resurrected from its burnt out shell by Gilles Brethelot, one of the great financiers of the time. The chateau was confiscated from Monsieur Brethelot after he was implicated in a financial scandal and fled leaving his wife and 6 children to cop the flak. See what I mean about “history at its best”.
Next stop was Villandry – one of the two jewels in the Loire crown according to us anyway. Villandry is rightly famed for its amazing gardens. The chateau had been left to ruin, when it was bought be an american heiress and her Spanish husband in 1905. They were both research scientists, but he gave up his time and she her money to restore the gardens at Villandry to their former glory. I've loaded quite a few photos, because it really is a beautiful sight.
Villandry is still owned by the family that bought it in 1905 and it very much has the feel of a family home. The parts of the house that are open to the public up are virtually un-roped so you can look out windows, sit on chairs and touch the walls, which is virtually unheard of in all the other chateaus. All the rooms have amazing bunches of fresh flowers (from their own gardens, I assume). Many of the other chateaus are stuffy and cold inside, with heavy curtains to protect the precious tapestries, but Villandry has none of that and you could imagine the family living in the rooms of the house when it had closed to the tourists for the day.
After Villandry, we drove to Chenonceaux to find our campground for the next four days. It is a 3-star and very nice – beside the Cher river, lovely big pitches, plenty of trees for shade, a restaurant on site, wifi internet access and the real bonus – fresh coffee and pain au chocolat and pain au raising delivered each morning – fantastic.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tuesday 23rd – Week 2 – Loire Chateaus
The usual early start and then we were on the road to the chateau at Montreiul-Bellay. We knew that the chateau itself was closed, but there was a market in the village on Tuesdays and French markets are always good, so we were keen to go for a walk around the chateau and visit the market. The drive was pleasant and the walk around the town and the chateau was interesting, but the market was a major disappointment – it appears that markets in the Loire aren't nearly as big an affair as they are in Provence and are really just a local vegetable market, so it didn't really warrant a trip.
From there we went to the Ussé chateau, the inspiration for the sleeping beauty fairy tale. The Chateau is set on a hillside beside the river Indre. There is a small chapel in the grounds and some nice box gardens in front of the chateau,beneath an arched entranceway to the chateau. Once inside the chateau, you got to do the usual, walk through the family rooms, but we also got to walk through the attic in the roof of the house and see how it was constructed and the mud and straw insulation that was used.
After that we walked around the ramparts inside the external facade, which provided great views of the surrounding countryside. At one stage, we saw a really interesting tapestry. I'm not usually a big tapestry fan – they seem to always be of war or religious scenes and although I can appreciate the artistry and the detail, they all come across as pretty much of a muchness. This particular tapestry has been described as “a realistic country scene” by the Michelin Guide, but too me it is more of a raucous party. Note, this is a massive tapestry and covers most of a large wall. On the tapestry it shows a scene of country folk sitting round tables drinking. On closer inspection however, there appear to be a couple of gents getting a bit too friendly with some of the local ladies and there are even two gentlemen relieving themselves against a fence. I was amazed and delighted not only that the scene had made it on to a tapestry, but the same skill and craftsmanship that goes into all the other tapestries had been applied to this scene of obvious debauchery – superb.
Usse's final point of interest is that is had an underground cave that used to have a tunnel that lead all the way into the forest that could be used to make a hasty escape if the locals turned nasty. This unfortunately collapsed at some time in the past, so you are no longer able to go exploring through it.
Last stop for the day was the Chateau at Langeais. Good bit of scandal here – Anne of Bretagne who owned and lived in Langeais, inherited her title (Queen of Brittany) and money at the age of 11 in 1491. At that time, Brittany was owned by Britain and not France. At the age of 14, Anne was married to Maximillion of Austria, but that marriage was annulled after a year, when she got a better offer from the king of France. That marriage lasted for 6 years, until he died and then her marriage contract stipulated that she would marry whoever became the king of France. This backroom dealing essentially united France and brought peace to the land – a good bit of negotiating for a 14 / 20 year old.
The most notable thing about the chateau was the gardens, which has a massive tree hut built into one of the trees. (see pictures). I climbed it all the way to the top, which was great, although I don't think the class of school kids who weren't allowed on it were particularly impressed that this old guy was climbing around on it.
From there we went to the Ussé chateau, the inspiration for the sleeping beauty fairy tale. The Chateau is set on a hillside beside the river Indre. There is a small chapel in the grounds and some nice box gardens in front of the chateau,beneath an arched entranceway to the chateau. Once inside the chateau, you got to do the usual, walk through the family rooms, but we also got to walk through the attic in the roof of the house and see how it was constructed and the mud and straw insulation that was used.
After that we walked around the ramparts inside the external facade, which provided great views of the surrounding countryside. At one stage, we saw a really interesting tapestry. I'm not usually a big tapestry fan – they seem to always be of war or religious scenes and although I can appreciate the artistry and the detail, they all come across as pretty much of a muchness. This particular tapestry has been described as “a realistic country scene” by the Michelin Guide, but too me it is more of a raucous party. Note, this is a massive tapestry and covers most of a large wall. On the tapestry it shows a scene of country folk sitting round tables drinking. On closer inspection however, there appear to be a couple of gents getting a bit too friendly with some of the local ladies and there are even two gentlemen relieving themselves against a fence. I was amazed and delighted not only that the scene had made it on to a tapestry, but the same skill and craftsmanship that goes into all the other tapestries had been applied to this scene of obvious debauchery – superb.
Usse's final point of interest is that is had an underground cave that used to have a tunnel that lead all the way into the forest that could be used to make a hasty escape if the locals turned nasty. This unfortunately collapsed at some time in the past, so you are no longer able to go exploring through it.
Last stop for the day was the Chateau at Langeais. Good bit of scandal here – Anne of Bretagne who owned and lived in Langeais, inherited her title (Queen of Brittany) and money at the age of 11 in 1491. At that time, Brittany was owned by Britain and not France. At the age of 14, Anne was married to Maximillion of Austria, but that marriage was annulled after a year, when she got a better offer from the king of France. That marriage lasted for 6 years, until he died and then her marriage contract stipulated that she would marry whoever became the king of France. This backroom dealing essentially united France and brought peace to the land – a good bit of negotiating for a 14 / 20 year old.
The most notable thing about the chateau was the gardens, which has a massive tree hut built into one of the trees. (see pictures). I climbed it all the way to the top, which was great, although I don't think the class of school kids who weren't allowed on it were particularly impressed that this old guy was climbing around on it.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Monday 22nd – Week 2 – Loire Chateaus
There is a vast array of camper vans and caravans at the two campgrounds we've visited to far. By far the most impressive was “Bounder”, which when it was parked as far forward in its allocated space still had a couple of feet hanging over onto the campground access road. In addition to its length, it also sported three extendable wings that retract when it's on the road, but then are spread out when it is in situ. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of it, but it really was a sight to behold. The most intriguing caravan so far was the one that parked beside us for a night in Chinon. Before the owners packed up to leave, it was one of the uglier ones we'd seen, but as they started to pack up, we noticed that the tow ball was located at the side of it, rather than the front. Anne and I were both pondering how this could work and how the body could be swiveled around, when the side of the caravan simply disappeared only to appear out the other side being carried by the wife. A quick flick and it was folded in half and stored. With in two minutes, the whole caravan had been dismantled and folded up origami style into nothing more than a small trailer with a blue canvas cover.
Most people we've met at the campgrounds have been very nice and when we arrived in Chinon, the English woman in the camper van that we pitched our tent beside was very concerned that we'd parked on the side of their camper van that had the toilet and that they'd keep us awake at night as they visited the loo. After a peaceful night sleep, we met the man who owned the camper van and he was from Geelong in Victoria and traveled around Europe for 3 months a year during the Melbourne winter – retired of course. He did spend two years traveling Europe with a caravan when he first retired, but now just comes over for a 3 month excursion each year, collecting his camper van from Cambridge and heading straight for France – nice.
Our camping equipment has expanded slightly, since we arrived. Rather than covering the evolution of man in 4 staggering steps (quadra-ped, knuckle dragging bi-ped, staggering erect bi-ped to stable erect bi-ped) as we scramble out of the tent, we've now bought a map and instead come bounding out of the tent, puppy-like, on all fours until we're clear of the veranda, where we can stand up, don our jandals and walk off, head held high with dignity (maybe).
Today's sightseeing is the first of several that we are going to sped visiting the Chateaus of the Loire. The first stop was the chateau at Montsoreau and the troglodite caves and houses built into the rock cliff faces at Souzay-Champigny. We don't go into all the chateaus, there's only so much fine porcelain, tapestries, wooden rafters and walks around the parapets that a person can stand, so we're trying to chose the best ones to go inside and the others just visit the gardens and admire there external architecture.
Next stop was the town of Saumur – quite a large town, with a very impressive chateau on the top of the hill overlooking the town. The chateau wasn't open, due to it being Monday, but we did get to walk all around it, before heading down into the old part of town, through the cobbled streets before buying some snacks for lunch which we then walked back up to the chateau and ate, sitting on a park bench overlooking the chateau and the town.
In the afternoon, we visited the chateau Brézé. The most impressive feature here was the massive deep moat that surrounded it. It's dry now, but it must have been 20m deep. The moat wall has openings that lead into massive underground tunnels and an underground fortress, which is large enough to house a small army. Now two things I can't tell you is how the openings work with the moat (I assume that it had to be filled with water) and how big an army they could house in their underground fortress – maybe I'll google that later. Again, this was an external visit and we didn't go inside the chateau.
Last stop for the day was the chateau at Le Rivau. The walking tour that we did said that the motif above the main door contained the families moto, that “they would never be demoted in rank”. I was interested to read later that the family lost it's wealth and status 300 years ago, when while working in the king's court, the master of the house had had too much of a good time and lost the family chateau by not being able to honour his debts. The chateau had gone into serious disrepair following there downfall, until it was bought by the present owners in 1994 and it has now been completely restored and they have created some amazing gardens with some awesome sculptures (see pictures)
On returning to the campground, we stopped at the supermarket to buy some drinks and nibbles, which we sat down to enjoy by our tent, before heading out for dinner in the nearby town.
Most people we've met at the campgrounds have been very nice and when we arrived in Chinon, the English woman in the camper van that we pitched our tent beside was very concerned that we'd parked on the side of their camper van that had the toilet and that they'd keep us awake at night as they visited the loo. After a peaceful night sleep, we met the man who owned the camper van and he was from Geelong in Victoria and traveled around Europe for 3 months a year during the Melbourne winter – retired of course. He did spend two years traveling Europe with a caravan when he first retired, but now just comes over for a 3 month excursion each year, collecting his camper van from Cambridge and heading straight for France – nice.
Our camping equipment has expanded slightly, since we arrived. Rather than covering the evolution of man in 4 staggering steps (quadra-ped, knuckle dragging bi-ped, staggering erect bi-ped to stable erect bi-ped) as we scramble out of the tent, we've now bought a map and instead come bounding out of the tent, puppy-like, on all fours until we're clear of the veranda, where we can stand up, don our jandals and walk off, head held high with dignity (maybe).
Today's sightseeing is the first of several that we are going to sped visiting the Chateaus of the Loire. The first stop was the chateau at Montsoreau and the troglodite caves and houses built into the rock cliff faces at Souzay-Champigny. We don't go into all the chateaus, there's only so much fine porcelain, tapestries, wooden rafters and walks around the parapets that a person can stand, so we're trying to chose the best ones to go inside and the others just visit the gardens and admire there external architecture.
Next stop was the town of Saumur – quite a large town, with a very impressive chateau on the top of the hill overlooking the town. The chateau wasn't open, due to it being Monday, but we did get to walk all around it, before heading down into the old part of town, through the cobbled streets before buying some snacks for lunch which we then walked back up to the chateau and ate, sitting on a park bench overlooking the chateau and the town.
In the afternoon, we visited the chateau Brézé. The most impressive feature here was the massive deep moat that surrounded it. It's dry now, but it must have been 20m deep. The moat wall has openings that lead into massive underground tunnels and an underground fortress, which is large enough to house a small army. Now two things I can't tell you is how the openings work with the moat (I assume that it had to be filled with water) and how big an army they could house in their underground fortress – maybe I'll google that later. Again, this was an external visit and we didn't go inside the chateau.
Last stop for the day was the chateau at Le Rivau. The walking tour that we did said that the motif above the main door contained the families moto, that “they would never be demoted in rank”. I was interested to read later that the family lost it's wealth and status 300 years ago, when while working in the king's court, the master of the house had had too much of a good time and lost the family chateau by not being able to honour his debts. The chateau had gone into serious disrepair following there downfall, until it was bought by the present owners in 1994 and it has now been completely restored and they have created some amazing gardens with some awesome sculptures (see pictures)
On returning to the campground, we stopped at the supermarket to buy some drinks and nibbles, which we sat down to enjoy by our tent, before heading out for dinner in the nearby town.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sunday 21st – Week 1 – Drive to Chinon via Rennes
Today we drove from Dinan in Brittany to Chinon in the Loire Valley, via Rennes. Since we reset Jane, she's had this annoying habit of making a bonging sound (you know bong, bong, bong) whenever my speed exceeds the published speed limit by more than 10kms per hour. She only bongs 3 times then stops, but it had got to be so regular that I had to pull over to the side of the road yesterday and reset her, so that she stopped her incessant bonging.
As we began our drive to Rennes today, Anne commented about 20 minutes into the trip that I was doing “123kph in a 110 zone”. I waited for a good minute before commenting “that was so much less offensive that Jane's bonging”. “Wasn't it” said Anne. Oh dear, I thought, that sarcasm went straight over her head. A minute later Anne said “oh, that was annoying, wasn't it”. Since then, we've had no more bonging and no more running commentaries, so all smooth sailing.
Also on the trip to Rennes, we past one of the pesky machines that tells you your current speed. As we approached it, it started flashing my speed, with the word around it “Trop Vite.. Levez La Pied” “Too fast, lift your foot”, which I thought was a rather gentle reminder about keeping within the speed limit.
We arrived at Rennes at about 10am, which is way too early for anything to be open in France on a Sunday. We parked by the town square and went for a walk around the town, past it's basilica, which was in good voice for the Sunday service, the opera house and the famous cathedral, which was ringing out a merry tune on the church bells calling people to service. We found a lovely square in the sun and sat down for a cup of coffee. As we hadn't had breakfast, we asked if he served croissants, which he replied “non”, then intimated that we should go to the boulangerie around the corner and bring them back to have with our coffees. This amazed us, because firstly he didn't serve food, and rather than buy it in, he was quite happy for people to sit in his courtyard and eat pastries from a brown paper bag bought round the corner. This is obviously the practice, as we've repeated the practice since then and it's all very accepted, which seems remarkably relaxed.
Rennes is mainly a university town, that seems to have more shoe shops per head of population than anywhere else I've been. Apart from being a bit scarfy and very shoppy, Rennes also seems to have a good drug trade going, as we noticed on several occasions the tell tale sign of a pair of sneakers hanging from an overhead power line. The one at the back of the church seemed particularly out of place.
After Rennes, it was back on the motorway and off to Chinon. We arrived in Chinon at about 3pm, via a trip to Saumur where we thought we would stay. We didn't, however, like the campground in Saumur, so have come further east to Chinon which has a much nicer campground (even as a 2-star, it was less Butlins like than Saumur – are we becoming campground snobs already??).
The notice on the door said the office was closed until 4pm, and just to find yourself a spot, get setup and come back to the office at 4pm. We duly returned at 4pm, got the site, organised a power adaptor to charge our batteries and then headed off to town to have a look around and eventually go to dinner.
June 21 is national music day in France and every small square was having a band of some sort playing music until all hours of the night. It is also, apparently, the night that the local motor cyclists come into town on mass (maybe it's every Sunday night) and parked on the river bank opposite the restaurant we were dining in, so we got to see a great variety of motor bikes and motor cyclists to while away the evening watching. As for the music, some of it was good, some of it was better appreciated from distance. Returning from dinner, the band at the bar down the road from the campground was belting out A”Eye of the Tiger”, which from a distance sounded passable. On closer inspection, however, it was anything but passable, so after a couple of truly dreadful renditions, we headed back to the campground and “appreciated” the music from a safe distance.
As we began our drive to Rennes today, Anne commented about 20 minutes into the trip that I was doing “123kph in a 110 zone”. I waited for a good minute before commenting “that was so much less offensive that Jane's bonging”. “Wasn't it” said Anne. Oh dear, I thought, that sarcasm went straight over her head. A minute later Anne said “oh, that was annoying, wasn't it”. Since then, we've had no more bonging and no more running commentaries, so all smooth sailing.
Also on the trip to Rennes, we past one of the pesky machines that tells you your current speed. As we approached it, it started flashing my speed, with the word around it “Trop Vite.. Levez La Pied” “Too fast, lift your foot”, which I thought was a rather gentle reminder about keeping within the speed limit.
We arrived at Rennes at about 10am, which is way too early for anything to be open in France on a Sunday. We parked by the town square and went for a walk around the town, past it's basilica, which was in good voice for the Sunday service, the opera house and the famous cathedral, which was ringing out a merry tune on the church bells calling people to service. We found a lovely square in the sun and sat down for a cup of coffee. As we hadn't had breakfast, we asked if he served croissants, which he replied “non”, then intimated that we should go to the boulangerie around the corner and bring them back to have with our coffees. This amazed us, because firstly he didn't serve food, and rather than buy it in, he was quite happy for people to sit in his courtyard and eat pastries from a brown paper bag bought round the corner. This is obviously the practice, as we've repeated the practice since then and it's all very accepted, which seems remarkably relaxed.
Rennes is mainly a university town, that seems to have more shoe shops per head of population than anywhere else I've been. Apart from being a bit scarfy and very shoppy, Rennes also seems to have a good drug trade going, as we noticed on several occasions the tell tale sign of a pair of sneakers hanging from an overhead power line. The one at the back of the church seemed particularly out of place.
After Rennes, it was back on the motorway and off to Chinon. We arrived in Chinon at about 3pm, via a trip to Saumur where we thought we would stay. We didn't, however, like the campground in Saumur, so have come further east to Chinon which has a much nicer campground (even as a 2-star, it was less Butlins like than Saumur – are we becoming campground snobs already??).
The notice on the door said the office was closed until 4pm, and just to find yourself a spot, get setup and come back to the office at 4pm. We duly returned at 4pm, got the site, organised a power adaptor to charge our batteries and then headed off to town to have a look around and eventually go to dinner.
June 21 is national music day in France and every small square was having a band of some sort playing music until all hours of the night. It is also, apparently, the night that the local motor cyclists come into town on mass (maybe it's every Sunday night) and parked on the river bank opposite the restaurant we were dining in, so we got to see a great variety of motor bikes and motor cyclists to while away the evening watching. As for the music, some of it was good, some of it was better appreciated from distance. Returning from dinner, the band at the bar down the road from the campground was belting out A”Eye of the Tiger”, which from a distance sounded passable. On closer inspection, however, it was anything but passable, so after a couple of truly dreadful renditions, we headed back to the campground and “appreciated” the music from a safe distance.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Saturday 20th – Week 1 – Mont Saint Michel, Dinan Sightseeing
Since we last caught up, the bottom seems to have dropped out of the camping market and we have plummeted in net worth from a 4-star campground in Dinan to a 2-star in Chinon (Loire). The tent, air bed and sleeping bag are the same, but the shower cubicle is now more like what I remember from 15 years ago and I have to shave in the open, in view of the entire world. Note to self - “seek out 4 star campgrounds in future”. This campground also doesn't have wifi, so I haven't been able to update the blog for a few days. On the plus side, the tent site is shaded, level and after one night appears free of the heavy dews that we had suffered in Brittany. That is the major plus in moving from Brittany to the Loire – coming inland, the temperature is a couple of degrees warmer and the wind even more so. We ate dinner outside last night and were hot for the first time since Paris, so that is a great improvement.
So back to Mont Saint Michel. It's about an hours drive from Dinan, so we were up early. We're always up early. Tenters rise and fall with the sun, and as nobody else tents, we always have free range of the shower facilities and get a full day in, because the sun rises at 5:30am and sets at about 10:00pm. The campgrounds host an impressive and vast array of caravans and motor homes, but I'll tell you about some of those another time.
Mont Saint Michel is an extraordinary site being an abbey that rises straight out of the sea on a tiny island just off the coast. It is linked to the mainland by a causeway that was built in the 19th Century. It has the highest tides in continental Europe with a difference of up to 15m between low and high tide and the tidal estuary around the Mont is some 250sq kms. This is one of the most impressive things about the Mont. When we visited, it was low tide and it was only from the very top of the Mont that the sea was just visible as a thin blue line on the very distant horizon. There was a sign at the end of the car park saying that “today the sea does not cover this car park” (see picture). Very reassuring!
The town on the mainland just before you get to the Mont is Beauvoir and is Tourist Central and it would not have been surprising to find a Happy Eater and a Tex Mex restaurant. It reminded us a bit of the Niagara Falls or the pyramids at Giza, where the commercial reality of what the tourists come to see is that you get something unbelievably tacky playing as a parasite to a beautiful attraction. Ouch, that was maybe a bit harsh.
The Mont has the abbey perched on the very top of it and houses, hotels and shops on its lower levels. You walk through the houses on narrow cobble stone streets and then climb very steep stairs to get to the Abbey. There has been a building of some religious significance on the Mont since the 8th century and the current abbey was started in the 10th Century. The building itself is rather austere, with very simple lead light windows (no magnificent stained glass here, thank you). It was used as a prison during the French Revolution. There was a very nice cloisters (a small garden enclosed by a double layer of pink granite columns. The dining room was notable because the monks ate in silence – so they seemed to have missed the point of food and wine.
At various times on the tour of the abbey, we were able to see outside to the vast tidal estuary and there were people thousands of people doing tours on the sand – most walking, but some on horseback. We never did find out what the particular purpose of the walking tours was, but with the bitterly cold wind, we weren't tempted to follow there lead.
After several hours on the Mont, we decided that we should stop for something to eat somewhere, as we hadn't had breakfast. We found a small Boulangerie in Pontorson, a small town a couple of ks down the road and less touristy than Beauvoir.
Breakfast consisted of a pain au raisin and a Pepito. A Pepito is two long thin strips of pastry filled with custard and chocolate drops. I'd never seen one before, but new as soon as I did that I had to have one. We took our sugar sensations and went off to find a seat to sit down and enjoy breakfast. There was a couple of seats outside the church just around the corner. Beside the seats were 2 small children who were playing soccer, using the church door as the goal – as you do. When we sat down, two small girls seemed to materialise onto the next seat . Here's Anne and I tucking into this Pepito and beside us are these two young girls looking at us with these sad begging eyes (If you've seen the movie Bolt, you'll know the look). They were well dressed and obviously well fed, so we upped sticks and went and had breakfast somewhere else, without succumbing to their emotional blackmail.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking round Dinan, before having a delicious meal of Brochettes (skewers) of fish (Anne) and meat (David) at the Atelier Gourmand one of Dinan's riverside restaurants.
So back to Mont Saint Michel. It's about an hours drive from Dinan, so we were up early. We're always up early. Tenters rise and fall with the sun, and as nobody else tents, we always have free range of the shower facilities and get a full day in, because the sun rises at 5:30am and sets at about 10:00pm. The campgrounds host an impressive and vast array of caravans and motor homes, but I'll tell you about some of those another time.
Mont Saint Michel is an extraordinary site being an abbey that rises straight out of the sea on a tiny island just off the coast. It is linked to the mainland by a causeway that was built in the 19th Century. It has the highest tides in continental Europe with a difference of up to 15m between low and high tide and the tidal estuary around the Mont is some 250sq kms. This is one of the most impressive things about the Mont. When we visited, it was low tide and it was only from the very top of the Mont that the sea was just visible as a thin blue line on the very distant horizon. There was a sign at the end of the car park saying that “today the sea does not cover this car park” (see picture). Very reassuring!
The town on the mainland just before you get to the Mont is Beauvoir and is Tourist Central and it would not have been surprising to find a Happy Eater and a Tex Mex restaurant. It reminded us a bit of the Niagara Falls or the pyramids at Giza, where the commercial reality of what the tourists come to see is that you get something unbelievably tacky playing as a parasite to a beautiful attraction. Ouch, that was maybe a bit harsh.
The Mont has the abbey perched on the very top of it and houses, hotels and shops on its lower levels. You walk through the houses on narrow cobble stone streets and then climb very steep stairs to get to the Abbey. There has been a building of some religious significance on the Mont since the 8th century and the current abbey was started in the 10th Century. The building itself is rather austere, with very simple lead light windows (no magnificent stained glass here, thank you). It was used as a prison during the French Revolution. There was a very nice cloisters (a small garden enclosed by a double layer of pink granite columns. The dining room was notable because the monks ate in silence – so they seemed to have missed the point of food and wine.
At various times on the tour of the abbey, we were able to see outside to the vast tidal estuary and there were people thousands of people doing tours on the sand – most walking, but some on horseback. We never did find out what the particular purpose of the walking tours was, but with the bitterly cold wind, we weren't tempted to follow there lead.
After several hours on the Mont, we decided that we should stop for something to eat somewhere, as we hadn't had breakfast. We found a small Boulangerie in Pontorson, a small town a couple of ks down the road and less touristy than Beauvoir.
Breakfast consisted of a pain au raisin and a Pepito. A Pepito is two long thin strips of pastry filled with custard and chocolate drops. I'd never seen one before, but new as soon as I did that I had to have one. We took our sugar sensations and went off to find a seat to sit down and enjoy breakfast. There was a couple of seats outside the church just around the corner. Beside the seats were 2 small children who were playing soccer, using the church door as the goal – as you do. When we sat down, two small girls seemed to materialise onto the next seat . Here's Anne and I tucking into this Pepito and beside us are these two young girls looking at us with these sad begging eyes (If you've seen the movie Bolt, you'll know the look). They were well dressed and obviously well fed, so we upped sticks and went and had breakfast somewhere else, without succumbing to their emotional blackmail.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking round Dinan, before having a delicious meal of Brochettes (skewers) of fish (Anne) and meat (David) at the Atelier Gourmand one of Dinan's riverside restaurants.
Camping
Another successful nights camping – that's two and two more than many people I spoke to before going on holiday would give me credit for. Some aspects of camping have changed in the 15 years since we last did it – the shower cubicles (based on an exhaustive survey of one campground) are much bigger and have wet and dry areas, so you can have a shower, get dried and dressed without having to hop around so you don't get your clothes wet while you're dressing.
Another thing that's changed is me – I'm 15 years older and getting in and out of a pup tent has not got easier in that time. Getting in involves bending at the waist until your upper body is parallel with the ground, bending your knees and ankles as far as they will go (not very far) so you are as low as possible, then stepping forward in this ridiculous position, until you have started to enter the tent, at which point you drop to your knees and scramble in over the air bed which takes up 95% of the available space on the tent floor. You then do your best houdini impersonation to get yourself out of whatever clothes your wearing (gym shorts and polar fleece) that you don't want to sleep in. One night, I forgot to take my shorts off, so had to perform that de-robing exercise from inside a zipped up sleeping bag – how dignified. Getting out of the tent involves reversing the de-robing exercise, then crawling to the end of the tent, Straining to get one foot out and then doing a lunging uncoiling step to thrust yourself forward past to verandah (grandiose term for the small overhand the protects the door of the tent from some weather) to come to a wobbling stand in front of the tent. You then hobble around trying to get the stones off your feet while slipping in to your jandals which have been specifically bought for trapsing round a campground. How good do you think that $EUR90 6 foot high tent looks when you've completed that. Never mind – maybe on the next trip.
Another thing that's changed is me – I'm 15 years older and getting in and out of a pup tent has not got easier in that time. Getting in involves bending at the waist until your upper body is parallel with the ground, bending your knees and ankles as far as they will go (not very far) so you are as low as possible, then stepping forward in this ridiculous position, until you have started to enter the tent, at which point you drop to your knees and scramble in over the air bed which takes up 95% of the available space on the tent floor. You then do your best houdini impersonation to get yourself out of whatever clothes your wearing (gym shorts and polar fleece) that you don't want to sleep in. One night, I forgot to take my shorts off, so had to perform that de-robing exercise from inside a zipped up sleeping bag – how dignified. Getting out of the tent involves reversing the de-robing exercise, then crawling to the end of the tent, Straining to get one foot out and then doing a lunging uncoiling step to thrust yourself forward past to verandah (grandiose term for the small overhand the protects the door of the tent from some weather) to come to a wobbling stand in front of the tent. You then hobble around trying to get the stones off your feet while slipping in to your jandals which have been specifically bought for trapsing round a campground. How good do you think that $EUR90 6 foot high tent looks when you've completed that. Never mind – maybe on the next trip.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Friday 19th – Week 1 – Saint Malo, Dinard, Rance River sightseeing
Learned a valuable lesson last night – the paraplegics get the normal toilets..... Might seem obvious when you read it, but when your not in the habit of searching out “normal” toilets, it came as something of a revelation. Unfortunately, I only learned this after my second encounter with what I now believe to be referred to as “Turkish style” toilets. The timing of learning from my dear wife that the paraplegic toilets were in fact “European style” was comical due to her delivery being mere moments to late to save me from my contortions, but good for her for keeping herself occupied while I was indisposed.
There we go, always good to start the day with a bit of toilet humour. Now where were we – ah yes, up early, showered and off to find breakfast, but not before stopping at what is now our favourite pass time in France – camping shopping. Decathlon is the sporting megastore in France and it's camping gear is so ridiculously cheap that we should have bought everything when we arrived and given it away at the end of the holiday. Stand up tent - $EUR90, airbed - $EUR20, camping chairs - $EUR11, Sleeping bags (good enough for summer) - $EUR20. All set up for less that $EUR200. Other stuff like polar fleece tops are $EUR15, so it's all really cheap.
Anyway, after the purchase of the two camp chairs, we were off to Saint Malo to start the days sightseeing. Saint Malo is at the easterly end of the Brittany Coast and is a fortified town. In the 17th Century, it was France's foremost port and controlled all the trade to the East Indies. Some people made some serious coin as a result of the trade, but it was then attacked by the British in 1693, which resulted in the fortified town being built. Sadly, 80% of it was destroyed in 1944, but it has been rebuilt in keeping with its former self and so today there are impressive ramparts to walk around.
In addition to the ramparts, there is also Fort National, which is build on a rocky outcrop just out in the harbour. At low tide you can walk out to the Fort. The day we were there, the weather was sunny but cold, so we were walking round in polar fleeces, and jackets – and shorts of course. Inside the ramparts, the town is all stone buildings, but it had a rather touristy feel to it, so we left and headed around to Dinard, a town about 10 minutes along the coast, where we stopped for a lunch of Carpaccio, crab salad and goat cheese salad.
After lunch we drove down the Rance River, which goes from Saint Malo all the way to Rennes(long way inland), which we will visit on Sunday when we drive to The Loire. Our first port of call was Plouer Sur Rance before going on to Vicomte Sur Rance where we did a walk beside the canal and locks. Finally we stopped at Evran, where there were more locks and we saw a great house boat – basically a caravan stuck on top of a barge, with its wheels removed. (see the photos). Lots of the boats we saw at our stops were British, so it's obviously a popular trip to bring your boat over to Brittany and then sail them up the Rance.
On arrival back at the campground, we tried out our new chairs, while enjoying a glass of wine before heading on the river walk (again by the Rance) into Dinan for dinner.
There we go, always good to start the day with a bit of toilet humour. Now where were we – ah yes, up early, showered and off to find breakfast, but not before stopping at what is now our favourite pass time in France – camping shopping. Decathlon is the sporting megastore in France and it's camping gear is so ridiculously cheap that we should have bought everything when we arrived and given it away at the end of the holiday. Stand up tent - $EUR90, airbed - $EUR20, camping chairs - $EUR11, Sleeping bags (good enough for summer) - $EUR20. All set up for less that $EUR200. Other stuff like polar fleece tops are $EUR15, so it's all really cheap.
Anyway, after the purchase of the two camp chairs, we were off to Saint Malo to start the days sightseeing. Saint Malo is at the easterly end of the Brittany Coast and is a fortified town. In the 17th Century, it was France's foremost port and controlled all the trade to the East Indies. Some people made some serious coin as a result of the trade, but it was then attacked by the British in 1693, which resulted in the fortified town being built. Sadly, 80% of it was destroyed in 1944, but it has been rebuilt in keeping with its former self and so today there are impressive ramparts to walk around.
In addition to the ramparts, there is also Fort National, which is build on a rocky outcrop just out in the harbour. At low tide you can walk out to the Fort. The day we were there, the weather was sunny but cold, so we were walking round in polar fleeces, and jackets – and shorts of course. Inside the ramparts, the town is all stone buildings, but it had a rather touristy feel to it, so we left and headed around to Dinard, a town about 10 minutes along the coast, where we stopped for a lunch of Carpaccio, crab salad and goat cheese salad.
After lunch we drove down the Rance River, which goes from Saint Malo all the way to Rennes(long way inland), which we will visit on Sunday when we drive to The Loire. Our first port of call was Plouer Sur Rance before going on to Vicomte Sur Rance where we did a walk beside the canal and locks. Finally we stopped at Evran, where there were more locks and we saw a great house boat – basically a caravan stuck on top of a barge, with its wheels removed. (see the photos). Lots of the boats we saw at our stops were British, so it's obviously a popular trip to bring your boat over to Brittany and then sail them up the Rance.
On arrival back at the campground, we tried out our new chairs, while enjoying a glass of wine before heading on the river walk (again by the Rance) into Dinan for dinner.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday 18th – Week 1 – Drive to Brittany
I'm writing this at 8am in the TV room at our first campsite. The first night went very well – slept like a baby, except when it rained – twice. Anne is getting right into the spirit of things, sitting in the sun reading the Practical Caravan magazine and enthralling me periodically with readers letters about their 1988 Sprite Musketeer caravan, “that still attracts admiring glances from passers by” - oh dear. It's not supposed to be a comedy magazine, but Anne has lost it completely and is in hysterics reading it.
We checked out of the hotel at 9am and caught a taxi around to Peugeot to collect the car. The Paris traffic was absolute bedlam, but we did get to drive round the Champs Elysee, which was kinda cool. We had a couple of dramas when we got the car. The first was very minor, but whoever had delivered the car had managed to give it a Paris paint job – scuffed up rear bumper from bump parking your way into a park.
The second drama was a bit more problematic – I'd left the windscreen mount for our GPS “Jane” (that's the name of her plooty English voice). To compound our problem, “Jane” decided that she wasn't going to find any satellites – none. That makes her rather useless for her only purpose, to navigate us round the place. Fortunately, we had a map, so set about navigating our way out of Paris under our own steam. Even more fortunately, if you have to get lost anywhere, the centre of a big city is a pretty good place, because the first direction sign they give you is how to get out of the place. What seemed at first to be a major problem, was completely solved 10 minutes later as we were out of the Paris limits and on the motorway to Rouen on our way to Brittany. About an hour into the trip after several hard resets (which didn't seem to do anything) and two soft resets, Jane all of a sudden got her mojo back, triangulated of a healthy number of satellites and started telling us where we were. A quick stop at a motorway services had the campground address typed in and then we were on our way to Dinan in Brittany for our first nights camping.
Our tent is a small pup tent that we last used when we traveled around Europe 15 years ago. That was the last time that we did any camping, but we decided it would be a different way of seeing Europe and after 5 years, a change seemed like a good idea. We've come away armed with a list of specially chosen campgrounds – we used a campground guide when we traveled round Europe in the 1990's and all the campgrounds were good, so we've got the newer version of that book and have selected the campgrounds we want to stay in, in the places we are visiting. As well as the campgrounds, we also have a list of hotels that we have researched in the same areas, so that if the weather is bad, or we get tired of camping, we can go and stay in a hotel.
In addition to our tent, we have bought an air bed, air compressor and two sleeping bags from New Zealand. We have bought a mallet in Paris and will go and buy a couple of camping chairs today. We have no cooking facilities as that is what restaurants and cafe's are for.
The trip to Brittany took until 3pm, which gave us time to pitch the tent, sort out all our gear so that what we needed to get at regularly was easily available and then head into Dinan for a bit of sightseeing before drinks and dinner. The walk into Dinan took about 20 minutes by bike track along the river bank. When we arrived at Dinan, it is a picturesque little town with lots of boats moored on the river, with the usual array of restaurants and bars beside the river. There appeared to be a larger walled village above the town, so we walked up one of the steep narrow cobbled streets towards the top of the town. It was only when we got to the top of the hill that we realised that Dinan is in fact a fairly large town, with a bustling town centre, lots of tourist shops, several chain hotels – ibis, Mercure and Best Western, to name a few. All the houses in the town are stone, and with all the flowers in the middle of summer, it's a real picture. After an hour of street wandering, we retreated back down to the river for a couple of drinks and a meal before wandering back down the river path to the campground for our first night sleeping in our tent.
We checked out of the hotel at 9am and caught a taxi around to Peugeot to collect the car. The Paris traffic was absolute bedlam, but we did get to drive round the Champs Elysee, which was kinda cool. We had a couple of dramas when we got the car. The first was very minor, but whoever had delivered the car had managed to give it a Paris paint job – scuffed up rear bumper from bump parking your way into a park.
The second drama was a bit more problematic – I'd left the windscreen mount for our GPS “Jane” (that's the name of her plooty English voice). To compound our problem, “Jane” decided that she wasn't going to find any satellites – none. That makes her rather useless for her only purpose, to navigate us round the place. Fortunately, we had a map, so set about navigating our way out of Paris under our own steam. Even more fortunately, if you have to get lost anywhere, the centre of a big city is a pretty good place, because the first direction sign they give you is how to get out of the place. What seemed at first to be a major problem, was completely solved 10 minutes later as we were out of the Paris limits and on the motorway to Rouen on our way to Brittany. About an hour into the trip after several hard resets (which didn't seem to do anything) and two soft resets, Jane all of a sudden got her mojo back, triangulated of a healthy number of satellites and started telling us where we were. A quick stop at a motorway services had the campground address typed in and then we were on our way to Dinan in Brittany for our first nights camping.
Our tent is a small pup tent that we last used when we traveled around Europe 15 years ago. That was the last time that we did any camping, but we decided it would be a different way of seeing Europe and after 5 years, a change seemed like a good idea. We've come away armed with a list of specially chosen campgrounds – we used a campground guide when we traveled round Europe in the 1990's and all the campgrounds were good, so we've got the newer version of that book and have selected the campgrounds we want to stay in, in the places we are visiting. As well as the campgrounds, we also have a list of hotels that we have researched in the same areas, so that if the weather is bad, or we get tired of camping, we can go and stay in a hotel.
In addition to our tent, we have bought an air bed, air compressor and two sleeping bags from New Zealand. We have bought a mallet in Paris and will go and buy a couple of camping chairs today. We have no cooking facilities as that is what restaurants and cafe's are for.
The trip to Brittany took until 3pm, which gave us time to pitch the tent, sort out all our gear so that what we needed to get at regularly was easily available and then head into Dinan for a bit of sightseeing before drinks and dinner. The walk into Dinan took about 20 minutes by bike track along the river bank. When we arrived at Dinan, it is a picturesque little town with lots of boats moored on the river, with the usual array of restaurants and bars beside the river. There appeared to be a larger walled village above the town, so we walked up one of the steep narrow cobbled streets towards the top of the town. It was only when we got to the top of the hill that we realised that Dinan is in fact a fairly large town, with a bustling town centre, lots of tourist shops, several chain hotels – ibis, Mercure and Best Western, to name a few. All the houses in the town are stone, and with all the flowers in the middle of summer, it's a real picture. After an hour of street wandering, we retreated back down to the river for a couple of drinks and a meal before wandering back down the river path to the campground for our first night sleeping in our tent.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Wednesday 17th – Week 1 – Notre Dame, Jardin Des Plantes, Latin Quarter, Jardin Des Luxembourg
Catching up to the present now, thankfully. Today it's the hottest it's been since we arrived – in the high 20's and not a cloud in the sky.
Our walk today was a lot more local than the previous couple of days and started with a walk to the Seine, over the Pont Neuf and then down to Notre Dame. Saw a cool site at the Notre Dame. There was a group of very young children being taken on an outing to the cathedral. In order to keep them in line, there teachers had two long pink ropes with hand hold at regular intervals. The children were all in a line with one pink rope down one side of them, the other pink rope down the other side. The children then held the hand holds and got marched around the cathedral. Civil libertarians would be having a fit, but it was a pretty effective way to keep them all in check. (See photos). After a walk around the inside of the Cathedral, we headed off to the Ile de St Louis, then down to the Jardin Des Plantes past the Paris University.
We hope that the campus of Paris University is closed for refurbishment. If it's not, then I think there only graduates are drug addicts and taggers, because it looked like it was in an awful state of repair.
The Jardin Des Plantes is one of the many big public gardens in Paris and has a zoo and an indoor tropical garden. It was nice walking around the garden and also nice to get a chance to walk in the shade, because the day was awesomely hot.
After the Jardin Des Plants, our walk took us to the Latin Quarter. We have a book of Paris walks that we are working our way through. We don't follow the walks too strictly and if we see something that takes our fancy, we go off and look at that as well. Paris is a great city to walk around and it's a cheap way of seeing lots of the sites. The Latin Quarter is quite similar to where we are staying in Saint Germain, as it has lots of little streets that are absolutely full of restaurants and bars. After the previous days marathon walk, we were determined that we would stop and have a break and some lunch today. The first stop was a little bar on a tiny little square with restaurants all around it. We only stopped because I needed a comfort stop and the price of $E9 (9 euros) for a small Orangina and a small mineral water seemed fairly steep, but when you need to go....... Anyway, for $E9 you would think that you'd get a normal toilet, not the French “two feet and a hole in the ground”. Never mind, when in France......
Anyway, after the drink break we carried on walking and found a really quaint little street with lots of really nice looking restaurants – you know, cane chairs, white linen table cloths, decent sized wine glasses, so we stopped there for lunch, before continuing on to the Sorbonne University, then a high school that is claimed to be the most exclusive in France. Finally, we walked through the Jardin De Luxembourg, which was really beautiful and full of university students enjoying an afternoon in the sun.
Dinner that night was a light meal (carpaccio and a Pizza to share) in a little Italian restaurant.
Our walk today was a lot more local than the previous couple of days and started with a walk to the Seine, over the Pont Neuf and then down to Notre Dame. Saw a cool site at the Notre Dame. There was a group of very young children being taken on an outing to the cathedral. In order to keep them in line, there teachers had two long pink ropes with hand hold at regular intervals. The children were all in a line with one pink rope down one side of them, the other pink rope down the other side. The children then held the hand holds and got marched around the cathedral. Civil libertarians would be having a fit, but it was a pretty effective way to keep them all in check. (See photos). After a walk around the inside of the Cathedral, we headed off to the Ile de St Louis, then down to the Jardin Des Plantes past the Paris University.
We hope that the campus of Paris University is closed for refurbishment. If it's not, then I think there only graduates are drug addicts and taggers, because it looked like it was in an awful state of repair.
The Jardin Des Plantes is one of the many big public gardens in Paris and has a zoo and an indoor tropical garden. It was nice walking around the garden and also nice to get a chance to walk in the shade, because the day was awesomely hot.
After the Jardin Des Plants, our walk took us to the Latin Quarter. We have a book of Paris walks that we are working our way through. We don't follow the walks too strictly and if we see something that takes our fancy, we go off and look at that as well. Paris is a great city to walk around and it's a cheap way of seeing lots of the sites. The Latin Quarter is quite similar to where we are staying in Saint Germain, as it has lots of little streets that are absolutely full of restaurants and bars. After the previous days marathon walk, we were determined that we would stop and have a break and some lunch today. The first stop was a little bar on a tiny little square with restaurants all around it. We only stopped because I needed a comfort stop and the price of $E9 (9 euros) for a small Orangina and a small mineral water seemed fairly steep, but when you need to go....... Anyway, for $E9 you would think that you'd get a normal toilet, not the French “two feet and a hole in the ground”. Never mind, when in France......
Anyway, after the drink break we carried on walking and found a really quaint little street with lots of really nice looking restaurants – you know, cane chairs, white linen table cloths, decent sized wine glasses, so we stopped there for lunch, before continuing on to the Sorbonne University, then a high school that is claimed to be the most exclusive in France. Finally, we walked through the Jardin De Luxembourg, which was really beautiful and full of university students enjoying an afternoon in the sun.
Dinner that night was a light meal (carpaccio and a Pizza to share) in a little Italian restaurant.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tuesday 16th – Week 1 – Trocadero, Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, Champs Elysee, Arc de Triomple, Elysee Palace.....
Walked our feet off today. It started ok, catching the Metro to the Trocadero, but from then on it was all walking. The Trocadero is an open square overlooking the Eiffel Tower, that is the site of three museums – none of which we visited. Down the stairs from the Troc, past the water fountains, over the Seine and voila – the Eiffel Tower and queues everywhere. We'll go up the Eiffel Tower when we return in mid July and arrive first thing in the morning, rather than queue for hours once the queues start building up. Although we were there before 10am, the queues were already hundreds of metres long and moving slowly. From the Eiffel Tower it was down the Parc du Champ de Mars, past the wall of Peace to the Military Ecole, which Napoleon famously graduated from in one year instead of the normal two. They teach world peace and European relations in the second year – sorry, just kidding.
From there, it was down to the Hotel des Invalides, the hospital that Napoleon built to house sick and injured soldiers. We spent some time there, before heading over the Pont Alexandre III (bridge, gold horses, ornate lamp posts etc) and then up the Champs Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe. Again thousands of people on the Champs, but in reality they were all tourists and there wasn't too much that we found of interest. The round about round the Arc De Triomphe was interesting to watch, as it must be ten lanes wide and everybody has to give way to everybody and the only rule seems to be he who goes fastest goes first. Apparently insurance policies don't cover the Arc De Triomphe, so hopefully the GPS won't take us through it on Thursday as we pick up the car quite close to it.
From the Arch, it was down to the Elysee Palace. Within 50 metres of leaving the Arch and the Champs Elysee, the crowds basically vanished and it was really pleasant walking round some of the quiet Parisien streets. Again, lots of swanky shops, with very little, very expensive merchandise and even fewer customers. They didn't look like the type that would appreciate back pack carrying, sneaker wearing tourists, so we carried on our walk eventually ending up back at the Place de la Concorde from where we wandered back through the Louvre to the Saint Germain market where we treated ourselves to a sandwich and coke for lunch after 6 hours of walking.
Dinner was in a very nice local French restaurant. It might sound funny to say French, but there are plenty of Italian, Indian, Greek, Vietnamese and other nationality restaurants in the locality. Despite our best efforts at speaking French, we were handed menus with a big Union Jack on the front of them. When we pulled out our phrase book to understand what was chalked onto the specials blackboard, this seemed to cause the Maitre'd some consternation. He was an intriguing character very much attuned to the needs of his clientelle, with an ear alert for even any falling cutlery, which I found out to my embarrasment after firstly dropping a knife and then a fork and having him come scooting out the door with a replacement literally before I'd had a chance to bend down, pick up the offending item and invoke the 20 second rule.
From there, it was down to the Hotel des Invalides, the hospital that Napoleon built to house sick and injured soldiers. We spent some time there, before heading over the Pont Alexandre III (bridge, gold horses, ornate lamp posts etc) and then up the Champs Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe. Again thousands of people on the Champs, but in reality they were all tourists and there wasn't too much that we found of interest. The round about round the Arc De Triomphe was interesting to watch, as it must be ten lanes wide and everybody has to give way to everybody and the only rule seems to be he who goes fastest goes first. Apparently insurance policies don't cover the Arc De Triomphe, so hopefully the GPS won't take us through it on Thursday as we pick up the car quite close to it.
From the Arch, it was down to the Elysee Palace. Within 50 metres of leaving the Arch and the Champs Elysee, the crowds basically vanished and it was really pleasant walking round some of the quiet Parisien streets. Again, lots of swanky shops, with very little, very expensive merchandise and even fewer customers. They didn't look like the type that would appreciate back pack carrying, sneaker wearing tourists, so we carried on our walk eventually ending up back at the Place de la Concorde from where we wandered back through the Louvre to the Saint Germain market where we treated ourselves to a sandwich and coke for lunch after 6 hours of walking.
Dinner was in a very nice local French restaurant. It might sound funny to say French, but there are plenty of Italian, Indian, Greek, Vietnamese and other nationality restaurants in the locality. Despite our best efforts at speaking French, we were handed menus with a big Union Jack on the front of them. When we pulled out our phrase book to understand what was chalked onto the specials blackboard, this seemed to cause the Maitre'd some consternation. He was an intriguing character very much attuned to the needs of his clientelle, with an ear alert for even any falling cutlery, which I found out to my embarrasment after firstly dropping a knife and then a fork and having him come scooting out the door with a replacement literally before I'd had a chance to bend down, pick up the offending item and invoke the 20 second rule.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Monday 15th – Week 1 – The Louvre, Opera and Place Vendome
Being awake at 5am, we were able to hear the heavens open as Paris got a massive down pour. By the time we had finished breakfast, it was still pouring down, so we headed off to the Louvre – a day for indoor activities. Despite half a dozen trips to Paris, we'd never been to the Louvre, so good to be onto something new. To our amazement the queues that the Louvre is famous for had decided to form late today, so we went straight in and purchased tickets without any delay.
We spent the next four hours walking the halls of the Louvre looking at gallery after gallery of mainly French paintings. During our visit, we got plenty of opportunities to observe the day outside and to see that the weather was not improving and that the queues were now about 400m long and wrapping round the courtyard from the pyramid. The Louvre itself, apart from all the artwork, is an amazing building – from the intricate carving and sculpture on the outside, to the magnificent glass ceilinged courtyards and the elaborate decoration on the walls and ceilings in some of the galleries. All the queues that had been braving the elements outside had to go somewhere and sure enough, they all headed for the Mona Lisa, so by the time we got there it was absolute bedlam with thousands of people thronging in the halls and corridors around it. We took a brief look into Salle 6, where the picture is fortunately housed high on a wall and got to within 20 feet of it, but that was more than enough for us, so we retreated to the corridors nearby it for some of the most beautiful internal decoration in the entire building.
No matter how good the museum or art gallery, 4 hours is about my limit, so after that we headed on a walking tour of some of the swankier shopping streets in Paris around Place Vendome and the Opera. On our way we encountered the current tourist scam. A person walking towards you bends down and picks up a gold ring, which he offers to you, as if it's yours and you've lost it. I'm not sure what happens if you accept it, whether its a decoy to rob you of your wallet or if the demand a reward for a worthless ring, but nonetheless we've seen it a dozen times in the last few days, although nobody seems fooled by it. Ignoring the clown offering the ring seems to do the trick.
We spent the next four hours walking the halls of the Louvre looking at gallery after gallery of mainly French paintings. During our visit, we got plenty of opportunities to observe the day outside and to see that the weather was not improving and that the queues were now about 400m long and wrapping round the courtyard from the pyramid. The Louvre itself, apart from all the artwork, is an amazing building – from the intricate carving and sculpture on the outside, to the magnificent glass ceilinged courtyards and the elaborate decoration on the walls and ceilings in some of the galleries. All the queues that had been braving the elements outside had to go somewhere and sure enough, they all headed for the Mona Lisa, so by the time we got there it was absolute bedlam with thousands of people thronging in the halls and corridors around it. We took a brief look into Salle 6, where the picture is fortunately housed high on a wall and got to within 20 feet of it, but that was more than enough for us, so we retreated to the corridors nearby it for some of the most beautiful internal decoration in the entire building.
No matter how good the museum or art gallery, 4 hours is about my limit, so after that we headed on a walking tour of some of the swankier shopping streets in Paris around Place Vendome and the Opera. On our way we encountered the current tourist scam. A person walking towards you bends down and picks up a gold ring, which he offers to you, as if it's yours and you've lost it. I'm not sure what happens if you accept it, whether its a decoy to rob you of your wallet or if the demand a reward for a worthless ring, but nonetheless we've seen it a dozen times in the last few days, although nobody seems fooled by it. Ignoring the clown offering the ring seems to do the trick.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Getting There
Big excitement, I guess, we flew an A380 from Singapore to Paris. We were on the upper deck, as opposed to the Main deck (nobody's lower). Despite my doubts, the thing did actually fly, although the take off seemed to be at as gradual a trajectory possible. The plane itself was beautifully quiet, even for those of us camping in the back section, well behind the engines and we were able to sleep most of the way to Paris, which was good. We left Auckland at midday Saturday on a 777 and being a day sector, I occupied myself by reading The Economist from cover to cover, while Anne got her fill of chick flicks from the in-flight entertainment system.
The four hours on the ground were from midnight to 4am in our time, so it was hard to stay awake (thankfully Anne did, cos I had a good old snooze in one of the uncomfortable chairs in Singapore Airport).
We arrived into Paris at 7am and set about catching the train into Paris. This was simplicity itself and even carrying our two bags from the airport wasn't too bad, as we bought a wee trolley in Auckland airport before we left. The first train was the RER, which took us in to Notre Dame. We then caught a metro to Mabilon station which is 160m from Hotel La Perle, according to our GPS.
Sadly, our room wasn't ready when we arrived, so we went for a walk for 4 hours while the previous inhabitant checked out and the room was made up.
Hotel La Perle is on the South side of the Seine in Saint Germain in the 6th Arrondissement. Although only a 10 minute walk to the Seine, the area is a web of narrow streets that are chock full of restaurants and bars. There is also a covered market just around the corner. We eventually made our way to and then across the Seine at the Pont Neuf (New Bridge). The Pont Neuf was the first bridge across the Seine – Neuf being new not nine and crosses the Isle de la Cite at its western end. Once over the bridge, we tuned left down Quai des Tuileries until we got to the Louvre, which we wandered around the outside of, then down the Jardin Des Tuileries, through the Place de la Concorde and then halfway up the Champs Elysees until we got to Avenue Winston Churchill where we headed past the Grand and Petit Palaces (one big, one small on either side of the road) and then over the Pont Alexandre III, which is the most impressive bridge in Paris with it winged gold horses at each corner and ornate lamp posts all the way across.
From there it was a short walk back to the hotel, where our room was thankfully ready for us. After a shower we headed out for lunch which we found not far from the hotel sitting outside in the sun. By 4pm a nap was in order and after a very deep “nap”, we headed out for a walk about 9pm. It was Sunday night and all the restaurants and cafés were busy. We walked through the busy streets ending up Notre Dame which was all lite up – beautiful! Equally as beautiful was the Tour Eiffel which has a sparkling light show for 5 minutes on the hour and that was stunning! Midnight and time to go home!
The four hours on the ground were from midnight to 4am in our time, so it was hard to stay awake (thankfully Anne did, cos I had a good old snooze in one of the uncomfortable chairs in Singapore Airport).
We arrived into Paris at 7am and set about catching the train into Paris. This was simplicity itself and even carrying our two bags from the airport wasn't too bad, as we bought a wee trolley in Auckland airport before we left. The first train was the RER, which took us in to Notre Dame. We then caught a metro to Mabilon station which is 160m from Hotel La Perle, according to our GPS.
Sadly, our room wasn't ready when we arrived, so we went for a walk for 4 hours while the previous inhabitant checked out and the room was made up.
Hotel La Perle is on the South side of the Seine in Saint Germain in the 6th Arrondissement. Although only a 10 minute walk to the Seine, the area is a web of narrow streets that are chock full of restaurants and bars. There is also a covered market just around the corner. We eventually made our way to and then across the Seine at the Pont Neuf (New Bridge). The Pont Neuf was the first bridge across the Seine – Neuf being new not nine and crosses the Isle de la Cite at its western end. Once over the bridge, we tuned left down Quai des Tuileries until we got to the Louvre, which we wandered around the outside of, then down the Jardin Des Tuileries, through the Place de la Concorde and then halfway up the Champs Elysees until we got to Avenue Winston Churchill where we headed past the Grand and Petit Palaces (one big, one small on either side of the road) and then over the Pont Alexandre III, which is the most impressive bridge in Paris with it winged gold horses at each corner and ornate lamp posts all the way across.
From there it was a short walk back to the hotel, where our room was thankfully ready for us. After a shower we headed out for lunch which we found not far from the hotel sitting outside in the sun. By 4pm a nap was in order and after a very deep “nap”, we headed out for a walk about 9pm. It was Sunday night and all the restaurants and cafés were busy. We walked through the busy streets ending up Notre Dame which was all lite up – beautiful! Equally as beautiful was the Tour Eiffel which has a sparkling light show for 5 minutes on the hour and that was stunning! Midnight and time to go home!
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