Summer Holiday Part 10

The plan for our next day in Paris was to start with a visit to the catacombs. We got there at 10 minutes before it opened, only to find that the queue was already 3 hours long- so we didn't see the catacombs.  We decided to split up, as the girls wanted to go shopping on the Champ-Elysess and I, as well as not being to keen on spending the day in shoe and handbag shops, wanted to see some other areas of Paris. 

I had just been reading Ernest Hemingway's 'A Moveable Feast', an autobiographic style novella about his experiences in Paris and the Parisian lifetyle during the few years he lived here.  I thought it would be great to see some of the places he describes in his book, so I found a self-guided tour and wandered through the streets.  It was great to see some of the less touristy areas of Paris, starting with the markets along Rue Mouffetard which was chock full of bakeries, fresh fruit and seafood stalls, and the smells of the French, Italian and Greek restaurants preparing for lunch service was incredible.

Markets on Rue Mouffetard

Building decorated with country scenes on Rue Mouffetard

Delicious croissants

Just around the corner from this market street was the house where Hemingway lived in Paris, number 74 rue du Cardinal-Lemoine, and there was a plaque to commemorate his presence.

Plaque at Hemingway's house

After some more walking I ended up in a little cafe on Boulevard Saint-Michel, sheltered from the pouring rain outside.  Relaxing as I watched the crowd of umbrellas on the footpath of the bustling street, I made my coffee and croissant last as long as I could, but eventually it was time to get going.  Conveniently there was a shop selling umbrellas just next door.  As I was preparing to leave the shop with my new umbrella, one of the awnings gave way under the weight of the water which had pooled on it, and a guy who was walking past got absolutely drenched.  He looked at me, and we both cracked up laughing, and he kept going, a bit wetter but somehow with a smile on his face.

Coffee on Boulevard Saint-Michel

Despite the rain, I decided to visit the Jardins du Luxembourg, which was also a favourite of Hemingway's.  Fortunately the rain let up, and I was able to walk around the beautiful gardens without getting too wet.

Jardins du Luxembourg

On the way back to meet everyone at Chatelet, I walked along the Seine and was able to some great views of the river and the Notre Dam.  We all met up at the big fountain at Chatelet, where we were meeting one of Margot's friends who lives in Paris.  We had coffee, walked around some shops and visited a large department store where Sam bought some nice tea.  When we got home, we built a medieval castle wall out of sugar cubes- it was structurally sound, until Margot knocked it down with a baguette.

View from a bridge on the Seine

Bridge covered in locks

Notre Dam

French flags in preparation for Bastille day

Sugar cube castle

Summer Holiday Part 9

Our first full day in Paris was full of famous Parisian landmarks; we had a Paris card for the day which gave us entry into many of the museums and galleries and were determined to make full use of it.  We started at the home of many of the world's most famous paintings, the Musee d'Orsay, where we saw paintings from artsits such as Monet and Van Gogh.

Next we went to Notre Dam cathedral, and waited in line for half an hour to see the inside, which was just as incredible as it is from the outside.

After a coffee in a cafe right next to the Notre Dam (not something I would normally be prepared to pay for the the comfort and convenience were definitely worth it) we visited the crypts underneath the Notre Dam which has remnants of the original Roman foundations of Paris.  We then went to Saint Chapelle, where again we had quite a long wait, this time in the rain.  From the outside we wondered whether it was worth waiting, but once we went inside we were blown away by the incredible wall-filling stained glass windows and the beautiful blue and gold fixtures, much of which remains original from when the cathedral was built in the 13th century.

Just next door to the cathedral was the Conciergerie, a large building famous for its roll as a prison during the French Revolution.  It's most well known prisoners included Marie Antoinette, whose prison cell was reconstructed to its condition while she was held there.

In the afternoon we also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Pantheon before it closed.  This massive building had some displays of famous French philosophers and writers, as well as the underground catacombs where many famous French writers, poets, inventors, philosophers and politicians.

Day Trip to Utrecht

This weekend we decided to see something of Holland other than Amsterdam, so we visited the nearby city of Utrecht. It's about 40km south-east of Amsterdam and only takes 25 minutes on the intercity tram, which is quite a comfortable, clean public transport service.

Utrecht looks similar to Amsterdam in many ways with the canals running between lines of 4 level brick buildings with similar facades and gables. The city centre was of course much smaller and felt less polished when compared to Amsterdam, which could be seen as a good or a bad thing. As we walked along the Oudergracht, we noticed a unique feature of Utrecht's canals which was the lower level along the edge of the water below street level.

We visited most of the major tourist attractions in the city centre, including the Domkerk and Domtoren (Dom church and tower), which have a rich history as the centre point of this ancient town. Records show that the current location of the church was the original founding of the Roman settlement in around 70AD, and the church has gone through many changes over 2000 years including being burnt down, being converted to Protestantism during the reformation, being converted back to Catholicism during French occupation and being torn in half by a tornado in the 1600s which is responsible for the current church being in 2 separate parts (the church and the spire).

We also visited the Utrecht Centraal Museum which had a lot of art from the Dutch old master painters. There was also a fairly large contemporary section that was very abstract and to someone like me, not even recognisable as art (such as a broken drumkit, or some pants hanging from the ceiling).

Attached to the Centraal Museum was the Dick Bruna House, where there were lots of Miffy memorabilia and information about Bruna's other projects. On the way back to the train we spotted this set of traffic lights which had the pedestrian symbols replaced with little Miffy signs.

Summer Holiday Part 8

It was with great sadness that we left Avranches the next morning, because we really loved it there. Also, we had to get early in the morning as we had a long drive ahead of us. Fortunately, the weather was good and the anticipation of reaching Paris kept us motivated. We had decided not to drive directly in to Paris, partly to avoid the ridiculous Parisian traffic, partly to see the palace in Versailles. When we arrived at the palace, we were greeted with a massive queue of people that snaked from the entrance and doubled back on itself three of four times through the courtyard. We decided to wait, and it was only about an hour and was probably a good warm-up for all the queuing that was about to be done in Paris.

The palace, which was home to the French royal family up until the French Revolution, was overwhelmingly extravagant. Every surface was gold plated, every wall lined with commission painting and red velvet, every ceiling painted with some magnificent scene. It was easy to see how in the 18th century the worker population might have begun to think malicious thoughts towards those in power.

The gardens were stunning as well, with beautifully manicured hedges and lines of shaped trees surrounding flower-filled garden beds. We really would have liked to see more of the gardens, but a sudden and heavy downpour brought our visit to a quick stop. When it started raining, everyone ran to the nearest shelter, which also happened to be the meeting place we had decided on when we split up to explore the gardens, so it took us a few minutes to get the group back together.

Then it was off to the car rental place to drop off our faithful Zafira. That 5 minutes drive was one of the scariest of the whole trip- the traffic, while slightly less hectic than in Paris, was still a completely different experience than driving in Australia. Fortunately, and despite the best efforts of the horse-mounted policeman who almost blindly walked out in front of us, we made it safely and dropped of our car without a scratch. From then on, it was all down to public transport.

We caught the train into Paris, and after a short taxi ride we were at our accommodation- a fully equipped, spacious (by Parisian standards) apartment in the 1st arrondissement, with the louvre 5 minutes in one direction and the opera house 5 minutes in the other.

By the time we had settled in it was about 7pm, and to our surprise found that the Louvre was open late that night, so we wandered over and spent an hour or two looking through the famous gallery. Fortunately not many people seemed to know it was open late, and we had no queue to get in, and despite the horror stories told by the majority of tourists, there was no wait to see the Mona Lisa. However, this just meant we were disappointed at its small size sooner rather than later.

On the way to the Louvre, the clouds were dark and threatening, but they cleared to give one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen as we left to walk home.

Dinner was had at an Asian restaurant right next to our apartment. The food was good but the portions were small, however the convenience was worth it for us weary travelers- it was literally 5 seconds from leaving our building to getting to the restaurant.

Summer Holiday Part 7

The next leg of our holiday was a short drive to the ancient town of Avranches, which was our base to see Mont Saint Michel.  On the way we found a little lavender 'farm' (it was more like a garden) where we stopped to have a coffee served by the Dutch owner.  It was a bit of a struggle to find the entrance- we had to reverse out of a wheat field at one point- but it was worth it for the relaxing pitstop.

Relaxing view at the lavender farm

Our hotel at Avranches was one probably the best accommodation of our holiday, due tot he beautiful garden where we spent most of our time while here. It was very relaxing to sit here and enjoy the company of friends, with tea or cheese or wine.

Garden at our hotel at Avranches

Afternoon tea in the garden

On the afternoon that we arrived, we scoped out the small town centre and headed for the Scriptorial Museum whose centre piece is the collection of manuscripts from the Mont Saint Michel monastery, some of which are around 1000 years old. It was a surprisingly interesting display and contained information about medieval religion and writing technologies, as well as some details about Avranches' Roman origins- there was even a denarius coin which is dated back to 200BC.

Music manuscript at the Scriptorial

The next day was one of the highlights of our holiday, a visit to Mont Saint Michel. This sea-bound medieval monastery captures the attention as soon as one spots it in the distance, and it only gets more interesting as you get closer. Originally 9km off shore and only accessible during low tide, it is now only a 5 minute shuttle bus ride along a permanent road from the carpark on the mainland. They are in the middle of a project to replace this road with a bridge which will allow the water to flow freely around the island again and prevent the siltation problems which have been caused by the current road.

View looking back at the coastline from the top of Mont Saint Michel

After a steep walk through the narrow winding souvenir-filled street, and many flights of stairs, we reached the main monastery through which we took a guided tour. It was very interesting hearing about the religious importance of this building during its time, and how pilgrims traveled from all over Europe to visit this place which was home to humanity's leading intellectuals, academics and philosophers. Even though the halls and the gardens were extravagant in their current state, it was hard to imagine them as described by our guide, full of bright tapestries, colourful glass tiles, stained-glass windows and painted ceilings. The crypts and catacombs, which lay beneath the main halls to support its structure, were dark and foreboding.

Narrow, toursty streets of Mont Saint Michel

Fortunately the sun did come out for a few minutes which allowed us to get some photos with a beautiful blue sky in the background. But it was short-lived, and soon enough it was back to the overcast, drizzly conditions which we had become accustomed to during this holiday.

Mont Saint Michel

That night we had diner at the hotel restaurant, which was a popular fine-dining venue in its own right. It did not disappoint- the creativity, quality, presentation and taste of the 4 course meal was simply outstanding, and the stylish waiters did an admirable job of waiting on our table despite our lack of French. (Our waiter did try a few English phrases during the night, with varying success, including asking us 'would you like to cheese?') I had a prawn and sponge salad with a pea moose as an entree, lamb and stuffed capsicum for the main, several awful smelling but delicious cheeses after the main, and a chocolate moose pyramid for dessert. Margot's Surprise Dessert quartet surely was the winner on the night though. The final cost was a ridiculously low 26 euro per person, and I don;t think any of of would argue if I called it the one of the best meals we've ever had.