France

France

My first glimpse of France just on day break was the remains of an old Roman aqueduct. Just amazing, the sort of thing I’ve only seen in books, it flashed by and I hope that I might just get to see more as we trip round northern France later in the week. We arrived at the Paris Central train station at 10am – 30 minutes later than scheduled. We had booked a hotel on the internet so knew exactly where to head to. A very helpful information desk person who spoke English and sold us a 3 day Metro pass along with a free map and directions. All got used continuously for the next 3 days. Coming up from the underground to find our hotel I couldn’t believe the houses/apartments. All built around the late 1800’s I felt that I had stepped back in time.
This was just the beginning of a sensory overload that continues for the next 3 days. The hotel itself was built in Art Deco style and on entering I was so impressed. We were too early to be able to check in so left our bags and headed off with our map expecting to be back in a couple of hours. Well!!!
Heading back into town as we wanted to sort out a rental car for Thursday we then decided to walk and eat. We had been advised to get a couple of streets back off the main roads and we should be able to eat for a reasonable cost. This proved to be the case so then it was off to the Bastille Monument and since it was overcast we then headed to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Not sure why one chooses to visit cemetery’s while on holiday but it’s not my first and I’m sure it won’t be my last. This one had many elaborate tombs and family plots. Lots of visitor’s and even a map with the famous burial sites marked. Well the general direction of them anyway and it then became a game of who could find it first with often several couples were all looking for the same one. Some were very obvious like Oscar Wilde’s which was covered in impressions of lips with red lipstick, every colour imaginable. Chopin was really had to find but along with an American couple we did find it and then there was Jim Morrison’s and Edith Piaf, 2 different extremes of the music world. The monuments to the people lost in the concentration camps were the most moving. 4 hours later I managed to prise Ron away and we headed to our hotel room.
There was a circular staircase going up the 7 flights and in recent times a lift had been installed in the middle of it. It was a 2 person or 1 person and luggage. You went in frontwards and then had to back out when it reached your floor. The room was equally amazing and looked out over more of those late 1800’s apartments.
Tuesday morning we headed off on foot to the Arc de Troiopmphe which was only 20 minutes away but a wrong turning took meant it took us twice that time. But as Ron says when you get lost you just see more and he’s right. We found the most amazing Boulevard of gardens. We did get to the Arc de Troiopmphe and decided against going up as the weather was not that good and the visibility poor so it was down the Champs Elysees. Shops to die for, all modern and much like any city of the world. All the way to the Palace and across the Alexandra III bridge with 4 pillars topped with gold statues. Mind was definitely heading into sensory overload big time by now, every way one looked there was another statue or magnificent building to look at. We also got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower hiding in the clouds. Down along the west bank where there are lots of antique booths beside the River Seine. We had been recommended to visit the Museum d’Osay but the queues outside were incredible and so we just carried on.
Next stop the Notre Dame once again lots of people but all moving through at a reasonable pace. I’ve seen many big churches and there is definitely sameness about them but there is also an amazing feeling when you realize that people have been worshipping in the same place for hundreds of years, 1163 in this case and it’s build on top of an existing church of that time. Below the Notre Dame is an archeological dig giving the history of early Paris which goes back to Roman times.
When we came out of the Notre Dame the sun was shining and the sky clear for the first time and again we had been told that should this happen then get up the Eiffel Tower so always taking good advise?? This is what we did. Again we were confronted with queues this time about 2 hours to go up in the lifts. I waited while Ron when to check out the situation and he came back with “there’s no one waiting to go up the stairs”, so off we go to climb the stairs telling ourselves that it will be good training for our planned walk along Hadrian’s Wall next week. 700 steps later with a couple of rests along the way we have reached the second level about 150 metres off the ground. Here this is only 3 people in front of us to purchase tickets to the very top. The only way there is via a lift. I thought the view from the 2nd level was amazing but it was nothing compared to the view from the top, 360 degrees and as far as the eye could see. Just incredible especially for one who is not good with heights and can still remember not being able to climb the ladder to the top of the lighthouse at Cape Reinga as a child. There were moments in the glass lift when I wondered if I’d be able to get out and enjoy the view but I did.
That night we had decided to treat ourselves to a show partly due to the fact that we had a less 50% voucher with our Metro Passes. Having eaten cheese and baguette for dinner we dressed in our glad rags and headed back to the Champs Elysees to the Lido. We had a table and bottle of champagne for the 9.30pm show. Once again just incredible. The costumes where so colourful and the many topless dancers will have Ron grinning for weeks. Many of the songs were in French but it didn’t matter the show was so professional and had such variety that it didn’t matter. There were acrobats, a horse, and ice skating just to name a few. Then it was back on the Metro to the hotel. Another interesting fact that at 11.30pm the trains were still running every 5 minutes on the 2 lines we had to travel on. What can happen when there are so many people.
We had put aside our last day to visit the Lovure and wanting to avoid the queues were lined up with many others 30 minutes before it opened at 9am. We headed in and followed the masses to the Mona Lisa and then realized that to really appreciate the place we need to know a bit more about the art it houses so back to the entrance for an audio tour handset. This was great and with it we managed to see as many great pieces of art/sculpture as we could absorb. Again I was amazed at the age of then with pieces from 100 AD and even one tablet that was 4000 years old. Again sensory overload kicked in at a different level, the building itself which was a royal palace in the 1600’s and has been a museum since 1793 which is 25 years since Cook discovered NZ. The ceilings were very elaborate in room after room. After 5 hours we couldn’t absorb anything more and so headed out for some fresh air and headed for another church!! The Sacre Coeur which is only 200 years old a baby compared to everything else we have seen to date. It is build on a hill and the mosaics are incredible the roof in particular. Here they were very strict about the use of cameras which was nice and means I’ve purchased a post card of the ceiling.
Below the church is the area of Montmartre a famous area for artists with very narrow streets. It started to rain as we were leaving and after stopping to purchase a turquoise handbag I seen from the tourist train trip we’d taken. There was thunder lighting and a very upset artist running in the rain with a bundle of cardboard wrapped works in her arms swearing as she was running. We decided that we weren’t in a hurry and took shelter in a bar ordering a cup of coffee. The heavens then opened up and it poured and poured for about half an hour. 2 cups of coffee later and a great discussion with the swearing artist who turned out to be American but she had been living in Paris for 20 years painting for a living. She had gotten soaked getting home but apparently her paintings weren’t damaged but she had lost power so decided on a drink till the rain stopped.
Once the rain stopped we headed on our way again walking past the Moulin Rouge famous for its near naked girl’s shows since 1889 then back on the metro to the hotel again. We were exhausted in total sensory overload and wishing we had another week to spend in Paris.
Our next adventure was to pick up a rental car and try and get ourselves out of Paris. We had chosen a location on the outskirts of the city and took a taxi there. The taxi driver had problems finding the place even with the GPS as there were so many tunnels. We had hoped to be able to hire a GPS with the car but they didn’t have any at that branch and also didn’t have any maps provided with the car. The assistant drew us a map and we headed off to join the Tomtom brigade. We had seen these working with both Angela and Lex and thought that they were a great tool. Now it was going to be a necessity. We found the mall all 5 stories of it and the store to purchase a Tomtom, GPS system also a small map of France so I could get the general idea of where I was going. Thank goodness for the map as we couldn’t start the system in the bowels of an underground car park. We got outside and found the first spot to park illegally while we punched in where we wanted to go. The topic of the Bayeux Tapestry had come up while in the Louve and checking the internet I realised it wasn’t that far from where Ron wanted to go. Him being interested in history he already knew about this nearly 1000 year old piece of embroidery it depicts the history behind the battle of Hastings in 1066 fought in Battle. I’ve already been taken to Battle in a previous trip to the UK. The work is amazing at 68.3 metres long and the majority of it in very good condition it was incredible to see. The town of Bayeux is also amazing with many the buildings being 1600’s and we have found a B&B which is 1800’s The Tomtom did it job well except when there was an accident and the motorway was closed for a time but we worked that out. Also what was amazing was that we were asked if we wanted to pay tolls and said yes, we paid 6 lots of tolls in 250kms varying from €2.70 to €5.70 just to use the motorways. Interesting but as we had wanted the quickest way as it had taken so long to sort ourselves out before getting on the road out of Paris.
The next day it was off to battlefields starting off with one of the WWII D-Day Beaches, Arromanches-les-Bains, the remains of the temporary mulberry harbour are still visible. Next on the list was Harfleur where the British soldiers came ashore and started the fight that ended up in Azincourt 1415, Crecy where there was a battle between the English and the French in 1345, next was Azincourt where the British won, the museum was interesting. By this time we were hungry and tried the local restaurant for a meal, they didn’t start serving till 7pm and since we still had to find accommodation we decided to head for a bigger town. We selected a restaurant in Tomtom and started driving. After 15 minutes we realized that we past where we thought we would stop but as we saw nothing else that resembled a place to eat we kept driving. We ended up with the most amazing French meal and they even managed to find great accommodation for us round the corner. People have been really helpful even though most speak very little English.
Last day in France it was off to Dunkirk which I did find interesting. I had no idea that 380,000 soldiers were evacuated by ships and boats of every shape and size, there were also 140,000 French soldiers evacuated also. Then it back to Lille to return the rental car and catch the Eurostar to London, a quick 1 ½ hours trip through the tunnel and we were there.