Yesterday we'd enjoyed looking through the interior of Notre Dame but thought it would be fun to climb up to the belfry for the view over the surrounding area. Also because obviously the movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" had such a scary impact on Fred when he saw it as a child that he still remembers many of the details and had a rather macabre fascination with visiting the belltower. Viewings don't open till 10.00 am and the queue moves very slowly as there is only one way up and the same way down, plus they can only deal with small numbers and each group takes quite a long time, so even though we were there at 9.30 it was an hour improving our suntans in the queue before we were in the door. The view from the top did give a great perspective of the area and Fred got much closer to the gargoyles and the huge bell, so all worth the wait in the end.
Our next visit was to Saint Chapelle the chapel attached to the palace in Saint Louis' time and which is just a short walk away across the river. Another long queue but in the shade this time and much quicker moving. This chapel is renowned for its spectacular stained glass windows and we were really glad we'd chosen it as one of the places to visit; it really is fantastic and we spent a long time enjoying the beauty and trying to work out the stories and significance of the depictions.
Next door (another part of the old palace) is the Concierge which was the hideous rat infested, water logged prison from where so many thousands of prisoners ended up taking the short walk to the guillotine. While used as a prison for ages,it had it's highest use at the time of the revolution. The display is done well with good information about conditions, people who were prisoers here and recreations of cells including that of Marie Antoinette.
All in all that added up to a pretty full on morning and neither of us felt we could do justice to any more history so decided the afternoon activity should be the favourite French pastime of window shopping, which apparently in French is 'faire du leche-vitrines'/'licking the windows'! And what better place to go looking than Le Grande Epicure de Paris at Le Bon Marche! A fabulous department store devoting a whole large shop to the Grande Epicure, the most fascinating food hall bulging with every imaginable French staple and delicacy. A simply wonderful place to spend an hour or so!
Meantime we'd been in contact during the day with Bruce and Diana who, settled into their very nice hotel, were gradually recovering from the harrowing delivery of the hire car to Paris airport yesterday 6.00 pm. Great driving, great interpreting of Gretels navigating; well done!
We'd planned to meet up tonight and perhaps have dinner together, so we hopped on the Metro again (have certainly had our money's worth out of our 5 day pass!) and over to their place for a drink. We'd heard that the soccer semifinal Spain/Germany was to be broadcast on a big screen under the Eiffel Tower so we all decided that would be fun to be part of, so off we went, snatching takeaways en route.
It certainly was fun! A beautiful warm, still evening, sitting in a lovely park on the bank behind the Tower watching, with thousands of fans, an exciting game, as the sky grew darker and the tower lit up. Having been in Spain so recently we were of course backing the Spanish and immediately armed ourselves with a Spanish flag and a while later felt we needed to add to the cacophony with a trumpet too. Can you imagine the mayhem of Spanish celebration at the conclusion of the game! Cars racing round and round with horns blaring, fans yahooing and the red and yellow flags streaming behind while groups of happy supporters wrapped in flags wove their way through the streets - loudly encouraged by our trumpet as we wandered back past the tower and over the river to the Metro.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
July 9th Musee d'Orsay and home
To be packed and checked out by 10.00 am with a whole day to spend in Paris where we expected temperatures to reach mid thirties, but with over 30 hours travel leaving 9.45 tonight and an arrival to NZ winter, was something of a conundrum. However, the hotel was happy for us to leave our bags with them and to make a room available for us to change later in the day before we headed to the airport, so by 10.15 we were on the town in our lightest weight gear.
Along with our entry to Le Louvre, we'd also purchased entry to Musee d'Orsay, the gallery which exhibits early modern art works - impressionist, art nouveau etc; so this is where we headed. With ticket in hand we totally by passed the queue and were immediately inside this fantastically light, airy, modern art gallery which once upon a time was the Paris railway station! We both found this a very "user friendly" gallery and loved the more modern works exhibited here. It was very exciting to see the originals of works from artists such as Renoir, Monet, Gauguin and Picasso which we see so often as faded prints, here they were fresh and glowing - and great too to see some of their lesser known works. Engrossed for several hours, the day passed rapidly and to remind ourselves of some of the beaut stuff we'd seen here we bought a souvenir book which I'm looking forward to reading.
With just an hour or so to fill I was keen to spend some time outdoors as we'd soon enough be inside planes for many hours, so we walked across the river to enjoy the shade in the lovely Tuilleries garden before returning to the hotel to change into our travel clothes.
We'd booked the train to take us from Paris out to Charles de Gaulle airport so it was just a short Metro ride to the train connection. With a 7.00 o'clock check in time we'd left the hotel at 5.00 o'clock which was perfect timing for the route to be covered, but certainly not perfect timing for lugging suitcases through the underground or for fighting one's way on to a train. Pushing our way into the crush of bodies lining the platform, we weren't quite able to make it into the front of the pack, which was very unfortunate, as it meant that Fred and his suitcase managed to shove their way on board, but I didn't stand a chance. Luckily, before the door closed and the train pulled away, Fred managed to peer back from the centre of the carriage and realise I was left behind, giving me a chance to mouth "I'll catch the next one"!
All ended well I was at the front of the pack for the next train and a man inside the train hauled my case on as I fought to hold my place, so half an hour late we were both safely at the airport and checking in.
Checking in was the next drama! On our travels I'd bought a little bottle of truffle oil and one of walnut oil and to keep them easily accessible to show MAF as we entered NZ I'd popped them in the carry on luggage, forgetting that the walnut oil was bigger than 100mls and so inadmissable in carry on luggage. I'd asked Fred to take them as I didn't want them in the same bag as my netpad just in case there was a leak. What a kerfuffle as the French official tried to explain to Fred that he could take it as checked in luggage and Fred tried to explain that his luggage was already checked in and gone. Eventually we reached some level of understanding and the chap took Fred back and found a lady who spent ages wrapping it in layer after layer of bubble wrap and bags so that it would survive the journey checked in as a parcel; "this is far to good to waste" she kept telling him.
Took off at 9.45. An eight hour flight saw dinner, one movie and a sleep before we landed in Dubai for a three hour stopover (hard to stay awake here - for us it was still the middle of the night). On to the next leg and this time the Airbus, so it was good to have the noise level reduced and the leg room increased, though it was a long time before I could sensibly fall asleep again. Eventually, 13 hours later in to Auckland and no worries about the truffle and walnut oil which had survived it's trip.
Finally home at 5.30 and there was John to pick us up in the limo, plus Pauline and John to welcome us. Then Dan and the chidren turned up and home we went to find Andrea there. They had dinner cooking and the drapes closed, the fire roaring and the electric blankets on so we had dinner together with Emily and Anna popping in to see us too. What a lovely welcome home and what a great sleep! It's been a fantastic trip and we've loved every bit of it, but home is always great too!
Along with our entry to Le Louvre, we'd also purchased entry to Musee d'Orsay, the gallery which exhibits early modern art works - impressionist, art nouveau etc; so this is where we headed. With ticket in hand we totally by passed the queue and were immediately inside this fantastically light, airy, modern art gallery which once upon a time was the Paris railway station! We both found this a very "user friendly" gallery and loved the more modern works exhibited here. It was very exciting to see the originals of works from artists such as Renoir, Monet, Gauguin and Picasso which we see so often as faded prints, here they were fresh and glowing - and great too to see some of their lesser known works. Engrossed for several hours, the day passed rapidly and to remind ourselves of some of the beaut stuff we'd seen here we bought a souvenir book which I'm looking forward to reading.
With just an hour or so to fill I was keen to spend some time outdoors as we'd soon enough be inside planes for many hours, so we walked across the river to enjoy the shade in the lovely Tuilleries garden before returning to the hotel to change into our travel clothes.
We'd booked the train to take us from Paris out to Charles de Gaulle airport so it was just a short Metro ride to the train connection. With a 7.00 o'clock check in time we'd left the hotel at 5.00 o'clock which was perfect timing for the route to be covered, but certainly not perfect timing for lugging suitcases through the underground or for fighting one's way on to a train. Pushing our way into the crush of bodies lining the platform, we weren't quite able to make it into the front of the pack, which was very unfortunate, as it meant that Fred and his suitcase managed to shove their way on board, but I didn't stand a chance. Luckily, before the door closed and the train pulled away, Fred managed to peer back from the centre of the carriage and realise I was left behind, giving me a chance to mouth "I'll catch the next one"!
All ended well I was at the front of the pack for the next train and a man inside the train hauled my case on as I fought to hold my place, so half an hour late we were both safely at the airport and checking in.
Checking in was the next drama! On our travels I'd bought a little bottle of truffle oil and one of walnut oil and to keep them easily accessible to show MAF as we entered NZ I'd popped them in the carry on luggage, forgetting that the walnut oil was bigger than 100mls and so inadmissable in carry on luggage. I'd asked Fred to take them as I didn't want them in the same bag as my netpad just in case there was a leak. What a kerfuffle as the French official tried to explain to Fred that he could take it as checked in luggage and Fred tried to explain that his luggage was already checked in and gone. Eventually we reached some level of understanding and the chap took Fred back and found a lady who spent ages wrapping it in layer after layer of bubble wrap and bags so that it would survive the journey checked in as a parcel; "this is far to good to waste" she kept telling him.
Took off at 9.45. An eight hour flight saw dinner, one movie and a sleep before we landed in Dubai for a three hour stopover (hard to stay awake here - for us it was still the middle of the night). On to the next leg and this time the Airbus, so it was good to have the noise level reduced and the leg room increased, though it was a long time before I could sensibly fall asleep again. Eventually, 13 hours later in to Auckland and no worries about the truffle and walnut oil which had survived it's trip.
Finally home at 5.30 and there was John to pick us up in the limo, plus Pauline and John to welcome us. Then Dan and the chidren turned up and home we went to find Andrea there. They had dinner cooking and the drapes closed, the fire roaring and the electric blankets on so we had dinner together with Emily and Anna popping in to see us too. What a lovely welcome home and what a great sleep! It's been a fantastic trip and we've loved every bit of it, but home is always great too!
July 8th Thursday LeLouvre and Arc de Triomphe
Our last complete day in Paris and Le Louvre was Number One on the list today. Entry here is very efficient and it seemed we were admitted in no time at all. Russell and Mary had kindly passed on their floor plan and we realised what a huge place this is so had already decided that we’d concentrate on the exhibition of paintings. Four hours later we had seen a simply amazing number of original paintings – Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch and more. Mind boggling and wonderful to see “the real thing” of so many paintings.
Yesterday’s stair climbing, plus the heat (34 degrees) and our late night had caught up with us at this stage so a siesta was called for before we climbed the Arc de Triomphe to enjoy the wonderful view of the avenues, the seething traffic and greater Paris. There is some good information here with great pictures of earlier times and when we came back down we were lucky enough to coincide with the daily ceremony at the flame of the unknown soldier.
We had a great discovery tonight of a really great little lane of typical Parisienne restaurants very close to our hotel and were enough to find a table without waiting too long. Surrounded by locals and enjoying another top quality French dining experience was a really nice way to spend our last evening in Paris
Yesterday’s stair climbing, plus the heat (34 degrees) and our late night had caught up with us at this stage so a siesta was called for before we climbed the Arc de Triomphe to enjoy the wonderful view of the avenues, the seething traffic and greater Paris. There is some good information here with great pictures of earlier times and when we came back down we were lucky enough to coincide with the daily ceremony at the flame of the unknown soldier.
We had a great discovery tonight of a really great little lane of typical Parisienne restaurants very close to our hotel and were enough to find a table without waiting too long. Surrounded by locals and enjoying another top quality French dining experience was a really nice way to spend our last evening in Paris
Friday, July 9, 2010
Paris!!
Well I've fizzled on my last couple of updates - just too crazy here in Paris. Flying out 10.00 tonight and have four hours to fill in Dubai, so maybe I'll get the last couple of days done for you somewhere in that time, otherwise I'll see some of you before you hear anymore!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
July 6th Tuesday Notre Dame, Pantheon, Gardens, Sacre Coeur
We were at the Notre Dame early this morning to beat the crowds and had a great look through this magnificent Cathedral. What an awesome façade – I just love those portals, and the stained glass windows are glorious. We also went round the back Lincoln and checked out the flying buttresses! When you were biking in Spain I remember you telling us about a church you passed which is supposed to have the biggest flying buttresses in the world! See what an impact that information must have had on me, I still watch out for flying buttresses!
From here we headed over on to the left bank of the Seine and walked down past the Sorbonne with all the students out and about in the streets. Then around the next corner was our destination the Pantheon. What a fascinating building with its square cross shape flooplan and fabulous dome, built in a totally revolutionary way and what a chequered history it has had swinging between religious and republican use since day one. An example of this is the huge pendulum which hangs from the centre of the dome and so perfectly demonstrates the earth’s rotation. Our timing was perfect to join a group going right up to the top of the dome…… wonderful views of the interior on the ascent and great views all round over the City once outside at the top.
Once outside again we followed the students to a great little patisserie and got our best baguette to date which we quickly carried to the nearby gardens and devoured, plastered with a gooey camembert, cherry tomatoes and French radishes. Mmmmm. The gardens we were in surround the Palace of Luxembourg which used to be the Royal Palace but now houses the French Senate. It has a large area of mature trees with park benches and moveable chairs. There are plus statues, manicured lawns, formal flower gardens, petanque and tennis courts, a great and frenetically busy children’s playground and even a huge pond with solid wooden toy yachts children can hire for E2.00 per 30minutes. It’s a great leisure haven for locals and well used and respected.
From here we took the Metro across town to visit the Basilique de Sacre Coeur. This gleaming, white, domed cathedral sits on top of a hill, so we took the funicular railcar to reach the steps to save ourselves for the climb up this dome! I’m not that keen on getting too far off the ground, but on the other hand I like to get the views, so I’ve done very well getting to the top of all these domes on this trip! 300 steps up an ever narrowing circular staircase was pretty claustrophobic, but great 360 degree views when we got there and a really different perspective on things from here. The viewing through the interior was also very worthwhile. I thought the perfectly round shape of the altar area and interior dome and the glowing colours of the dome frescoe with Christ dominant were really striking.
Home tonight for the Soccer finals which has been great for me to catch up here.
From here we headed over on to the left bank of the Seine and walked down past the Sorbonne with all the students out and about in the streets. Then around the next corner was our destination the Pantheon. What a fascinating building with its square cross shape flooplan and fabulous dome, built in a totally revolutionary way and what a chequered history it has had swinging between religious and republican use since day one. An example of this is the huge pendulum which hangs from the centre of the dome and so perfectly demonstrates the earth’s rotation. Our timing was perfect to join a group going right up to the top of the dome…… wonderful views of the interior on the ascent and great views all round over the City once outside at the top.
Once outside again we followed the students to a great little patisserie and got our best baguette to date which we quickly carried to the nearby gardens and devoured, plastered with a gooey camembert, cherry tomatoes and French radishes. Mmmmm. The gardens we were in surround the Palace of Luxembourg which used to be the Royal Palace but now houses the French Senate. It has a large area of mature trees with park benches and moveable chairs. There are plus statues, manicured lawns, formal flower gardens, petanque and tennis courts, a great and frenetically busy children’s playground and even a huge pond with solid wooden toy yachts children can hire for E2.00 per 30minutes. It’s a great leisure haven for locals and well used and respected.
From here we took the Metro across town to visit the Basilique de Sacre Coeur. This gleaming, white, domed cathedral sits on top of a hill, so we took the funicular railcar to reach the steps to save ourselves for the climb up this dome! I’m not that keen on getting too far off the ground, but on the other hand I like to get the views, so I’ve done very well getting to the top of all these domes on this trip! 300 steps up an ever narrowing circular staircase was pretty claustrophobic, but great 360 degree views when we got there and a really different perspective on things from here. The viewing through the interior was also very worthwhile. I thought the perfectly round shape of the altar area and interior dome and the glowing colours of the dome frescoe with Christ dominant were really striking.
Home tonight for the Soccer finals which has been great for me to catch up here.
July 54h Monday Paris Orientation
Orientation was our first project for today so we’d decided that we’d take a tour on the Hop on Hop Off Bus. Fred had done quite a bit of research about routes etc before we left so armed with his printouts we headed across to Notre Dame where we tracked down a bus stop.
All in all we took three of the four routes which gave us a fabulous over view of the city. What an easy way to take a ride down the Champs Elysees, around the Arc de Triomph, over the bridges on the Seine, past the Obelique de la Concorde, the Eiffel Tower, the Sorbonne and the Pantheon plus a narrow squeeze for the bus through the arch in the wall surrounding the Louvre and through the grounds there; all with a really good commentary. It was a really pleasant sunny day with enough breeze so that we weren’t stifled with heat and by the end of the day we felt quite well orientated and we’d confirmed various places we knew we wanted to go back to explore more thoroughly.
Our final trip was timed to end at the Eiffel Tower about 8.00 o’clock so that hopefully we could go up the tower and have both daylight views of the City and then views of the City lights. What an awesome structure! Fred would have liked to have gone right to the top but unfortunately for him that floor was closed. However, the view even from the second level where we went is pretty jolly spectacular and we spent ages identifying places we’d driven past in the day and watching the sun set in the West and the lights on the Tower brighten in the twilight until finally at 10.30 darkness fell and slowly but surely the buildings all over the City lit up; spectacular! The Eiffel Tower is lit from twilight and then, for 10 minutes on the hour, it has extra white lights which flash so that it sparkles as well. We were up the Tower for the 10.00 sparkles and on the footbridge crossing the Seine for the 11.00 sparkles; both views equally thrilling!
While we’ve been away, Fred has tackled the conquest of transport routes with determination and enthusiasm – everything from road routes to confirm or complement the GPS, to the vaporetto system in Venice, the trains in Spain and the Metros in Rome and Paris. (I did mention to him that perhaps he was thinking of a job as a tour operator here, but he said he’d be a bit worried about learning French.) He’s done really well and it’s really helped us group visits and activities together for efficiency. Of course when we’re with Bruce and Diana they have a lot of knowledge to add to the planning mix too which is great.
All in all we took three of the four routes which gave us a fabulous over view of the city. What an easy way to take a ride down the Champs Elysees, around the Arc de Triomph, over the bridges on the Seine, past the Obelique de la Concorde, the Eiffel Tower, the Sorbonne and the Pantheon plus a narrow squeeze for the bus through the arch in the wall surrounding the Louvre and through the grounds there; all with a really good commentary. It was a really pleasant sunny day with enough breeze so that we weren’t stifled with heat and by the end of the day we felt quite well orientated and we’d confirmed various places we knew we wanted to go back to explore more thoroughly.
Our final trip was timed to end at the Eiffel Tower about 8.00 o’clock so that hopefully we could go up the tower and have both daylight views of the City and then views of the City lights. What an awesome structure! Fred would have liked to have gone right to the top but unfortunately for him that floor was closed. However, the view even from the second level where we went is pretty jolly spectacular and we spent ages identifying places we’d driven past in the day and watching the sun set in the West and the lights on the Tower brighten in the twilight until finally at 10.30 darkness fell and slowly but surely the buildings all over the City lit up; spectacular! The Eiffel Tower is lit from twilight and then, for 10 minutes on the hour, it has extra white lights which flash so that it sparkles as well. We were up the Tower for the 10.00 sparkles and on the footbridge crossing the Seine for the 11.00 sparkles; both views equally thrilling!
While we’ve been away, Fred has tackled the conquest of transport routes with determination and enthusiasm – everything from road routes to confirm or complement the GPS, to the vaporetto system in Venice, the trains in Spain and the Metros in Rome and Paris. (I did mention to him that perhaps he was thinking of a job as a tour operator here, but he said he’d be a bit worried about learning French.) He’s done really well and it’s really helped us group visits and activities together for efficiency. Of course when we’re with Bruce and Diana they have a lot of knowledge to add to the planning mix too which is great.
July 4th Sunday Bayeux to Paris
I’m starting today’s diary on the train between Bayeux and Paris, hurtling along to our final, but very exciting destination. We’ve had a wonderful day in and around Bayeux, Caen and the Normandy Beaches today.
Popped into town after breakfast with a visit to see the Bayeux Tapestry top of my list. With Summer and the school holidays having started here and the festival bringing crowds of participants and onlookers to town, the tourist season is well underway and we were pleased to be early enough to miss the huge queue we saw later. Some information I read about the tapestry describes it as a “comic strip” which was displayed to tell the people of the time the events of the Norman Conquest. That’s a really good description in a way as the amazing work tells the story in pictures so well, with incredible detail such as posture and expression portraying even little nuances of deception, embarrassment, excitement, etc; remarkable! The complimentary audio guide was fantastic; explaining how the tapestry is telling the story and pointing out the significance of quirky little things you could easily miss. 70 metres takes on a whole new meaning when you see it telling a story in 57 consecutive scenes stitched 1000 years ago in wool on linen and the colours still as good as new.
On our exit from the Tapestry display we struck a real bonus, being just in time to watch the medieval parade, one of the highlights of the annual festival. It was along the lines of Nelson’s Mask Parade, with community groups taking part dressed in all manner of medieval costumes and regalia and with plenty of lively music and slapstick humour. (I think you would have liked dressing up to be part of this parade Yasmina, Andre, Isabelle and Hannah – lots of princesses and knights!)
You couldn’t come to Bayeux without taking a trip out to the D Day Beaches to get a picture of the location and the area involved and try to get some idea of the scale and magnitude of the operation and the human cost involved, so that was our tour for the afternoon and now, here we are having fare welled Bruce and Diana again and speeding toward Paris for our next discoveries and adventures.
Later Sunday:
An interesting trip on the train with lots of Parisienne families with little children returning from a weekend out of town, mixing formula, heating baby food (the trains have electric plugs available) and trying to keep tired scratchy toddlers calm. I've never seen so many children with dummies as over here, in fact it's unusual to see any baby or toddler in a buggy without a dummy!
Countryside gave way to urban views and suddenly we were at the seething station, dragging our bags to the ticket office for Metro tickets. We've seen a few armed police around in both Italy and France so it wasn't too much suprise to see police here with holsters strapped on, but we did wonder why there needed to be the stoneyfaced swivel headed ones slinking about with their AK47s. Anyway, no worries for us so, with a 5 day pass in hand, a call to our hotel for connection instructions and we were diving into the underground. Everyone had told us how efficient and user friendly the Paris Metro is and we would certainly agree. With one change we were at our hotel and checked in to our room.
Our hotel is old and very French - dark and mysterious with dark wood, wild pink, red and gold decor and furnishings, but comfy and superbly located in the Hotel de Ville area just across the Seine from the Notre Dame. Popping next door for a beer and glass of wine to celebrate our arrival was an expensive exercise costing E14.70 so needless to say we moved further away for dinner! I had a fried camembert which was fabulous and Fred is going to recreate his dish for lunch next time you come Em as it was a magnificent French version of cheese on toast and you two are the cheese on toast makers!
Popped into town after breakfast with a visit to see the Bayeux Tapestry top of my list. With Summer and the school holidays having started here and the festival bringing crowds of participants and onlookers to town, the tourist season is well underway and we were pleased to be early enough to miss the huge queue we saw later. Some information I read about the tapestry describes it as a “comic strip” which was displayed to tell the people of the time the events of the Norman Conquest. That’s a really good description in a way as the amazing work tells the story in pictures so well, with incredible detail such as posture and expression portraying even little nuances of deception, embarrassment, excitement, etc; remarkable! The complimentary audio guide was fantastic; explaining how the tapestry is telling the story and pointing out the significance of quirky little things you could easily miss. 70 metres takes on a whole new meaning when you see it telling a story in 57 consecutive scenes stitched 1000 years ago in wool on linen and the colours still as good as new.
On our exit from the Tapestry display we struck a real bonus, being just in time to watch the medieval parade, one of the highlights of the annual festival. It was along the lines of Nelson’s Mask Parade, with community groups taking part dressed in all manner of medieval costumes and regalia and with plenty of lively music and slapstick humour. (I think you would have liked dressing up to be part of this parade Yasmina, Andre, Isabelle and Hannah – lots of princesses and knights!)
You couldn’t come to Bayeux without taking a trip out to the D Day Beaches to get a picture of the location and the area involved and try to get some idea of the scale and magnitude of the operation and the human cost involved, so that was our tour for the afternoon and now, here we are having fare welled Bruce and Diana again and speeding toward Paris for our next discoveries and adventures.
Later Sunday:
An interesting trip on the train with lots of Parisienne families with little children returning from a weekend out of town, mixing formula, heating baby food (the trains have electric plugs available) and trying to keep tired scratchy toddlers calm. I've never seen so many children with dummies as over here, in fact it's unusual to see any baby or toddler in a buggy without a dummy!
Countryside gave way to urban views and suddenly we were at the seething station, dragging our bags to the ticket office for Metro tickets. We've seen a few armed police around in both Italy and France so it wasn't too much suprise to see police here with holsters strapped on, but we did wonder why there needed to be the stoneyfaced swivel headed ones slinking about with their AK47s. Anyway, no worries for us so, with a 5 day pass in hand, a call to our hotel for connection instructions and we were diving into the underground. Everyone had told us how efficient and user friendly the Paris Metro is and we would certainly agree. With one change we were at our hotel and checked in to our room.
Our hotel is old and very French - dark and mysterious with dark wood, wild pink, red and gold decor and furnishings, but comfy and superbly located in the Hotel de Ville area just across the Seine from the Notre Dame. Popping next door for a beer and glass of wine to celebrate our arrival was an expensive exercise costing E14.70 so needless to say we moved further away for dinner! I had a fried camembert which was fabulous and Fred is going to recreate his dish for lunch next time you come Em as it was a magnificent French version of cheese on toast and you two are the cheese on toast makers!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
July 3 Saturday St Pardoux la Riviere to Bayeaux Normandy
Well I said we were going to go out for dinner on ourlast night in Pardoux, so after hearing such good reports from Bruce and Diana about the wonderful meal they’d had at Pardoux’s Hotel de France we thought we should go there. Wow! What a great place and what a lovely meal!
The day had been stifling and even with the sun gone it was still very warm so we were very glad to have a table on the huge deck the hotel. The menu was comprehensive and had an English translation for each dish which was very helpful, but for simplicity’s sake we both chose one of the set menus. Good choices!!! A complimentary appetiser arrived being a shot glass with a layer of cucumber topped with a salsa of tomato finished with a swirl of truffle flavoured cream. Yum yum.
My entrée was a huge leafy salad with white asparagus, fresh fruit, nuts, tiny portions of lobster and thin slices of smoked duck. My main was beautifully cooked duck with roast potatoes and a fantastic rich thyme and berry gravy, and then I followed up with their three sorbets!
Fred’s entrée was foie gras with spice fruit bread, fresh fruit and veg, then a deliciously light omelette bulging with meaty mushrooms. His main was a tender leg of roast duck with roast taties, then they came out with a platter of five different cheeses each one amazingly different to taste. He finished off with profiteroles filled with ice-cream and lost in lashings of thick, rich chocolate sauce! Needless to say we’re afraid our clothes which were looking quite smart on Pilates toned bodies are now failing to hide the increasing rolls and bulges!
After thunder and a little rain in the night we were up, packed and away in good time this morning for a long drive from St Pardoux all the way up to Bayeaux. We had decided to side-track a little to incorporate a stop at Oradour-sur-Glane on the way as it would hadn’t managed to fit it in as a day trip while in St Pardoux. June 10th 1944 this tranquil little farming village of about 650 people was attached and completely annihilated by the Nazis. The town was never rebuilt or inhabited again, but in more recent times it has been made safe to visit (with documentary movie, explanation if you wish – we didn’t). It’s a chilling memorial to that and other similar horrors and a moving plea against such insanity.
From here we drove North West right through the beautiful farmland of the Loire Valley. Crops as far as the eye could see hour after hour; what a lot of food they produce here! A patchwork of nature’s colours and a fairyland of chateaux, whizzed through on some very busy, fast motorways until finally we started to near the Coast. The terrain flattened out, the traffic numbers diminished, wind farms re-emerged and we rolled into Bayeaux about 7.00.
Out hotel here is very smart and fresh here and we were glad to settle in and have a quick cuppa before heading into town for dinner. Bayeaux is of course home to the Bayeaux Tapestry telling the story of William the Conqueror’s invasion of England and his defeat of Harold king of England at Hastings in 1066; we’re going for a look tomorrow which I’m really looking forward to. Remember Dan and Andrea we went to Hastings and did the tour with the audio guide about the Battle of Hastings? Now I’m at the other end! Bayeux was fortunate to escape war damage and has a very beautiful old church which was originally consecrated in 1077. It was open tonight when we arrived in town and lit up so was very impressive.
Would you believe we’re lucky enough to have arrived here on the first of the two nights that Bayeux has its annual medieval Festival! The town was really rocking with heaps of folk dressed in medieval costumes, troubadours singing, dancing (even on stilts on the cobblestones!), juggling and making wild medieval music on wild medieval instruments (we heard some very wild recorder music Isabelle!). Stalls were selling everything from medieval goods such as herbs, spices, leather money pouches, jewellery, masks, swords and chainmail helmets, to party knick knacks like babies dummy which had flashing lights! There were endless entertainment acts and everyone in party mode. School holidays started here today so it seemed no problem that it was 10.30 and that everyone including children were trailing through the streets after the musicians.
What a wonderful night and we had a wonderful meal - medieval of course! With just one night here we wanted to try some of the local cuisine so had to start with a traditional Normandy cider and finish with an apple tart and a glass of their “apple brandy” Calvados! Missed out on their other specialty Camembert, but will track that down tomorrow.
The day had been stifling and even with the sun gone it was still very warm so we were very glad to have a table on the huge deck the hotel. The menu was comprehensive and had an English translation for each dish which was very helpful, but for simplicity’s sake we both chose one of the set menus. Good choices!!! A complimentary appetiser arrived being a shot glass with a layer of cucumber topped with a salsa of tomato finished with a swirl of truffle flavoured cream. Yum yum.
My entrée was a huge leafy salad with white asparagus, fresh fruit, nuts, tiny portions of lobster and thin slices of smoked duck. My main was beautifully cooked duck with roast potatoes and a fantastic rich thyme and berry gravy, and then I followed up with their three sorbets!
Fred’s entrée was foie gras with spice fruit bread, fresh fruit and veg, then a deliciously light omelette bulging with meaty mushrooms. His main was a tender leg of roast duck with roast taties, then they came out with a platter of five different cheeses each one amazingly different to taste. He finished off with profiteroles filled with ice-cream and lost in lashings of thick, rich chocolate sauce! Needless to say we’re afraid our clothes which were looking quite smart on Pilates toned bodies are now failing to hide the increasing rolls and bulges!
After thunder and a little rain in the night we were up, packed and away in good time this morning for a long drive from St Pardoux all the way up to Bayeaux. We had decided to side-track a little to incorporate a stop at Oradour-sur-Glane on the way as it would hadn’t managed to fit it in as a day trip while in St Pardoux. June 10th 1944 this tranquil little farming village of about 650 people was attached and completely annihilated by the Nazis. The town was never rebuilt or inhabited again, but in more recent times it has been made safe to visit (with documentary movie, explanation if you wish – we didn’t). It’s a chilling memorial to that and other similar horrors and a moving plea against such insanity.
From here we drove North West right through the beautiful farmland of the Loire Valley. Crops as far as the eye could see hour after hour; what a lot of food they produce here! A patchwork of nature’s colours and a fairyland of chateaux, whizzed through on some very busy, fast motorways until finally we started to near the Coast. The terrain flattened out, the traffic numbers diminished, wind farms re-emerged and we rolled into Bayeaux about 7.00.
Out hotel here is very smart and fresh here and we were glad to settle in and have a quick cuppa before heading into town for dinner. Bayeaux is of course home to the Bayeaux Tapestry telling the story of William the Conqueror’s invasion of England and his defeat of Harold king of England at Hastings in 1066; we’re going for a look tomorrow which I’m really looking forward to. Remember Dan and Andrea we went to Hastings and did the tour with the audio guide about the Battle of Hastings? Now I’m at the other end! Bayeux was fortunate to escape war damage and has a very beautiful old church which was originally consecrated in 1077. It was open tonight when we arrived in town and lit up so was very impressive.
Would you believe we’re lucky enough to have arrived here on the first of the two nights that Bayeux has its annual medieval Festival! The town was really rocking with heaps of folk dressed in medieval costumes, troubadours singing, dancing (even on stilts on the cobblestones!), juggling and making wild medieval music on wild medieval instruments (we heard some very wild recorder music Isabelle!). Stalls were selling everything from medieval goods such as herbs, spices, leather money pouches, jewellery, masks, swords and chainmail helmets, to party knick knacks like babies dummy which had flashing lights! There were endless entertainment acts and everyone in party mode. School holidays started here today so it seemed no problem that it was 10.30 and that everyone including children were trailing through the streets after the musicians.
What a wonderful night and we had a wonderful meal - medieval of course! With just one night here we wanted to try some of the local cuisine so had to start with a traditional Normandy cider and finish with an apple tart and a glass of their “apple brandy” Calvados! Missed out on their other specialty Camembert, but will track that down tomorrow.
Friday, July 2, 2010
July 2nd Friday St Pardoux today
Today has been a relaxed pack up day before we head North and into hotels for the last week of our trip. So it’s been a day to restore the cottage to its original state of cleanliness and tidiness, charge phones and cameras, do the washing, download photos, deal with emails, sort the mountain of brochures one accumulates and repack suitcases with gear for Paris on top.
Our last lunch cleared out the fridge and of course the boys had managed to acquire a few pastries and some wine when they were in the village disposing of the rubbish, so a siesta overcame some of the party. We’ll have dinner in town tonight and so no chance of messing up our good work here!
More once we're in Bayeaux I hope and looking forward to driving through your special part of France Alison!!
Our last lunch cleared out the fridge and of course the boys had managed to acquire a few pastries and some wine when they were in the village disposing of the rubbish, so a siesta overcame some of the party. We’ll have dinner in town tonight and so no chance of messing up our good work here!
More once we're in Bayeaux I hope and looking forward to driving through your special part of France Alison!!
July 1st Thursday, Hauteforte, St Ypriex la Perche and Jumilhac le Grande
Liz, thankyou so much for all the wonderful information you armed us with about day trips from St Pardoux la Riviere! We’re just blown away by what a gorgeous area the Dordogne is and it’s been so helpful having your notes. We studied them for places that appealed to all of us to visit and then combined as many as we could into manageable day trips covering more than one attraction if possible. We’re pretty pleased with how much of the territory we’ve managed to cover in the short time we’ve been here though there are many wonderful things we’ll just have to rely on you to tell us about!
Today we headed further away East to Chateaux Hautefort. Originally a medieval fortress (built on the site of an old Roman camp) it was transformed by the Marquis of Hautefort into an imposing stately home in the 17th Century. In the 19th Century an unbelievable formal French garden of topiared plants, plus an English stlye park was added around it. In 1929 it was in a bad way and purchased by Baron Henry de Bastard and his wife who painstakingly restored it, only to see it bun down. The Baroness (by then widowed) promptly took up the restoration process again and so we are lucky that it has been saved to enjoy today. A fascinating building with its huge rooms, fab furnishings, bakery and wood framed dome roof on the tower, and the symmetry and perfection of the gardens is awesome!
From Hautefort we drove to St Ypriex la Perche (pr, Y’yeee!!!). This is just out of the Dordogne area into Limousin, the area of France famous for producing porcelain (think Limoge!) . We visited the church which was unexpectedly impressive and then tracked down the four roomed shop on Liz’s list hat has porcelain goodies stacked from floor to ceiling everywhere! Some lovely stuff here and even some treasures of Limoge pottery at more reasonable prices. I’m not usually into forking out for luxuries but the work is exquisite so I’m now the proud owner of a small piece.
From here we drove to check out the fairytale Chateux of Jumilhac le Grand which has links to Richard the Lionheart. Well, if I thought I saw Sleeping Beauty’s castle hiding in the undergrowth yesterday I was mistaken because here it was today!!! Turrets and towers bristling everywhere and absolutely captivating. It looks as if it would be fabulous to tour through - beautifully furnished etc, but by this stage it was getting quite late and we were feeling a little chateauxed out, so we opted for being content with the view from outside.
The rolling terrain here offers so many lovely views and the range of greens from dark forest greens through sage green crops to vivid lime green grasses....... gorgeous. Meanwile, because the weather has been so hot and sunny the sky is perfectly clear and blue though in the evenings we've seen some spectacular towering cloud formations build up and Fred's taken some fab pikkies. Today we travelled past farmhouses with massed planting of daylilies lining the drives and past acres and acres of hay paddocks - heaps mown, some still standing and some already dotted with the big round unwrapped bales. With feedlots for the animals there are very few fences and very little grazing done, so the crops just connect without interruptions, although today was our big day to spot walnut groves everywhere!
Pasta and salad at home tonight was perfect. We've loved seeing the big fresh bunches of French radishes for sale everywhere and have enjoyed lots of them, but tonight had a taste test with a bunch of mixed colour radishes ...... phew! I'd looked in the travel book for cheeses of the region and discovered something resembling a cheddar which I found today in the little shop in town; Cantal Juene and very yummy it was with a cracker and Rose before dinner - grainier than a rubbery NZ cheddar and good flavour (and we noticed it was pasteurized!)
We've found everyone here in the Dordogne region very helpful even though we can only sensibly manage 1/2 a dozen useful French words. Most people selling tickets, entries or goods have enough basic English to ply their trade adequately as long as you don't try to get into conversation outside of the transaction (which is a real frustration to Fred who of course wants to engage with them). The women at the superette are great and always pleased to see us with enough to English to be able to say"exchange?" when I returned with the receipt and a roll of paper towels and took from the shefl a packet of toilet paper.....! The lady at La Poste was struggling a bit but finally twigged to Nouvelle Zelande, the boys at the internet cafe have enough English to manage as did the girl at the pizza shop, but the hairdresser where Fred went for a haircut had absolutely no English, so just as well her friend had popped in and could help out because she was sweet enough to stay late and do the job as we couldn't make another time work (not being a big job probably helped :-).
We've been absolutely amazed in both Italy and France how many Pharmacies there are! Even the timiest towns seem to have at least one. But a big difference we've noticed coming from Italy is the number of coiffure establishments here in France!!! There are three in St Pardoux la Riviere which only has two little streets of shops! The other thing we've noticed here in France is, of course, the pampered pet dogs. So many little (and some not so little) pooches and no worries about them being in cafes, on buses, trains or cruise boats....! Another difference between Italy and France is in the gelatos/glaces. If you're thinking of going big on icecream consumptions over here, do it in Italy where they're thick and creamy and so big it's amazing they stay perched on the cones! Here we've resorted to buying Magnums form the superette!Another suprise here is how difficult it is to identify the little towns you drive into. If you don't spot the tiny (sometime non-existant)wooden sign before the town, you probably won't know where you are till you drive past the sign saying you're leaving the town; at least you know you've been there (though GPS is a lifesaver for this).
Today we headed further away East to Chateaux Hautefort. Originally a medieval fortress (built on the site of an old Roman camp) it was transformed by the Marquis of Hautefort into an imposing stately home in the 17th Century. In the 19th Century an unbelievable formal French garden of topiared plants, plus an English stlye park was added around it. In 1929 it was in a bad way and purchased by Baron Henry de Bastard and his wife who painstakingly restored it, only to see it bun down. The Baroness (by then widowed) promptly took up the restoration process again and so we are lucky that it has been saved to enjoy today. A fascinating building with its huge rooms, fab furnishings, bakery and wood framed dome roof on the tower, and the symmetry and perfection of the gardens is awesome!
From Hautefort we drove to St Ypriex la Perche (pr, Y’yeee!!!). This is just out of the Dordogne area into Limousin, the area of France famous for producing porcelain (think Limoge!) . We visited the church which was unexpectedly impressive and then tracked down the four roomed shop on Liz’s list hat has porcelain goodies stacked from floor to ceiling everywhere! Some lovely stuff here and even some treasures of Limoge pottery at more reasonable prices. I’m not usually into forking out for luxuries but the work is exquisite so I’m now the proud owner of a small piece.
From here we drove to check out the fairytale Chateux of Jumilhac le Grand which has links to Richard the Lionheart. Well, if I thought I saw Sleeping Beauty’s castle hiding in the undergrowth yesterday I was mistaken because here it was today!!! Turrets and towers bristling everywhere and absolutely captivating. It looks as if it would be fabulous to tour through - beautifully furnished etc, but by this stage it was getting quite late and we were feeling a little chateauxed out, so we opted for being content with the view from outside.
The rolling terrain here offers so many lovely views and the range of greens from dark forest greens through sage green crops to vivid lime green grasses....... gorgeous. Meanwile, because the weather has been so hot and sunny the sky is perfectly clear and blue though in the evenings we've seen some spectacular towering cloud formations build up and Fred's taken some fab pikkies. Today we travelled past farmhouses with massed planting of daylilies lining the drives and past acres and acres of hay paddocks - heaps mown, some still standing and some already dotted with the big round unwrapped bales. With feedlots for the animals there are very few fences and very little grazing done, so the crops just connect without interruptions, although today was our big day to spot walnut groves everywhere!
Pasta and salad at home tonight was perfect. We've loved seeing the big fresh bunches of French radishes for sale everywhere and have enjoyed lots of them, but tonight had a taste test with a bunch of mixed colour radishes ...... phew! I'd looked in the travel book for cheeses of the region and discovered something resembling a cheddar which I found today in the little shop in town; Cantal Juene and very yummy it was with a cracker and Rose before dinner - grainier than a rubbery NZ cheddar and good flavour (and we noticed it was pasteurized!)
We've found everyone here in the Dordogne region very helpful even though we can only sensibly manage 1/2 a dozen useful French words. Most people selling tickets, entries or goods have enough basic English to ply their trade adequately as long as you don't try to get into conversation outside of the transaction (which is a real frustration to Fred who of course wants to engage with them). The women at the superette are great and always pleased to see us with enough to English to be able to say"exchange?" when I returned with the receipt and a roll of paper towels and took from the shefl a packet of toilet paper.....! The lady at La Poste was struggling a bit but finally twigged to Nouvelle Zelande, the boys at the internet cafe have enough English to manage as did the girl at the pizza shop, but the hairdresser where Fred went for a haircut had absolutely no English, so just as well her friend had popped in and could help out because she was sweet enough to stay late and do the job as we couldn't make another time work (not being a big job probably helped :-).
We've been absolutely amazed in both Italy and France how many Pharmacies there are! Even the timiest towns seem to have at least one. But a big difference we've noticed coming from Italy is the number of coiffure establishments here in France!!! There are three in St Pardoux la Riviere which only has two little streets of shops! The other thing we've noticed here in France is, of course, the pampered pet dogs. So many little (and some not so little) pooches and no worries about them being in cafes, on buses, trains or cruise boats....! Another difference between Italy and France is in the gelatos/glaces. If you're thinking of going big on icecream consumptions over here, do it in Italy where they're thick and creamy and so big it's amazing they stay perched on the cones! Here we've resorted to buying Magnums form the superette!Another suprise here is how difficult it is to identify the little towns you drive into. If you don't spot the tiny (sometime non-existant)wooden sign before the town, you probably won't know where you are till you drive past the sign saying you're leaving the town; at least you know you've been there (though GPS is a lifesaver for this).
Thursday, July 1, 2010
June 30 Wednesday Market, Thiviers, St Jean d Cole
To market, to market to buy a fat pig, duck or chook, replacement suspenders for your corset, wafer thin walnut macaroons, a scalloped edged mirror, any of an infinite variety of salamis, sausages and meat products, or cheeses, fruit and veg, or even a pendulum clock! You name it, I think you’re likely to find it at the bustling Piegut (pr. Peejoo)/Pluviers Wednesday morning market.
My suspenders have been holding up just fine so our shopping was more a taste opportunity for a variety of luscious dried and fresh fruits, veg and cheeses, with Diana scoring a real bargain with two pair of lovely sandals to replace her broken pair. I had some very interesting conversations with stall owners about cheeses and of course had the taste benefits expounded of making cheese from unpasteurized milk. Both the English and French samples I bought were of course unpasteursed as opposed to our NZ method.
Even a short 20 minute drive such as we took to Piegut is fascinating here. Travel (thanks to GPS Gretel) is on a variety of very narrow roads, often with absolutely no road markings and sometimes in very poor repair, through farmland with grazing and crops punctuated by oak forests and today pine and Douglas Fir plantations. There seems to be no sign of life in the countryside but tiny villages with stone houses and cobbled street occur every 10 to 20 minutes, and in between side roads and crossroads occur in the most unexpected places and chateaux and maisons pop up out of nowhere. Today I swear we passed Sleeping Beauty’s chateux and she must still be waiting for Prince Charming to wake her up; the whole property looked like it had just been halted in mid stride and was being gobbled up by trees and vines. We’ve also been fascinated that even the tiniest towns have very big well-tended cemeteries - I guess indicative of how long these villages have existed.
In the last few days we have seen some stock – though very few are ever visible. A few Friesian cows and another big rusty red breed and these had their big 3 or 4 month old calves still running with them. All the cows still have horns and tails and the sheep have their tails too! I guess all the others are indoors.......
Today as we drove we saw lots of ferns and big blackberry hedges covered with flowers which reminded me that on the Cinque Terre we’d seen huge blackberry hedges (just wild, not thornless) on waste areas, but also seemingly incorporated into people’s gardens. Today too, we saw several beautiful ponds and many with lovely pale and dark pink water lilies flowering. Maybe these were parts of large grounds belonging to hidden residences of maybe just ponds in the farmer’s paddocks, but very pretty.
In this area we’ve passed several huge log stacks piled up on the road verge – pine and maybe oak. At Port Nelson they’d be classed as shorts, but we think they’re probably made into pallets here and have seen a huge sawmill and pallet factory. OSH would be very busy sorting out these unsecured stacks in public places and also at some of the other weird things like loose handrails on battlements, terraces two metres high with no railings etc; but then, NZ does seem to have gone a bit far with some of this stuff. Briefly back to the tree growing; we’ve also seen many woodlots and the houses seem to have huge firewood stacks, so despite the fact our daily temperatures are ranging from 24 in the morning to 35+ later in the day, it looks like it gets a bit chilly here in the winter.
Home to pop the market goodies in the fridge and sample some of our cheese, veg and bread for lunch. I've loved sampling some of the local cheeses and yes Phil, we've had a fabulous big chunk of Roquefort we've been teaming up with some of the bold red wines! I also noticed another local blue called Fourme d'Ambert looking similar to the Roquefort so bought a piece and we did a comparison. I still prefer the Roquefort with its bite, but Fred preferred the slightly creamier more mellow Fourme d'Ambert. We've really enjoyed the sweet nutty (and very affordable) Emmenthal Francais for lunch and love the gooey bries. Today I had to turn down a huge chunk of brie which the excellent salesman at the market "couldn't cut smaller, will go dry" and would really have frightened the bank balance anyway. We compromised and he sold me a smaller peice of creamy, full of flavour St Nectaire which I'm thrilled to be munching on right now, with a very good local chardonnay as I finish my diary for the day while Bruce and Diana prepare to go out for a special dinner celebrating their meeting 35 years ago!!!! Well done eh!!!!
This afternoon we drove over to Thiviers. Apart from its claim (which couldn't win my enthusiaism) that it's the foie gras capital of the area and having a museum about the "craft", it offered us the railway station where we could book our tickets for Caen to Paris 4th July, plus a culinary shop where we could buy a very cool nutcracker (you'll know the sort Liz, just like yours - and we have to confess Fred has raided a few of your yummy walnuts..... thankyou.... great with the sultanas we bought at the market!!!)
Our second afternoon/evening stop was St Jean de Cole, rated as one of France's most beautiful villages. Yes; beautifully peaceful, with the uniquely paved humpbacked bridge - wide enough for an army of galloping knights (though I hope the poor horses were well shod). But there is a lot of work to be done here (which has been started in the Church dating from 1086) to reroof and make safe and habitable the dwellings in the village.
My suspenders have been holding up just fine so our shopping was more a taste opportunity for a variety of luscious dried and fresh fruits, veg and cheeses, with Diana scoring a real bargain with two pair of lovely sandals to replace her broken pair. I had some very interesting conversations with stall owners about cheeses and of course had the taste benefits expounded of making cheese from unpasteurized milk. Both the English and French samples I bought were of course unpasteursed as opposed to our NZ method.
Even a short 20 minute drive such as we took to Piegut is fascinating here. Travel (thanks to GPS Gretel) is on a variety of very narrow roads, often with absolutely no road markings and sometimes in very poor repair, through farmland with grazing and crops punctuated by oak forests and today pine and Douglas Fir plantations. There seems to be no sign of life in the countryside but tiny villages with stone houses and cobbled street occur every 10 to 20 minutes, and in between side roads and crossroads occur in the most unexpected places and chateaux and maisons pop up out of nowhere. Today I swear we passed Sleeping Beauty’s chateux and she must still be waiting for Prince Charming to wake her up; the whole property looked like it had just been halted in mid stride and was being gobbled up by trees and vines. We’ve also been fascinated that even the tiniest towns have very big well-tended cemeteries - I guess indicative of how long these villages have existed.
In the last few days we have seen some stock – though very few are ever visible. A few Friesian cows and another big rusty red breed and these had their big 3 or 4 month old calves still running with them. All the cows still have horns and tails and the sheep have their tails too! I guess all the others are indoors.......
Today as we drove we saw lots of ferns and big blackberry hedges covered with flowers which reminded me that on the Cinque Terre we’d seen huge blackberry hedges (just wild, not thornless) on waste areas, but also seemingly incorporated into people’s gardens. Today too, we saw several beautiful ponds and many with lovely pale and dark pink water lilies flowering. Maybe these were parts of large grounds belonging to hidden residences of maybe just ponds in the farmer’s paddocks, but very pretty.
In this area we’ve passed several huge log stacks piled up on the road verge – pine and maybe oak. At Port Nelson they’d be classed as shorts, but we think they’re probably made into pallets here and have seen a huge sawmill and pallet factory. OSH would be very busy sorting out these unsecured stacks in public places and also at some of the other weird things like loose handrails on battlements, terraces two metres high with no railings etc; but then, NZ does seem to have gone a bit far with some of this stuff. Briefly back to the tree growing; we’ve also seen many woodlots and the houses seem to have huge firewood stacks, so despite the fact our daily temperatures are ranging from 24 in the morning to 35+ later in the day, it looks like it gets a bit chilly here in the winter.
Home to pop the market goodies in the fridge and sample some of our cheese, veg and bread for lunch. I've loved sampling some of the local cheeses and yes Phil, we've had a fabulous big chunk of Roquefort we've been teaming up with some of the bold red wines! I also noticed another local blue called Fourme d'Ambert looking similar to the Roquefort so bought a piece and we did a comparison. I still prefer the Roquefort with its bite, but Fred preferred the slightly creamier more mellow Fourme d'Ambert. We've really enjoyed the sweet nutty (and very affordable) Emmenthal Francais for lunch and love the gooey bries. Today I had to turn down a huge chunk of brie which the excellent salesman at the market "couldn't cut smaller, will go dry" and would really have frightened the bank balance anyway. We compromised and he sold me a smaller peice of creamy, full of flavour St Nectaire which I'm thrilled to be munching on right now, with a very good local chardonnay as I finish my diary for the day while Bruce and Diana prepare to go out for a special dinner celebrating their meeting 35 years ago!!!! Well done eh!!!!
This afternoon we drove over to Thiviers. Apart from its claim (which couldn't win my enthusiaism) that it's the foie gras capital of the area and having a museum about the "craft", it offered us the railway station where we could book our tickets for Caen to Paris 4th July, plus a culinary shop where we could buy a very cool nutcracker (you'll know the sort Liz, just like yours - and we have to confess Fred has raided a few of your yummy walnuts..... thankyou.... great with the sultanas we bought at the market!!!)
Our second afternoon/evening stop was St Jean de Cole, rated as one of France's most beautiful villages. Yes; beautifully peaceful, with the uniquely paved humpbacked bridge - wide enough for an army of galloping knights (though I hope the poor horses were well shod). But there is a lot of work to be done here (which has been started in the Church dating from 1086) to reroof and make safe and habitable the dwellings in the village.
June 29 Tuesday Brantome, Bourdeilles
Regrouping again today with a big effort to update my diary and post blogs. There’s an interesting little café in town specialising in tea tastings and offering Wifi, so we all sorted our internet stuff, plus stocked up on supplies, checked out the fabulous new boucherie in town and got Fred a coiffure from the darling French speaking hairdresser who was about to head home but stayed on to tidy him up perfectly. He has never been into a hairdressers in his life and only been to the barber twice in 40 years, wonder why, but he was very pleased with his 10 euro touch up.
Late afternoon saw us on the road to check out the very beautiful village of Brantome which sits on an island with the river Dronne flowing around it. What a feast for the eyes! For me this is the most gorgeous place we've seen in this area but I'm embarrassed to say that in the travel books this is slightly derisively known as long being popular with middle aged Brits!!!! Aaaaaagh!
Above the narrow river banks are limestone cliffs with the remnants of troglodyte dwellings easily visible and nearer the river a medieval abbey and belfry which apparently is the oldest still standing in France. They had such bad luck with the super heavy bell ( 5 ton ) falling down out of the belfry, that eventually they decided to attach it to the rock face ( tolled at 6.00pm for us) which leaves the empty belfry there just for show!
Crossing the bridge to the island offers enchanting views of the river and park beyond, with weirs, a waterwheel and a very beautiful and expensive guest house on the water’s edge (anyone need a very romantic place to stay?) The village too is absolutely delightful and a highlight for us was the little shop selling authentic tapestries and the owner here who talked with such enthusiasm, knowledge( all in French) to the boys about his spectacular collection of Military caps and helmets over a century from every country in Europe and sadly Oz( no RNZAF, RNZN or RNZA) displayed in the shop. The tapestries were amazing too, we didn't purchase as the 48.50 euro cushions wouldn't fit in our suitcases.
Further in this direction is the delightful village of Bourdeilles, once again sited beside the Dronne River. We were too late to visit the Chateaux, but we did walk around the old fortifications (which apparently has walls two metres thick!!! - hows that for insulation and protection! - great that you're doing new gib and batts Link and Mel :-)! We headed across the pretty bridge for a picture postcard view of the boat shaped mill house with river flowing round it (I wonder if rats are, or were ever, a problem in these places – we did have a few discussions about the Pied Piper, though that was Germany….) A walk up through the town past the stone shops and houses lead to cafes and finally a beautiful old church with a large parklike garden area behind where a big development is underway as part of a major tourist upgrade for the village. It was fascinating to study the billboard explaining the plans and to see the painstaking extension of pedestrian areas with paving and tourist facilities to enable better access, functionality and appeal. I’m sure their plans, efforts and investment will pay off and with some good marketing soon Bourdeilles will be thronging with tourists like other well established villages such as Sarlat. Probably we were lucky to enjoy its beauty while it’s still comparatively serene and sleepy.
Home by 9.00 to whip up a quick dinner, sample yet another red and white wine, eat our Magnums and make plans for tomorrow.
PS. Before I finish tonight I just want to add a few things I think I’ve forgotten on the way through.
E.g. the melt in the mouth cheese filled crepe I had in Avignon. The hot plate the woman cooked on was about ½ a metre in diameter and just a ladle full of ultra-thin mixture was gently raked out to cover this. With nothing but a long metal spatula she eased the edges and when cooked firm enough gently she freed the bottom of the crepe, folding it till she could expertly turn it and open it out again to brown the other side. A good handful of grated mozzarella in the middle with a generous grind of black pepper, then she folded it into a square with the hot melted filling safely enclosed and it was mine!
Fred has observed that in all our train journeys; Italy, France and Spain, we’ve only seen one small flock of about 200 sheep and not fenced in a paddock, but under the care of a shepherd!
He’s also noticed that all the fields are used to grow produce and fodder rather than rear stock because all the animals are in feedlots. This way of farming animals plus other gruesome practices such as the feeding practices to produce foie gras could almost turn the heartiest carnivore vegetarian!
I know I mentioned that mushrooms are a big cuisine item in Spain (and here in France too and I can see why after the heat and the rain we experienced yesterday!) But did I say that apparently in Spain there are about six dozen different types of edible mushrooms?!
Also, I think I’ve omitted to mention the soya beans and chestnuts they grow here in the Dordogne region.
Maybe I mentioned seeing great vege gardens in Italy but they have them in France too! Fabulous big, immaculate, perfectly laid out plots with obviously enough to provide all the requirements for the family. We're loving travelling through these regions at this time of the year as all the gardens are brimming with veges, the orchards are laden with fruit and all the crops are at, or very near harvest. To follow on from that though, the growing season here must be considerably longer than at home because we constantly see a big range of ages and stages of sunflower and maize crops which we couldn't manage in NZ.
Not once have I mentioned temperatures! Days in Italy 32+ Spain hotter and St Pardoux up to 37!
More news tomorrow I hope!
Late afternoon saw us on the road to check out the very beautiful village of Brantome which sits on an island with the river Dronne flowing around it. What a feast for the eyes! For me this is the most gorgeous place we've seen in this area but I'm embarrassed to say that in the travel books this is slightly derisively known as long being popular with middle aged Brits!!!! Aaaaaagh!
Above the narrow river banks are limestone cliffs with the remnants of troglodyte dwellings easily visible and nearer the river a medieval abbey and belfry which apparently is the oldest still standing in France. They had such bad luck with the super heavy bell ( 5 ton ) falling down out of the belfry, that eventually they decided to attach it to the rock face ( tolled at 6.00pm for us) which leaves the empty belfry there just for show!
Crossing the bridge to the island offers enchanting views of the river and park beyond, with weirs, a waterwheel and a very beautiful and expensive guest house on the water’s edge (anyone need a very romantic place to stay?) The village too is absolutely delightful and a highlight for us was the little shop selling authentic tapestries and the owner here who talked with such enthusiasm, knowledge( all in French) to the boys about his spectacular collection of Military caps and helmets over a century from every country in Europe and sadly Oz( no RNZAF, RNZN or RNZA) displayed in the shop. The tapestries were amazing too, we didn't purchase as the 48.50 euro cushions wouldn't fit in our suitcases.
Further in this direction is the delightful village of Bourdeilles, once again sited beside the Dronne River. We were too late to visit the Chateaux, but we did walk around the old fortifications (which apparently has walls two metres thick!!! - hows that for insulation and protection! - great that you're doing new gib and batts Link and Mel :-)! We headed across the pretty bridge for a picture postcard view of the boat shaped mill house with river flowing round it (I wonder if rats are, or were ever, a problem in these places – we did have a few discussions about the Pied Piper, though that was Germany….) A walk up through the town past the stone shops and houses lead to cafes and finally a beautiful old church with a large parklike garden area behind where a big development is underway as part of a major tourist upgrade for the village. It was fascinating to study the billboard explaining the plans and to see the painstaking extension of pedestrian areas with paving and tourist facilities to enable better access, functionality and appeal. I’m sure their plans, efforts and investment will pay off and with some good marketing soon Bourdeilles will be thronging with tourists like other well established villages such as Sarlat. Probably we were lucky to enjoy its beauty while it’s still comparatively serene and sleepy.
Home by 9.00 to whip up a quick dinner, sample yet another red and white wine, eat our Magnums and make plans for tomorrow.
PS. Before I finish tonight I just want to add a few things I think I’ve forgotten on the way through.
E.g. the melt in the mouth cheese filled crepe I had in Avignon. The hot plate the woman cooked on was about ½ a metre in diameter and just a ladle full of ultra-thin mixture was gently raked out to cover this. With nothing but a long metal spatula she eased the edges and when cooked firm enough gently she freed the bottom of the crepe, folding it till she could expertly turn it and open it out again to brown the other side. A good handful of grated mozzarella in the middle with a generous grind of black pepper, then she folded it into a square with the hot melted filling safely enclosed and it was mine!
Fred has observed that in all our train journeys; Italy, France and Spain, we’ve only seen one small flock of about 200 sheep and not fenced in a paddock, but under the care of a shepherd!
He’s also noticed that all the fields are used to grow produce and fodder rather than rear stock because all the animals are in feedlots. This way of farming animals plus other gruesome practices such as the feeding practices to produce foie gras could almost turn the heartiest carnivore vegetarian!
I know I mentioned that mushrooms are a big cuisine item in Spain (and here in France too and I can see why after the heat and the rain we experienced yesterday!) But did I say that apparently in Spain there are about six dozen different types of edible mushrooms?!
Also, I think I’ve omitted to mention the soya beans and chestnuts they grow here in the Dordogne region.
Maybe I mentioned seeing great vege gardens in Italy but they have them in France too! Fabulous big, immaculate, perfectly laid out plots with obviously enough to provide all the requirements for the family. We're loving travelling through these regions at this time of the year as all the gardens are brimming with veges, the orchards are laden with fruit and all the crops are at, or very near harvest. To follow on from that though, the growing season here must be considerably longer than at home because we constantly see a big range of ages and stages of sunflower and maize crops which we couldn't manage in NZ.
Not once have I mentioned temperatures! Days in Italy 32+ Spain hotter and St Pardoux up to 37!
More news tomorrow I hope!
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