France - May/June 2008

Photos

Friday 30 Mai: It was very exciting to be in Paris! It was a beautiful Friday evening when I arrived, Yannick met me at Paris CDG, and we had just enough time to get to first night of the Paris Ukelele Festival. The sights and streetscapes had me captivated on the way into town as Yannick skillfully negotiated the bus lanes and pedestrians. We found Le Divan du Monde and enjoyed some interesting acts - I thought the first night wasn't really as 'traditional ukulele' as I am used to; a bit folky or trancy or new-agey instead. Afterwards Yannick and I met up with some of Yannick's buddies and we had a lot of pastis. My French improved markedly - alas it dropped off for the rest of my time in France!

Saturday: I set off to explore the city. I started at Châtelet Les Halles and wandered down towards the Hôtel de Ville (passing an Australian theme pub, which unfortunately wasn't showing any AFL - rugby instead). I was excited by the prospect of free city internet but I could never really get it to work on my mobile phone. Still, I found that my mobile had phone and internet coverage pretty much everywhere I went on the whole holiday, albeit at international roaming rates.

I found the Seine and watched a couple of jazz bands tag-teaming on the Pont St Louis, and saw evidence of a movie shoot on the north corner of Ile St Louis. Yannick had recommended that I do a boat cruise to get my bearings; I should have taken his advice - the bus tour I took instead was a test of endurance - one that I failed! Leaving the annoying fellow passengers and crappy sound system behind at the Seine I continued to explore on foot, but was further annoyed by touts and would-be con-men. I saw a bunch of the sights (there are constant military references, monuments etc - then again, there are heaps of churches and even lots of monuments to science) but was still a bit grumpy with the seedier side of the big city; but nothing that another evening of fine ukulele playing couldn't fix!

Yannick had been won over by the first night's performances and came back for a second helping and also brought along a friend of his, the delightful Anne-Kristine. This show was much more to my tastes - some delightfully whacky uses of the ukulele, and it was great to meet some of the performers. During interval and after the show, the 3 of us went around the corner to a small bar which had a fantastic little jazz band.

Sunday: The three of us went on the long drive to the Loire Valley and Château Chambord which was a spectacular castle of manageable dimensions and stunning turrets. I think I need to have more turrets at my house. We had a great afternoon exploring the buildings and the grounds and some of the buildings in the attached township. Afterwards we visited Yannick's Aunt Annick in Orleans and some of her friends and family; one of the things I really wanted to do while travelling was to visit local people and just see what life is like, and since I had found the touristy bits of Paris not altogether pleasant, it was fantastic to visit people's homes. On this occasion, the language was a significant challenge - I could sometimes keep up with threads of conversation but it was hard work and it was always humbling to try to join in with my own dubious attempts at French.

Monday: More sightseeing in Paris, starting at the Arc de triomphe, bypassing the Fashion Museum, and then on to the Tour Eiffel. There was a queue for nearly an hour, but it kept moving and there was the entertainment of the souvenir hawkers being chased by the Gendarmes. The grey skies stayed clear enough to be able to get a decent view from the top deck; as I was waiting for the lift back down my camera slipped and the screen cracked on the flooring - it lasted a couple of weeks before the screen went completely; it still takes OK pictures but you have to guess how you're framing the shot. I was very impressed by the engineering and historic aspects of the building and spent a bit of time on the plazas on levels 2 and 1, and decended from Level 2 by the stairs.

I then went to the Jardin des Plantes (Botanic Gardens), saw some wallabies and a Wollemi Pine, walked along a timeline of Earth's history and explored a geologic map of France. It was a great respite from the crowds of tourists.

In the evening Yannick took me out for crêpes at Ti Jos Pub Breton (we put the car in an amazing under-road multilevel car park which deserves a mention). Afterwards we headed downstairs where there is a regular Monday Breton Celtic jam session - the music was infectious and totally indecipherable, the singer's voice was terrific and there was even some Celtic dancing.

Tuesday: Château de Versailles. This time the entertainment in the queue was provided by my fellow queuees who were Americans that I think were on a package tour, and who were delighting in telling each other how successful their children were. The gardens were astonishing, the statues were wonderful, the Château itself very grand, and packed with tourists. I also managed to get to the Grand Trianon and (briefly) the Petit Trianon.

We had a quiet night in - it was great to have a short break and to catch up on some emails - it was taking twice as long as normal to type with the French keyboard. Yannick was a great host - his apartment was very comfortable and he found lots of things to keep me entertained, along with steering me through French everyday life.

Wednesday: I visited the Place de la Bastille, and tried to rent a city bicycle from the bicycle parking machine, but like many places in France my credit card was rejected - it doesn't have a chip - I was starting to get a credit inferiority complex. I took up Yannick's recommendation to go to the Catacombes de Paris; it was a strange feeling to be surrounded by so much evidence of death, but the place was somehow not overly morbid. I walked past the nearby Paris Observatory but it isn't generally open to the public, so to get my science fix I headed across town to the Parc de la Villette. Incidently I managed to get the hang of the Metro somewhat but it wasn't quite as convenient as the Tube in London, and I was collecting a pocketful of dinky annoying little tickets.

I had a look through the Cite de la Musique, and while it was nice to see all the old classical instruments, unlike in the London Music Museum they were sterile and laying unplayed behind glass. Luckily there was a music teacher who was demonstrating a couple of medieval instruments to some 6- or 7-year-olds and I could listen in a bit to her explanations and playing. Like Versailles, the Parc de la Villette was too large to get my head around in one hit - for one, there are walkways and things which look like they are leading somewhere important but on further investigation, don't. I had a little bit of time to see the Cite des Sciences, worth a look and I quite enjoyed their display on le Grand Recit de l'Univers.

I headed back to home base - Yannick's apartment in Champs-sur-Marne (half an hour or so by RER from the centre of Paris), very close to the village Château. It was the evening of the local festival with a medieval theme; a period choir, an amazing troupe of acrobats and jugglers, and Les Fatals Picards - their humour escaped me (language issues) but they seemed quite popular.

Thursday: I hit the city for my last day of sightseeing and attempts to buy tickets and lunch without the shop assistants reverting to English for my benefit; although, I found I used a trick of employing two distinct accents - either I attempted to sound genuinely French, which sometimes actually worked, or, I put on a deliberate English accent in order to say 'I'm trying to speak French but please go easy on me and it's OK to talk English back' used often at tourist attractions. For everyday conversation I was so grateful (and lazy) that most people I chatted to were comfortable in English. I noticed that French sounded much more staccato than I expected. Anyway - I went through the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris and was intrigued by Roman ruins in the Crypte, saw some demonstration tennis at the Hôtel de Ville (promoting the French Open), the Centre Pompidou, and the Musee du Louvre. Wandering amongst the great masters I heard a voice saying "Carn the Pies!" and realised one of the other tourists was wearing a Collingwood shirt - and I was wearing my Hawthorn one.

I got to drive on the Autoroute! Yannick let me drive (130km/h speed limit) part of the way to Lyon, my first experience driving on the right. We drove past Montmorency rest area (reference to the suburb I grew up in, in Melbourne) and got in around 11:30pm.

Lyon

For a city named after lions, Lyon has a lot of statues of bears.

Friday: We were staying at Yannick's parents' house, a comfortable apartment, almost a museum in fact with some cool antique furniture and prints of medieval Lyon. We visited some of their relatives who were moving to a brand new apartment building and I got to hook up the stereo system- I think there were some dodgy cables though. Yannick, his father and I went to lunch (same credit card issues) in Fouvière, then Yannick showed me some of the sights of his hometown - the amazing Roman aqueducts, ampitheatres and bath house, the old town and particularly the Traboules which are networks of alleyways, often going through buildings, used historically to transport silk products. One of the first steps was Basilica Notre Dame de Fouviere which has fantastic views over the city; we were accosted by a group of secondary students who were fascinated to discover an Australian in their midst, and took great delight in grilling me on all sorts of topics - I think I might have become briefly engaged to one of the more forward girls at one point! Yannick & I had a drink in a very atmospheric pub in Croix-Russe (mountain), explored a comic shop - another good language exercise - and saw the landmarks of the centre of town before taking the cable car back up to Fouvière.

In the evening we joined some of Yannick's friends celebrating the opening night of a bar owned by friends of theirs and went back to the friends' apartment afterwards. We had some amazing pear liqueur, the remarkable aspect being a fully grown pear inside the bottle with a typical narrow neck. They explained that the bottle is affixed to the twigs of a pear tree with the buds inside and so when the pear grows, it's inside the bottle. Very impressive!

Saturday: Anne-Kristine joined us having taken the TGV down from Paris (we had seen a few on the drive down - amazing to be hooning along at 130km/h and have a TGV zip past and be out of sight in a few seconds). Yannick and I reprised some of the previous day's sightseeing around Fouvière and Vieux Lyon; we saw the chiming of the historic clock inside Cathédrale Saint-Jean, had lunch at L'Amphitryon, and voraciously explored the Traboules.

Afterwards we drove to nearby Perouges and explored this delightful medieval city; the weather was still quite miserable but we found a cozy café for hot chocolates and pancakes; we also had fun watching the local glassblower. Back to Lyon and the shopping districts and another comic shop, then for dinner Yannick had booked us into a Spanish restaurant with the promise of some flamenco music and dancing - this didn't eventuate but the night was still memorable for the awkwardness of the seating arrangements (our table was an old bench from a farm workshop, and had deep draws under the tabletop, squashing the knees a bit; also it was long and wide - we were one of three groups of diners were sharing the same table, and it was an effort to chat way across to Yannick and Anne-Kristine sitting opposite) and the toilet being partially disassembled when I went to use it! We had a fixed menu of 9 mini seafood platters and then 9 mini 'land' platters; I can now say I've tried sea-snails (with the first one I didn't realise you were meant to remove their 'foot' which was sort of like another bit of shell; rather crunchy). What could have been a disasterous night was rescued by the maître d' who, while looking like a rather fearsome rugby player, and spending time on the phone having heated words with the restaurant owner (we think), managed to be particularly charming in a whole bunch of languages.

Sunday: - We drove to Beaune and after a picnic lunch (the sun was finally out!) we explored L'Hôtel-Dieu which was very cool, and I empathise with the sentiment behind the "Seule Etoile" emblem everywhere. One thing I hadn't seen before was a remote-controlled magnifying glass allowing a curator to highlight aspects of one of the masterpieces; however it was as hard as ever to see if you were just slightly out of line. Wine enjoyed a wine tasting at La P'tite Cave (I think my French was better than the salesgirl's English but she still convinced us to buy). I was very pleased with myself for spotting a French pun in the name of one of the shops - it was a wine shop whose address was 21, and it's name was "Vin et un".

Next time: Via Ferrata, Tour de France, WWI ANZAC sites, Cooking Course?

Monday: Yannick had an early start (thanks again!) to drop me at Noisy-Champs station, and I took the RER to Paris Orly. My flight to Oslo had a bad start, being an hour late, and a couple of the passengers kicked up a fuss when one of their seats was not there. Getting into Oslo Gardermoen Airport I discovered that my flight to Tromsø was also an hour late, but if I had to choose somewhere to kill half an afternoon, it wasn't such a bad place.

Next: Tromsø