LittlePig14

Photos: France

littlepig14 — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 03:04:00 GMT

Reims and Champagne

littlepig14 — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 02:02:00 GMT

Our hire car has GPS. We've christened her Gladys. After a few false starts around the Somme we finally decided to put our fate firmly in Gladys' hands and let her guide us from Amiens to Reims and to the front door of our apartment. This was achieved without any mis-steps! The apartment is in a beautiful old building on a street that leads directly to the cathedral where once the monarchs of France were crowned. It's been a stiflingly hot day and we've only managed to limp to the supermarket and back before collapsing on the sofa and listening to the storm now breaking overhead.

On Tuesday Michael was keen to drive over to Epernay, taking in a section of one of the three champagne routes on the way. We passed through a number of pretty little "ville fleurie", among them Verzy and Verzelay. We also stopped at a wood on the Mont de Reims where "mutant" beech trees grow. They are shorter than normal beech trees and there branches form a canopy close to the ground like an open umbrella drying on the floor.

We arrived in Epernay and had lunch before wandering along the Avenue de la Champagne and gazing at all the famous champagne houses. We booked a tour with Moët and Chandon which was very interesting and informative. These statistics were much more appetising: 28 kilometres of wine cellars, millions of wine bottles and years of ageing. Happily the tour ended with a tasting which we really appreciated after learning what a long and manually labour intensive process it all involved.

Amiens and the Somme

littlepig14 — Mon, 9 Jun 2014 05:45:00 GMT

The train trip to Amiens was very straight forward and thankfully our hotel was in easy walking distance of the station. Once we'd checked in and deposited our bags we headed out to explore the city centre. The cathedral was huge and incredibly has survived both wars intact. We climbed the towers and enjoyed great views of the city and countryside around.

After consulting the guide books we realised that we had to go to Villers Bretonneux on Saturday if we were going to get access to the museum. So there was a bit of an early start to have breakfast and make our way back to the station for the 9am train. It was quite by chance that we decided to double check the opening hours of the museum before heading out to the main Australian memorial. When we got to the museum there was already quite a crowd and an Aussie couple came up to us to explain that Tony Abbott was due to arrive any minute although he was running late. Breakfast was prepared in the playground of the Victorian School and everyone was invited. Unfortunately the heavens opened and everything got soaked before the Prime Minister arrived. When he did, I barged my way to the front of the media pack and shouted "Tony, we're from Mosman!" He said "I'm sorry you had to come so far to meet your local member." Clearly he was in France for the D-Day commemorations so I asked him what his lasting impressions were of the previous day. He gave an expansive answer stating among other points the fact that the ceremony at Bayeux cathedral had been very moving. I then asked if he thought the spirit of D-Day would survive and he declared that it must, for all our sakes. Incredibly my interview does not appear to have been televised or reported in the French or Australian media! It was really interesting to see Peta Credlin and all the security dudes, as well as journalists from channel 7 and SBS milling around. It's quite a circus. I got talking to one of the pack and she said she had to be really careful to listen out for when the decision was made to move on because it was really easy to get left behind. Apparently she nearly got stranded on a trip to Beijing.

Anyway after all that excitement we walked out to the Australian memorial outside the town and enjoyed the views of the surrounding countryside. The peaceful scene that greeted us was obviously a far cry from the nightmare of the battlefields nearly 100 years ago.

With the benefit of a hire car on Sunday we were able to visit other significant WW1 sites such as Thiepval and Pozieres. The scale of the human tragedy that took place here is unfathomable and certainly beyond my powers of description. This weekend it was clear that Picardy was being subjected to another invasion but this time of relatives, school children and other tourists making their way from the D-Day beaches to take in the arena of battles from the "Great" war. We saw memorials to the British, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Canadians and Irish. I couldn't help wondering where all the dead German soldiers were who were presumably no less loved or mourned by their families.

Paris

littlepig14 — Mon, 9 Jun 2014 02:36:00 GMT

We landed in Paris at about 9.15am on Tuesday 3 June. As a whole the flight was less painful than we had feared. Probably thanks to a combination of exit row seats, a couple of Valium tablets and some very generous measures of Jamiesons we both managed about 8 or 9 hours sleep between Sydney and Dubai. Access to nice showers in the Qantas Club lounge at Dubai also helped with the general feeling of relative comfort. We arrived at our hotel on the Isle St Louis just behind Notre Dame around 11am but although we had immediate access to our room we were both surprised at how well we felt and so decided to push on through. After a delicious lunch in a square outside the Palais de Justice, we spent the afternoon wandering around the Latin Quarter, taking in the Sorbonne and the Pantheon (currently under wraps) and countless other beautiful old buildings and squares. There were a few coffee stops to keep us going and we continued on to the Jardins des Plantes before finally returning to the hotel by walking along the quays of the Seine.

Our hotel was really well situated right in the heart of the old city within easy walking distance of the Marais district, Place des Vosges, the Louvre, Place de la Concorde, Musee d'Orsay and of course Notre Dame as well as the Latin Quarter.

Unfortunately the weather was against us on Wednesday when we visited Versailles. It obviously didn't stop us enjoying the interiors (and we had an excellent guided tour of some of the rooms and the Opera house) but it's fair to say we wouldn't have seen the gardens at their best. Even so we walked several kilometres around the two "Trianons" and parts of the canals and other ornamental gardens. All the time we kept congratulating ourselves that we hadn't chosen to go to the tennis that day and secretly hoped that the men's quarter finals might be rain delayed and spill over to Thursday for when we had tickets. That wasn't to be and I was happy to see both Nadal and Murray get through when they finally got to play their respective matches late in the evening. It is incredibly light even at 9.30pm which still takes us by surprise.

There were perfect weather conditions on Thursday and we enjoyed a stroll along the Seine and through the Tuilleries gardens before heading out to Roland Garros. We had pretty good seats and although it was sunny it wasn't too hot and there was a gentle breeze. Just as well because there is no shade or canopy to the stadium. There was a great atmosphere and we enjoyed the match between Sharapova and Bouchard except for the result! The Halep Petkovic match held less interest and we were happy it concluded in two sets. It was a long day by the time we got back to the hotel. We were tired but couldn't have wished for a better day.

The sun shone again on our last morning. It had become our daily routine to go to a little cafe at the end of our street with lovely views of the back of Notre Dame. One of the waiters was a real showman and always served our breakfast with great flourish, sweeping his hands across the table and clicking his fingers as if he was performing a magic trick. I think they thought we were real gluttons because each morning we had the breakfast "coup de coeur" with a boiled egg, toast, jams and croissants! We just knew we would be on our feet all day and needed plenty of fuel in the tank. So after our last breakfast we just had time for one last lap around the isle before getting the train to Gare du Nord and heading off to Amiens.

The Gare du Nord was really spruced up and sparkling in the sunshine. Then I read in the paper that the Queen had arrived there the day before on the Eurostar from London. She was in France to take part in the D-Day commemorations but we had missed her at the Arc de Triomphe while we were at the tennis and on the following day she would be at the flower market in front of Notre Dame just metres from where we had been staying! Ah well, tant pis as they say here.