Paris - Pere Lachaise

Tuesday 30 December

Good news – our neighbours have managed to get our power pole replaced, however there still seems to be some problem getting Energex to re-connect the lines to the house. We just keep hoping that the power will get switched on again soon.

Altogether today was frustrating and disappointing. Although drizzly (and still freezing cold – apparently a gulfstream from Russia is sweeping across Europe & causing freezing temperatures), we head back towards the Louvre to get tickets for a concert we saw advertised. No queue’s outside the louvre, and as it is getting quite damp we decide to head in for a visit. Unfortunately, it’s Tuesday – the louvre is closed on Tuesday’s.

Next change of plans is to catch the Metro out to the Pere Lachaise cemetery – home to Jim Morrison, Yves Montand, Oscar Wilde, Abelard & Heloise among others. We have a steep learning curve with the Metro as we need to change lines 3 times. Finally we get there and head back into daylight. It is now raining more heavily, very cold & quite miserable. The cemetery is closed. No signs informing why it is closed, but a lot of tourists are milling about each of the entrances all looking confused. Nearby businesses don’t understand “the cemetery should be open”. Eventually we find a sign posted on one of the gates “cemetery closed due to inclement weather”. Another change of plans: we head back to the Metro, change lines twice & head to the Museum of Music.

By now it is sleeting and very cold & wet. A HUGE queue is snaking all through the lobby of the museum. Information informs us that the queue is for a temporary exhibition in the museum as the permanent display & rest of the museum is closed until March. Current waiting time to get to the temporary exhibition is one a half to two hours. Everyone is now tired, and quite disenchanted. We decide to head back towards home, try and get our concert tickets & some food for dinner. Walking back to the Metro on slippery icy ground it starts to snow – the world looks magical again. Another 2 changes of trains and we are back, wandering around in the snow & wet before deciding to head back to the Museum of Modern Art to have another quick look. A large gathering of people outside – it’s Tuesday – the gallery is closed (apparently) on Tuesday. We head back to purchase our concert tickets, some pasta for dinner & retire to watch the weather from the warmth of our stunning bit of Paris. Tomorrow we will hopefully be able to get in to see something!

Paris - Modern Art and Opera

Monday 29 December

Morning dawns in Paris. Bron & Steve have had a pretty sleepless night due to a message from our Willow Vale neighbours advising us that our power pole blew down in the huge winds. Electricity has now been cut – “could they do anything?”. Steve talks to them & asks if they could find out how we go about getting a new power pole & electricity re-connected (a daunting thought from France in the wee hours of the morning). We both somehow manage the odd hour sleep, but interspersed with thoughts of fridge/freezer, pool, Christmas/new year period etc.

We set out on our first “real” day in Paris, walking through the Place Vendome to see The Ritz, Chanel, etc. to the Tuillieries. Despite being very cold, the walk is delightful - any walk in Paris on a sunny day is delightful - although the ducks and birds in the Tuilleries appear to be a little peeved that the water in the fountains is frozen and have to stand rather than wade! Onto the Louvre – huge queues are wrapped around the square. Security directs us to another entrance which also has a huge queue – once again we hit the “France vacation period”.

We decide to forgo the Louvre until after new year when the crowds should die down a bit & head down to the Museum of Modern Art at the Georges Pompediou Centre. Queues here are a lot less (we ultimately discover that we had accidentally hit the lunch time hiatus period...) and we head into this maze of a building. It looks fabulous but really is a bit of challenge to work out what’s where. There are some amazing pieces, but after 4 floors of art, we decide we are “art-ed out” and too exhausted to really absorb any more – a shame as the final floor had some really fabulous exhibits (around 20 rooms).

Heading out we see a huge queue snaking out of the entrance – everyone had finished lunch & headed down here. As we are going to the ballet tonight at the Paris Opera we have a late lunch/early dinner at a cosy, cramped local bistro before heading home to rest & get changed.

The Paris Opera is an amazing building – hard to believe that there are so many shade of gold, or that you could actually embellish walls and ceilings to that extent. Each room is more and more mind-boggling - few (if any other!) opera houses can boast a ceiling painted by Chagall. Tonight’s performance is “Raimonda” by Glazunov performed by the Paris Opera Ballet. It really is a spectacular performance – superb costumes, wonderful sets & great music. Rose, although tired, is spell bound at the incredible point work of the prima ballerina.

We taxi home, exhausted by exhilarated by tonight’s performance.

St Malo - Paris

Sunday 28 December

I am sure Bronwen will elaborate, but just to keep you up to date - a long and easy drive to Paris (Steve fails to mention the fact that we set off the journey at -4 deg & although the temperature did increase to nearly 0, it was still freezing!)- well at least to the outskirts of Paris. Tommy did a good job - we think - we seem to have headed the most direct route (not hard when it is all motorway) but we wonder about the kilometres of tunnels that we drive through as we approach Paris and the lack of other cars on the road with us.

Then we come out of the last tunnel and - Bingo! - we are heading down the very long straight stretch of Ave Charles de Gaulle, Ave de la Grande Armee, through Place Charles de Gaulle with the imposing Arc de Triomphe in its centre, down the Champs Elysee, round the Place de la Concorde, skirt around the side of the Tuileries, down past the Louvre, take a left into Bd Sebastopol, right into Rue Pernelle and miraculously someone is pulling out of a parking spot on the corner of our street. Now, you will probably get a few different opinions about how smoothly this last part of the journey went...my (Steve's) version is that it was quite smooth despite the immense Paris holiday traffic, complete lack of lane markings and that the road rules seemed to be that there were no road rules. I was merrily pointing out these exciting landmarks to the children - the theory being that Bronwen was doing enough panicking for all of us! (Bronwen's version is that it was bedlam & we were SO close to dropping off the car unscathed - being such a mercenary animal, I was really quite loathe to paying a couple of thousand dollars to Europe car simply becauce we had a collision while Steve was trying to point out landmarks to the kids).

To continue - we meet up with Mme Prevost who shows us to our apartment - good comfortable size, warm, fantastic location in the Marais district of Paris. Perfect to finish our trip. Unload the car, carry the luggage up to the 4th floor apartment (no lift) and Steve and Simon head off to return the car. Steve overjoyed at finally leaving the car behind with no more driving to be done. Just a tad under 4000 kms is enough for anyone - particularly given the challenges previously documented through Reims, Avignon, Toulouse, etc. etc.

We are finally back somewhere with internet, although we can't seem to get it working. But a check of WiFi networks shows an unsecured network and we hook in - goodness only knows where the network is based and won't be surprised to see our bank acocunts raided and laptop swarming with viruses, but we take the risk and hence dear reader you are updated.

We unpack & head out to stretch our legs, lower our body temperatures by approx 15 deg (it is still freezing & about -1), and get our bearings. Head across to Notre Dame - there is a HUGE queue in front of the cathedral. We watch in amazement, but on questioning a security guard are told that this is a major French vacation period & that the queues are "to be expected". We continue to wander around the Latin quarter, call into a pub for a "welcome to Paris" drink, stock up on some groceries and then retire for the night to our cosy apartment.

St Malo - Dinan

Saturday 27 December

Everyone sleeps in this morning. After a leisurely start we once more head out in the car to Dinan, a small medieval town about 20 km from St Malo. We wander around a bit half-heartedly before heading back to St Malo. St Malo is hosting a two day antique market so Steve & Bron head to that in the afternoon. Everything is good quality (no car boot sale type rubbish), and despite a lot of diligent searching, we were unable to find anything to purchase as a memento of our trip.

Mont St Michel - Bayeux - Omaha Beach

Friday 26 December

After an indulgent day yesterday we have an early start to a long day of excursions. We head off around the coast road towards Mont St Michel, driving through some fabulous villages huddled along this rough coastline. Pointe du Grouin looks particularly interesting so we stop for a discovery walk out to the point. Sea Rescue is appropriately based here. The headland is surrounded by craggy islands & rocky outcrops, with a surging choppy sea swirling every way. Although a clear sunny day, the air temperature is hovering between 0 & 3 deg and the wind chill is extreme. Even Steve has 3 layers & his jacket zipped right up, but still commenting on the cold. Everyone is freezing, however it is so exhilarating exploring some of the walkways & watching the water while listening to those fabulous seagulls!

Although reluctant to leave, we are oh so grateful to reach the haven of warmth & shelter from the freezing wind to resume our journey. Next stop Mont St Michel. Having been totally spoiled with no crowds anywhere we have visited so far, we are given a rude awakening at Mont St Michel. Having expected it to be popular, we are unprepared for the masses of people. The long walk from the extensive car park to the Mont is absolutely freezing – buffeted by cold winds in all directions straight off the water. We jostle our way up the narrow pathways, people everywhere – a lot with dogs (it is France) & lots of strollers. The walkway is crowded, narrow & surrounded on each side by tacky souvenir shops. We struggle our way up toward the cathedral, finally reaching the steep stairs to the entry. The wind is freezing. It goes through my mind to wonder what it must be like to be there in the middle of winter, only to immediately realise that it actually is the middle of winter and yes, it is freezing. The abbey/cathedral is huge & a rabbit warren. We wander through with the rest of hordes up and down stairs, eventually stumbling on a chapel where some monks & nuns are singing mass. It is stunningly beautiful & we sit and listen in awe.

On leaving the Mont we realise that the crowds have only just started to arrive – we walk past a huge row of coaches. The air temperature hasn’t improved – it is still bitterly bitterly cold. Our next stop is Bayeaux to see the famous tapestry. Rose is not travelling well – complaining of car sickness & looking like death. The tapestry is fabulous – we had expected to be here for a quick 15 minute look, but all were enthralled with the story & the workmanship. At 70m in length, it is quite overwhelming. Following the tapestry we had the obligatory visit to the cathedral – once again from the 1100’s, huge & imposing.

Our last stop for the day is the D-Day landing area at Omaha Beach and the American War Cemetery. Unfortunately the cemetery was due to close at 5pm leaving us with just 25 minutes to see the vast area with approx. 12,000 graves. As with all war cemeteries, the row upon row of crosses shows the total futility of war. So many young lives ended and countless people’s lives shattered as a result. Unfortunately we are only able to spend 10 minutes in the huge information & display area before closing.

We head back to the car – now after 5pm, extremely cold and the day drawing to a close. We have a 2 hour trip back home & program Tommy to get us back as quickly as possible. Unfortunately Tommy decides that the most direct way is not on the motorway, but through a maze of backroads meandering through a multitude of tiny villages, which would be really fascinating if we weren’t tired, cold, hungry & with a car-sick child in the back seat and rapidly fading daylight.

Eventually we make it home, and immediately head out to our favourite creperie for warmth & food before thankfully retiring.

St Malo - Christmas Day

A relaxing sleep-in before exchanging our Bordeaux purchased gifts. Simon is a bit overwhelmed by his 1000 piece (largely mono-colour) jigsaw, Rose delighted with the 3rd in the series of “Twilight”, Steve with his “chocolate bouquet” & Bronwen with her old-fashioned spice tin of “Banania Drinking Chocolate”.

We have a very lazy morning, sipping champagne, listening to Simon’s triple CD of Jacqueline DuPrey (not quite as good as Simon we decide) before heading off to our lunch at Cafe Simon. A great little place, compact & filled with customers enjoying delicious food. The obligatory Christmas afternoon kip, card games, DVD’s, music & jigsaws and another walk around the beaches fill the rest of our day. Everyone is very contented & sated.

St Malo

Wednesday 24 December

Our last Christmas markets – Rose will be upset! We wander around the town, including a 2km walk around the ramparts surrounding the town. The beaches are full of craggy rocks with major warning signs in all languages advising of the dangers of the tide changes. St Malo (and this coastline) apparently experiences the world’s largest tide swings. As we watch we can see a passage way between two rocky outcrops increase. By evening the entire area is totally underwater. Bronwen & Simon marvel at the seagulls – they sound just like the ones in the movies, very different to Australian seagulls. They are also a LOT larger – thought is given to the possible previous mating of the seagulls with albatross – it seems logical & potentially likely.

Preparations take place for Christmas. We discover a sweet cafe (appropriately called Cafe Simon!) & book for Christmas lunch; the obligatory smoked salmon purchased for breakfast, supplies for snacks & some wrapping paper complete our preparations. St Malo is a delightful place to wander – lots of winding streets with unexpected squares, nooks & crannies. Our plans to attend midnight mass at the cathedral take a more realistic turn & we venture out for the 8pm family service. Although (aside from Steve, who was probably embellishing the truth!), we understand approximately 1% of the service – none at all of the sermon. The bells of the cathedral sound fabulous from inside, although they are nearly drowned out by crying children & over-tired toddlers racing around squealing. Feeling suitably enlightened we head home for a late (and very overcooked) meal. Rose extremely excited!

Bordeaux to St Malo

Tuesday 23 December A rocky start to the day. Rose had a bad nightmare at night & snuck into Bron & Steve’s room for solace. Unfortunately her method of quietly stroking Bronwen’s arm while she was in a dead sleep resulted in half of Bordeaux being woken from her scream. Musical beds & disturbed sleep for all ensued. After packing, we pack-horsed our way back to the parking station, still too early for people to be up and about, only to find that the parking station machine would not accept our money. Luckily an attendant was able to help - machine should work, but with a shrug of the shoulders he manually overrode the system. His care-factor seemed to be minimal.
We have a long drive ahead of us to reach St Malo, nearly 500km away. Breakfast is at La Rochelle, a delightful seaside town on the Atlantic full of white limestone buildings and surrounded by (another) fortress. Although the weather is clear with blue skies, the wind is bitingly cold. We wander around to stretch our legs before heading onward. Everyone looking forward to having a 5 day base and unpacking. Rose becoming quite excited about the looming approach of Christmas!
St Malo is in the middle of Brittany, on the northern coast of France and very close to the Channel Islands. A large yachting town, we are staying “intra muros” - “inside the walls” of the old town. Another fortress town, largely pedestrian, we are met by our apartment owners who (very volubly) show us all the intricacies of our home for the next week. Our apartment is on the 5th floor overlooking the marina near the main entrance to the town and very comfortable.

Bordeaux

Monday 22 December.

Today we have walked and walked and walked! Once again the weather is clear with blue skies and the streets are becoming very festive with the approach of Christmas. Today’s initial mission is to do some Christmas shopping so lots of whispering in corners & then the kids are sent off on their mission while Steve & Bron head off to fulfil theirs. A meeting place & time is agreed, however as Simon & Rose do not turn up for over 45 minutes, there is a bit of panic starting to build (from Bronwen’s side anyway!). Eventually they turn up, and yes, (we really don’t know how as they only had to head to the end of the street), they did get lost & were wandering around all that time trying to find their bearings.

The afternoon’s excursion has been decided by Steve – a LONG circuit through parts of the city we haven’t previously explored. One of the highlights is a walk through the large city park which was very peaceful & delightful. We watched a young girl walking her guinea pig on a lead alongside the lake – all the ducks avidly swimming while watching the guinea pig. The girl would then turn back & en masse the ducks would turn, ramming into each other in their haste to again follow the guinea pig. It was very amusing (or maybe we were all so tired by this stage that a mild hysteria had set in?).

Dinner is at a delightful little cafe down the street from our apartment. Another adventure with a waiter with very little english language & as Steve’s French didn’t really stretch to understanding the intricacies of the menu, it was an interesting meal – fabulous, even if not what we thought we had ordered.