Last days in France and onto Italia!

We seem to have done quite a lot in the last couple of weeks!  After Arles, we explored Avignon, Orange and Aix en Provence with various Roman ruins here and there to wonder at and realised yet again that there is nothing new under the sun, the Romans and those who came before them were pretty good engineers! 

Pont du Gard, roman viaduct

The Roman Theatre, Orange - still used for theatre and music events

Note from some unhappy community members!  Orange

We spent a good few hours exploring the Chateauneuf des Papes at Avignon.  The Popes were present there for over 100 years and each one made changes and additions.  Avignon is a great example of a walled city, one of several in southern France and Italy.  We stayed at Les Angles in a great AirBnB which was just outside the city and got the bus in to explore.

Chateauneuf des Papes, Avignon

 The famous 'pont d'Avignon' only goes three quarters of the way across the river and it was a bit windy for singing and dancing that day!

In Aix en Provence we went to see a Turner exhibition which was very illuminating as it covered a large part of his life's work, from sketches to larger paintings.  We had lunch in the gallery's fabulous dining rooms - very fancy indeed!

Marseilles was a revelation - not somewhere I was especially wanting to see from its reputation, but it turned out to be very interesting and worth the detour.   The old port fort buildings have been revitalised and integrated into the new MuCEM museum.  The new building is covered with a concrete web with open walkways all around each floor within the structure and bridges across to the old port.

MuCEM the roof

 Our next stop was Nice and some inner city living in a massive old flat which was a bit noisy and hot after the country places we have stayed in.  It is a vibrant town with lots of tourists and, disappointingly a pebble beach!  We fitted in a trip to nearby MonteCarlo just to do it!

Monte Carlo and some boys' toy's

Monte Carlo

 In a complete change we then drove an hour up to the Alpilles and stayed with friends in their lovely old house in a picturesque hill top village.

Puget Rostang

 Life in France is pretty attractive!  We have seen so much over the past five weeks and are already thinking about when we can come back again to housesit for a few weeks.

Driver extraordinaire

One day in Arles with clear blue skies, a warm breeze and temperatures in the low 30s reminds us of Freo!  We went to the Van Gogh exhibition yesterday and can well understand why he loved painting here so much with all the bright light and beautiful colours.  We are staying in a small apartment right beside the Roman amphitheatre built in 90AD which is in the middle of a maze of tiny alleys and passages with dead ends, cul de sacs and one way signs. Some alleys are only wide enough for a small car to pass through.  There is a reason why French people drive such small cars!  Tony is Driver of the Year after all the very windy roads we have travelled for the past few days.   Amazing scenery and so many photo opportunities.  In this huge country it is easy to imagine a line on the map can be traversed in a few hours, it took a few days to descend from Geneva, down the Rhone to Lyon, through the Ardech, the Cevennes and the Tarn valleys to Arles via a small commune called Paulinet, where we found the Chateau de Paulin and saw Carcassone from the distance as we were in a hurry!  The journey has been full of scenes you might only see on a travel poster!  Travelling through ancient landscapes riven by great waterways where the French have lived and farmed for centuries, we were amazed at the vastness and the spectacular rock formations - almost Pilbara like some of them, with folds and buttresses round every corner.

Natural Bridge in the Ardeche

Ruined Castle on the Tarn - the locals took stone etc from the castles/chateaus during the revolution to build their own houses

Tony at his family's chateau!!!

 Lyon was a lovely surprise too.  It is well worth a visit to see the old town and the new yet to be nicknamed building at La Confluence of the Rhone and the Saone Rivers.  They even set up a welcome bunch of flowers for their guests in the main square!

Lyon from the Basilica

Sometimes the French people get bad press from tourists but we have been met with overwhelming friendliness and a desire to help when they can.  You are greeted by everyone in shops and cafes and on the street, bonjour, bonsoir, bonne journee, merci always with a smile and always happy to speak some English where our French doesn't quite come up to the mark.  I have really enjoyed speaking French again to the point of  my brain thinking in french when tired, haven't done that since Weston Tech all those years ago!

While the media is full of stories of strikes and woe, we have found nothing but nice people going about their business and happy to see us.  All our AirBnB's have been great and the hosts very friendly and helpful indeed.  Can highly recommend it.  

Oh and today we were in the Camargue and we saw some flamingos which nest there in summer - bit far away but you can see they are pink!!

The Roman Arena in Arles.

Paradoxes, greves, regulations ...but this is La France!

Visiting France is a mixture of wonderful food, lovely scenery and pretty villages full of old cottages you would just love to have as a holiday home or to retire to!  It does have some paradoxes and foibles, but it wouldn't be France without them!  While the country is full of football fans of varying degrees from hooligans (UK, Russia, Czech just to name a few) to just your normal people on holiday abroad and taking in a few matches for Euro 2016, it seemed an opportune time for the President to instigate a major change to industrial laws that have upset more than a few activist unions across the country.  They have responded with strikes, protests, shutting down some trains and oil refineries and even the police threatened to strike too!  The unions want to keep the 35 hour week, jobs for life and oppose laws which make it easier for employers to sack people or change their conditions...even if you are a train driver who apparently can retire at 52 and gets more than 100 days holiday a year! Tax is paid by individuals once or twice a year and not deducted from your pay and the cost of employing people puts many small businesses off and thus less tax is paid. C'est la France!  Vive la Revolution!

Luckily we have had no problems getting around during this time with the only inconvenience being a 2 hour wait in Paris for our AirBnB host to drive 3 kms through a large protest at nearby Montparnasse on Tuesday.  We were well entertained by all the police cars and the sapeurs pompiers racing everywhere, sirens blaring and the helicopters circling overhead. Great to catch up with Perth friends for a couple of days and do some of the sights with them.

Sacre Coeur - the place to view Paris

On the Champs Elysee - specially for Molly!

Lots of people ride bikes in Paris including these Paris hire bikes

 Driving in France is pretty easy with an extensive network of autoroutes and major roads and plenty of roundabouts to join them all together, handy when you take the wrong turn and need to do the u turn!  The autoroutes are toll roads and we have gotten used to negotiating the occasional toll booth or peage having driven about 2000kms so far around Northern France. Speed limit on these major roads is 130 kms, down to 110kms if it is wet.  Think we should try raising the limit on the Forrest Highway??

We have now moved south, with a quick visit to Geneva this weekend and then back to explore Lyon tomorrow and further points south before Nice in ten days or so. Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit and the cloudy skies will clear too.

One of a row of gardens in one of the main shopping streets in Geneva - pumpkin or runner beans anyone?

 

 

 

And finally, on a sleepy Sunday when most shops and cafes are closed in Geneva, this long-suffering lion caught my eye!

Overflowing rivieres, good company and some sun!

One of the highlights of our stay near Paris was visiting Monet's Garden at Giverney - highly recommended and it might be useful to have pre-booked in case there is a crowd.  We were lucky it was very quiet and we could take time to enjoy the beautiful gardens which look just like his paintings and visit his house complete with a wonderful wood stove, cum bain marie, cum hot water system that Donnelly Owners would be jealous of! 

Monet's Iris'

Recognise the pond and the lillypads?

My favourite flower again!

The Loire River valley - full of chateaux, vineyards, history and overflowing waterways with a hint of a summer that seems to be on the way. Roses, peonies, chrysanthemums .... wonderful gardens, first at Giverney near Paris where Monet set up near the Seine and then the chateau formality of manicured hedges & trees with gravel paths to keep you off the spacious lawns. Everywhere in the Loire you'll find a chateau to suit so with water lapping around "les grandes" we were still able to find plenty of renaissance art & furniture and French pre-revolutionary history.

different eras side by side

Chambord under water - the first time many people can remember it this way

Just a little extension to the original chateau!  Blois

The Loire in flood, acres of land around the river is covered in water and many rivers that feed into it are in flood too.

Healthy looking vegie bed at Chateau Rivau

In fact after a leisurely walk through wheat-fields and past centuries old barns with an English couple from our B&B we arrived at the lovely Chateau du Rivau to find a garden festival on and stalls all around the gardens. Every town has a fortress Joan of Arc reputedly visited on her mission to defeat the dreaded English, statues of her are everywhere. The French have a zeal for ensuring their old towns maintain their narrow winding street-scapes and to wander around Beaugency, Blois, Amboise & Chinon all which despite many wars continue to offer views of the past in the present.

We have had some great AirBnB hosts and the last couple of nights was at La Closerie St Martin   where we enjoyed very comfortable bed, great hosts and company and fabulous food - a great treat - thanks to Marcel and Katerina.   

After four days of touring in the Loire Valley, we have now headed north to Brittany to the maritime climes of St-Malo to see family and experience a different lifestyle.

en France, rain, rain and more rain and possible strikes!

The boat trip across the channel on Friday from Dover to Calais was in deep mist and apart from some sunny spells on the first couple of days, it has rained and rained every day!  We picked up our lease car, a brand new Peugeot 2008 at the ferry terminal and Tony has done a great job of driving on the other side of the road.  We have a third person in our car, the very unflappable voice of the Sat Nav, who has proved invaluable as we have negotiated the back roads from Calais to Orgeval and occasionally, very patiently, tells us to "if at all possible do a u-turn"!  The main reason for being in Paris now was to go to the Tennis at Roland Garros. Sat Nav very capably guided us to Neully and we miraculously found a park in very congested Paris streets on Monday.  Once there we joined the crowds in raincoats and sporting umbrellas to enter the stadium only to decide after an hour inside that it was far too wet for tennis and we left to find our car again!  We took the train into Paris yesterday and visited our old street, rue Legendre in the 17th, where we spent a year enjoying the diplomatic life 38 years ago!  Some things have changed but the boulangerie and our apartment building is still the same.  Paris is full of tourists, especially at the Musee d'Orsay where a couple of hundred were queued up outside waiting to go in. The River Seine was very high and running very fast after all the rain with river boats cast adrift from their walkways. 

The highlight has been a few days spent with friends Chez Smati in a century old house surrounded by leafy hedges!  France is in uproar at the moment with the President wanting to change industrial laws re working hours and making it easier to dismiss people (shades of Oz, though the official work week here is only 35 hours).  Youth unemployment is very high at 10%.  Tomorrow is a National strike day with no trains etc.  The fuel refineries are closed down, ports barricaded and Air France pilots are going on strike too.  Hopefully, they all agree to agree in the next few days or we may be stuck once the petrol runs out!

culture unlimited....

Touring London on foot & by tube has been pretty wearying on the joints but we've covered a lot of the City, on a Walk London walk all around the alleyways of St Pauls; along the river and using bus and train to Piccadilly, St Johns Wood.  We explored Church Street just off the Edgeware Road and Whitechapel to find evidence of Tony's family - a sign still stands above the old Mann Crossman and Paulin brewery gate (now a health centre!).

We had a day trip out to Orpington in Kent to visit family. It is certainly cooler than the May weather we remember, with occasional bursts of bright sunshine to liven things up.

The Tate Modern on the Southbank housed in the old Battersea Power Station has some amazing modern art in such huge spaces and we were lucky to also get on the roof with a Tate member. We walked over the Millenium Bridge which gives a fabulous photo opportunity looking back with St Pauls in the background.  London planners apparently have a mind to create spaces where new buildings do not inhibit or disappear the old.

At the British Museum, we spent 5 hours amongst crowds of schoolchildren and other tourists looking at Britain's accumulated possessions from every corner of the globe, rooms so full of every type of "treasure". One wonders how some of the antiquities were "collected"...  The Museum is a wonderful blend of old and new with many cafes placed just where you need a quick sit down and a cup of tea to re-energise you for the next few rooms full of history.  Off to Greenwich today, Chelsea Flower Show tomorrow and then the French connection starts.

And then we enjoyed a Sunny Afternoon with the Kinks last night!

 

London calling....

This is the first of 26 weeks on our European adventure.  First impressions driving from Heathrow to Golders Green  were rows upon rows of houses built to the same style, some more cared for than others, pubs that had closed and have been given new life as McDonalds and lots of greenery everywhere. The Horsechestnut trees are in full bloom with big white flower spikes covering the trees well on the journey to become spiky 'conkers' to be opened and played with.  Golders Green is a suburb of synagogues and houses converted to flats, nearly every roof has a new skylight and roof conversion into another living space and the white 'tradies' vans are everywhere.  We are enjoying staying with family reminiscing about the past and sketching out the future over three course dinners courtesy of Waitrose and M&S.

Re-visiting the city remembered after Sally lived here so long ago; the routine of taking the tube and walking endless corridors; the joy of beautiful buildings and quirky sights. Central London is a mecca for tourists and so much cleaner now that the congestion tax has dissuaded all but buses, taxis and delivery trucks.

 At Marble Arch

Revisiting the old office!

The Flask, Hamsptead

The National Gallery is a feast of Monet, Reynolds, Turner et al with an endless stream of multi-languaged voices and school groups.  Afternoon tea was taken in the Gallery Cafe, people watching and logging into the free wifi!

The London Eye provides a wonderful eerie to see the sights, even a sneak surprise preview of the Trooping of the Colour practice in Horseguards Parade.   A complete contrast with our afternoon spent in The Flask Hotel at Hampstead, which retains a special community feel with narrow streets and leafy townhouses.  So much more to see.....