France
Not a good start to Europe - couldn't find the 'Passion' site. These are camping sites that are free for 24 hours to self contained motor homes. sometimes on a farm, a vineyard, cheese maker etc. You are not obliged to buy their produce but if you are going to buy cheese, wine etc then you may as well from the grower.
When we finally found this one at Honfleur it wasn't at Honfleur - it was several kms out. there are no GPS co-ordinates and the instructions depend on which direction you come from, IF you can fnd the roads they describe!! It was the carpark of a restaurant - at which we decided to eat - would've been far cheaper to pay to stay at the aire in Honfleur itself! An 'aire' is usually a carpark sometimes with facilities like electricity and water for which you put coins in a box.
At Bayeux we viewed the tapestry telling the story of the Battle of Hastings - very impressive, 70 metres long. Bayeaux was a lovely place to meander. Stayed in an aire = council carpark. Quite a few other vans there and was quite noisy - I like hearing church bells but not on the hour every hour all night!!
We spent a couple of days checking out the D-Day beaches. Longues-sur-Mer, the German batteries. One very damaged, apparently booby trapped, one very much still in tact, apparently manned by old soldiers or volunteers, who surrendered readily.Fields with poppy flowers among the crops, everywhere.
Then to Arromanches where they built Churchill's idea of a man made harbour - quite an amazing feat, and it worked. At Ouistreham we walked up 5 stories of a bunker which was surrendered to three men - the Germans inside didn't know that when they did it though.
Giverny was next - home to artist Claude Monet's famous house and garden. It had been raining in the night so some areas were cordoned off but you could still see it all. On the other side of the road was the famous 'Japanese bridge' with the water lilies, that he painted so often. We actually stayed the night in the carpark for free! They seem to encourage this as the man on the gate told us on arrival that we could. Learnt that my sister and brother-inlaw were in Paris and coming to Giverny next morning, so we decided to hang about and meet them and had a lovely lunch with them. They are in Europe for six months - or at least, away from home for 6 months. They had been to China on the way and Jenny had got an insect bite (they think) and it turned poisonous, so her leg was a bit of a mess though she said it was good compared to what it had been!
One thing we found with the van is that parking can be a problem because of it's size, and Chartres was no exception. No parking so we kept going! Stayed the night in one of the few places that wasn't an 'official' camping spot. Was just a carpark near a few businesses. When we arrived I went into one of them, a vet's, and asked if they thought it would be ok. The lady didn't understand but the kids did and they said ok! Woken early though with cyclists all around us, preparing for a race.
Next day was Versailles Palace. It was one of the hottest days and Versailles is enormous!! Someone had advised us to do the gardens first, then the Trianons then the palace. In hindsight (what a wonderful thing it is!) we should have done the palace first as by the time we got to that queue later in the day the queue was an hour and a half long - fortunately it ended up being only 50 minutes! When you see the opulence of the palace, the extent of the gardens and all the fountains and statues in them, it's no wonder the ordinary folk revolted and said 'to the guillotine with them' while they, the common folk, were starving!
We had booked a campsite southish of Paris for three nights next. But no-one spoke English! The guy who took our email booking was to be in the next day. We had found, up until this point, that it was fairly unusual not to have our halting French understood or to find someone who spoke English, so we just hunkered down and got on with it. We were about 10 minutes walk from the train station so next morning we hopped on train and into the centre of Paris. The metro in Paris is really easy to use and because we had a day ticket, thanks to the helpful man at the campsite station, we didn't have to keep buying a ticket every time we wanted to go on another line.
We headed for the Pere Lachaise cemetery - yes a cemetery!! Decided to have a bite of lunch first but all the cafes were busy or expensive - we just wanted a sandwich - something hard to find in Europe by the way! Anyway, looked at the menu in the window of a little corner Italian cafe and decided to have salad and lardons, which we deciphered was bacon bits. No other customers - is this a good or bad sign we wondered!!! We heard the little waiter clattering in the kitchen and didn't have to wait long before our plates came. Basically bacon bits and egg on top of salad dressed (I think) with balsamic dressing. It was delicious!! Then he talked Ken into a dessert - it came with two spoons! and IT was delicious........ I asked him the name but couldn't understand so got him to write it down - tirimasu! This place was a real hidden gem! We have since found lardons in the supermarket and I have made salad with lardons (but without the egg) a couple of times. In fact fried lardons tossed through anything is good!
As it turned out we'd been heading the wrong direction for the cemetery anyway, so back up the hill to the entrance. No maps so we had to try to commit to memory where the right 'streets' were. This is the place where many famous people are buried - Jim Morrison of The Doors (didn't see his grave though), Edith Piaff, Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Moliere, La Fontaine, Chopin, Maria Callas (our guide told us she was 'barbequed'!), Marcel Marceau (mime artist), Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Isadora Duncan (dancer).
We didn't go with a guide - we were quite happily trudging around up hill and down dale when this guy started talking to us - have you seen this one or that. Come, I know a short cut!! So we actually saw quite a few more than we would've on our own but at the end he said, 'and now what are you going to pay me?' I've been doing this 27 years and I have wife and daughters at home to keep...... I thought - well you comandeered us mate - but Ken said pay him! It was an experience!
Back on the metro to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. Battled our way through zillions of tourists and hopped on the cable car to the top. Into the church where there were some big black burly security guards in suits saying shush and no photos! Hmmm, red rag to a bull to be told that..... mangaged to get a couple (I justify myself in that I don't use flash, which is what they usually worry about). This same guard went up to a young mother carrying her toddler putting his finger to his lips and pointing to her child - poor woman, as if she could keep her child quiet if he decided to start being noisy!! Stupid man!! What would Jesus have to say about that I wonder!! Anyway, I was very disappointed in the church. Quite plain. Great views from outside the front door though! We walked around the Place du Tertre, the artists square - it was all artists and cafes. Walked down some steps and I recognised them!! I said to Ken that these are the steps that we had walked up when we first went to Paris 15 years ago. At that time we had stopped half way up, turned around and had our first view of the Eiffel Tower (can't see it for trees now) and when we'd got to the top and I'd looked sideways and had seen Sacre Coeur, but after walking up such steep steps and hundreds of them, I had been too exhausted to be impressed!
As we were walking back to the metro there were two REAL gendarmes. I went up and asked if I may take a photo and they put Ken in too. Ken looked quite small next to them!
The second day in Paris we walked to behind Notre Dame where there is the Deportation Memorial - today was closed, due to a special ceremony. Think the guard felt sorry for us though and fetched us a leaflet about it in English. Walked around the front of Notre Dame and you could hardly see it for people and heaps of construction, stages, buildings etc, apparently in preparation for the 850 year anniversary celebrations. Walked another block or two to Saint Chapelle - another long queue. The bottom floor was quite impressive but when we went up the stairs and came out on the second floor, it was WOW - the stained glass windows were amazing. Going around the room they tell the Bible in pictures.
Grabbed a sandwich - well, what they call a sandwich, it's really a filled roll, and walked to the Jardin du Tuilieres and sat and had a picnic. They have acres of beautiful green grass and most of it you're not allowed to go on! Went on a bit further to the Champs Elysees - and what do you know - can't walk along the side of it because they're putting up big stands - presumably for the 14th July Bastille Day celebrations. But at least I stood in the middle and took a photo!
On our way to find the metro to go home we saw a big truck backing out from one of the many tunnels around the city and lots of police so we watched to see what was happening - it seems he was too high to go under and the police were redirecting the traffic to allow him to back out - what a performance! We're not 100% sure of our height and have heart stopping moments whenever we approach tunnels or bridges!
Next day we drove to meet a work colleague of Phill, our son-in-law. He only lives 20 minutes down the road at Kaiapoi but here we are half way around the world going to meet him! Didier is French and spends half his year in France and half in NZ, and he was back at the moment as he father was not well. Had a very nice pot luck lunch with him, some of his and some of ours, and will have to meet him again as we left our good vegie knife with him! (Sad to say that since then Didier's Dad has died).
The next couple of nights we stayed at a 'proper' campsite in Epernay, Champagne country, because we were again meeting my sister and brother-in-law for Jenny's 65th birthday - she had wanted a champagne one. They had a rental car so they picked us up and we meandered around some of the local villages and had a lovely lunch at one of them. This village was the home of Dom Perignon. After a delicious dinner in the evening we bade Jenny and Ray farewell again.
Two days later was Ken's birthday. A little boulangerie van came around early so as well as a couple of mini baguettes I also bought a little patisserie which looked like a birthday cake. Just didn't have a candle!
The next few days we spent time at more cemeteries - war ones. So many roads have a green and white sign at the end saying Commonwealth War Graves - they're everywhere! So many lives.........we stopped at a few roadside ones and went to some bigger ones. Vimy - am enormous memorial to the Canadians, Le Quesnoy, a town rescued by New Zealanders 4 days before Armistace. They think NZers are the bees knees and even have a street named rue des All Blacks!! So many towns in Europe, especially France, are twinned with another town. I reckon Amberley should be twinned with Le Quesnoy - and have suggested such to our mayor, to be discussed upon our return!
No comments:
Post a Comment