Paris continued...

We were lucky to find two excellent sources of take-home food very near to our apartment: an indoor market-come-foodcourt and a wonderful boulangerie. So every evening we stopped off at one or the other and then had an enjoyable meal in the comfort of our own diningroom.

During Friday's meal we realised that we were not going to be in Paris long enough to see even half of the things we wanted to; drastic action was required. Consequently, Peter, Jamie and Natasha spent Friday and Saturday nights visiting famous Parisian landmarks:

l'Arc de Triomphe;

 

 la Grande Arche;

 

Sacré Coeur;

and l'Opéra Bastille.

On Saturday we did the Louvre...

and Notre Dame.

We spent most of Sunday at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (which is like Science Alive in Christchurch, but ten times bigger) and then squeezed in  Beaubourg on the way home.

No night-time excursions that night, except to Boulevard St-Germain for crêpes and around the corner to the laundrymat, then a reasonably early night in preparation for the TGV to Lyons first thing Monday morning.

We've had a pretty good time in Paris. The metros, the shops, the food, the snow, the  museums, the monuments, the  men who try to chat up Natasha, the beggars, the buskers, the uninformative information desk attendants... Thay've all added up to a memorable experience for each of us.

Caen to Paris

Our B&B in Caen was very nice. When we went down to breakfast the owner had classical music playing and candles burning! It was still snowing, so we had to brave the slippery roads again, and sure enough, the first turn we made saw us sliding uncontrollably! We headed for the shopping area, tried out a few shoe shops and eventually found a tiny shop in a back street where Natasha got some boots and some slip-ons (des ballérines). We also went into a clothes shop where she got a skirt and some trousers. After lunch we trudged back through the snow to the car, found the railway station, dropped off the rental car and got on the train to Paris.

After our last experience of arriving in Paris with our bags, we decided to get a taxi this time. Our self-contained apartment is in a narrow street near Boulevard St-Germain, on the 5th floor. Fortunately it has a lift. It is only big enough for one person and a bag, or two people who know each other very well, and has a wonderful sign on the door:

Today dawned still and fine, so we decided to do the Eiffel Tower experience. Once again, the Paris Metro system let us down, and by the time we got near, it was lunch-time. After spaghetti and pizza we dodged the hawkers and joined the hour-long queue. Janet chose not to go up and nearly froze to death at ground level, whereas the rest of us nearly froze to death 200m up!

In a desperate effort to ward off hypothermia we then took an hour-long cruise up the Seine. It was a good thing to do, as there was quite a good commentary, and there were not many people on the boat.

Unfortunately, the five minute walk to the Metro station afterwards froze us to the core again!

So here we are, all four of us at CYBERCUBE, as we are staying somewhere with no internet access. All our other commercial accommodation so far has had free wi-fi.

We have just noted with interest that Wellington is expecting 22 degrees today.

Caen - in one piece!

It was a beautiful but hair-raising trip from St Malo to Mt St Michel to Caen. We got most of the way to Mt St Michel without any problems, but the causeway out to the mount was pretty slippery, and we did a 180 with a bus behind us. The bus driver thought it was very funny!

The place was very touristy, and if we'd come at any other time of the year it would have been very crowded.

The drive to Caen was a mix of easy and scary driving. At times the motorway was virtually deserted and we were crawling along on a slippery road. I guess if we had stopped, the snow plough would have come along eventually. When we got to our B&B the place was deserted. Someone turned up 15 minutes later. She had been contacted by the owner, who was trapped by snow in the country!

On Tuesday we had a bit on an explore of the area around St Malo. We went to a town that appears to exsist purely for the purposes of farming shellfish.

St Malo itself is a beautiful town, as are all the towns in Brittany, really. Perhaps we should buy a house in Brittany and come back every year!

The big sales started in France yesterday, so we're off shopping in Caen, and then we'll catch a train to Paris...

SNOW

Will we get to Caen today? We'll let you know!

 

Yes, it's still dark, but we couldn't wait!!!

 

A Long Drive

Great as it is to have a GPS, sometimes there is no substitute for reading a map and following signs! But more on that later...

Peter was up at the crack of dawn to take the rental car to Midas to get the tyre repaired. He returned to the hotel to discover that Janet was ill with suspected food poisoning. We had to get on the road, however, so we set a course for Chateau Chenonceau. After Coco (our GPS) told us to leave the motorway 30km too soon, we entered the destination again, and off we went. Things seemed to be going well until we arrived at our destination, which unfortunately proved to be a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere! So we tried again, and this time she cooperated and we found the great castle on the river.

On the road again, and this time a new motorway interchange layout had Coco trying to take us in the wrong direction again, but we ignored her, and got to the seaside town St Malo at about 6:30.  The fun and games were not over, however, as the B&B we were headed for is on a hidden lane at the start of a motorway on-ramp. You guessed it: we sailed past and onto the motorway! Twenty minutes later, and we were back again, a little older, and a little wiser.

The owner of the establishment was very welcoming, and the rooms cosy. Janet was still feeling pretty sick, so Peter, Jamie and Natasha  drove to the waterfront and had a lovely Breton meal of galettes and crêpes.

Tomorrow we will explore the area around St Malo, particularly Mount St-Michel.

Sunday, 3 January - 5 days' blogging to catch up on

Today we spent the day at Futuroscope in Poitiers,  but we have about 5 days' worth of events to catch up on before we relate today's adventures.

Our last blog entry was for the full day we spent in Venice. The following day was a bit of a challenging one. When we woke up, it was clear that Jamie was quite ill - with the same mystery illness that's been plaguing him for weeks. He was a bit nauseous and very headachy with a sore tummy - and just generally a bit fragile. Venice had laid on a particularly high tide - complete with rain - and our first challenge was to find a way to the vaporettos with all our suitcases in tow and a succession of flooded streets. We did make it to one, but Natasha's shoes and socks were completely soaked through.

We headed to the laundrette we had scoped the day before and spent the morning doing a huge load of washing.

After lunch we took our suitcases to the station and left them there, and then went by vaporetto to Murano. We had a lovely time there, watching glass being blown and admiring the beautiful glassware shops.

In the early evening we headed  back to the train station where we caught our overnight train for Paris. The whole couchette experience is not one that Janet and Peter are keen to repeat, although the kids in the top bunks (of 3) had plenty of room and the best deal. For the adults it was definitely a claustrophobic experience.

The morning of the 31st was the most challenging yet. Jamie was still unwell and our train was half an hour late getting into Paris. This meant that we had less than an hour to transfer to another train station to catch our TGV to Vannes. We dashed to the metro station only to find a huge crowd of people trying to get through the single gate that was working. We eventually  managed that and hurled ourselves onto a metro train which promptly  broke down - between stations!  It  finally got  us  to a station but there was an announcement to say that the signal system had failed on the whole line. We now had very little time to get to our next train, and so decided not to wait for the signals to be fixed. We managed to find a taxi and got to the train with seconds to spare.


The TGV trip to Vannes, in Brittany, was considerably more comfortable than our overnight journey from Italy. We were greeted at Vannes station by our friend, David Mauffret who accompanied us to our hotel and later showed us round Vannes with his wife, Paula, and daughter, Elsa.

In the evening we were treated to a New Year's Eve shellfish dinner by David and Paula. Janet had her first oyster - and enjoyed it until Paula told her that it was alive! It was a real privilege to spend the evening with David, Paula and Elsa -  and an authentic Breton cultural experience eating so much seafood in one sitting!

At 12pm the next day, we  met up with David, Paula and Elsa again, and set off to explore the Golfe de Morbihan - a stunningly beautiful gulf with lots of gorgeous towns and villages which we stopped to admire along the way. Our ultimate destination was les Alignements de Carnac - rows and rows of prehistoric menhirs with the odd dolmen for good measure.

In the evening, we went back to have dinner again with David, Paula and Elsa, and also David's mother. We had those other Breton specialties - galettes (savoury pancakes) and crêpes (sweet pancakes). We each made our own, and once again, we had a lovely evening.

On the morning of the 2nd, we  spent a little more time exploring Vannes, including its market, and then hit the road in a hired car for Poitiers, stopping once en route, at a huge shopping centre in Nantes where we had our first ever IKEA experience (another life ambition fulfilled!)


Just as we arrived in Poitiers, the car dashboard informed us that we had a flat tyre, but a quick check revealed nothing amiss. In the evening we walked into the centre of town, had dinner, and found Janet's old house.


Today (the 3rd) we set off at 10am for Futuroscope. No sooner had we got round the corner, however, than we realised that we really did have a flat tyre. Well zut! We could not find a spare tyre and so rang AVIS, who said that someone would be along sometime to help us. We waited for an hour until, at last, a tow truck turned up. 
The driver blew our tyre up but said that there would be nowhere open on Sunday to fix it properly. He said that it was a slow leak and that we would be okay to drive to nearby Futuroscope, the huge kind of technological theme park that for Jamie has been the most anticipated feature of our trip.

We got to Futuroscope at lunchtime, much later than we had hoped. We were getting hungry, so we headed for the cafe for which we had a voucher for a meal. Unfortunately it was closed, and after a number of conflicting stories, we were sent to another eating place at the the other end of the park where we had a very forgettable lunch. 


Now we were able to some fun: Dancing with Robots, where we were strapped into chairs and spun in every direction to the beat of "Stayin' Alive"; Under the World's Oceans,  an incredible 3-D Imax show;  and the Gyro Tower, where we got a bird's-eye view of the park;

The Citadel of Vertigo, where you seem to be walking on impossible Moebius-inspired landscapes; Animals of the Future, which uses the latest "augmented reality' technology; and giant water bikes, despite the freezing winter weather;

Two exhilarating rides where you seem to be racing at Le Mans, riding a roller coaster or flying through the air; Voyagers of the Air and Sea with a huge screen in front of you and also under your feet; and to finish off, a spectacular son et lumiere with fountains, fireworks, holograms and lasers.

 As we walked out to pump air into the car tyre, a little snow began to fall. On the way back to Poitiers we stopped at Quick for a burger and fries, where, for the second night in a row, an African man tried to chat up Natasha!

Although we didn't manage to see everything we could have at Futuroscope, it was a wonderful experience, and well worth the effort to get there.

Venice

Four of us in one room! A very nice room, granted, but also a very small one. We all managed to get a good night's sleep, then were treated to a sumptious breakfast.

We set off to see Piazza San Marco in the daylight, explored the basilica and the museums in the Square and also had lunch there.

We decided to do the Grand Canal next, so wandered down to the nearest vaporetto stop and bought 36-hour tickets. There was so much to see: boats of all kinds zipping to and fro; amazing buildings; cool bridges; cute Italian boys eyeing up Natasha!

We got off at Piazzale Roma and tried to find a particular laundrette mentioned in Lonely Planet, with the intention of memorising its location for when we have all our bags with us tomorrow. Having achieved that small success, we explored some of the byways in the vicinity (no highways in Venice!) and had afternoon tea in a nice wee cafe.

We eventually found the Grand Canal again, got a vaporetto to the  giardini pubblici (which really weren't much to look at) and wandered back towards our hotel. On the way we stopped at a canal-side carnival, where, after much humming and hah-ing, three of us rode the dogem cars!

It has become a bit of a running gag, keeping track of the number of times Natasha exclaims "Ooh, I want one!" There are, of course, so many lovely things to buy in Venice, and this included the carnival where we counted at least 12 of them! So Natasha has been very restained, and is managing to avoid impulse purchases, instead waiting until she has seen a range of items in a range of shops before deciding.

Dinner this time was at a cafe where, the previous night we got gelati on the run. All was well until it came time to pay, and we discovered that they didn't take credit cards. A jog in the icy night air to the nearest bancomat in St Mark's Square and back rectified the situation!

The evening came to a relaxing end when we discovered that there was a performance of Puccini's Tosca on TV. Both the children fell asleep to the music, while the adults tried to follow the plot by listening to the Italian and reading the German subtitles!

A successful day, to be followed by a somewhat stressful one. Stay tuned...