Tried unsuccessfully to park in Amiens, but sometimes the Enterprise just can’t find a place to land. Decided to quit the city and head for the coast. We set a course for Honfleur. When we were nearly here, avoiding toll roads all the way; Shady, Gus and I had a wee misunderstanding – luckily Shady copped the blame. We ended up on a bridge on a motorway instead of going round a roundabout – the bridge had a toll, 3 Euros! Then we had to drive on a few km’s to the next roundabout and return on a different bridge... you guessed it 6 Euros this time!! But it’s a spectacular bridge and we’re laughing about it now - just.
Honfleur is a lovely town; we’ve got a camp just on the edge of town, (right next to a circus) for 10 Euros. It’s actually just a carpark for vans – about 200 campervans here, has all the services including electricity and you just pay the parking machine. We’ve had a walk around town and planning to go back into town for dinner tonight – almost every building in the main centre is a restaurant. We’ve chosen one that has pizzas and pasta as well as seafood, a lot only have seafood, not Gus’ favourite – it even has English under the French on the menu, so that helps too. It’s our anniversary, (where did the 26 years go), so we are going to treat ourselves.
Had a beautiful dinner, ended up at a different restaurant to the one we chose earlier – there are so many it was a difficult decision. The chairs behind us are mainly empty because we haven't got used to the local times - we're eating at 7.30 and all the locals don't go out until at least 9pm I think.
The ‘square’ is centred round a marina, complete with yachts, so with the beautiful buildings, it was very picturesque.
This morning Gus was keen to see one of the museums about the Normandy landings, WWII, so we went to Ouistreham where they had a famous bunker (Le Grand Bunker). The Germans held out in it for a few days after the Allies had taken the surrounding area, it’s been turned into a museum. Afterwards we went and looked at the beach – code name was Sword Beach. It is such a lovely big sandy beach, hard to imagine such things ever happened there. They have soccer nets; volleyball nets; a go-cart circuit; pony rides and a bowls green – except it’s on sand. So different to NZ beaches, that are generally just about the sand and water.
We stopped in at a town that looked interesting, Trouville-Sur-Mer, it had the most amazing fish market. The prawns were something to behold, huge! Down on the wharf there were also stalls set up with the names of the separate fishing trawlers, I guess you could be loyal to your favourite one. We didn’t buy any fish, but we did buy a very tasty pastry from the patisserie for our morning tea.
Tonight we are staying at another ‘Passion France’ place. This one is a lovely spot; we’re the only ones here. A lovely French maison on a small farm. We can hear church bells from the local village – in fact they’re pretty loud, must be time for mass. It’s also starting to rain, first time it’s done that since half way through Scotland! The lady of the house and I managed to communicate very well with my little bit of French and her even smaller bit of English. We managed to talk about where we come from and where else we’re going; what type of farm we have in NZ; how the house is 3rd generation for this family; where there is a walk nearby and a few other bits of small talk – feeling quite proud of myself. We are now close to Mont-St-Michel, so that’s tomorrow’s undertaking.
Mont-St-Michel was truly spectacular. I’d seen many pictures of it but once we got up into the abbey itself it was really amazing.
The walk up to the abbey is amazing too, The Pilgrims Way, although too many tacky souvenir shops – it is quite steep and curves around and around on its way up – apparently the pilgrims used to climb it on their knees. This part was packed with people but once we got into the abbey itself (where you had to pay) it was a lot quieter – so pleased we did, was definitely the highlight. There was a church service going on, the singing just reverberated around the room, very moving even for a cynic like me – we can see the point of these vaulted ceilings now.
There was also a labyrinth of other rooms to see including one that had a huge wheel in it for bringing provisions up from below, it works like a winch. Gus is posing by the wheel and the sled used and he’s taken the photo out the window of the way the provisions were brought up – I saw no need to get that close!
Another room was for entertaining important personages including royalty – a serious fireplace here. There’s also a room of huge pillars – they are the foundations for the abbey above.
Tonight we’re staying at another ‘France Passion’ place. A farmer on a tractor met us; he speaks quite good English so made conversation much easier. As with several French people we’ve met, his face lit up when we said we were from NZ – great to be from a popular place, such luck. This scheme is working out really well for us, nice quiet places to stay and we get to meet some rural locals – the best bit of course is that they’re free!
We’re staying two nights in a very un-free (~27 euro per night) camping ground in the town of Porchefontaine, more or less a suburb of Versailles. The position is amazing though, the train to Paris is only a few blocks away and the palace of Versailles is about 10kms. We stepped out of the train station and walked past a few trees and suddenly there was the Eiffel Tower right in front of us – we’re in Paris!!
Impressions of Paris were in some ways quite different to expectations – some pleasant surprises and some disappointments as well. The architecture and the statues are really stunning. The city is a lot cleaner than either of us expected – no dog poo anywhere, in fact hardly any dogs.
The people generally aren’t generally as elegant as I’d expected (been ready to be a little intimidated by...), although a few were! We didn’t see any artists at work, the area where they had the art set up – along the Seine, was mostly selling 2nd hand books, some souvenirs, and some fairly unoriginal art that may or may not have been prints. Mind you, we visited on a Monday and Tuesday – not highlights we gather in the city week. On Monday, we got a tourist bus for 2 days – very little extra for the second day. This was a hop on/hop off service just like the one we got in London – with a running commentary available in about 6 different languages. We’ve found this a great introduction to both cities, and there isn’t the worry about where to catch buses/trains and where they might be going.
On the Monday we did the complete circuit and went into Notre Dame. This is the most amazing cathedral – and unlike London cathedrals it is free and you are allowed to take photos as long as you don’t use a flash (amazing how some people couldn’t even stick to this). Any Catholics reading this, (and I know you’re out there) and planning a trip, really must see Notre Dame in Paris – it was very moving even to me! The windows are so beautiful and the scenes depicted of Christ’s birth and then on the other side, his resurrection, are really something to behold. The architecture of the building is also stunning.
We had planned to go to La Louvre on the Tuesday but it was shut!! There was a very small sign by the ticket office saying that it is open every day except Tuesday, bugger! We subsequently found out that several other things were shut too – so if you’re planning a trip to Paris, don’t make it a Tuesday... We had fun exploring some of the ritzy areas, including ridiculously overpriced Cartier jewellery and a Peugeot showroom complete with a prototype car – something for everyone.
We also saw a protest going on, there seemed to be rather an overkill of police presence – we were half expecting something exciting to happen, but if it did it was after we left. Those policemen looked a bit unfriendly for my liking.
There are also some quite quirky things, like this bridge covered in padlocks – it is a custom that they’ve borrowed from the Italians apparently. Couples in love put a padlock on the bridge and throw the key into the river, it’s supposed to symbolise their love lasting forever – Gus was the teeniest bit cynical about this one, and came up with several wisecracks which I shan’t repeat (it only encourages him...)
We were both fascinated by the Arc de Triomphe and the roundabout around it – Gus was trying to work out how they know who goes when; and I was just trying to picture Dad driving around it in the little Citroën that Mum & Dad hired in 1954 – you must have had your eyes shut, Mum!!
Tried unsuccessfully to park in Amiens, but sometimes the Enterprise just can’t find a place to land. Decided to quit the city and head for the coast. We set a course for Honfleur. When we were nearly here, avoiding toll roads all the way; Shady, Gus and I had a wee misunderstanding – luckily Shady copped the blame. We ended up on a bridge on a motorway instead of going round a roundabout – the bridge had a toll, 3 Euros! Then we had to drive on a few km’s to the next roundabout and return on a different bridge... you guessed it 6 Euros this time!! But it’s a spectacular bridge and we’re laughing about it now - just.
Honfleur is a lovely town; we’ve got a camp just on the edge of town, (right next to a circus) for 10 Euros. It’s actually just a carpark for vans – about 200 campervans here, has all the services including electricity and you just pay the parking machine. We’ve had a walk around town and planning to go back into town for dinner tonight – almost every building in the main centre is a restaurant. We’ve chosen one that has pizzas and pasta as well as seafood, a lot only have seafood, not Gus’ favourite – it even has English under the French on the menu, so that helps too. It’s our anniversary, (where did the 26 years go), so we are going to treat ourselves.
Had a beautiful dinner, ended up at a different restaurant to the one we chose earlier – there are so many it was a difficult decision. The chairs behind us are mainly empty because we haven't got used to the local times - we're eating at 7.30 and all the locals don't go out until at least 9pm I think.
The ‘square’ is centred round a marina, complete with yachts, so with the beautiful buildings, it was very picturesque.
This morning Gus was keen to see one of the museums about the Normandy landings, WWII, so we went to Ouistreham where they had a famous bunker (Le Grand Bunker). The Germans held out in it for a few days after the Allies had taken the surrounding area, it’s been turned into a museum. Afterwards we went and looked at the beach – code name was Sword Beach. It is such a lovely big sandy beach, hard to imagine such things ever happened there. They have soccer nets; volleyball nets; a go-cart circuit; pony rides and a bowls green – except it’s on sand. So different to NZ beaches, that are generally just about the sand and water.
We stopped in at a town that looked interesting, Trouville-Sur-Mer, it had the most amazing fish market. The prawns were something to behold, huge! Down on the wharf there were also stalls set up with the names of the separate fishing trawlers, I guess you could be loyal to your favourite one. We didn’t buy any fish, but we did buy a very tasty pastry from the patisserie for our morning tea.
Tonight we are staying at another ‘Passion France’ place. This one is a lovely spot; we’re the only ones here. A lovely French maison on a small farm. We can hear church bells from the local village – in fact they’re pretty loud, must be time for mass. It’s also starting to rain, first time it’s done that since half way through Scotland! The lady of the house and I managed to communicate very well with my little bit of French and her even smaller bit of English. We managed to talk about where we come from and where else we’re going; what type of farm we have in NZ; how the house is 3rd generation for this family; where there is a walk nearby and a few other bits of small talk – feeling quite proud of myself. We are now close to Mont-St-Michel, so that’s tomorrow’s undertaking.
Mont-St-Michel was truly spectacular. I’d seen many pictures of it but once we got up into the abbey itself it was really amazing.
The walk up to the abbey is amazing too, The Pilgrims Way, although too many tacky souvenir shops – it is quite steep and curves around and around on its way up – apparently the pilgrims used to climb it on their knees. This part was packed with people but once we got into the abbey itself (where you had to pay) it was a lot quieter – so pleased we did, was definitely the highlight. There was a church service going on, the singing just reverberated around the room, very moving even for a cynic like me – we can see the point of these vaulted ceilings now.
There was also a labyrinth of other rooms to see including one that had a huge wheel in it for bringing provisions up from below, it works like a winch. Gus is posing by the wheel and the sled used and he’s taken the photo out the window of the way the provisions were brought up – I saw no need to get that close!
Another room was for entertaining important personages including royalty – a serious fireplace here. There’s also a room of huge pillars – they are the foundations for the abbey above.
Tonight we’re staying at another ‘France Passion’ place. A farmer on a tractor met us; he speaks quite good English so made conversation much easier. As with several French people we’ve met, his face lit up when we said we were from NZ – great to be from a popular place, such luck. This scheme is working out really well for us, nice quiet places to stay and we get to meet some rural locals – the best bit of course is that they’re free!
We’re staying two nights in a very un-free (~27 euro per night) camping ground in the town of Porchefontaine, more or less a suburb of Versailles. The position is amazing though, the train to Paris is only a few blocks away and the palace of Versailles is about 10kms. We stepped out of the train station and walked past a few trees and suddenly there was the Eiffel Tower right in front of us – we’re in Paris!!
Impressions of Paris were in some ways quite different to expectations – some pleasant surprises and some disappointments as well. The architecture and the statues are really stunning. The city is a lot cleaner than either of us expected – no dog poo anywhere, in fact hardly any dogs.
The people generally aren’t generally as elegant as I’d expected (been ready to be a little intimidated by...), although a few were! We didn’t see any artists at work, the area where they had the art set up – along the Seine, was mostly selling 2nd hand books, some souvenirs, and some fairly unoriginal art that may or may not have been prints. Mind you, we visited on a Monday and Tuesday – not highlights we gather in the city week. On Monday, we got a tourist bus for 2 days – very little extra for the second day. This was a hop on/hop off service just like the one we got in London – with a running commentary available in about 6 different languages. We’ve found this a great introduction to both cities, and there isn’t the worry about where to catch buses/trains and where they might be going.
On the Monday we did the complete circuit and went into Notre Dame. This is the most amazing cathedral – and unlike London cathedrals it is free and you are allowed to take photos as long as you don’t use a flash (amazing how some people couldn’t even stick to this). Any Catholics reading this, (and I know you’re out there) and planning a trip, really must see Notre Dame in Paris – it was very moving even to me! The windows are so beautiful and the scenes depicted of Christ’s birth and then on the other side, his resurrection, are really something to behold. The architecture of the building is also stunning.
We had planned to go to La Louvre on the Tuesday but it was shut!! There was a very small sign by the ticket office saying that it is open every day except Tuesday, bugger! We subsequently found out that several other things were shut too – so if you’re planning a trip to Paris, don’t make it a Tuesday... We had fun exploring some of the ritzy areas, including ridiculously overpriced Cartier jewellery and a Peugeot showroom complete with a prototype car – something for everyone.
We also saw a protest going on, there seemed to be rather an overkill of police presence – we were half expecting something exciting to happen, but if it did it was after we left. Those policemen looked a bit unfriendly for my liking.
There are also some quite quirky things, like this bridge covered in padlocks – it is a custom that they’ve borrowed from the Italians apparently. Couples in love put a padlock on the bridge and throw the key into the river, it’s supposed to symbolise their love lasting forever – Gus was the teeniest bit cynical about this one, and came up with several wisecracks which I shan’t repeat (it only encourages him...)
We were both fascinated by the Arc de Triomphe and the roundabout around it – Gus was trying to work out how they know who goes when; and I was just trying to picture Dad driving around it in the little Citroën that Mum & Dad hired in 1954 – you must have had your eyes shut, Mum!!
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