Alsace, France

I'm already at Munich airport waiting for the flight home, but it's been such a busy trip that I'm only now sharing some photos of our time with Katrina, Stéphane and baby Alistair in St-Louis  --  right on the border of France, Germany and Switzerland.

Not sure if the airport wifi will cope with uploading photos, but here goes .....

On our first day with Katrina, Stéphane and Alistair, we drove one and a half hours to Besançon to meet up with Stéphane's parents  --  Jean-René and Yvonne.  We had a picnic in Chailluz forest, which provided a welcome relief from the heat.









Daryl, Katrina, Stéphane, Alistair, Yvonne, David, Jean-René
(There's some bloody-good-looking legs here!!!)





Besançon was a wonderful discovery.  We had no idea that so much history was preserved there.





















Our favourite little man, Alistair.  He's the best!




A visit to Ferrette and the medieval celebrations.  Sadly, it rained, but we still had a great time.
This is a photo of our newest friends who had travelled from Switzerland.




                                  Daryl, Stéphane, daughter Katrina, grandson Alistair.

Our last day in Paris

It's been a few days since I posted anything on the blog.  Plenty of excuses:  long and busy days, lack of time, other priorities  –  and yes, if I'm totally honest, a case of "can't be bothered."  The time-consuming task is uploading the photos one at a time.  (If I upload them all at the same time, they appear all out of order and then it takes longer to drag and sort them.)

It's now Saturday 25 June, but it's already after 11 pm, so this post will include just a small sampling of our holiday experiences over the last 3 days.


Wed 22 June  –  Our last day in Paris
We then walked down to the River Seine and along the river to Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Gardens).  The traffic was dreadful and I'll try not to complain about Melbourne's traffic any more, but it didn't worry us because we were walking everywhere.




Jardin des Tuileries



View of Pont Alexandre III  (Alexander III Bridge) over the River Seine.


We planned to have a quiet day, but how do you achieve that in a city like Paris?  First, we walked the Opéra area and along one of the major boulevards that give Paris a sense of grandeur.  The walk included morning tea of course.


We went to the Musée de l'Orangerie  and saw works by Picasso, Cezanne, Monet, Matisse, etc.  The museum was air-conditioned, which was a welcome relief from the heat outside.  





We continued walking through the gardens and found a great spot for lunch under the shade of the trees.




We walked further along the River Seine and crossed over to visit the Conciergerie.  It was the residence of the French Kings before they built and Louvre and moved there.  Sainte-Chappelle, or the Holy Chapel with the fantastic stained-glass is part of the complex.  We had been there a couple of times before, but we had never been through other parts of the old royal palace.  We saw the cell where Marie-Antoinette was imprisoned during her trial  --  then she was off to the guillotine and lost her head!  We saw the dungeons where other prisoners were kept, the Hall of the Men-at-Arms, the Guardroom, etc.


Conciergerie




  


A rather spectacular staircase

Tuesday, 21 June 2016

The day always starts with breakfast.  This morning, we went to a café that advertised "Australian-type coffee".  Only Aussies who have travelled abroad know that our coffee is the best in the world!




The plan for today:  Montmartre and Sacré-Coeur.

Montmartre is a district on the top of a hill  --  the highest part of Paris as far as I know.  A ride part way up on the funicular was very welcome.  (As one cable-car goes up the hill, it balances the other cable-car going down the hill.)




There's a great view over Paris from the top of Montmartre.








Montmartre is mainly known for the incredible, white-domed Sacred Heart basilica (Sacré-Coeur).











The basilica is built of travertine stone, which constantly exudes calcite, ensuring that the basilica remains white even with weathering and pollution.  (Confession:  the following photo was pinched from the internet.)




Inside, the basilica is beyond beautiful.  It is, without a doubt, my very favourite religious building.




Time for ice-creams!
(You will also notice the presence of armed military people.  A sad reality of today's world.)

Many artists have worked in Montmartre for a very long time, including Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh.  There are still many artists there today, but mostly struggling to make a living.  We wondered through the square where many set up stalls to display their work.

By now, it was about 3 pm and we started heading for 'home'  --  Matt and Belinda had to get back to their apartment to start packing.  They leave at 6:45 am tomorrow -- a very uncivilised time!  We'll miss them, but the next day, we head off to Saint Louis (San-wee) over where France, Germany and Switzerland come together.  We're really looking forward to seeing Katrina (one of Daryl's daughters), her husband Stéphane, and their baby Alistair.

*

An unexpected pleasure.  After dinner, we started walking back to the apartment, but there were people everywhere and music in the air.  Literally!  Being the longest summer day here, it is the traditional time for the Parisian "Music Festival".  We stopped and listened to this fantastic group and the singer Zhara:

There are live concerts playing all over the city.  Unfortunately, a 'heavy rock' concert is just in the next block from ours, so it's going to be a night of thump, thump, thump.  My ears would have preferred a classical music concert.  Ah well ........

Monday, 20 June 2016

Today's weather prediction was accurate  --  16º and rain all day.  Can't complain.  We've had beautiful weather and the next few days are going to be fine and warm (22º and 29º).

Today, we started at Palais Garnier, the magnificent opera house.  We were disappointed that the "Paris Pass" didn't provide us with free entry  --  it's been great for most things.  We walked past Café de la Paix  --  it's famous (especially for vanilla slices) but VERY expensive.

 


We then walked around to Galeries Lafayette, a shopping centre with an amazing stained-glass roof:




It's much bigger than it looks in the photograph.





Some people I know .... getting organised to discover different sections of the complex before all meeting on Level 6.  From Level 6, we could see the Eiffel Tower, the Obelisk in Place de la Concorde, the ferris wheel in Jardins des Tuileries, the gold dome of the church at Les Invalides, and lots of the Parisian skyline.  





We walked down Blvd des Capucines to Place de la Madeleine (Madeleine Square) and the Madeleine church.  It's surrounded by 20 metre high Corinthian columns.  A wonderful building, so I wish they'd clean the side and back walls.  They're covered with years and years of dirt and grime.










We lit candles in memory of departed loved ones, but also with prayers that Con would make a full recovery and be home with his beautiful family in no time at all.





By now, it was about 1:30 pm and we were all ravenously hungry.  We found a great spot in a side street off Madeleine Square and I had my first good coffee because I remembered to order in French and explain the kind of coffee I wanted:  "Un double (something) de café espresso avec du lait chaud sur le côté."  A double shot of espresso coffee with some hot milk on the side.  I forgot the word for "shot" but the waitress got the message.  It was worth it  --  the coffee was nearly as good as the coffee we get at out favourite place in Melbourne (Down to Earth).  Hard to believe that in this wonderful city of Paris, it's difficult to find a really good coffee.

Sunday, 19 June 2016

Phew, did so much walking today ... paying for it now and may not get tonight's blog entry finished! Will make it mainly pictorial.

Of course, I spent most of the day trying to keep up with the younger and very, very fit Matt, Belinda, Josh, Darcy and Grace.

First, we headed for Line 1 with driverless trains.  Here are Josh, Darcy and Grace sitting at the very front of the train as it runs through the underground tube.




We had breakfast near the Tuileries underground station and then walked through the Jardins des Tuileries (Tuileries Gardens).  They cover ares and acres and beautifully kept.  Here we are at one of the 'ponds' in the gardens.  The big ferris wheel wasn't there when we were here in September last year.  Apparently, it's only erected in summer.




We walked through the gardens to Place de la Concorde.  Originally, it was where a statue of King Louis XV was displayed.  However, during the revolution, King Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine and lost his head!  The queen, Marie-Antoinette, was sent to the guillotine 9 months later.

The French nursery rhyme, 'Jack and Jill', refers to this event in history.
'Jack fell down and broke his crown'  --  Louis XVI.
'Jill came tumbling after'  --  Marie-Antoinette.




We then walked to Ave des Champs-Élysées.




... and up towards the Arc de Triomphe.








A view from the top:




If you look carefully, you'll see us standing behind the resting place of the unknown solider.  To our right, a small group of people stood in a tight circle and sang Song of Joy.  It was a beautiful moment.




Next stop  --  Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower.   Matt, Belinda and the kids walked to Trocadero. Daryl and I took the train.  It was three stations away and our legs were already giving in!!!  We spent a lot of the day trying to keep up with the young ones again.




A major soccer match is being broadcast on a huge television screen in the Champs de Mars  --  the huge park next to the Eiffel Tower.  As a result, a huge area around the Eiffel Tower and the park was fenced off for security reasons.  Darcy wasn't allowed to take his soccer ball in  --  the security people were taking no chances.  So I stayed outside the fenced area with his soccer ball while everyone else went up to the second level of the tower.  The top level was closed for security.







Views from the second level:








By mid-afternoon, there were some VERY tired people who desperately needed a cold drink.
It was a beautiful 22ºC in Paris today.




Once we'd had our cold drinks and ice-creams, we got up on our legs again and headed for the Musée de l'Armee (Army Museum) with the gold-plated dome on top.




Right under the dome .... Napoleon's tomb








We walked through the army museum and Invalides - built by Louis XIV for injured soldiers and homeless soldiers in the 1670s.

We then crossed the wonderful Pont Alexandre III (Alexander III Bridge) to the other side of the River Seine.  By now, I was stuffed and headed for the nearest metro station and home.  Matt, Belinda and the kids chose to walk home.