Now It's Time for all Things French

We Made it to France

We left Ireland via Belfast on 4 October (which seems ages ago) and have now been in France for nearly three weeks. We spent two weeks in our home exchange in Fontenay-sous-Bois, which is a mere 12 minutes by train from central Paris and we're now in Bordeaux for a week in a home exchange. 

Front Courtyard of Our Exchange Home

Fontenay-sous-Bois on the Way to the Train

We manage to stock up on groceries regularly and use the excellent public transport system, so getting around is really easy now. It was interesting shopping at first, with all the labels and ingredients of products in French!!! Another early challenge was driving and not understanding what all the road signs meant. Thank heavens for the Internet!

A daily routine seems to have evolved, whereby we wake up at about 9:00am, eat breakfast, pack food for the day and head off to sightsee. When we've had enough for the day, we head home by train or tram, stopping at one of our local patisseries to buy our daily baguette. 

Daily Baguette

I just love seeing people walking down the street with their long thin baguettes, in some cases, already picking the warm bread off them. We made a conscious decision to not eat out very much in France to save money, so we enjoy experimenting with the local ingredients in the kitchen.

Paris's River Islands

I had no idea there were two islands in the middle of the Seine and that Paris began on one of them, the Ile de la Cite, in about 300 B.C. The other island is Ile St-Louis. We 've enjoyed exploring both these islands. Our first jaunt in Paris was to Notre-Dame cathedral on the Ile de la Cite. According to our guide book it is one of the first Gothic cathedrals to be built and “one of the masterpieces of the Gothic age … begun in 1160 and completed around 1345”. It is a very beautiful building with its Gothic spires and gargoyles.

Notre-Dame

Coincidentally we were there during the veneration of the Holy Crown of Thorns which is apparently conducted on the first Friday of each month. Being a non practising Catholic, I had to research this on the Internet to find out what everyone was kissing when they lined up during the service. Ray whispered that he hoped the cloth they were using to wipe down the Crown of Thorns after each kiss, was drenched with very strong disinfectant!!! .

Eiffel Tower

After seeing the Eiffel Tower and having my photo taken with it behind me, I now feel like I'm truly in France. The tower is much more imposing than I had imagined. We've only visited in daylight so far but plan to return during one of our evenings out in Paris because the guide book says “... it is spectacular after dark, an urban lighthouse illuminated by a double searchlight”.

A 45 Year Dream Comes True

The area around the tower is beautiful so we walked through the grounds of Palais de Challiot and the Trocadero gardens, then across Pont (bridge) de Bir Hakeim to Allee Des Cygnes, one of Paris's nicest walks. It leads down from the middle of the bridge along a narrow, tree-lined midstream island built up on raised concrete in the middle of the Seine. Samuel Beckett (Breege showed us the school he and Oscar Wilde went to in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland) described it as one of his favourite spots in Paris.

Arc de Triomphe

Napoleon said to his soldiers “you will march home through arches of victory” and thus was built the Arc de Triomphe. I really loved visiting it and climbing the 300+ steps to the roof for the most amazing views of Paris. 

Arc de Triomphe

The “Arc” is built in the middle of Charles de Gaulle place, also known as l'Etoile (the star) because it has twelve avenues radiating from it. Each is named after battles or famous people. One of these is the now well known shopping avenue, Champs-Elysees.

Champs-Elysees (left) and Its Neighbouring Avenue

The view across the whole of Paris was so spectacular I could have stayed up there for hours. It wasn't crowded so was most enjoyable. There is a beautiful large sculpture on each side of both its vertical supports. Another attraction is the tomb of an unknown soldier from World War I which is marked by a flame that is stoked by war veterans every evening so that it remains an eternal flame. It's been burning since it was lit on Remembrance Day 1923.

The Louvre

Deciding how to start writing about the Louvre is as hard as it was to decide what to see first in the Louvre. We decided to visit on a Wednesday when it is open until 9:30 p.m. and I had undertaken Internet research before we went. It was a bit daunting at first as it is ENORMOUS and even the free floor plan doesn't prepare you for the size of the buildings or the collection. 

 Venus de Milo

We saw some of the Louvre's well known masterpieces, e.g. Mona Lisa (no queue), Venus de Milo and the painting, Wedding Feast at Cana, but above all we enjoyed what we saw without hurrying and trying to cram in too much. 

 

  Inside the Louvre

We came across some wonderful surprises during our visit and there was certainly no shortage of fat babies and bare breasted women in the paintings or male genitalia in the sculptures. It cost 10 Euros for general entry which is such amazing value for entry into the largest museum in the world.

The Louvre was originally built as a fortified castle at the end of the 12^th century and two centuries later it was turned into a royal residence. It then became an arsenal and prison, but eventually returned to housing the Kings of France until the end of the 18^th century when it became a museum.

I never learnt art history at school and can't draw a stick person to save myself. I possess very little knowledge or understanding of paintings, antiquities, sculptures or objects of art. Yet, I simply loved the whole visit. I only saw two paintings that I intensely disliked. They had dead chooks, dead rabbits and other dead animals in them – not for me. However I'm sure they please the eye of many an art enthusiast. There were quite a few Italian and French paintings thematically centred around Christ's life and death but because they were painted in very dark colours I didn't particularly like these either. I like happy happy!!!!

There is just so much “stuff” to see at the Louvre starting right back at 7,000 BC. I sought out work by painters I've previously enjoyed e.g. Rubens, Monet, Renoir and the most surprising thing for me was that there were only four of Monet's paintings there and I didn't really like any of them. However I fell in love with Renoir's “La Lecture” and I absolutely loved the huge sculpture of Hercules.  I was also intrigued by the painting  "Gabrielle d'Estrées et une de ses soeurs"  (Gabrielle and one of her sisters) by an anonymous artist in 1594.

Renior's La Lecture

 Hercules 

 Gabrielle d'Estrées et Une de ses Soeurs (artist unknown) 

Other Interesting Things in Paris

Pont Neuf which was built in 1670, is the oldest bridge in Paris. We walked over this to reach square du Vert-Galant, a lovely quiet tree-lined garden at the end of Isle de la Cite with the Seine slowly flowing by. We spent a leisurely couple of hours here one find sunny Sunday, eating our lunch, relaxing and enjoying the passing parade of people and boats . 

Pont Neuf (background), the Seine and square du Vert-Galant taken from Pont des Arts

That same day we also walked across Pont des Arts which was installed in Napoleon's time and is now a pedestrian bridge. We were fascinated to see thousands of padlocks, bearing the names of two lovers on each, locked onto wire mesh along the side of the bridge. Paris, the city of lovers, continues to live up to its name.

We also visited the Memorial de la Deportation which we had difficulty finding because it's scarcely visible above ground. It was a moving visit to this stark symbolic tomb of the 200,000 French who died in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Above the exit is written “Pardonne, n'oublie pas” (Forgive, do not forget.)

World War I Battlefields at the Somme

Ray has always been very interested in World War I and World War II history and wanted to visit the Australian War Memorial at Villers Bretonneaux, so we booked on a small tour of seven people (all Aussies) to visit the Somme and learn more of the history of that area during World War I. This involved setting the alarm for 4:30 a.m. for our early morning pick up in central Paris. That was a shock to the system!!

During the three and a half years of fighting in World War I, the western front battle line running from the channel coast to Switzerland, was a vital place for control. The Germans took on the Commonwealth nations (notably the British, Australians and Canadians), France, Belgium and later the USA, here.

 The Countryside is Beautiful and there are 10 Cemeteries within 4 klms of each Other 

 Ray Pays his Respects

 On 24 and 25 April 1918 the Australian army, even though it was much smaller, beat the German army near Villers Bretonneaux to halt their advance on the western front. Our first stop on our trip was Adelaide Cemetery, one of the many cemeteries built on land donated to the Commonwealth by the French government. Maintenance of these cemeteries and Commonwealth memorials is carried out by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and all the grounds we visited are an absolute credit to them. At the entrance to each cemetery is a “Cemetery Register” which contains a plan of the cemetery and the location of each and every grave. Each visitor can also leave a comment in the visitors' book. The cemeteries are all located in the most beautiful French countryside and it's hard to believe such huge loss of life occurred in what is now such a peaceful area. Thank goodness for the final breakthrough on 11 November 1918.

Our second stop was the Australian War Memorial which was built near Villers Bretonneaux because that village is so symbolic to World War I. The name of every Australian soldier who lost his life in World War I is listed on this memorial. I feel very pleased we made the effort to do the tour. It was a sombre place to visit and one of the blokes on our trip was able to locate the name of his grandmother's brother on the memorial.

View from the Top of the Australian War Memorial 

We also visited the site of a very impressive Canadian memorial dedicated to an entire Newfoundland regiment from the Canadian army. Of this regiment of 900 soldiers, 850 were killed in less than an hour. Canadian students apply to work at this memorial for four months to conduct visits around the site which includes preserved trenches and bomb craters from WWI. It was interesting walking through part of the trenches while listening to what the conditions and hand to hand combat were like. I can also vouch for the fact that it must have been absolutely freezing in Winter because it was absolutely freezing when we were there and it was only Autumn. I do not know how any of our soldiers survived the cold of a number of winters in those trenches.

Another stop was at the Memorial of Thiepval, built as a memorial to the British army. The grounds contain row upon row upon row of graves and a very large building which names all of Britian's dead. Our final stop was at Peronne where there is a plaque listing all countries that fought in World War I including the number of deaths and casualties from each country. From all the places we visited that day, I was particularly impressed by the fact that France is very aware of Australia's contribution during World War I and it was pleasing to see the groups of French school children visiting the sites. It is a shame that our own school children don't learn more about Australia's contribution in World War I.

Bordeaux

After our trip to the Somme we had a couple more days in Paris before catching the fast train to Bordeaux (500 klms in 3 hours 10 minutes) to start another home exchange for a week. Bordeaux is in south-west France and generally associated with the world famous Bordeaux red wines.

Bordeaux sits on the Garonne River and its most famous bridge is the Pont de Pierre which was completed in 1822. Bordeaux's architecture reminds me very much of that in Malta because all the old buildings are made of sandstone from the local quarry. The main enemy of this sandstone is pollution because it turns the sandstone black.

 

Porte Cailhau (Centre) -15th Century Defensive Gate Bordeaux

 
We've had a good look around the ancient city centre and also ventured out to the Medoc wine region where we visited two chateaux - Chateau Baudan (a family run business) and Chateau Lascombis (recently purchased by a group of doctors for 200 million Euros). At each chateau we enjoyed learning how the French make their red wine. We also got to sample some at each chateau. ;-) Apparently there are 10,000 winemakers around the Bordeaux region!

 

Chateau Lascombis

Daily Life in France

The weather is now cold in Bordeaux and I expect it to be the same when we return to Paris on Sunday. Thank goodness for the one scarf I bought with me (thanks Peter and Marie) and my one jacket. The sun shines but the wind chill factor gets through to my bones when it blows!

We're ordering our daily coffee like all the French do and enjoying wine and cheese before dinner each night and wine with dinner. Who wouldn't when we are buying French wine from the local supermarket for under 3 Euros a bottle!

There are two things which I dislike here – dog poo left on the footpath even though it's supposed to be picked up and people spitting in public – bloody disgusting on both counts.

We are all so lucky to have the space we have for our homes and gardens in Australia and to not live in crammed cities. Our home exchange in Paris is a tiny little place for a family of five to live in but they are particularly lucky because they have a courtyard to sit in when the sun is shining. Here in Bordeaux city, everyone lives in apartment like homes where their front door opens straight out onto the street.

We are enjoying the opportunity to experience daily French life but “do” miss English television. In Paris, we get none whereas here in Bordeaux we at least have BBC and Sky News in English as these people have a cable subscription. I'm sick of hearing about the strike in Greece, the Palistinian prisoner exchanges and now Gadaffi's demise.

I can't get the Internet to connect in the home in Bordeaux. I keep getting error messages in French and hey it's bad enough trying to decipher everything when they are in English. Hence the delay in posting an entry to my blog. I've had to make do with McDonald's free connection for this so I hope it reads OK and you enjoy the photos I've managed to upload.

We have only seven sleeps to go before we board our flight back to Australia. We've purposely left some special things to do in Paris next week and then after that I'll be looking forward to catching up with Mum firstly and then all my family and friends.

We're having a wonderful adventure and as I was reminded just yesterday, I need to sit back and enjoy what's left of the ride!

I'm hoping the weather in Paris continues to be fine for our final week there so we can enjoy a few more picnic lunches sitting on the banks of the Seine.

Take care and love to all at home

Lyn

xxooxxoo