Avignon Thursday 1 May, Day 8

Headed over via Metro to Gard de Lyon. There seemed to be a huge number of French people with suitcases heading the same way, so it was easy to follow the flow. Also lots of stalls selling flowers. After a while we realised today is May Day, and a public holiday in France.  Good that we booked the train tickets ages ago, for the train was totally packed.  There were lots of family groups, with numbers of babies being cute and little children tearing up and down the carriage and a generally happy holiday long weekend feeling. The TGV fast trains are brilliant - comfortable, convenient, fast and convivial.

We were sitting opposite a man about our vintage who was a native of Avignon. He gave us French magazines to read and when we got to Avignon he guided us onto the train to the centre of town, then walked with us to the street in which our Hotel is located and showed us the way to go. A really kind and lovely man who was genuinely interested in talking to us, really open, curious and hospitable.
Thanks to our guide's assistance, we found the hotel without any problem. Much warmer in Avignon than in Paris, and a warm wind - the mistral - blowing, not unlike a warm blustery spring day in Melbourne.

Avignon is an amazing place. The 4 kilometres of 14th century city walls are still intact as are many of the buildings and tiny streets of the old city enclosed therein. We had dinner in one of the open air restaurants along Place de l'horloge -cheap, cheerful and not too bad - and a Demi bottle of Cote de Ventoux, then wandered up past the Palais des Papes, which is just gobsmacking when you first come upon it. As the name suggests, it was the Palace of the Avignon Popes, and a couple of anti-popes as well during the time of the Schism. The walls are said to be up to 18 feet thick.

We are looking forward to exploring the city properly tomorrow. It is nice to be somewhere less frenetic, and good to slow down.

Paris Wednesday 30, Day 7

The bread of life

Our French bread addiction was served well today, starting with the Hotel's excellent chewy rolls with marmalade and coffee crème and ending the day in the Odeon courtyard brasserie with a luscious cheese plate, cherry preserve, chardonnay from grapes ripened on a sunny hillside, and more bread.  I've never had cheese for dinner before - what a brilliant idea! We stumbled into the petit-marche afterwards to buy two apples so we didn't feel unhealthy.

Today was our last day in Paris, as tomorrow we will be catching a fast train south to Avignon. To make the most of our last day, we returned to our absolute favourite place, the Museum of the Middle Ages,  and the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. We had the room to ourselves and could spend our time quietly looking over all the fine detail in these glorious works.

After lunch, we visited a special exhibition on the Empress Josephine at the Musee de Luxemburg. There were many portraits, sculptures, the empire line dresses she made famous, tiny shoes, jewellery and decorative items. She was, by all accounts, a very charming sweet natured woman and patron of the arts. Money was no object in any acquisition or gift, and every victory of Napoleon's was immortalised in some enduring form.  It was enjoyable to see a small scale dedicated exhibition.  We noticed that we were the only tourists there, and that the visitors were otherwise all well dressed middle aged French women, in small groups or with their husbands. The French retire at 60, and apparently look forward to an active cultured life ... I can only admire their priorities.

Later in the day, we walked for miles through the Tuileries Gardens, to the obelisk, through the grounds of the Louvre, so much opulence, so many muscular nude Neptunes, leaping Cupids, classically draped great men of the past, and half nude females by the hundred weight.  We may have reached saturation point ... It was a relief to return to the Left Bank.

We really like where we've been staying in Saint-Germaine, and to spend our last night in the courtyard outside our hotel, with French bread, cheese and wine was a pleasure.

Paris Tuesday 29 April, Day 6

This morning we slept in, which probably means our body clocks are starting to adjust. A beautiful sunny morning in Paris. We wandered down towards the Institut du Monde Arabe stopping off at the medieval style garden at the back of the Musee de Cluny and at the Eglise St Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, the patron saint of chardonnay drinkers. The church had a more cared-for feel compared to the other French Churches we have visited. We later discovered that the Church has been occupied by the Society of St Pius X, the traditionalist group who still celebrate the Tridentine Mass.

The Institut du Monde Arabe has a wonderful collection of artefacts on display. I couldn't quite grasp the underlying organizing narrative, but the collection is stunning. I particularly liked the cabinet of eye wateringly complex and beautifully crafted brass Astrolabes, the complexity and artistry of which were head spinning.

We had lunch in the museum's restaurant which appropriately is Middle Eastern flavoured - felafel, hoummus and tabouleh - much better for our waistlines than the daily baguettes. Walking back we passed through a little street market and bought the best strawberries and raspberries which we ate in the sun back in Le Menagier garden, then shuffled back to the hotel to regroup. From the roof of the museum we had seen the river cruises sailing gaily by in the sun and thought it looked nice, so we booked an hour cruise on the Seine, though by late afternoon the weather had packed up and we wound up sitting inside watching through rain streaked windows.

For dinner we headed down to a little restaurant nearby that we've liked the look of. For one thing it has a very friendly cat who sits in the window when it is closed, for another it has red check table cloths and a general air of serious French restaurant, and it always seems to be full of people happily noshing away, so we thought we'd give it a crack, and indeed the signs did not disappoint - it was delicious and entertaining as well.

It is pouring rain at the moment. I hope we get some good weather for our last day in Paris tomorrow.

Paris Monday 28 April, Day 5

Today was the day we'd chosen to visit the Louvre so we spent last night drinking Sancerre and planning how we'd see specific areas and works of art without being overwhelmed by the massive collections and complex layout of the buildings.

We woke to the sounds of birds at 6am and the dawning of a massive hangover. Still, we rose to the challenge, a little tentatively, but as tenacious as anyone who has spent 25 hours travelling to be somewhere for a week. We took the metro, no hitches, we're experts at the metro, except when the ticket machine is out of order or the ticket you buy doesn't validate.

We have 'no queue' Paris Museum passes but so did the 100 people in front of us. Oh well, once you're through the door the building opens up into dazzling light, space, corridors, escalators and pathways in every direction.  I really appreciated the beauty of the Louvre architecture this time, it is elegant, seductive, lavish, regal and full of surprises.  So why do they have such bewildering maps? 

Most early visitors head straight for the big ticket items -the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Raft of the Medusa, Ingre's Turkish baths. We lucked out and went straight to the new temporary exhibition The Treasury of the Abbey of St Maurice d'Agaune, a stunning collection of medieval treasures from a Swiss Abbey which has been intact for over 1,000 years.

We weren't allowed to take photos unfortunately. I have never seen photos of the treasures or seen anything like them.  There were intensely blue glass urns and vases covered in gold filigree and precious jewels, silver reliquaries with the carved surface narrating the story of the saint in great detail, St Maurice on his horse, in chain mail, and the horse wearing an elaborate mantle, all in the finest silverware, right down to his
 pointed shoes in the stirrups.

We saw lots of other things, some of the most amazing not even labelled, like a vast bronze portal, primitive, elaborate and impossible to even begin to classify.  By this stage people were bumping into each other, tour groups scrambling to get in front of the best art works before another group beat them to it, hundreds of cameras going off at once, people everywhere puzzling over their maps ... Still, as planned, we got to see Michelangelo's Dying Slaves. One of them was absolutely beautiful, with muscles both young and tired, tense and resigned, it could possibly be his most beautiful and emotive work.

We finally escaped after three and a half hours. You could spend a week there and still not see everything. But I think you'd need to lie down in a dark room for a few days afterwards.  We were thrilled with what we carried away and really enjoyed our simple picnic lunch in the Luxemburg Gardens afterwards.

We went to the Laundromat in the afternoon and met a lovely American girl  who gave us soap powder and showed us how to work the machines (thank you whoever you are), knowledge we then shared with the little old Japanese couple and the young hipster dude. So much fun and clean clothes too. Later we walked to Eglise saint-Germain des Pres which is the only Romanesque church in Paris. Only the bell tower and entrance are Romanesque and the rest is an early Gothic add on.  It was peaceful, dim and old, a good place to sit quietly for a while.  We went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner again.  Japanese restaurants in Paris are even better than in Japan because you can drink French wine with your Yakitori, such a good combination.

  



Paris Sunday 27 April, Day 4

We woke up at first light this morning to clear skies.  It looked like a beautiful day so after breakfast we launched off towards the Musee D'Orsay without raincoats or umbrella, and got a good dousing as it rained steadily the whole way. But lovely little streets and  a very quiet early Sunday feeling.

We got to the Musee before opening time, and queued up in the rain, exchanging shrugs of Gallic resignation with fellow queue-es, contemplating the marvellously florid allegorical statues of the six continents, each represented by a well endowed lassie.

Once inside first stop was the Van Gogh exhibition, "Van Gogh/Artaud The Man Suicided by Society".  Not entirely sure that the accompanying texts added a huge amount of value to the paintings. Lovely collection of his drawings and a letter to Theo with a drawing incorporated.

I like the building of the Musee D'Orsay - very like the huge mouldering factories on the outskirts of Paris that you see on the train coming in from Charles de Gaul. Art on an industrial scale.

We spent the rest of the morning working our way industriously through the impressionists and post impressíonist galleries. A group of French wunderkinds - maybe about 8 years old - came through while we were up on the 5th floor - incredibly excited and enthusiastic about the paintings.

Being Sunday many places were shut. Close by the Musee we passed an epicerie where Anne suggested we buy some lunch provisions. I foolishly said we should wait till closer to the hotel and of course everything close to the hotel seemed to be shut. The rain set in and we retreated indoors a bit tired, damp and lunch-less.  Anne launched out after a while in an equally fruitless search and returned empty handed. We decided to make one last effort, headed out the door and just about bumped into a charming young waitress bearing menus for the tables set up in the open space outside the Odeon Theatre - so we had a lovely lunch and glass of wine right on our doorstep. The sun came out and the sky cleared to a brilliant blue while we ate, then as if on cue darkened again and began to rain just as we finished, so we trotted the twenty paces back to the hotel, and settled down for a siesta.

When I was in Japan earlier this year I seemed to often eat in Italian restaurants. To even the karmic balance, now I am in France I will eat in Japanese restaurants. And when I go to Italy I can eat in French restaurants. Maybe not. But there are a bunch of nice looking Japanese restaurants up Rue de Monsieur Le Prince nearby, and we had a very pleasant meal and a Demi bottle of Sancerre in one of them tonight. After dinner we went for a stroll over past the Pantheon, and discovered L'eglise Saint-Etienne du Mont, a wonderfully eclectic building with an extraordinary history. Here is a not very good photo of the façade

We will have to go back when it is open. 

Paris Saturday 26 April, Day 3

Today was Saturday and we had planned to go to the Musee D'Orsay and be there as soon as they opened, with our Museum Passes and plan of attack ready to make the most of the amazing art works on display. After breakfast, we revised plans ...Gary needed to sleep and rest up and I was all alone, in Paris, full of energy and ready to tackle Galleries Lafayette with my Mother's Day advance in Euros burning a hole in my change purse.  The day was overcast and rainy but Paris is such a beautiful walkable city. I easily found my way to the iconic department store and made some delightful purchases.

Later in the day I did some local exploring for dinner supplies. I visited a Petit Marche for pistachio nuts, grapes and mineral water, a boulangerie for bread and apple crumble dessert, an epicerie for wine and a frommagerie  for cheese.  I had a lovely time talking to the owner about French cheese, and I bought Beaufort cheese made in winter, which is saltier than the summer cheese. I have decided to go there every day and be properly educated on French cheese by someone who really cares about it.

On the way home, an American tourist asked me for directions, and I was able to tell her. And we've only been here three days.  Paris is a beautiful city and I'm so happy to be here.  When I got back to the hotel, there was a double rainbow.  This photo is taken from our hotel room, just as the rainbow was fading.

Paris Friday 25, Day 2

Getting into the time zone, woke up at 6.30. After breakfast at the Hotel, we walked to Notre Dame Cathedral. A rainy morning but refreshing. Good to get to the Cathedral early as it was relatively quiet. We visited the Cathedral's Treasures which included a reliquary made to house Christ's umbilical cord, and another with the femur of St Vincent.  The bone had his name written on it in neat copperplate. When we returned to the main body of the church, it was packed with tourists, cameras flashing and people taking turns to have themselves photographed with the altar or the windows as a background. Must be very aggravating for the local congregation.

Outside, the tourist buses were rolling in and the crowds queuing up. We visited the archaeological crypt of Ile de la Cite, which had some interesting but rather motion sickness inducing 3D computer generated vistas of Note Dame and surrounding Paris at different stages from 1100's onwards.

Sainte Chapelle next, Romanesque rather than Gothic and featuring a beautiful blue starry ceiling vault.  Our lunch on Blvd. San Michel was half the price of yesterday, my goal is to reduce the price of lunch by 50% each day for the rest of our stay here. Next stop was the Musee National de Moyen Age, which was the hit of the day, beautifully curated, stunning collection of stuff. We will be going back there before we leave. It houses The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. We've never seen anything like them, and amazing that so little is known about them or their creator.

After the Lady and the Unicorn we retired back to our room for a siesta, then headed out for dinner and a nice half bottle of Le Puy wine - delicious! We slowly meandered back down the little streets around San Sulpice.