Spring flowers and glorious gardens

A few years ago on an autumn trip to France, I planned a trip to Giverny to visit Monet's gardens. I even bought a ticket to the museum when I visited the Orangerie Museum in Paris. Unfortunately when the day came to take the 45 minute journey out to Vernon, I was really unwell and ended up spending the day quietly in the Luxembourg Gardens instead.

But when I finally got there and stood in the dew soaked gardens of Monet's house and looked at the mass of spring flowers under a  deep blue sky, I couldn't be anything but grateful for that upset stomach a few years ago. Spring time in Giverny is absolutely breathtaking.

I caught an early train out of Paris and arrived at the village in time for the opening and headed straight to Monet's house and garden to beat the crowds that were enjoying a Sunday trip out of the city.  

Monet moved to Giverny in 1883 and lived in the house for the last 43 years of his life with his second wife and eight children in their combined family. He loved gardens as much as he loved painting and apparently he conceived a plan of how they should look and spent a lot of time having things constructed the way he liked. He was entranced by the light and the colours and reflections on the water - and we all know how famously that enjoyment turned out.

My first stop at the site was to walk through the house. Going through historical houses can often be a frustrating experience. You are crammed in with crowds of people, you can't touch anything and often the places feel so sterile that you can't imagine anyone has ever really lived there. But the proportions of Monet's house are surprising and the colour and furnishings really give it a wonderful feel. The studio sitting room on the ground floor is full of light and hung with paintings and the you can see that the large yellow dining room was used by families for the riotous dinners that were cooked in the blue kitchen. Upstairs, the light airy bedrooms have huge picture windows that look out into the gardens below.

The gardens themselves were an absolute delight to wander through. Around the house are the lawns, walkways and kitchen gardens. Then you walk down some stairs and through a walkway to get to the famous water gardens. There are pathways around the outside of the water garden where you can wander alongside a fast-moving stream that is set with cherry trees before you take the inside pathway into the pond.

Pansies, violas, tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, apple trees, cherry trees and hundreds of other flowers I couldn't identify - they were all there and all blooming furiously. The only thing that wasn't actually in flower were the water lilies on the pond itself.

It's slightly surreal to see the green Japanese bridge and the weeping willows draping gently into the water that featured in so many of the most well known paintings of the Impressionist era. I sat on a bench and tried to imagine what it must have been like when it was just the private home of a family but there were just too many gasping tourists to be able to really see it. I think that the tribe of gardeners who care for the property probably have one of the best jobs in the world to be able to work in such beautiful surroundings.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the village of Giverny. There is also the Museum of Impressionists, artists studios, restuarants and private homes. At the end of the village is the church where Monet and his wife are buried and there is also a monument to some soldiers who crashed their plane near the village during the Second World War. 

Between the perfect spring weather, beautiful surroundings and fabulous flowers, I had a perfect visit to Giverny and I won't forget it in a hurry. It's certainly been one of the highlights of my trip so far.

Four days in Paris is never enough

After a couple of restorative days with my family in Germany, it was time to pack up my bag of lovingly washed clothes (thanks Auntie!) and head to my next destination - Paris.

I've been to Paris many times, but there is always so much to see and do that I still haven't covered off my long, long list and I was hoping to tick off a few more places on this trip.

On the advice of a friend, I had booked a little hotel on the Champ de Mars, just down the road from the Eiffel Tower and about 15 mins walk from Invalides. It was a charming little hotel and I had a room up on the fifth floor (thankfully they had a lift there!) which looked down onto the street below and even showed a little of the Tower above the buildings around it!

I hit the streets and walked towards Les Invalides, which is dedicated to the military history of France. There is a veterans hospital and retirement home in one corner of the site and a number of different museums which showcase different eras of France's military history. I really enjoyed the display of uniforms and armour through the ages and they had interspersed it with portraits of known soldiers and stories of different battles. They even had displays of decorated saddles for their horses.

The Dôme des Invalides was the most spectacular building, with a large golden domed roof and it's a church with the burial site for some of France's war heroes, most notably Napoleon Bonaparte.

I walked around for a couple of hours and had a hot chocolate in the Angelina cafe in the grounds (another item I'd wanted to tick off my list as I'd heard it was some of the best hot chocolate in Paris. It was nice, but way too sweet for me and I didn't drink much) and then I wandered down to the Siene and along the banks until I came to the Eiffel Tower. The parks around it were full of people enjoying the evening sunset and also all the inevitable touts and beggars so I walked to the far end and settled on a bench to watch the sun set behind the fabulous monument and enjoy the evening. It's such a beautiful structure - I never get tired of looking at it.

The next day was Saturday so I walked into St Germain and wandered down towards the river. I stopped in Laudree for a delicious morning tea with mini croissants and a Madeline (my favourite little scallop-shaped cake treats) and a pot of tea and was rewarded with my only celebrity sighting of the trip. I never see anyone when I'm out and about (or maybe I just don't know who I'm looking at) but the amazing Australian actor Noah Taylor and his family were having tea at the next table and I was super thrilled to see them. I wanted to stop and tell him how much I loved 'The Year my Voice Broke' and 'Shine' but didn't want to interrupt, so I sent a mental message and moved on my travels. I stopped at an art shop to buy some of their beautiful watercolour paint and walked across the Siene and over to the Louvre to watch the crowds. Then I took the metro into Opera, which is in the heart of the shopping district and wandered around the shops for a little, enjoying the bustle of the Saturday afternoon shoppers.

When I headed back to my hotel, I found that an antique market had been set up for the weekend in the streets around the hotel so I wandered between the stalls, looking at antique lace tablecloths, beautiful china cups and saucers and a million different items that I would have loved to take home. But with no room in the suitcase, I bought nothing but a linen handkerchief and kept wandering.

For dinner, I had an amazing, superb picnic; sourced from the traders in the streets around me. I had a petite baguette from the boulangerie, cheese from the fromagerie, some salmon caviar and some jambon (ham) and a nice little salad from the deli. Sooooo good!

Germany to France - and back again

When you live just a few kilometres from the border, it only makes sense that you would jump over into France on a regular basis. Today we made the short drive into la belle France to explore a few of the local villages in the Alsace region. And eat lunch.

Our first stop was into the village of Haguenau. We parked on the edge of town and walked into the centre, with icy winds sweeping around us that made our cheeks glow and noses go numb. A sudden cold snap bought the temperature down and it was still only a very brisk 11 degrees at 11am.

After a warming coffee and croissant, we took a wander around the town, admiring the grey stone buildings and flashes of colour from flowering gardens. The town is a real mixture of French and German influences, with the traditional blue French street signs on ever corner, but many German influenced building styles.

The Alsace region has alternatively switched between Germany and France over the years and they historically spoke Alsatian, a Germanic dialect. Today they mostly speak French, but most people can switch into German easily enough which was helpful for my aunt and uncle - but not a lot of good to me. Luckily, the 10 words and five phrases I know in French kicked in and I was able to manage a few orders and payments in cafes.

I was feeling a little bit smug about remembering things I haven't spoken in nearly two years until we got talking to an old man in the street when our dogs were sniffing one another. He started chattered away in French until I had to admit that I didn't have the first clue about what he was saying. Then he thought for a minute and started speaking in slightly halting English. We talked for a bit and he said that in his youth he had learned a little English but hadn't spoken it in decades. I was so beyond admiring for this gent to be able to pull out enough of a language not used in so long to be able to have a chat to an Australian girl!

We feasted on a delicious lunch in a gorgeous little side street restaurant and then took a little walk around the town as we made our way back to the car. There were some lovely shops around and I was half tempted to go in and look at some sandles when I realised that the shop - in fact almost all the shops - were closed for lunch. The village is so traditional that they close between 12-2 every day for lunch. You'd never see that in Australia these days and I sort of had to admire them for keeping the work life balance going (although I really did want those sandles).

Our next stop was into the little village of Soufflenheim, which is about 20 mins away. The village specialises in pottery and we stopped into the Poterie Philippe Lehmann, who was an artist my aunt had read about and wanted to see. Their work was really beautiful and we looked at the red and blue blowls and plates and platters stocked around the showroom. It was all beautiful but there was no room in my suitcase for such heavy items so I only bought a little heart shaped hanging ornament.

Finally we wandered down the main street through the town to stretch our legs and enjoy the sunshine. It had warmed up to 19 degrees and the wind wasn't as cold so it was really nice. I dawdled at every strip of flowering tulips, hyacinths and pansys and admired the beautiful colours.

Then it was only a short drive down the autobahn and over the Rhine river and we were back in Germany and home again.

 

A day in Provence

Visiting the south of France in mid July hadn't ever really been part of my plan.  I'm much more a cool weather kind of girl rather than a seeker of mid-30's baking heat.  But as this was the only time I could travel, I decided to take advantage of the fact that the lavender would be in full bloom and do some photo trekking through the Provence region and see if I could capture some of the mythical purple hues on camera.

Provence is a pretty big region and in order to find lavender fields, I was going to have to travel a bit.  I first tried to join a camera tour that was going through the region but they were full. Then I considered doing a day tour - but I risked being taken to lots of places that I didn't want to see and not having enough time at the ones I did. I dithered for awhile on hiring a private guide, but then manned up and booked a car.  How hard could it be?  

The day after Bastille day I headed back to Avignon and picked up a car at the train station.  I've never driven in a foreign country and never driven on the other side of the road, so I was pretty nervous. I paid for extra insurance and a GPS, took a deep breath and hit the road.  

The first 15 mins were pretty scary.  Driving on the other side of the road was fine, but a strange car, different distances to judge, never having used a GPS, traffic, and unfamiliar territory all had to be negotiated.  Luckily it was only about half an hour to my hotel in a distant suburb of Avignon. I was a long way from the walled city, but in hindsite this was a good thing as it didn't have parking problems and it gave me space to practice.  

The next day I slept late and had a leisurly breakfast on the terrace to avoid the morning traffic and took a deep breath, programmed the GPS and set off into the hills.  First stop was Gourds.  I've been to this little town before so I had a sense of where I was as I drove the narrow winding roads.  The French have very lax ideas when it comes to driving speed and keeping to your side of the road. I kept to the speed limit and everyone just overtook me casually around hairpin turns when the mood took them.  The web page I read about driving in France talked about fines for talking on your mobile phone, but I don't think anyone here has read that page because EVERYONE was chatting away with a phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other as they drove at high speed.  Crazy!

My next stop was the Abbay Notre-Dame de Senanque.  The abbey has been in operation since the 1100's and has a small lavender farm around the buildings.  It's postcard pretty with creamy stone buildings, grey stone walls and millions of hazy purpose blossoms that scent the air deliciously.  Warm fresh lavendar is the best smell in the world and I sat among the long lines of purple with the cicadas chirping and bees that were flying from flower to flower and soaked it all in.  I couldn't stop smiling.

I decided to try for another village and set off for Fontane de Vaucluse.  Luckily the GPS gave me pretty good directions and I was more accustomed to the road.  I stopped by the side of the road a few times to photograph cypress trees in long lines and interesting vistas - this is why I got the car!

Halfway to Vaucluse I got hungry so I stopped in a little town called Dieder for luch at a roadside cafe.  The woman serving had no English and my French is poor so I pointed at an item on the salad menu and got a delicious chickpea salad drenched in tangy dressing and olive oil, served with a sardine pate on toasted baguette - yum! And the perfet meal for a hot day (it was mid 30's by this time).  A quick Noisette to end the meal and I was good to go again.

The sun blazed down as I drove along country roads.  There wasn't much traffic thankfully and the classical music on the radio was the perfect accompaniment to the day.  I arrived in Vaucluse and found a cafe where I could get an ice cream by the river and sat and cooled down until I was ready to wander the town.  I visited there last year so I didn't walk up to the waterhole, but wandered amongst the trees, enjoying the shade and the sound of rushing water.

The were still hours of daylight and I didn't want to head back to Avignon too early so I set off into the alps to see if I could find more lavender. An hour later, I came around a bend and found a field of sunflowers!  I pulled off the road immedietly, ignorning the GPS instructions to 'do a u-turn'. I wasn't missing this!

The field stretched along the road and up a slope to a house. I didn't like to step onto someone else's land so I couldn't get to the front of the flowers, but I still got some nice pics of the blaze of yellow and I was happy.  I set off again and was rewarded by a few small lavender farms with scenic backgrops.

Another hour later, I still had another 30kms to my destination and I was starting to droop so I gave up and headed back to Avignon.  I reset the GPS and turned around, hoping the return journey would be a little quicker.  It was - one turn of the wheel and I was suddenly on a tollway!  Woops - not part of the plan.  

Luckily I had read about them so I knew that I had to pick up a ticket on the way in and pay on the way out.  I followed the highway for half an hour and then got off, luckily having enough cash to mean I didn't have to use my credit card (I've read that sometimes foreign cards can be a bit tricky).  I kept off the tollways for the rest of the trip and crawled back to my hotel at 9.45pm.  It was a big day, but I'm so glad I did it - another fear faced and conquered and some nice photos to boot!

Bastille Day

The French Revolution started over breakfast.

Well actually I don't know if that's true. but if any of the revolutionaries had been in the breakfast room of our hotel this morning and seen what we saw, I suspect that it would have.

Some of us arranged to meet at 8am for breakfast so we could see off the people who were leaving before we went out to join celebrations for France's national day.  I arrived in the breakfast room at 8.05am to watch a busload of Eastern European tourists literally tearing the place apart to get breakfast.  People were taking handfulls of breadrolls and croissants at a time and filling their pockets.  Within minutes the entire breakfast bar was picked clean and there was nothing. No. food. left.

We sat down and waited and a girl bought out another basket of bread.  Same deal.  

I got some coffee and we waited again and thankfully found that most of the maurding hoards had eaten their fill, packed their picnic basket for the rest of the week and left.  We felt as though we should apologise on behalf of tourists everywhere for such a spectacle.  

Farewells to Maria and Laura - how ever will we do without you!  Suz and I went to do some laundry and then joined Carly on the walk down to the beach to see what was happening for Bastille Day.  

At first there didn't seem to be anything going on at all so we sat on the beach for an hour or two and soaked up the warm sun, cool breeze, blue, blue ocean and pebbly seats.  When our butts were numb, we walked along the esplanade until we found a  nice cafe for lunch.  It was owned by an expressive Italian who wandered between the tables greeting friends, singing and pronouncing his love for the female sex.  I shared a bowl of mussells and then had grilled salmon and veggies with a very welcome cold beer. At the end of the meal we were approached by the man who had been sitting at the next table, and American from Miami who had apparently been enjoying our conversation.  He was a big, gruff guy who was covered in tattoos and he looked like he'd be at home at a meavy metal gig but he informed us that he was in town to compete in a choral competition.  I do love the people you meet on holidays!

We wandered further down the esplanade, stopping for ice cream and again for coffee before settling in a bar with a bottle of chablis.  At 6pm we walked back to the esplanade to watch the parade of police, soldiers, sailors and other military types.  It wasn't the most exciting parade ever held, but we enjoyed it and the lady standing next to me enjoyed our enthusasism.  When we told her we were 'Australiee' (Australian), she got quite excited and clasped my hand and smiled.

After the parade, we went back to the bar and happened to order the most perfect bottle of rose ever. It was so nice, we had to order another one to check that the first one wasn't a fluke - it wasn't.  We had pizza to soak up the wine and were about to order our third bottle when the waiter said that it was time for the fireworks and that we had to leave now to see them.  We were a little reluctant but he insisted, telling us he would have more wine ready for us when we returned.

He was so right!  The fireworks were amongst the most beautiful I have ever seen.  Set off on boats out in the ocean, the display lit up the night sky with a million twinkling lights.  The soundtrack was beautiful and the gasps and cries of the audience made a fabulous accompaniment.  It was the perfect end to a fabulous day.  

At 11pm we returned to the bar where our bottle of rose was produced.  The streets were pumping and everyone was out enjoying their holiday.  Music played, people danced and chatted and we enjoyed our wine and soaked it all in. It was well after midnight before we finally set off back to the hotel.  

If you ever get the chance to spend Bastille Day in France, I can recommend Nice as the place to do it - just don't go out too early!

Nice and Monaco

Welcome to the Cote d'Azur.  We've arrived in Nice which is one of the citiies that circle the southern coast next to the Mediterrian. 

The beaches along the coastline are so different to those back home.  There is very little shoreline and most are made up of rocks and pebbles.  The waves don't really crash, but lap and splat against the shore.  People bring yoga mats and beach shoes so they can sit comfortably and although the sun is very hot, it doesn't have the intense bite of southern sun.  

We bid a sad farewell to Avignon this morning and hopped on a train to travel down to the coast.  The wind had dropped off and the temperature picked up - it's definitely summer now!  We arrived just before lunchtime and walked down the Main Street in search of food; ending up at a kebab shop.  

Florian had very kindly offered to share his afternoon off with us so instead of exploring Nice, we headed back to the station to jump on a train to Monaco.  I'd considered staying an extra day in Nice to go there but had decided against it so I was super excited for the chance to see this tiny principality that is so well known.  

The train only took about 20 mins to arrive and we set off into town to explore.  You need to be seriously wealthy to be able to live in Monaco proper and even the basic homes and flats are worth millions.  The streets were filled with every kind of luxury car you can imagine and everything was very cool and quiet - and very clean.  No cigarette butts in the street, no lurking cats, no flyers advertiing festival entertainment.  We walked down the hill and out into the square where the casino is located and stopped to look.  A selection of the best cars in the world were parked out the front. A selection of the most expensive stores in the world were grouped around the outside and the whole thing reeked of  privilege and wealth. We didn't actually see any of the said wealthy or privileged - they must have been inside spending their inheritance.  Everyone outside seemed to be a tourist who was looking for someone famous.

We walked down to the harbour and caught a boat to the other side and then walked around the cliffs to see the palace.  Then we caught a series of lifts to the top to look out on the view of the harbour.  It really is a spectacular city!

The group enjoyed our farewell dinner that night at a restaurant down at the harbour in Nice.  It's been a terrific tour and everyone has got along so well that we were very sad to say godbye.  We lingered as long as we could over dinner and then found a cafe for post dinner drinks where we watched Germany win the World Cup and people celebrating or commiserating in an exuberant and noisy fashion.  We wanted to stay as long as we could before we had to say goodbye but exhausion was taking hold and eventually the group broke up and we headed back to the hotel and bed.

 Casino in Monaco.

Monaco harbour.

 Nice beaches.

Pont du Gard

I'm sitting with some of our group by the banks of the Gardon River.  The sun is high overhead and would be hot except for the cool breeze that is drifting up from the water. Everyone is sitting around in various stages of post picnic gluttony and we're not planning on going anywhere for awhile.

Our guide Florian is on his phone, reading out the menu for the restaruant we are going to be eating at tonight and while we are so full we really can't move, everyone is showing a surprising amount of interest in the food options.

Away on our right, the massive Roman built Pont du Gard bridge is watching down on everyone enjoying their Saturday afternoon, just as it has done every day for the past two thousand years.

Today we had a free morning to do some shopping in Avignon and then we caught a local bus down to the park for a Saturday chill out.  This is a popular weekend hangout and in addition to the loads of tourists who visit, there are plenty of locals swimming, canoeing and relaxing in the cool water. We really are somewhere special!

The bridge is the most beautiful buttery stone and is the perfect compliment to the deep blue sky.