Bordeaux to Paris, 30 April 2012

Today we returned from Bordeaux to Paris on the TGV.  No problems. These very fast trains, in France, each have a number (rather like a flight number) so even if you don't speak French or can't work out the signs, all you need to do is check your "flight" number.

With eight grandchildren we have often observed the differences in parenting and children's behaviour in France and Australia.  Virginia is reading "French Children Don't Throw Food" by Pamela Druckerman and this, she says, has put a framework around our observations. This is not as light-hearted as the title may suggest. We first ran across the book in Australia where the reviews were, if not savage, at least unbelieving.  We suspect that is because the reviewers had not had the opportunity to see what Druckerman talks about in context.

An example of this on the train was a mother with a boy about eight years of age.  As the train departed from the station, the mother had a short conversation with the boy insuring that he had a book and a drink.  Then she left him to his own devices while for an hour and a half she read her papers, magazines and did some texting.  Then they had lunch with the usual mother-child interaction after which the mother took a nap and the little boy amused himself until we arrived in Paris. We cannot imagine many Australian eight year olds able to do this (except, of course our wonderful grandchildren!).

Another difference which we noticed is the general interaction between adults and children.  It is not at all surprising to hear an adult address a child who is not being well mannered.  Parents accept this quite readily because, we think, they see this (consciously or otherwise) as a normal part of social interaction.  By the same token, adults are quite comfortable in helping children other than their own.  On our arrival back in Paris, for example, a child was having difficulty with a small bike on the escalator.  Virginia just took the bicycle so the child could proceed down to his mother.  The child became frightened on the moving stairs and started back into the station.  When another adult saw this he followed the child and signalled to the mother that he was watching out for the youngster.  In a matter of minutes the little boy was safely back with his mother, and more importantly, with his bicycle.

The torrential rains across Western Europe have been described as "the wettest draught on record."  Until they started much of this region had been in draught with severe water conditions.  Although technically the draught has not broken, on our train ride today we witnessed extensive flooding particularly in the famous vineyards of the Southwest.  Oh dear, there goes the price of wine.

It seems not unusual when travelling by train to take your cat with you.  We have become accustomed to seeing dogs on trains but this is the first time we have seen so many animals of the feline variety.  At the station the cats are walked on a lead then popped into a cat-box for the journey and walked again or worn or carried on either the shoulder or around the neck like a scarf - most peculiar.

Bordeaux, 29 April 2012

Pont de Pierre (1820) over the Garonne

It looked all set to be a wonderful day, the sun was shining and we were ready to explore the heady delights of Bordeaux.  Well, we may have been ready, but Bordeaux was not.  It seems that Sunday means everything is closed.  So instead of exploring the city we decided to take another trip on the tram.

In fact, this was a very good choice.  We went out to Le Lac.  In this appropriately named district, a lake was dug in the 1960s in order to raise the land for an Exhibition Hall and a large hotel centre.  Nowadays, the district near the lake has become a technology park. But the lake remains a recreational centre even as further construction goes on.

Part of Technology Park

Recreation Area of Le Lac

Construction near Le Lac

We wandered through the park and eventually found our way back to the tram, riding it to the Jardin Publique.  It seems to have been our morning for parks.  This is a large and beautiful public garden which dates from the 18th Century. There are a number of entrances to the park which was designed as a place for promenades and meetings. After the revolution, the gardens were transformed into the Champ de Mars where official ceremonies took place. Under Napoleon III the gardens were transformed into a traditional English formal style, and extended. This is its present form.

The Bridge and ducks

There are a number of lovely mansions facing the park and on crossing the little bridge, under which the swans and ducks swim, one can see the beautiful line of these buildings that date from the 19th century. In addition there are playgrounds for children and a small puppet theatre.

The Children's Theatre

Of course all of the excitement of the day was a major rugby match between a team from this area and one from Ireland.  Much shouting and waving of banners, blowing of trumpets and the smell of alcohol. This didn't do much, however, for our afternoon excursion which turned into a minor disaster.  Trams were rescheduled and rerouted and we seemed to wind up in a variety of unscheduled stops at unknown places where we waited for untold hours.  In the end, somewhat the worse for wear, we made it back to the hotel where we crashed until dinner at Le Noailles.

A delightful restaurant/brasserie

Tomorrow it is back on the TGV for Paris!

Bordeaux, 28 April 2012

Wet, wet, wet.  Western Europe is having unprecedented rain whilst Eastern Europe is sweltering in heat wave conditions. We had planned to go to St Emilion today.  This is a UNESCO listed world heritage medieval village famous for its red wine and vineyards said to be the first in the world. However, after rains which started before we left our restaurant last night and have continued for at least twenty-four hours, we cancelled our plans.

Generally speaking we like to make our own travel arrangements rather than go with organised tours.  Even had we changed our plans, we would have seen very little through the steamed up windows of a tour bus (we had this experience once before). Besides, the train station was over a kilometre from the village and walking there and back in a pelting rain had no appeal. But the day was not a waste.

We again bought day tickets for the trams and used these to go to the Hotel de Ville, the Cathedral and the Synagogue. Security was tight at each venue.  We went into the Cathedral, parts of which date back to the 11th Century.  It was here that in 1137 the 15 year old Eleanor of Aquitaine married the future Louis VII, a few months before she became Queen.

The Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

The Synagogue is considered one of the most elegant in Europe.

Facade of the Synagogue

Memorial Plaque

In the afternoon we journeyed to the terminus of a couple of the tramlines which went through several suburban areas allowing us to see cemeteries, hospitals and schools.  At one point we stopped at the Meriadek commercial centre which, from the description in our brochures, we assumed was a banking and library centre.  Instead we found the equivalent of a "Westfield Shopping Centre" only on a bigger scale.

We were amused when we realised that in the last six months we had been in similar shopping centres in Adelaide, Sydney, Hobart, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, London, Paris and now Bordeaux.  You wouldn't realise which one you were in if it weren't for the local language of the signs and the speech.

Writing this in the evening, it has now been raining for 24 hours.  Hopefully tomorrow will see and improvement if the forecast is to be believed. 

Bordeaux, 27 April 2012

We are great supporters of public transport and know from past experience that this is the best way to see the suburbs.  Bordeaux has an excellent system, the backbone of which is the three line tram system.  The trams are efficient, clean and have great windows out of which one can see the city and suburbs. Today we bought day passes and travelled the full length of one of the lines which took us up to the port area and back through the city and out to the university district.

The Tram Line

The University is a conglomerate of four universities and three technical schools.  As such it has thousands of students and is spread over various campuses in and around the city of Bordeaux.

Later in the day we walked in the city again, going to the various gates.  Just off the river-front is the "Porte Cailhau." Built in 1494, this was one of the main entries to the city and the one that the great of the day used to enter Bordeaux.

Porte Cailhau

Our ramble took us to the Place de la Victoire where, in addition to another gate there is a 16 metre high pink marble obelisk and, best of all, a giant lettuce-eating tortoise and her baby which add a playful touch to the décor and make a good landmark for meeting people. On closer inspection one can see the different wine appellations engraved on the shell.

The Magic Turtle

Another walk in the later afternoon took us to the Place de la Bourse.

Place de la Bourse

Open to the river, dedicated to Louis XV, the square remains one of the purest "classics" of 18th century style. An equestrian statue of Louis XV used to stand in the middle. It was destroyed during the revolution and later replaced by the Fountain of the Three Graces (Queen Victoria, the Empress Eugénie and the Queen of Spain).

Guess which Queen is which

The three graces are, of course, nude figures but oddly enough the greatest concern for the rather underdressed Queen Victoria came from the burghers of  Bordeaux. Try as I might, I was unable to tell which was Victoria.

Bordeaux, 26 April 2012

This morning we took the standard bus tour.  It was an hour well spent.

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in south-western France. Its metropolitan area has a population of 1,105,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. Bordeaux is the world's major wine industry capital. It is home to the world's main wine fair, Vinexpo, while the wine economy in the metro area moves 14.5 billion euro each year. Bordeaux wine has been produced in the region since the 8th century. The historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble" of the 18th century.

We can certainly swear to this since every other shop seems to be wine related in one way or another. You don't have to go far for a "top drop" and believe me, we are not talking about Jacobs Creek or Gallo.

We investigated the public transport system, especially the trams which seem to cover the city rapidly and effectively.  Tomorrow we will probably get a day ticket and explore the city that way.

Unlike Paris, where one can eat any kind of meal at any kind of day or night, Bordeaux favours stricter dining hours.  Lunch is from 12:00 to 2:00 and you simply cannot get dinner before 7:00 in the evening - difficult if you are an international traveller having arrived jet lagged and wanting a meal outside of these set hours.

In the afternoon we walked along rue Ste Catherine, which is the longest pedestrian mall in Europe.  It reminded us of the Stroget in Copenhagen.  All the same stores and cafes arranged in a different order and with signs in French rather than Danish. For example, Zara, Macdonalds, Apple, etc.  Surely you get the picture. But it has to be said that off the beaten track it is a much more interesting city.

Because it is so old, Bordeaux still has the "gates" that once allowed entry into the walled city.  They are remarkably well preserved and very beautiful.

Today, too, was a lucky day.  The weather forecasts were for rain, hail, storms and high winds.  But except for an occasional light shower Bordeaux escaped what was forecast until early evening.

Some differences between Bordeaux and Paris are quite intriguing and we don't know why.  For example whereas beggars in Paris seem to have dogs with them for comfort, here they have cats.  Another notable difference is in the chips - yes, we are talking French Fries.  In Paris they are crisp and lightly browned whereas here they are very brown and soggy.  We have agreed to disagree on this.  Bruce likes them, Virginia prefers the Parisian version.

Paris to Bordeaux, 25 April 2012

An early start.  After considerable discussion as to which suitcase to take, we took the Metro to the Montparnasse station.  It was a good thing that we settled on a wheeled case as the walk from the Metro to Les Grandes Lignes seemed endless.  After a cup of tea and a walk around the station, we boarded our train and were off to Bordeaux.  The train reaches speeds of over 300 km per hour but unless you focus out of the window on something nearby, you are hardly aware of the speed.  That is, unless you are running parallel to a motorway.  Then you whiz past cars travelling at top speed as if they are standing still. The distance from Paris to Bordeaux is just about 600 km.  The trip takes three hours.  This means an average speed of 200 km an hour. In line with my comment about the French's love affair with technology, the gentleman in an adjoining seat spent the whole trip working on his computer, talking on his mobile phone or reading in his electronic book.

The countryside is very green and, at the moment, very wet.  We have had rain every day in Paris for at least the last week and the forecast for Bordeaux is for rain for the remainder of this week. Oddly enough, England is currently in very worrying draught conditions.

We arrived in Bordeaux and after some difficulty got a cab to our hotel.  The driver was an arrogant grouch.  You can see how pessimists would draw their conclusions about the French from the occasional brush with people like that.  Optimists would say, "this is the exception - not the rule."  Fortunately we are optimists and find the great majority of the French to be kind, helpful and very nice people.

The hotel is quite old and each room is done up differently.  After checking in we went for a short walk.  We found a square with hundreds of shopping stalls and wandered through there before walking into the centre of this stunningly beautiful town.  It is very up-market with all of the well-known shops. 

A very good dinner and an early night so that we would be fighting fit for tomorrow when we take on Bordeaux.

Paris, 23 and 24 April

There's not a lot to report for these two days.  The weather has been pretty bad.  Yesterday it rained most of the day and was cold.  Today, less rain but more overcast and still cold.On Monday we went out to lunch with an American friend who spends much of her time in Paris and spoke to Georges who comes over here from Adelaide to teach. 

Tomorrow we are off to Bordeaux so we are spending time getting organised, washing clothes and packing.  In the midst of all this the internet system in the flat has crashed.  Since the telephone and TV are part of the system, we are without internet access, telephone or television.  Gosh, 1945 all over again. How did we ever cope?  That is the reason for no pictures with this blog, however there are some which will go up when we get to Bordeaux.

One thing I have noticed here is the attachment the French have to their electronic devices.  Even in the metro, running deep underground, people are talking on their cell-phones, using their ipads and reading from their kindles.  The other day I counted the number of people near us and of the half-a-dozen passengers, only one was without an electronic device.  She was reading a book!  But even that was too good to last.  Suddenly she reached into her bag, pulled out her iphone and was jabbering away.  I thought that it seemed as if people were in some kind of individual electronic shell.  Very strange and a bit bizarre - or am I just getting old? The degree of electronic coverage is impressive.  It doesn't seem to matter where you are, if you have a mobile phone or ipad, you seem able to connect with no difficulty.

The French are very polite in many ways.  This may be a contradiction in terms since so many people complain about their rudeness - particularly in Paris.  Yet on the buses it is quite common for people to stand up and offer us their seats.  I'm not sure how I feel about being views as so old that they need to do this, but I am not stupid either, so I take the offered seat with a polite "merci." What is seen as rudeness is, I believe, the kind of big city abruptness that one finds in all large metropolitan areas.  Everyone is in a hurry and this is often mistaken for curtness and/or rudeness.  So, maybe it is, depending upon how you define "rudeness."

Paris, 22 April 2012

Sunday and we are becoming more acclimated to Paris.  There seems to be much more going on here than in Australia.  After a slow start, we went for a coffee at Le Nord-Sud and then did our grocery shopping.  If you wonder why we do so much shopping, there are two reasons.  First, everything is nice and fresh as well as being close by.  Second, we have a very small refrigerator so cannot buy in bulk even if we wanted to. Small flats have small fridges (and small stove-top cookers).

Even though it was Sunday, we were able to get our fresh vegetables from the greengrocer, our fish from the Poissionaire and a rotisseried chicken from the Bucherie.

Strolling home, we discovered "vide grenier" or "empty attic."  This is the equivalent of an Australian garage sale or English car boot sale.  The difference is that it took up several blocks.  Lots of junk interspersed with the occasional piece of quality goods. It was very busy as you can see from the pictures below.

Returning to our having coffee, this is as much a social activity as anything else.  We often find ourselves in conversation with others and even when we are on our own we spend anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half lingering over our coffee (and sometimes a shared pain au chocolat), reading a book or a newspaper.

One reason it may have been so busy today was that it is the first round of the French elections.  There will be a run-off in May of the top two candidates from the ten competing today.  It has been fascinating to observe the front-runners (one flamboyant, the other dull) and the candidates from the far right national front and the far left socialist communist alliance. Tomorrow we will let you know who the two leaders are, but, at the moment, we predict they will be M. Sarkozy and M. Hollande.

Paris, 21 April 2012

rue de Rivoli from the Tuileries Gardens

Since we were unable to get advance tickets to the Musée d'Orsay, we lined up at 9.30 this morning when the doors opened. Despite our worst fears, we only needed to queue for fifteen minutes before we were able to gain entry into the great gallery.

The history of the museum, of its building is quite unusual. In the centre of Paris on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens, the museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. So the building itself could be seen as the first "work of art" in the Musée d'Orsay, which displays collections of art from the period 1848 to 1914. As a work of art in its own right, it has retained its glorious railway clocks both inside and outside the building.

Interior Clock

Exterior Clock

The heart of the museum is the great courtyard filled with sculpture, while on either side there are galleries containing some of the finest artworks in the world.

The Great Courtyard

At the moment there are a number of special exhibitions. We went to "Degas and the nude," which was huge. One tends to associate the artist with his famous ballet paintings, but he did hundreds of sketches, pastels and paintings of nudes, many of which differ only slightly one from another. While we tend to think of nudes in art as being female, Degas has dozens of works of nude males.
 The other special exhibition offered the work of a Finnish painter, Axel Gallén. Some beautiful paintings many of which were built around Finland's mythology.

Mary Gallén in a Rocky Landscape

Imatra in Winter

  The collection of impressionists is one of the gallery's strongest areas and wandering amongst the works of so many of that school was an absolute treat. The popularity of the Musée d'Orsay can best be measured in the number of visitors. In recent years this has amounted to more than 3,000,000 per year.

Alexander Harrison, La Solitude

On leaving the gallery we walked through the Tuileries Gardens to the Metro station at Concorde, admiring the buildings along the rue de Rivololi.

After a late lunch, we made our way up to the Place du Tertre for a drink before calling it a day.

Paris, 20 April 2012

There's a special exhibition at theMusée d'Orsay that we wanted to see so we went to the museum to buy tickets for tomorrow.  This would allow us to avoid the long queues for today's admissions. In the past advance purchases were possible but all that has now changed.  The advance ticket booking facility was closed and, in typical French fashion, there was no note explaining.  It finally dawned on us that advance ticket areas such as this and the one at the Louvre are no longer necessary.  You can buy your tickets on-line and print them at home.  Of course this assumes that you have access to a printer.  We don't! 

Since the museum is near rue du Bac which stretches from the river to the rue de Sèvres, we decided to stroll along this classy street.  In addition to the fine shops, there are numerous historic buildings including the former monastery of the Immaculate Conception built in 1637 and the chapel of the Missions étrangères de Paris, an evangelical Catholic organisation. The chapel was built between 1683 and 1689 and nearby there is a lovely little park.

We recently visited the Catherine Labouré garden.  In rue du Bac, among the older buildings is the
mother house of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul including the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, the final resting place of St. Catherine Labouré, who was the originator of that Medal, also known as the Medal of the Immaculate Conception.  Many Catholic Christians around the world (and some non-Catholics) wear the Medal, which they believe if worn with faith and devotion will bring them special graces through the intercession of Mary at the hour of death.

The Miraculous Medal

As we neared the end of our walk, we found ourselves (surprise!) at La Grande Épicerie where we naturally picked up a few viands for dinner. Speaking of which, we spotted this rather interesting piece of lamb in a butcher's window on the rue du Bac.

A very "French" display

We had been promising ourselves for some days that we would go for lunch to one of our favourite restaurants, Chez Plumeau, just off the Place du Tertre, and since our museum trip had fallen through we consoled ourselves with a lovely long lunch and a bottle of wine.

Chez Plumeau

Inside Chez Plumeau

Inside Chez Plumeau

After a short stroll around the "Butte," we returned to the flat for a quiet afternoon of reading and snoozing.

Views around the Place du Tertre

 

Paris, 19 April 2012

Happy Birthday, Amelia.  Sixteen today.  We often wonder how our grandchildren can age so quickly while we stay the same.

Undoubtedly one of the classiest of the twenty Arrondissments in Paris is the sixteenth.  It is on the right bank of the Seine, west of the city centre and right next door to the Bois de Boulogne.  We caught the number 52 bus from the Madeleine which took us straight through some of the most exclusive streets, round the Arc de Triomphe and west to Passy.

The back of the Madeleine

 This is an up-market area with some beautiful homes.  Clearly out of the price range of the average worker, but incredibly elegant.

A nice little place in the 16th.

We found our way to the rue de l'Annonciation, a narrow street which houses some of the best food and wine shops in Paris.

rue de l'Annonciation

Surrounding this street are many others with all the big name clothing shops.  But by now you will realise that we are very much into the food shops and open air markets, and this was certainly wonderful. Perhaps they seemed all the better for the weather.  It was clear and crisp and undoubtedly the best day of the week so far.

Coquilles St Jacques

A vegetable stall

Elegant Pastry in the rue de l'Annonciation

Paris, 18 April 2012

Bon Marché in the 19th Century

 Someone we know once said that for them travel was a twelve-month affair.  They spent five months planning their trip, two months travelling, and five months sorting out their pictures.  Well, I suppose this is an admission that goes against my own best interests.  I leave the first part almost completely to Virginia and she does it extremely well, and she leaves the last part to me and I do it very poorly indeed.  In fact, according to Virginia, I have still not organised the photos from our visit to Paris more than five years ago.

Today, again cold and wet, we headed off to Bon Marché.  This is one of the great department stores of the world ranking right up there with Harrods, it is considered by many historians to be the first of that genre.  Although it traces its roots back to the 1830s, the current building was largely constructed in the last third of the nineteenth century. All of the collections of the top fashion designers are represented in its spacious interior. Much of the ground floor consists of a massive cosmetics department.  In it are sections for all of the brands you have ever heard of and many you may not know. We find it more elegant than the other Grand Magasins of Paris, including Gallerie Lafayette and Au Printemps.  Certainly their windows are always interesting, very edgy and avant-garde.  It is the store for Parisians and there are fewer tourists than at some of the other great department stores.

An Entrance to the Store

Le Bon Marché

In a separate building is La Grande Epicerie, the gourmet food market which stocks thousands of products from around the world.  Prices are extortionate but quality is of the best.  We look, but don't buy.  It would be like doing your grocery shopping at David Jones when there was a Coles around the corner.

White Asparagus

Bread

Pastries

As we left, Virginia headed off in a new direction.  I followed.  She had, in her planning, discovered a lovely little park in the heart of the residential district near Bon Marche.  It is the Catherine Labouré Garden. The Jardin Catherine-Labouré is a park of about 7,000 square metres in Paris's Seventh Arrondissement, on Rue Babylone. This garden with grapevines and ornamental berries was the potager of the convent of the Daughters of Charity since 1633 and has been open to the public since 1977. There is a community garden along with an arbour-covered pathway. There are two children's playgrounds. But most of all it is an oasis of quiet in the heart of a busy Arrondissement.

The Gardens

Saint Catherine Labouré (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876)was a sister of the Daughters of Charity and a Marian visionary who relayed the supposed request from the Blessed Virgin Mary to create the Miraculous Medal worn by millions of Christians, both Roman Catholic and non-denominational.

Sign at Entrance to the Garden