What a fabulous two weeks we recently had in France - well, apart from the Notre Dame incident only hours before we flew home! In preparation for our travels, I had been attending French language classes to brush up on my French, and I was really looking forward to trying out my improved French vocabulary. Pity I didn't work on my accent - few could understand me, and more's the pity, they spoke so fast, and combined with their accent, it was hard for me to understand them! Thankfully I could understand the written word, so that helped when ordering off a menu, or buying tickets online when the website was in French!!
Murray had booked to do a 3-day WW1 Battlefield tour of the Somme, Fromelles-Ypres etc. The tours were centred in Arras, a delightful old town only 2 hrs drive north of Paris, so I booked us into an Airbnb apartment there. We picked up a late model rental car, and once we got out of the airport precinct, it was smooth sailing. Our apartment was fabulous - huge, close to the main town centre (I walked less than 1km over there each day) and we had free parking. A large supermarket was a few blocks away so we were set. Our host Francky spoke some English, and with my limited French, we did okay. Actually, his English was better than my French if the truth be known! We loved the market in the main town square, and I enjoyed sitting in cafes sipping coffee and listening to the locals chatting away merrily in French during the day, and again at night when we sat in outdoor cafes to have a drink before dinner. We bought our baguettes in the boulangerie and I snuck in a few macarons and chocolate eclairs just because they looked so delicious...Needless to say, I was in heaven. We made the most of the fabulous weather and drove an hour north to visit Dunkirk (see photo above), and then 30 mins west to Calais to check it out. I had first heard of these places during my early schooling years, so it was great to finally set eyes on them. What huge beaches they are - no wonder they played such an important role in beach landings during the war - and so close to England too - the regular ferries take 1.5 hours to get from Calais to Dover.
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| Arras Airbnb host Francky farewells us |
From Arras we headed south west past Amiens to Honfleur - an ancient (first mentioned in dispatches in 1027) picturesque seaport where the 780 km (485 mi) Seine River ends its journey (after winding from the Burgundy wine region in NE France and flowing through Paris in a northwesterly direction) and flows into the English Channel. It would have been a delightful drive of under 3 hours had we not detoured to check out yet another WW1 landing beach further south of Honfleur to feed Murray's insatiable WW1 battle history appetite! During the drive I saw a sign to the town of Lisieux, the home of St Therese or the 'Little Flower'. Despite dying at age 26, she has inspired millions of catholics in their faith. I couldn't resist calling in there to check out a cathedral built in her honour. Sadly, the photos I took just couldn't do justice to the beauty of her shrine - it was spectacular.
Our Honfleur hotel was in walking distance to the historic seaport, and so after we checked in, we wandered downtown. We sat in one bar on the north side of the harbour to have a drink and absorb the aura before meandering along the cobblestone lanes, checking out the shops and ending up in another bar on the south side for more drinks and dinner. The photo of Honfleur Harbour above shows the view of the harbour from the south side.
At breakfast in the hotel the next morning, I saw what looked to be a vertical grill, but it was actually a boiled egg cooker! Soft eggs took 3 mins, and hard eggs took 9 mins. The trick is to have the water boiling first, but we must have been the first ones there, as my 3 min egg was not cooked, and so the water hadn't had time to come to the boil first! What a natty and efficient way to provide boiled eggs for hotel guests - most hotels provided hard boiled eggs - cold!!
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| Monet's Garden |
From Honfleur it was only 1.5 hours SE to Giverny where Claude Monet's famous garden is located. I couldn't drive past without a visit, so we included it in our itinerary, and spent a few hours checking out his home, garden, and of course, the lily pond that he made famous in his paintings.
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| Fleeing Versailles Palace during alarm |
Next stop was the city of Versailles where we had a hotel booked for 2 nights. Parking is a hassle there, so we used an underground carpark and walked everywhere which was easy. Even the Palace was only 4 blocks away, and markets, and cafes were even closer. We had a 2 day pass for the Palace of Versailles, which worked well in our favour as it turned out. On our first day there, we had joined the throngs of visitors checking out the Hall of Mirrors etc, and decided to treat ourselves to lunch in one of the cafes. Next thing we heard an alarm going off, and as no one moved, we assumed it was due to someone opening an alarmed entrance door to a wing not open to the public. Nope - we were wrong. Staff came into the cafe and ordered everyone to evacuate saying it was a fire alarm - we made our way quickly out of the palace only to notice that there was not a single fire engine in sight, but numerous police officers armed with machine guns arrived instead. We can only assume there was a threat of some kind? Those visitors lined up to get inside were sent back from the entrance, and the rest of us waited until the all clear. After about 30 minutes, seeing storm clouds above and remembering that our ticket covered us to visit again the next day, we decided to walk back to our hotel. We spent most of the next day in the gardens - acres and acres of gardens, numerous lakes and many musical fountains.
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| View from our hotel balcony - Seine River and Louvre |
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| Monet's 'Water Lillies' |
Next stop Paris. Our hotel was located on the Quai Voltaire - yes, the street where the prolific French writer, historian and philosopher lived, and so they named it after him. Our hotel room overlooked the Seine River, and across the other side of the River we could see the side of the Louvre. See photo above. The Musée D'Orsay was a few blocks away from us, and across from the Museum was the Red Double Decker tour bus stop. Very handy. Murray lined up for one hour to get our tickets for the Musée D'Orsay - I was keen to lay my eyes on Monet's 'Starry Night' - which I did. I also made a special point of having my photo taken with my sister Gemma's favourite Monet painting - Water Lillies - just for her!
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| Monet's 'Starry Night' |
I'm not sure how many times our bus route took us along the Champs Élysées, around the Arc de Triomphe and past the Eiffel Tower, but to get to Montmartre on the second day, we had to retrace the bus route yet again before we could switch over to the other bus. So much history to listen to as you get driven along.
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| I sure look like I have won the lottery - it's just an ice-cream!! |
In the months before we left for France, I read many novels that were written about life in France. In one book it mentioned that you should not visit Paris without trying the Berthillon Ice Cream - touted as the most famous ice cream in Paris. Being the obedient person that I am, I lined up for my cone. It was delicious, but nothing better than what I have had elsewhere around the world.
Finally, our French holiday had come to an end. We were sitting in our hotel lobby waiting for the taxi to take us to the airport and we were very relaxed. We then heard lots of sirens and idly wondered what was going on - some car accident perhaps? Next thing I got a text from my daughter Kim asking if we were okay and asked how far our hotel was from the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. We were only a few blocks away as it turned out, and she informed us that a man had attacked police with a hammer! Supposedly a terrorist incident, and because it came only 2 days after the tragic London attacks, the police fired shots, nearby metro stations were shut down and hundreds of tourists inside the cathedral were told to stay inside the cathedral and keep their hands in the air until they were allowed to go. We had been in the Cathedral to attend Sunday Mass on the 4th June, and this incident occurred 2 days later! We were glad to board our plane and land safely in Brisbane. Phew. Next time we visit France we plan to check out the Brittany and Champagne regions: I am keen to visit Mont St Michel and Murray has a few more WW1 sites to see. Au Revoir
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| Inside Notre Dame Cathedral - Paris |
Murray had booked to do a 3-day WW1 Battlefield tour of the Somme, Fromelles-Ypres etc. The tours were centred in Arras, a delightful old town only 2 hrs drive north of Paris, so I booked us into an Airbnb apartment there. We picked up a late model rental car, and once we got out of the airport precinct, it was smooth sailing. Our apartment was fabulous - huge, close to the main town centre (I walked less than 1km over there each day) and we had free parking. A large supermarket was a few blocks away so we were set. Our host Francky spoke some English, and with my limited French, we did okay. Actually, his English was better than my French if the truth be known! We loved the market in the main town square, and I enjoyed sitting in cafes sipping coffee and listening to the locals chatting away merrily in French during the day, and again at night when we sat in outdoor cafes to have a drink before dinner. We bought our baguettes in the boulangerie and I snuck in a few macarons and chocolate eclairs just because they looked so delicious...Needless to say, I was in heaven. We made the most of the fabulous weather and drove an hour north to visit Dunkirk (see photo above), and then 30 mins west to Calais to check it out. I had first heard of these places during my early schooling years, so it was great to finally set eyes on them. What huge beaches they are - no wonder they played such an important role in beach landings during the war - and so close to England too - the regular ferries take 1.5 hours to get from Calais to Dover. 
