DAY 127 MONDAYJULY 30 ANOTHER COG TRAIN

Marg and Rob left us at 6.15 on their way back to W.A.. Pam Lyn and Malcolm walked to a little village called Baffour before breakfast.

TYPICAL BAFFOUR HOUSE

 Ken drove us to Saint-Germain-L`Herm where we had morning tea in a bar.

 We found our way to Puys de Dome which is a volcano in an area where there are 80 volcanoes close together.  We paid 8€ each for a ride to the top and back on a nice new electric train which used  the cogwheel system to spiral its way around the mountain.

 As it is school holidays there were crowds but that did not spoil our day. There was a 360 view as we walked around the summit.

 Paragliders were taking people for tandem rides and we watched them land and take off for a while.

Each time we climb a mountain in this region we find beautiful wild flowers above the tree line.

 We drove home a different way and passed through many little towns with their old stone houses and narrow main streets just like La Chaise Dieu. We feel we have gone back in a time warp. But they do not have the Abbey.

 That is the pride of our town. Our house is 50 metres down the hill from the front of the Abbey. We had a nice dinner and drink at the Fouraubois Hotel for only 10€ each. A big adventure today at a small cost. It is so quiet and friendly here that we think we have found another Fuschl.  The locals often have little English so Malcolm's French is getting a workout.

DAY 125 SATURDAY JULY 28 LA CHAISE DIEU

Goodbye Paris. We loved your river and your bridges and your buildings. But we have had had enough of your traffic and crowds.  We have never heard so many sirens blaring. Everyone who drives any sort of emergency vehicle seems to turn on the siren whilever they are driving.  We had carefully planned out our trip to La Chaise Dieu today and had been twice to the Gare du Nord to ensure we knew how to use the RER D to get to Gare de Lyon.  Our TGV was due to leave there at 7.53 so we arrived at Gare du Nord at 7am and bought tickets. As we came down to the platform we saw the dreaded notice TRACKWORK or French equivalent.  We learned that we would need to go a different way.The train arrived and quickly filled up so there was no room for us four and luggage. Plan B was to get a taxi which took half an hour and we got to the Gare de Lyon with ten minutes to spare and found  that our carriage was the twentyfourth one on a train starting from one. After that drama we had a quick passage to Lyon and a small train to Saint Etienne where Ken and Pam hired a car.

MODERN STYLE OF STATION

STATION SCULPTURE OF THE DAY.  RESISTANCE FIGHTER SHOT BY GERMAN FIRING SQUAD HERE.

  Ken drove us to St Germain? overlooking the Loire river where we walked up to an historic church on top of a hill.  Two ladies waved and clapped us as we climbed the hill

and we found a very nice view of the Upper Loire valley.

 We found a bakery open and bought quiche and chicken roll for lunch in the main square which was almost deserted.  At this stage we knew very little about La Chaise Dieu but we were hoping it was like this town.

 As we continued up into the mountains through large tracts of forests we realised we were in very scenic areas. When we found the town our altimeter showed 1080 metres so we were up at Blackheath level. We were in the department of Upper Loire and the region of Auvergne, on the edge of the Massif Central.

Pam found her friend Marg who welcomed us and led us through a tiny alley to her house which she and Robert bought twenty years ago.

The lintel over the front door told us the house was built in 1768.  The letters IM are for Jesus and Mary. The house contained many catholic items from previous owners, added to by our hosts who were former teaching nun and brother.

Marg cooked us pork chops and vegetables for dinner.


DAY 126 SUNDAY JULY 29 FIRST DAY IN LA CHAISE DIEU

We started the day with a lovely walk in the forest using instructions from Robert and found the Square Tower.  Pam went to Mass with Marg and Robert and 200 others in the Abbey.  Robert was very knowledgeable about the history of the Catholic church in France and told us of several miracles leading to sainthoods.  There was to be an annual music festival in the area in August centred in the Abbey and preparations were building up for that.  Malcolm and Lyn had coffee/choc in the Tabac  and explored the town as there was a growers' market in the square on Sundays and Thursdays where cheese, mushrooms, fruit, etc were displayed. Marg organised a dinner at the Square Tower Restaurant named after the edifice we saw this morning.  We were treated as special visitors and we bade Robert and Marg farewell.

DAY 124 FRIDAY JULY 27 BIRTHDAY PARTY

The day started hot and steamy again so we did not fancy another Metro a pied like yesterday so we spent the morning with Pam and Ken booking ahead and checking our plans.  Early afternoon we had a siesta in the European style, and woke at 3pm ready to celebrate Pam's birthday.  Tomorrow we leave Gare de Lyon on the TGV at 7.55am so we did a dry run to the Gare du Nord platform we needed to get to in the morning.  Then bought metro tickets from the machine for the first time and proceeded to M Trocadero with one connection.  We emerged into Trocadero place but never worked out which building was the famous one.  As we turned the corner of the Palais de Chaillot we got our first proper view of the Eiffel Tower.

This must be the best spot of all to see it.  Definitely looks larger in real life. Lyn and Malcolm climbed up to the second level (5 euros each) and looked back at the Palais.  Again the best possible view.

The view in the opposite direction is nearly as good across the Champ de Mars to the Ecole Militaire.
Glad to see there are girls moving into the bicycle rickshaw business.

We boarded the permanently docked restaurant boat of Bateaux Parisiens and had a marvellous dinner to celebrate Pam's birthday.  Afterwards we did an hour long cruise with Vedettes which took us under most of the bridges of Paris and showed us many features we had missed yesterday.  Too many to recall but we have now ticked off most of the Intermediate Certificate French Culture items of 1954.  It did rain for a while and Ken had some fun dealing with an umbrella salesman who wanted 15 euros.  The fellow was anxious to sell his last two and go home so he chased after us and we got two for 10 euros.  Some snaps from the boat:

Every bridge that has wire sections is covered in romantic locks. Must be a million of them.

Quite arty photo by Lyn.

Best spot to view the flying buttresses.

The favourite bridge was the Pont Neuf which naturally is also the oldest.  The sculptors attached laughing faces of all the friends of Henri IV because he doubted the bridge would hold up.

Les Invalides, I think.
We heard the story about the rumours that spread in the 1920s that the government had decided to dismantle the Eiffel Tower as it was supposed to be a temporary exhibit.  An enterprising con man managed to sell it to a scrap metal merchant.  Sounds like stories of the Sydney Coathanger.
As we turned around on the forecourt of the Palais to wave goodbye to E.T. they switched on the lights.

As magical as if the other E.T. had ridden behind it on a bike.  Navigated the metro back and enjoyed a busker playing accordion on the train.  A great party, where else but in Paris.

DAY 123 THURSDAY JULY 26 PARIS WALKING TOUR

Pam and Ken arrived late last night.  We made plans with them over breakfast to synchronise activities for the next two weeks.  Tried to book our sleeper to Copenhagen at the station but the queue was too long so we set off on foot to see the central sights.  Today was HOT.  Chemist shops have temperature readings flashing and they varied from 31 to 36C during the day.  We kept in the shade and stopped every hour for a drink.  By the time we got back to the hotel at 6.45 we had covered a lot of territory. First 2 kms straight down to the Seine, stopping for morning tea at the Pompidou Centre.

This is the Museum of Modern European Art and the same building that we saw from the Sacre Coeur yesterday.  We had likened it to a multistory carpark and it did not look suited to a hot day.  Just before we saw the river we caught our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.  So much for the idea that you cannot escape it in Paris.

First impression of the Seine was that they had turned it into a miniature Coogee Beach, but no one actually got their bathing suits wet except under the central shower.

Crossing to the Ile da la Cite, we circumnavigated Notre Dame and ticked off gargoyles, flying buttresses and ornate doorways and rejected the 100 metre queue to climb the tower.

For once we could not find a scale model to get the big picture in miniature.  Perhaps it was inside but we agreed not to join the continuous shuffling throng entering and exiting.  So off to the next big one, the palais de Louvre.  Too big for the crowds to obscure.

Or for us to get into a frame.

Along the way we saw the bateau mouche, too exposed for us today (as were the topless buses). We also passed the bookstalls on the left bank and saw electric rental cars at various spots.

After lunch in the Tuileries Gardens we passed through the Arc de Triomphe.

Non, non, that is the OTHER ARC DE TRIOMPHE as Monty Python would point out.  We realised then how straight a line could be drawn up to the Place de Charles de Gaulle.

On the camera zoom we lined up the fountain (right) the Obelisk and the big A de T. We missed the top of the Obelisk in each photo.

To continue  up the hill where the Tour cyclists raced last weekend we had to cross the Place de Concorde roundabout, which involved five separate sets of pedestrian lights, none of them synchronised.  Supposed to use the Metro?  Stopped halfway up the Champs Elysees for a traditional sidewalk cafe drink.  But the crowds and traffic brought back nothing of the romance to be seen in photos from the 1950s in French Culture classes.  The Arc required a tunnel to reach it in the Place, which worked well and it inspired an occasional snatch of the Marseillaise from the onlookers.
A sign in several languages invited people to treat with quiet respect the tomb of the unknown soldier  and the eternal flame.

With Pam and Ken as our guides we had covered a respectable tally of Paris Monuments so set off back to the hotel with tiring legs and sore feet.  We cut across past the Galeries de Lafayette where some of you may have shopped and tried our luck again at the Gare du Nord,  where the queue was even longer.  We will try to be the early birds tomorrow when they open at 8am.

DAY 122 WEDNESDAY JULY 25 PARIS DU NORD

The best news we have had recently was in an email from Hamish to say that he had a ship called the SALZBURG available to take us from Busan, Korea on October 9 to Auckland with a stop in Suva. That means an extra week in Korea, but that is not a worry; we will find a way of using that week.  after a few days in Auckland there is a freighter going to Sydney.  Last parts of our round the world jigsaw are now ready to go into place.  Today is hot in Paris (32C) and tomorrow may be hotter, so we spent some time recovering in the hotel in between sorties.  Still quite geographically timid we decide first up to find the Gare du Nord, which is only 200 meters away, but in which direction?  Compass to the rescue.  Should have bought a Tom Tom.  Found a ticket window at the station and planned our exit from Paris to Copenhagen on August 9.  It will cost us 250 euros for fast train and overnight couchette fees on top of our Eurail Pass but it works well and will save hotel fees.  Next up we ventured around the block following a free map and came upon a long market place in Boulevard  de la Chapelle.  Clothing, shoes, fruit, vegetables all dirt cheap.  These stallholders know how to cut overheads and margins.

We had morning tea in a bistro.  It seems people buy cakes at the patisserie and drinks at the bistro so we went next door to the boulanger after our drink and chose from these:

The girl wrapped them beautifully.

and we ate them in our room.  Why don't they serve coffee in the patisserie?  Union rules?
We ventured out in another direction and found the church of St Vincent de Paul, which we had not heard of before.

We eventually ended up at the Markets from the other direction. By this time the place was seething with bodies so we bought some fruit and retreated with our hands on our wallet and handbag.  When we came back the lights and the TV failed so we had to move upstairs to the attic on the 6th floor, where we felt La Boheme was located.  But the heroine's hands were hot and sweaty so we agreed to try and find the Basilique Sacre Coeur.  Following a crowded Boulevard we kept looking north until it suddenly appeared like magic.

Wow! What a contrast to all the cheap shops on the Boulevard.  My first Paris Landmark since first learning of them sixty years ago.  The inside was just as beautiful as the outside with impressive stonework, stained glass, paintings and towering dome; and the bonus was the panorama of the city looking south.

 But the Eiffel Tower is still invisible except that dozens of blanket on ground sellers had them at 4 per euro.  On the way back to the hotel Lyn bought a small suitcase on wheels to take the strain off our packs which are being stretched to their limit when we move hotels.