The Sun King's Chateau

Once you have walked through this Chateau of all Chateaus and its glorious gardens, the French Revolution makes a lot more sense. Robespierre and his mates must be congratulated for stopping the destruction of what was once the bastion of Royal Power for the last three Louis of Feudal France. It is an incredible record of  the life, dreams and achievements in the arts, humanities and sciences of a decadent era.

Empty front courtyard of the Palace
 - minutes before the flood of folk.

The centre bust is Louie XIV at 27yrs

Listening and gaping in the Hall of Mirrors
- a waiting room for courtiers to be invited into the presence of the King

Gilded and Painted ceilings and sparkling chandeliers strain the neck.
One guy lay on the floor to photograph and was trod on a couple of times.

Close up of 27 yr old LouieXIV - Sun King

The cleaner carried her equipment in a Harrods bag!
Only the best for Versailles or 'The best of British' is only good enough to serve in France?

The audio guide for the tour of Versailles was informative but to the point without trying to waste time with story telling.  The room just before the Hall of Mirrors had ceiling pictures that recorded all the victories of the Sun King, beginning with his win over Richelieu. Louie XIV, was the young king, who with his new wife wrestled control of the state, with the help of the musketeers, from Cardinal Richelieu who had been styling himself as King.  When inside try to get ahead of tour groups - the staged stopping with half of the group disinterested or worse, walking around with the video camera on while playing games on an i-phone, is very frustrating.

After news from Annette via Nana, we made sure that we were lining up with our Museum Pass 30 min before the Versailles security check point opened. This worked well because it meant we had less people in front of us through the course of the visit and it gave us a whole day in which to visit.  If it is a day that the musical fountains are playing the Museum pass doesn't get you into the gardens but the extra charge was small - however the queues for late visitors are huge for this and the train to get less active folk down to the Grand canal and the holiday houses of the royal family.

We didn't manage to get to Marie-Antoinette's Hamlet at the furthermost point because of check in deadlines that evening. A car entrance at that end of the property would make a second day visit to that end a sensible idea.  The Museum pass got us into the Grand and Petite Trianon. The idea of hiring one of the golf buggies was keenly discussed until we found out that not only did you have to be licensed to drive it but over 24yrs, disappointed girls. The walk through the gardens was worth the effort, lots of modern art installations and the fountains playing for us both up and down (fluky timing!) were wonderful.

View towards the Grand canal

Half way down the garden is an art
installation by Albero Fogorato.

Neptune and his horses?

Walkway connecting two wings of the Grand Trianon.

Bust of Marie Antoinette

More gardens off another wing - looking from here will suffice!

Rowing on the Grand canal where full scale sips reenacted navel battles for royal pleasure.

If you only get to France once in your life, Versailles is a must do for anyone with the slightest interest in the Royal glory days.

Reading Now:
Road Map to Amboise!

Snakes and Ladders in Paris

Successful order - Dad is paying!

Our excitement at finally heading for Paris made the motorway seem very long. In desperation to see more than grassy verges we detoured to take a look at Chantilly where the famous lace mentioned in the song that gave eldest daughter her nickname, was made. Being Sunday everything was closed except an expensive restaurant that listed frog legs and snails as their traditional specialties ... and MacDonalds.  We gave in this once and were so proud as Willow prattled off our order without hesitation even though she was then told that some items were not available and she had to communicate changes without preparation. Thanks Mds. Craig and Tolhurst! The waiters all around France were very amused when one of the kids did all the ordering for us.

First Sight of Paris

Sacre-Coeur - Our land mark for heading 'home' 

There are reference to cats everywhere in Paris.
Painting top left looked just like Tyson without the green eyes.

Thanks to our trusty GPS we were soon back on track to our Paris apartment.  We came over the top of a hill and M spotted the Eiffel Tower.  Straight in front of us was Montmartre with the Sacre-Coeur basilica shinning on top. Our apartment was three streets below this and the GPS took us straight there- through police barriers (he was very nice and let us through) pedestrian pathways and bike lanes. Hint to future visitors - do not try to drive anywhere in Montmartre on a Sunday, pedestrians, bikes only.

Rouge Bus on Champs-Elysees 

Before we left home a 'Paris Pass' was purchased which was worth every pence. We hopped on and off the Rouge Bus tour to all the main attractions, sailed down the Seine and jumped many of the snake like queues present everywhere we went - aah Paris in summer.

On the Seine

The Queue to the Louvre snaked right around the pyramid, it felt so good to be able to walk straight past to the bag checkers and inside. The crowds churned and ebbed by the pull of the Mona Lisa. Luckily this gave us the chance to eddie around other masterpieces without too much competition along the way. The room housing daVinci's favourite also had the Louvre's largest painting in it, the Wedding at Feast Cana by Caliari. He painted all the guests and Jesus in Italian Renaissance costume, this wasn't as funny as a painting of Jesus on the cross in the hall before, where one of the guards was in full Vatican uniform, the Harlequin outfits designed for the Borgia Pope by daVinci. Smaller by only a few centimeters than the feast, is a painting of Napolean crowning Josephine by J.L.David in 1804, with Julius Ceaser and his mother looking on, neither of whom were there! This is not in the Italian wing. To see all of these on screen check out the Louvre site - http://www.louvre.fr/en/departments/paintings/highlights

The Lady herself with people pushing in or out!
Petal was able to wriggle right down the front but couldn't get back.
The guard let her through the barricade so she walked right up on her way out and was able to see the brush strokes.

Arc de Triomphe from the top of E.T.

The Python of Paris is the Eiffel Tower. As the Paris Pass does not give entry to this icon we got up early and arrived 30mins before it opened and still we were 200m from the ticket office. As we waited in line, gypsy vipers worked the crowd with fake petitions and asking for donations for deaf access to the tourist guides. Parisian police chased them off with very big guns. Cold and windy but the view was well worth the trouble once in a lifetime.

From the border around the top of the Tower

Every evening we returned to the Abbesses (to sortie up to the street leaving this staton - Take the Elevator - the stairs are a serious circular workout - great art on the walls though) or Blanch metro stations to walk up up up to our apartment. There are thousands of stairs in Paris and at least half of them seem to be on Montmartre. There are lots of interesting little shops spreading from both these stations, we found the grocer from the film Amelie and bought fruit, Annis cordial, cheese and crackers, pasta etc to save some dinner Euros. They all open late but only the patisseries are open much before 10am. One up the street from our apartment did great hot chocolate and warm fresh croissants for breaky. Blanch is the closest to Moulin Rouge.

Get up early for the Catacombes - 3 hour queue.

Aussie tucker - french style.

One day the girls and I went to the Chocolate museum which was interesting and tasty then jumped off the Metro at Chatelet for some non-designer shopping. Shoes and handbags are super cheap at the end of summer.

Just a couple of pairs of shoes!

An artist providing a drink for someone's cat.

Drawing Daughter

Artists square through the doors of a cafe.

Last night in Paris - breathing it in

St Michael on Sacre-Coeur just before dark

One evening back at Montmartre the girls stopped in the 'artists' square and chose an artist to draw their portrait. It is always crowded. To get there we walked past a biscuit shop full of macaroons and marshmallow creations, a chocolate shop, a sorbet parlor(we stopped at this one once), a creperie, lots of souvenir shops, art shops selling suspect mass prints of impressionists and many cafes. Orangina on ice was the reward for the long sit and wait when the portraits were finished. We went and saw inside the basilica and searched out the enormous organ we had been told about, that was originally built for someone's house.
The apartment we enjoyed so much was booked through http://www.housetrip.com/, lots of choices pop up once you enter your dates and guests.

The white buildings of Paris are bright and seem to double the light, no wonder artists flocked to the city to starve in turrets. The regular design of all the buildings in every part of inner Paris we tripped through makes me wonder about how tough the building codes must have been all those years ago.  It also helps the visitor understand why buildings such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre's pyramid and Tour Montparnasse were so violently opposed when first constructed.  They also have a serious love of gilding. A building is just not important unless it has it's roof line or fence points painted in gold.

Galeries Lafayette - Oldest dept. store

Invalides - Napoleon finally buried here.
Just more gilt.

Original bridge of Locks - lovers bring an initialed lock
Take a photo of us please.

The sun king's icon survived the trouble

So much more to do and see so we'll be back!

Island of Lutetia (first settlement) - now home to Notre Dame

Seriously keeping the buskers in line

Another guilded dome - this the home of the guardians (nicknamed 'The Immortals') of the French language that was only established in a single form after WWI by forcing national French to be spoken and taught in compulsory schools in every region of France. Apparently before then 'French' was just a Parisian and nobility dialect.

Reading Now: Left my book at home and everything here is in French! UGH!!

Short breaks in Northern France, a Cadogan Guide and DK Eyewitness guide to Paris on loan from the Vicarage.

Wild Weeds of Dover

Tomorrow we Sail

I see France

We got our first glimpse of France across the English Channel as we stood at the top of the chalk cliffs lining the south east of England.

Ivy and brambles cover the cliff chalk.

Battle of Britain Memorial

This one is mine!

We wandered down a cliff top track to the Battle of Britain Memorial where large grassy mounds proved too tempting for the girls. Grass stained jeans resulted after a tumble down.
A large propeller, best seen from the air, had been constructed with inlaid white bricks as the blades and the ground rose to the hub which had a sculpture of a fighter pilot sitting on it with all the squadrons emblems cut into the hub around him.
Two replica spitfires were set up. The girls wondered why they had been painted with targets on them. A sign told us that many of the fliers had been trained at a base in Cambridge.  We have heard that their September air show is one of the

best so will be watching out for that.

Honeysuckle - scented meters away

Thistles

Poppies

Some sort of violet.

Caterpillar weed

Daisy

Bramble Hedge

Another thistle type

No prickles but looks like a soft thistle to me.

White Daisy

Our favourite - Gorse

The photos here are of the colourful weeds growing along the path in great abundance. Many can be found at home in Canterbury NZ.  Why did the settlers take their weeds with them?  All these plants give a purply haze to the grasses along the cliff tops so maybe they just wanted to add some colour to the green, green bush of the new land.

Introduced weeds?

The wind was cool so we ducked back to the Fawlty Towers style hotel for tea.

The Lighthouse B&B - Folkestone

The cat, Alfie, tried to follow her back to the B&B

Next morning we caught an early P&O Ferry across to the continent! One and a half hours later we drove off and onto Paris.

Dover Castle atop the cliffs.

The cliffs disappear as we cross the channel.

On board breakfast - good hot chocolate, lard fried bread ugh.