A Weekend in Paris

After finishing at the Chateau we had a weekend to fill in before flying down to Nice and on to Italy. We have both been to Paris before, but not for many decades! The two times I have been before were both in mid-winter so it was a change to see it in a much more pleasant season. We choose an apartment on Airbnb which was conveniently close (i.e. walkable) to Gare Montpanasse (the station we would arrive in), various Metro stops, and the Orlybus (the airport bus). The apartment turned out to be a real success, not particularly clean nor tidy but up a grand staircase, wide hallway and very high ceilings and a little balcony overlooking the street.  Very convenient with lots of transport nearby and supermarkets.

As so many people have been to Paris (it is, after all, the most visited tourist destination in the world) there is no point describing it other than a few general observations …

Plenty of Parisian dogs still ...

The central part of Paris isn’t that large so it is easy enough to walk around with the help of a few Metro rides. We certainly ended up with very sore legs after hours of wandering on the hard asphalt. And it appeared cleaner than in the past – not nearly as much of the famous doggy-poo in evidence!

Due to the major redevelopment in the 19^th Century, the overwhelming image is lots (and I mean LOTS) of beautiful buildings in a similar style, lining wide roads. No individual houses, just 5-storey apartments and offices and glorious public buildings. . One of my all-time favourite buildings would be Le Petit Palais – a free-entry art gallery. It is lucky that there are so many wide boulevards and public squares or there would be nowhere to walk without tripping over other tourists.

The Eiffel Tower is still spectacular, especially at night when it is well lit up.

One of our highlights was watching couples tangoing in the rain on the steps of the Trocadero as it neared midnight.

One of the lowlights was having to pay 4 euros or more for a coffee. Paris is expensive!

Cafes galore!

Farewell to the Chateau

There has been a bit of a gap since the last post as we got into a familiar routine at the Chateau and it takes a bit of an effort to look for inspiration to write another post – the hazard of having a blog! And since leaving the Chateau we have only had sporadic, and slow, internet connections. The excuses now out of the way, here goes …

We spent 6 seeks in total at the Chateau and it was very pleasant, the sort of place we could easily have stayed for a lot longer.  The work was mainly gardening for me (mowing, strimming, watering, poisoning and avoiding weeding whenever possible) plus interior jobs like putting up curtains, while Vicki ended up doing less gardening and more interior cleaning and preparation of the rental accommodation. Not too onerous but with so much that needed doing we ended up putting in quite a few more hours than the norm for HelpXing.

Our only real disappointment was not spending more time with our host Darrien. She is always busy with running a large property, running her English-language library in Lunay, and teaching English. In the first few weeks she was putting in a lot of extra hours refurbishing her library and teaching rooms and in the last few weeks, as it was the school holidays, she was spending a lot of time teaching too: 2 x 2 hour sessions in the mornings and 1 x 4 hour session in the afternoon.  With all the class preparation and pupil assessments she was usually away from home from 8:30am to about 9:30pm, sometimes much later. Long, long hours.  And we had to try and remember how to cook for ourselves too!

The Loire Valley area is very scenic with lots of beautiful Chateaux, not that we went into any as, without a car, transport was difficult. We did avail ourselves of the bicycles often though and enjoyed some trips through the rolling farmland on almost deserted roads. Plenty of pretty little hamlets nearby and interesting towns like Vendome and Montoire.  For a bargain price of 3 euros we spent an afternoon exploring a ruined castle in Lavin (claiming to be the most “French” town in France, whatever that means)  with the local goat population.  Lots of history in this area as it had been owned by a variety of people including Henry IV (he seems to have owned quite a bit of France at one time).

Though we don’t eat out often (with free food at our hosts’, why would you?) but we did have a very typical set menu lunch at a troglodyte village of Troo. For 13 euros each (about $NZ20) we got to sit outside in the main square under a sun umbrella and consume the following: a starter of a vegetable pie and salad, a main of a large steak and chips (note we asked for “Medium” when asked how we wanted the steak cooked, being cautious, and apart from the grill marks there wasn’t much other evidence of any actual cooking – on the rare side of rare in NZ terms), a course of local cheeses, then a choice of dessert, unfortunately the only one we could understand was a Magnum ice cream each! All washed down with half a litre of rose then followed by coffee. A delicious bargain. Speed, though, was not included as you’re expected to languish at the table for a couple of hours …

Medieval carvings in Tours

As we are near a TGV station it is easy – if quite expensive – to visit other towns. We spent a day in Tours, reputably where the best French is spoken! A big town on the Loire River, badly bombed during the war, but with a large medieval section of shops and houses. Quite a contrast to the ultra-modern tram system they have.

Tours

Perhaps it was the season but we came across many weddings. They are readily identified by a convoy of decorated cars tooting loudly and careering around any town.

This has been a very peaceful and relaxing place to be and it would be easy to stay on for a lot, lot longer. However, we have family arriving shortly and more travelling to do ...

Montoire

Lavardin

Public laundry (the boards can be lowered to river level for washing)