DAY 31 and 32: TWO DAYS IN PARIS

 Sunday, May 7, 2023

We had met a couple of Aussies (from Elwood, Melbourne) in Marseilles, and we had arranged to meet up in Paris for lunch. 

That afternoon we just wandered around, ending up near the Louvre and alongside the river.  It rained a bit. We ended up having dinner at an Irish Pub. 

One of those funny little European cars. I might get one to keep in my trunk.

Our hotel

Walking in the rain

I always wanted to be tall

This is impressive. It is a 100% mirrored building. What you are seeing in tis photo are the reflected images of its neighbors. Very cool.

Seems pretty typical. All the chairs face the street for best people watching

You guess.

Not the Nile.

Monday, May 8, 2023

Most of the day we wandered around the City on a "Hop-on Hop-off bus" and took in all the sights from the open air top of the bus. We did two complete circuits, but only "hopped-off" at two places - Notre Dame (to have a look at the repairs) and the Opera Garnier (to grab some lunch. There is no doubt that Paris is an impressive and beautiful place.

We enjoyed a fancy and expensive last supper.

Front seat!

Lunch at a fancy place

Lots of plug in charging 

Notre Dame repairs

Impressive

People on the top

I would not want to live there, but the residential buildings are impressive

Australian flag?

Not sure what this is all about. Does not seem finished.

DAY 30: The Journey to Paris

 Saturday, May 6, 2023

The plan was to drive to Lyon, drop off the car, have lunch, and catch the TGV at about 3 PM. The drive to Lyon was about 10% on local roads and the balance on the A7 Freeway. Google maps estimates the drive to be just under 3 hours, but we had driven on the A7 when we arrived and seen a lot of  bad traffic. I am a bit of a nervous traveler these days so we planned to leave at 9AM and have 6 hours for the drive and lunch.

Traffic jams on the A7 seem a bit strange. You can be ripping along at 120km/hr and then all the traffic slows, crawls and stops. If you are lucky a few minutes later is starts to move and all of a sudden you are back at 120km/hr. This happened a dozen times when we arrived, and it turned a 3 hour drive into 6 hours. Yet we have never seen evidence of an accident or road work or whatever.

We had a couple of these stoppages but they only added about 30 minutes. We initially had the wrong address for the car rental location (they had moved two years ago but did not change the address on their website) and that added a bit of stress but we made it with plenty of time for lunch.

Right on time.

We had First Class seats on the TGV so that was a bit of a treat. I had a carafe of Rose to sip as we tore along at 300 km/hr. Pretty cool. 

I had chosen a hotel close to the city and the main subway station (Chatelet-Les Halles) that was a bit too far to walk, so we got a cab to the hotel. 

DAY 29: PREPARING TO LEAVE

 May 5, 2023

We (Deidre) did all the washing. There is no dryer, so we hang out the washing on some lines on the roof patio. Its a sunny day with a breeze, so a good drying day. Underwear is nice and stiff.

I managed a good walk while waiting for the washing.

We packed our bags.

Bit of a sad day.

Our front door

DAY 28: MARSEILLES, BUS TOUR, FERRY TO CHATEAU D'IF AND HOME LATE (AND DEIDRE'S BIRTHDAY)

Wednesday May 3, 2023

 I must have been tired, I slept 9 1/2 hours. We had crepes for breakfast, the only French cooking I trust.

Guess what for breakfast?

Tummy in!

We bought tickets for the Colorbus (That is how they spell it.) After almost a month, one of our conclusions is that the French do not know how the queue. Getting tickets for the bus was another example. Its annoying. Everyone is being polite, but no one knows "Who's next". 

The bus took us around the old harbor to the north side coast then up to the cathedral. I am not interested in cathedrals, but Deidre likes to look inside and I expected the view would be good. Sadly, the bus dropped us about 1,000 steps below. Steps are not Deidre's friends, but she sent me off ahead to get my photos and made it all the way. She really must have been motivated. I was must impressed and she had a look inside. Lots of gold and statues etc.

At the top

Deidre on the 1,000 steps. She did well.

The 360 degree views were great. Marseilles is a very scenic city. I think every WW2 book that I read pictured Marseilles as a rather gritty place. I now think its rather spectacular, and obviously quite a melting spot of races. 

We made it back to the bus stop but must have waited 30 - 45 minutes for the next bus. Bit of a drag. Back in the old port area we settled for a couple of baguettes for lunch. We had seen the Chateau D'if from the cathedral and decided to find the ferry to the island. 

Our Ferry

Approaching Chateau D'If

There was a bunch more steps getting up from the boat to the Chateau, and Deidre was a bit tired.

After a rest

Looking back

Inside the tower stairs. Deidre did not come with me.

Another photo of blue water

Back in the city we stopped for a beer, a last walk around and a few more photos. We killed a bit of time to allow peek traffic to pass before we headed home.

We were back in the car by about 6PM and got out of Marseilles quite easily. By 7 PM we were a bit peckish. On the way to Marseilles I had noticed a BURGER KING in one of the rest areas. I am not much of a fast food fan, but I do like a BK "Whopper" occasionally ("Hold the mayo and the pickles") and their standard chicken sandwich ("Hold the mayo"). 

So we stopped. When I ordered the Whopper and politely requested "hold the mayo and the pickles" the nice girl just looked puzzled. Apparently they don't alter food orders in France. A Whopper with mayo is a sloppy mess so I changed to the chicken, thinking I could scrape out the mayo. Turned out they had not skinned the chicken either. Maybe I have lost some weight?
 

DAY 27: MARSEILLES BY FAST TRAIN _ NO, BY FAST CAR

 Tuesday May 2, 2023

We only have 4 days before we start heading back home and do not want to "waste" any time. Deidre went over the local maps and concluded that we had pretty well "done the lot". We had avoided Marseilles as it was "just another big city" and, in our minds, it seemed to have a bit of a suspect reputation. 

But we had recently been to the Nimes railway station (to visit Starbucks!) and had seen the Marseilles TGV roar out. So why not drive to Nimes, get a coffee and go to Marseilles for an overnight. The off peak round trip fare was only $100 for both of us and I found a hotel for bout the same right near the port. 

I am a bit of a nervous traveler so we arrived in plenty of time for our 3:35PM train, so we had a coffee and sandwich. An hour before departure time the board showed a 30 minute delay. 30 minutes later another 30 minute delay. This happened 4 times in total until the train was actually cancelled.

I went off and joined the line at the ticket office. I happened to come across a couple from Charlotte, NC with the same problem. The bottom line was that there had been a fire, and there would not be any train to Marseilles that night. I did not want to drive - By now I was a bit tired of driving in France. But the Charlotte couple had some sort of commitment and were desperate, and trying to hire a cab to make the trip! So Deidre and I did the right thing and loaded them into our car and headed to Marseilles. (Plus we had prepaid for the hotel!)

The drive was 50% freeway so it was OK until we found ourselves in a long traffic jam in the Marseilles approaches. Added an hour. By then we had had enough of our new friends (Deidre and I seem to be on the same wavelength) and dropped them off at their hotel and said our aurevoirs. 

Our hotel was a bit basic, but clean and one block from the giant public marina. Deidre was a bit buggered so chose a rest, I headed off to see what I could see. The private boat marina was just amazing. I have never seen so many boats in one place in my life, The whole place just looked amazing. The harbor must have been about 1,000m long and 200m wide, with two old forts other side of the entrance. 

As usual it was another perfect sunny day, and by now a perfect evening so I headed back to collect Deidre for our dinner. 

The whole bay was lined with open air bars and basements, and I had taken the time to pick a nice that would increase our chances of a good meal. 

I ordered 1/2 bottle of wine and some sort of baked fish. Deidre ordered a salad.

If dad had caught this fish he would have tossed it back. Maybe it was 8" or 9" long? It still had its head and fins and skin on (it had been roughly scaled) and I swear it was looking at me the whole time. The skin refused to peal. It was absolutely full of bones. I must have managed a match box full of flesh before I gave up. It cost about E30. The wine was OK.

YUCK!

Not sure if she is really awake yet. 

Perfect evening, sun and moon

Lights on the cathedral

DAY 26: MAY DAY & TRAIN A VAPEUR DES CEVENNES

 May 1, 2023

Apparently May Day is a virtual Public Holiday AND a protest day in France. We woke up to crowd noise at the end of our street. We walked down to have a look and (apparently) it was the local Communist Party having a demonstration. After 3 weeks, we know the routine and headed out of town.

This is what interrupted us when we arrived in Ales. (Not to be confused with Arles.)

So we parked and enjoyed morning tea at a nice place right next to the demonstration. It was a bit funny, the people in the restaurant took absolutely no interest in the demonstration. 

Deidre did not approve. 

But our "Grand Slam" crepes took her mind off it ASAP

Taking photos in Anduze

The train went straight into a 500 m tunnel. The carriages were basically "open sided" and had no lights. Some of the many kids got quite spooked with the noise and the darkness. . The train emerged onto a bridge over the river. 

Lots of bridges and tunnels

A stop in the middle of the route.

Another river

Another tunnel

Another bridge

Our "train a vapeur" changing ends 

As well as tunnels and bridges, the construction included many deep cuttings with their sides re-enforced with natural stone. The amount of labor involved must have been massive. 

Apparently lots of water powered grinding mills in this region

Just another tunnel. 

Deidre thinks I like trains? She might be right. 
I stuck my head out of the window to smell the smoke and get the soot in my eyes. 

Ian Meckiff

Rich Bennau

Norman O'Neal

Wally Grout

Neil Harvey

Alan Davidson

Bill Laurey