It was Wednesday - I'd posted Wednesdays in France when we heard that storms were approaching Melbourne. We followed the course of the storm on the BOM internet chart - it looked like the heavens were about to open. And they did!!!

The sky looked peaceful but it was the calm before the storm.

I'd actually seen a few birds enjoying drifting on the thermals created by the impending storm but this Magpie sat with prepidation on the power wires outside our house.

The the sky darkened with the afternoon spring sun was trying to penetrate the dark clouds.

Those dark clouds are hanging out just over Port Phillip Bay on Mentone Beach.

And closing in - low fluffy clouds moved at a faster rate below those dark angry ones. 



Then the rains came - it was estimated that some areas of the state would have up to 100 mm or 4 inches rainfall.



Our cars were dumped upon and then the hail came, fortunately without damage.

So much rainfall makes it difficult for the guttering to cope with such a downfall. Our down pipe started spurting because of blocked drains further down. Another weekend job to put on my never ending list of things to do.

OUR PARIS APARTMENT

We arrived back in Paris after dropping the car off in Saint Cloud on the Periphery - not an easy task after getting lost several times and passing the drop-off point maybe two or three times. Tommy our GPS was totally useless, he must have been having a bad hair day.
Finally after finding the right location after several frantic phone calls, the depot guided us in like a plane in a fog. After dropping off the car we packed all our gear into a taxi for our trip to our apartment in Saint Andre des Arts which runs off Rue Danton intersecting with Saint Michel Boulevard. On the junction of these two was the Fontaine Saint Michel which we were familiar with. I discovered Gilbert Jeune with its great choice of books, a restaurant in the Place Saint Andre des Arts called Chez Clement. We ate there once or twice during our time - it was OK and close.
The Metro Station was at the end of the street. Everything was within walking distance - Notre Dame, the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, St Severin, Musee de Cluny. Although the centre of tourism, we enjoyed the atmosphere at that point in time - with subsequent visits to France, we have found our tastes have changed.



Looking down from our apartment to Rue Saint Andre des Arts. The view actually added to our amusement on many occasions.

 We enjoyed the Left Bank on our first trip to Paris in 2006 and decided to return, this time for a whole week. The apartment was small (cosy) on the top floor with the bedroom located on a mezzanine. It had what we imagined as a real bohemian Paris feel about it. Being in the hub of the Left Bank and I guess very touristy, it was noisy with lots happening at night but very exciting. A late night walk put you in company with many other like minded people. You felt entirely safe.




Down the street to Place Saint Andre de Arts.

 

The view directly across from our window. I wonder who lives there and what their life is like. Are they locals or tourists like us?

 Yes, it was at times extremely noisy unless you closed the double glazed windows but somehow we enjoyed the sound of Paris drifting into our apartment. A certain noise would send us to the window to look down into the street to be part of the atmosphere. One night the Irish bar no more than 30 metres down the street was packed the night of the Football Finals.



The Kitchen.




The stairway to our mezzanine bedroom.



Our bedroom and Internet access - very comfy.



Looking down on our living area - just enough space for two.

 We unloaded our taxi and transported our bags and my bike to the top floor of our apartment and started unpacking - then horror, the reality that I couldn't find my mobile phone hit me. Where could I have misplaced it and then I realised it could only be in one place, the side pocket of our leased Citroen. A quick phone call confirmed my suspicion. We arranged to pick it up the following day which in itself was a very pleasant adventure. Its amazing how a moment of panic can bring a wonderful experience and memory, but I'll let Sue tell you.

SUE TELLS THE STORY of meeting lady with shopping trolley. (remember - she talks in green)
Not the following day at all, but immediately, while we felt we had some hope of getting it back. Also in the car was the change we had amassed to pay tolls on the way. All our coins were chucked in the centre console compartment. Oh well, easy come, easy go. Leon pay attention! Oh OK, me too.
We were fairly new to Paris, but managed to find our way to the correct train to get to St Cloud and puzzle our way to the place we had left the car and eventually retrieve the phone. It was easier than it had been to find the spot in the car a few hours earlier.
We found a nearby cafe and began to relax over coffee prior to getting back to the 6eme.
I quickly noticed a few older ladies walking past us, all in the same direction with trolleys! As  I informed Leon, this could only mean one thing...MARKET!  Sorry, but I was very excited. I picked my mark carefully. A lady with a trolley. Lurking quietly until she passed me I stuck out my foot and tripped her up. Nah...I didn't really. I did ask her, in appalling French where the market was. She happily grabbed me by the arm and we began what was to be first of several forced marches in Paris as a consequence of asking directions.
It was a large street market, and while I tried to remain aware that all we bought had to be carried the length of Paris...well you get the drift.
At the fruit market I decided I needed a lettuce, but I couldn't for the life of me think of the word. I tried salad, which I figured had to be close, but the guy serving was playing dumb. Please note the word "playing"
In the end he invited me to play charades and I indicated a nice group of frisee lettuces. At which he said,"frisee"  Duh...called the same here. I said as much, and he replied in perfect English that yes, he knew that. I laughed said that I hope he had enjoyed himself, and he said, yes, he had and proceeded to not charge me for the lettuce and threw in some herbs as well. Made me wish we were staying way out there. I was happy to later discover that market stall holders were as friendly and often as funny all over Paris.

Pink bikes - Why I wonder? Can anyone tell me?

Our Metro station took us on our many travels during our week in Paris.

Our stay in Saint Andre des Arts allowed us to see many of the most extraordinary museums on the left bank. OOPS, she's back again - sorry folks.
As well as getting used to being rained on in the kitchen as the upstairs shower leaked into the kitchen. Also was fun climbing on a chair in order to reach the oven which was right under the roof.

In the following weeks we'll take you strolling through the Museums that we visited - hope you can join us.

What a great weekend in Melbourne  - the sun gods were shining on us.

Melbourne gave us 30 degrees this weekend. It went quickly, in a blur really. It seems Friday night to this very moment have been in fast motion and its back to work tomorrow.

 It started with a boys/girls night out. The boys decided to watch a promo video of a cycling event in Tuscany called L-Eroica, an event that takes you along the "Bianca Strada" the white gravel roads of Tuscany. It's a 200 km event for classic bikes. Oh yes, and by classic riders. I'm told that riders over 60 and from overseas will be allowed an entry regardless.

Naturally we ate pizza and drank Italian beer and Vino. Two of our members may be doing the event next year and as we are in France, I won't be one of them but maybe 2014. Love to go back to Tuscany.

And the girls - well they had drinks somewhere else.

Saturday morning we were greeted by an almost windless, cloudless sunny morning - having seen the DVD Friday night we were inspired for our usual Saturday morning ride. The bayside views at this time of morning are something we will never tire of.



I found this on the shelf of our local wine merchant and since we are returning to Chinon next year, I thought it might just be a nice drop- it was.

We'd invited friends for a night BBQ in our backyard and conversation came to comparing our travels. Our guests Kim and Michael are seasoned travellers and unknown to us, they had also stayed at Menton on the border of France/Italy. We drank a Rose and that's when I mentioned that we sat on a balcony of a Menton hotel overlooking the Mediterranean. Those views of our Port Phillip Bay always remind me of the same view albeit the colours between the two hemispheres do differ.
It was an early Sunday morning start for our friends at the BBQ as they and I were to ride in the "Nongs".
That's the Dandenong Ranges - now I'm not much of a hill climber but I do love the Nongs. It's lush with rain forests and lovely winding roads that encourage cycling, motor cycling and motoring. There's tea houses, cafes and lots of antique - knick-knack stores to take up your time for a Sunday outing.



The Puffing Billy wanders through the Dandenongs - now for tourists but this narrow gauge railway served the locals and transported timber, etc in the early part of last century.



The forests of the Dandenongs are no more than an hours drive from Melbourne CBD.

For us - well me, it was lots of pain with gradients to 12%. I even saw one hill with a sign telling me the rise was 30% - OUCH!!!


22 of us headed out - superbly trained elite athletes - Ha!! We arrived back happy but exhausted from the constant inclines of the Dandenong Ranges.



The start of the ride with zero kms on the computer - 3 hours later it read 68 kms.

The Dandenongs has many lovely old homes from the rich of the early 1900s. They are hidden behind high hedges. It also has some of the most nurtured and cared for gardens.
Some of the photos you see here are not mine as my colleagues wouldn't take the time to be tourists - they were on a mission to smash each other over the inclines of the Dandenongs.

sorry that this photo is a little fuzzy but so was I at our midway stop at the bakery.

 Maybe Sue and I will return in the car or even stay a weekend in a B and B to bring you a more interesting post soon.



From September to October, the Dandenong residents open their gardens to the public.

 

The legs of a very tired "old" warrior cyclist enjoyed a few hours of being horizontal on Sunday arvo. Although it was a lovely ride - I will wait till next year's event and hopefully have recovered.

 Several of the above photos were taken from the internet to illustrate this blog.

The Size of Things

How big is Australia - If your talking size - check out the maps of other countries overlayed on Australia.
If you're talking population, then we are only small.
The USA maybe slightly larger in size than Australia, marginally and has a population of 312m.
France has 65m, Germany 81m, Spain 46m, and the UK has 62m.
Judging by the map, you could put all of Europe and the UK into Australia and that combined is a population of 564m people - Australia's current population is 22m.
We do like to spread out on the couch. We get a little edgy in crowds. We like our own space.

HONFLEUR

Our drive to Honfleur was uneventful along the Normandy coast. We stopped a few times; in fact we needed an injection of caffeine early on, still raining though. As we ventured further on, the sun decided to pay us a visit. Maybe it was that we were close to what seemed like an up market tourist resort on the coast. The twin towns of Deauville and Trouville could have been any seaside location throughout the world, well even in Australia.

I’ve seen similar architecture in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and the Gold Coast. The usual multi-story hotel and apartment complexes. OK, let’s move on, we didn’t come to France to see what we see at home.



We were greeted by the Honfleur harbour as we negotiated the cobbled stoned laneways to our home for the next three nights.

But Honfleur, Oh what a magical place as we drove into the old part of town. It was like entering another century. Searching for our B and B wasn’t too difficult with our GPS Tommy, but entering the narrow, cobbled laneways took some negotiating, and the feeling that we were going to love our three night stay was very strong.


These doors were the entrance to our accommodation - very quaint!




And this was the stairway to our little Hobbit house.

 

Oh, yes an opportunity to rest Sue thought but I assembled my bike to explore the roads of Honfleur. My most vivid memory was of descending into a nearby village with a typical older French gentleman sitting on a bench in a beret and a walking cane. As I rode by he yelled "Allez, Allez". Memories like those you take home with you to tell your cycling mates forever.

Looking out of our Hobbit house, we observed the other little homes in this enclave of little places of serenity.

We’d booked our time at Honfleur in a B and B called La Cour Saint Catherine. It seemed to be a little village within a village. You entered these large wooden gated to a hidden sanctuary. Our rooms gave us the impression of a Hobbit’s home. A small stairway rose to a doorway that even we of challenged stature needed to duck before entering. It looked so comfy that before I could bring our bags in, Sue was snoring on the bed.

Architecture in Normandy is so different from Provence, Languedoc, Dordogne and the Loire. We'd travelled so far, seen so many things. Each new region had unique characteristics. Normandy had its own personality




Churches and Cathedrals don't look like this in our earlier travels - this one was unique.

 

I don't think you could ever become bored with walking the streets and laneways of Honfleur. Each corner offers a new experience.

Honfleur sits on an estuary of the Seine and is one of France's early defensive and fishing harbours of the 15th century. Buildings surrounding the old harbour rise six and seven stories high, yet when walking along the street directly behind these buildings, they seem to be maybe two or three stories high due to the incline of the terrain.



These buildings rise five to six levels yet on the other side they are only two or three levels due to the incline of the land.

This cafe ran jazz and blues nights - we ate twice at a resturaunt directly opposite and had the same courses because they were so great. Lamb Shanks yummy, it was just like home in winter.

It is said that one should stop to small the roses occasionally - Well Sue decided that Honfluer had the best smelling weeds and a very nice Faux Florist shop.



My very favourite heroine, Jean d'Arc said hello.





The half wooden houses in Normandy make great photographic material.

To say we fell in love with Honfleur is an understatement and after visiting you can understand why it became a venue for some of France’s most celebrated impressionists.
Pissaro, Renoir and Cezanne are among the many that brought their easels to Honfleur.
Even in modern times this charming harbour village still draws artists as we experienced during our walks.


Honfleur claims as their sons, landscape painter Eugene Boudin and composer Erik Sate.

Having just arrived in Honfleur in the mid afternoon and Sue having a little nap, we didn’t get to explore our surroundings till late afternoon and our main objective was to find an interesting restaurant for dinner.

Who doesn't love a rooftop garden. These thatch roof houses had the most beautiful gardens both on and above the ground. 



I just love a creative Deux Chevaux, Don't you?




We had a lovely little snack at Beaumont en Auge and met a very talkative lady who had told us that she had left her husband and was enjoying life in Beaumont riding horses and running a cafe. Why would she tell us this stuff, but we were happy to listen and add her conversation to our travel memories.


Over our days in Honfleur we took a few drives into the country side and also across to Le Havre. The city being a major French port, was bombed badly during the war and now is quite a modern city. We walked the beachside and enjoyed lunch at a side street cafe but it didn't hold the interest that Honfleur offered. Our time was drawing to a close in France. We had travelled from Paris to Provence, Languedoc, the Midi Pyrenees, The Tarn, and the Dordogne before moving on to the Loire and Normandy. It was time to return to Paris for a week in an apartment in the 6th. Another week would see us back home in Melbourne.