FUNKY FRIDAY

This is what I call a very scary Busker

I checked out the many selections from his REQUEST LIST and I noted that he had "put on a happy face", he was not amused by my request!!!!!!!!

The Queen's Birthday Long Weekend

This Friday is the start of the long weekend in Melbourne. This kind lady above allows us to celebrate her birthday with a long weekend. Its not really her birthday on Monday and I don't quite know why we celebrate in June.

I'm not even quite sure why we are still part of the Commonwealth and have Lizzie as our Queen, but still she is very nice and I like long weekends, don't you?

Maybe we could celebrate her birthday with a TEA PARTY - didn't they do that in the USA some time ago?

Leaving Paris for Arles

From the Diary;
"Well, where to begin? A day of high tragedy and low comedy! We ordered a taxi yesterday to pick us up from the hotel at 9.00 am to go to Gare de Lyon. We added extra time to be safe, just as well as a call came through - Taxi running late by 30 minutes and we arrived at the station at 10.00 for the 10.20 TGV to Avignon.
So far, so good but the Gods were just having a little joke on us."

On arrival Sue went to information to locate which platform our train would leave from (this was our first TGV experience) - she was informed that it was platform C. We waited but no TGV was there. She ran back in a panic where she was informed that they gave her the wrong information - it was platform E - and, you guessed it - it had left.
What to do - well Sue took command in her normal teacher way and sought out the supervisor and with marvelous efficiency, he issued new tickets for the next TGV to Avignon. You would think that was the end of our concerns, wouldn't you - Nooooooooooo.
We had a lease car to pickup and so phone calls made to reschedule the pickup time - again Sue took over and all was in order.
THAT IS UNTIL!
Our TGV wasn't going anywhere at the appointed time - Why you ask??? The doors of the train wouldn't close and it took a further 45 minutes to rectify this. Now we would be two hours late to pick up the car. Another phone call was made. Our car man Joseph and Sue were forming a relationship. (Little did we realise that we would be meeting Joseph two years later)
We did finally made it to Avignon and the keys to our leased Citroen C3 were handed over by a lovely non-English speaking lady who promptly left, leaving me with this car that had all the controls on the opposite side of what I'm used to in Australia. Stressed, yes you could say that.
But this was a minor situation - next was to fill up the empty tank on the C3.

Knowing we had a diesel engined Citroen, I was concerned that there was no Diesel bowser. I didn't know it was called Gazole. Payment was by credit card - BUT not ours. We paid cash. It was a learning process.

Finally we were on our way to our first night's stay in Provence at the Hotel Regence in Arles. Well sort of!!!

I took the wrong turn and went via Nimes adding an extra 45 kms to the trip.
Back to Sue's Diary
"Finally made it to Arles in full-on peak hour traffic, no idea where to go, circle, circle, circle - no where to park and then, A SIGN pointing to our hotel. We parked directly outside. It felt so good to breathe out after all that time."

After driving past our hotel three times, we finally found it and a parking spot directly opposite.

The hotel was just inside the old city walls which can be seen to the left in this photograph.

With the drama of the day behind us, it was time to explore Arles before dark. To me as a past art student, Arles was intriguing due to it being the place that Van Gogh and Gauguin spent three months painting in and around the village in 1888. Although the house (the Yellow House) where they lived no longer exists, many of the other places they painted still do.

I couldn't find my photos of thid cafe so this was stolen from http://www.vangoghgallery.com

We walked past the Cafe that was the subject of one of Vincent's paintings and vowed to return for a glass of wine. Walking further up the cobble stoned narrow roads we stood transfixed by the image in front of us - the Roman amphitheatre survive over 2000 years where concerts and bull fights are held to this day.

Arles has become one of our many favorite French villages - certain parts are so romantic and it's history, the market, cafes and eating places remain vividly in our memory.

We've now visited Arles twice and find no reason why it couldn't be on our next "must visit" list.

After a very tiring day it was time to freshen up for dinner. We decided that we would take our chances and wander the streets on this balmy late summer evening in Provence looking for a place to dine.
For the first time on this day of high drama, we lucked-in with a superb restaurant (we returned 2 years later) in the back streets and dined in the outdoor garden.

Our hotel was across the road from this scene of the Rhone - what a view.

From the Diary

"Wonderful dinner. Seafood with spinach gratin entree, duck Lórange for main and an apricot thingy for desert. Slept the sleep of the righteous."

NEXT: Another day in Arles - driving to the Languedoc and more drama!!!

Goodbye Autumn - Hello Winter

Strangely enough, we had an usually quiet weekend - mainly just hanging around the house and cleaning up the garage. Saturday night we did accept an invitation from friends who are building a new home down on the Mornington Peninsula. Lamb shanks were on the menu which we love. The Peninsula was no more than a 45 minute drive from our home in Mentone which is actually no different to driving to the City for dinner.
We decided a sleep-in was in order on Sunday morning and a late morning ride saw me with a wet bum - it was sunny when I left.

Kicking autumn into winter

Very soon most of the trees will be bare of leaves

Melbourne's weather this weekend brought alternating showers and sunshine and at ground level everything is turning green except for the leaves falling from the trees. I love to see the leaves filling the gutters and pathways at this time of year and when there is a gust of wind, they come alive.
I can remember when we were in Paris for an Autumn in 2006 and I went for a run and the streets were full of leaves - it was a great experience.

I stopped to take a photo here while the wind blew leaves from the trees - it can't really be seen in this shot but when I jumped back into the car it was full of leaves.

Sue Says;

Our lime tree has a great crop at the moment. I am thinking of making limecello to see if it works. I make a very drinkable limoncello, so it should work with lime flavour. I will keep you all informed.

 Leon's favourite meal of the moment is roasted pork belly with lots of crackling. So I've made it twice in the last few weeks. It needs to be a bit of a treat because it's very fatty, but it is delicious.

Made it this night with lots of small potatoes cooked under the pork with garlic cloves and rosemary.

Yummy broccoli and carrots with  gravy from the roast and some apple sauce. Yummy!

I guess that's my quota for this month, is it Sue?

Funky Friday

I pass this shop twice a day - Sue decided she needed to look inside - meanwhile, several $$$$ later.

Funky Friday heralds in the weekend for all of us employed. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be retired. Would I still look forward to weekends or would it spoil it for me?

Please, if there are any retirees out there, tell me of your pleasures.

Versailles, the Pantheon and Luxembourg Gardens

Versailles on a sunny Paris autumn day.

What more could one ask for?

We sat at our café in Place de la Sorbonne and enjoyed a traditional French breakfast of a croissant, some bread with butter and jam washed down with café crème. Our waiter recognized us from the day before and spared a few pleasantries which was nice of him and it made us feel a little special.

The breakfast was 13.50 euro for the two of us compared to 20 euro back at the hotel, and we had the view of the passing parade of Parisians on their way to work and the students going to college. Walkers, cyclists and commuters on public transport and cars bustling by gave us a marvelous insight to Paris at this time of morning. Why have breakfast in the kitchen cellar of a hotel with other tourists?

Our first view of entering Versailles

Having said that, we were about to join the queues of tourists at Versailles, but why would you miss this attraction. We walked down Boulevard Saint Michel, pass the fountain and turned left along the Seine to where we would meet our bus. We just can’t help meeting other travelling Aussies. While waiting for the bus to arrive, we introduced ourselves to a couple from Perth. Often we hear the locals say “I would just love to go to Australia but it’s so far away”. Let me tell you that 26 hours on a plane is not my favorite thing to do but it’s worth it when we get there.

The gardens gave me some inspiration for our own backyard for a makeover.

And some interior ideas as well

A few hours can't do justice for absorbing the size of Versailles.

We arrived at Versailles to be welcomed by a large crowd of souvenir sellers. They were very eager to offer us the opportunity to make our visit memorable buy selling us all manner of bad taste items.
The opulence of Versailles for our first visit to France was awe inspiring. The walk up the cobblestones to the entrance had us open jawed before we experienced anything further. Sometimes it goes through my mind that small is better. I could absorb the smaller Chateaux of the Loire better that Versailles.
From the Diary, “The weather is warm and sunny. A perfect day for gardens. Versailles is magnificent – hard to take in, all that opulence. What bastards they were with normal people starving. The gardens though were fabulous – Leon reckons he’s got some good ideas for the backyard when we get home!!!!”

We arrived back from Versailles only after just surviving the souvenir sellers. It was a bit like running through the opposition team in a game of rugby.

After we returned for a late lunch of a cool Pelforth Blonde (not available in OZ) and a baguette stuffed with ham and cheese we walked around the corner to the Pantheon.
Now after Versailles, the Pantheon was something that I could more successfully absorb.

One of my very favorite places in Paris - the Pantheon

Sue wrote in the diary, “What a magnificent building – full of a crappy modern art exhibition – polystyrene balls hanging the beautiful domed ceiling in pantyhose. It looked like dog’s balls. Also full of self important looking people watching the said display and talking meaningfully.” Yes I know she just doesn’t understand true art so I left her listening to the observers of this great piece of art while I explored the crypt of the Pantheon. I loved this place and was enchanted by its atmosphere. It is the last resting place of Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Pasteur, Emile Zola, Leon Gambetta and the Curies. I have to return again and further explore the Pantheon.

I was actually a bit embarrassed to take too many photos in the Pantheon but the scenes are still in my memory until next time we return.

Sue was fascinated by the demonstration of Foucault’s Pendulum that demonstrated the earth’s rotation while I was in the crypt.
It was proving to be a big day with an late afternoon walk through the Luxembourg gardens before returning to our hotel to freshen up for dinner.

While at the Pantheon we investigated the local restaurants and decided on Le Fontaine which is in Rue Soufflot. It was only about 50 meters from the Pantheon which looked superb under the spotlights. You could look down Rue Soufflot and in the distance was the Eiffel Tower under light in the balmy late summer night.
The dinner, well Sue wrote in our diary, “Double cut loin boned lamb chops – rare on an herb white bean puree with fried potato crisps on top. BUT, I had the prune tart, fresh plums on the lightest pastry I could imagine. There was a blueberry sorbet infused with rosemary melting over the top, the best desert I’ve ever had. Then home to bed – sweet dreams.”