Night out

Have hooked up with a small group of anglophones who I met in bars and we have been discovering
the night life.

Very busy nights and very relaxed day watching rugby at my local cafe on rue Saint Denis.

Rugby ball and Eiffel Tower

The Rugby World Cup starts tonight and over the past weeks the media has been educating this soccer loving nation the rules of the game which is mainly played in the SW of France.
Many bars and cafes of the city are decked out in the colours of 'Les Bleus' the French team, while some bars have adopted other national teams. Cafe Oz has the colours of 'Les Wallabies'.
My local cafe had the staff all decked out as Les Bleus. The foreign team with the most press in Paris is that of New Zealand. They are fascinated by the hakka and the tattoos. The All Blacks advertise for Toyota, some insurance company and something else which I have forgotten. The New Zealand tourist authority must be radiant.

Père Lachaise cemetery

Père Lachaise cemetery is silent and quite peaceful and visiting it is a bit like being on a treasure hunt as you seek out the famous buried there - I found the writers, Proust, Collette, Balzac, Wilde and of course every druggies favourite - Jim Morrison.

 

This afternoon visited La Madeleine church, designed as a temple to the glory of Napoleons army.

The cinema tonight was an animated film called "Persepolis". An adaption of a celebrated comic book about Iranian society as viewed by a young girl and her family in Tehran. Four stars.

Cafe at La Butte-aux-Cailles

The days are still long and sunrise is around 7am and it finally gets dark around 8.30pm. The mornings are fresh so the leather jackets and scarves are out.

Thanks to Robert and Ruth, I wandered the streets around La Butte-aux-Cailles in the 13th arrondissement. This area seems like a little village compared to much of Paris. In 1783, the first montgolfière balloon to carry passengers landed here after a flight of 25 minutes.

I also visited the Conciergerie - this was the former prison where Marie-Antointte was held.

Napoleons Tomb

Today I went to Musee Marmottan which boasts the world's most extensive collection of paintings by Monet. Followed this up by a visit to Les Invalides. This complex of buildings contains museums and monuments relating to the military history of France and is also the burial site of Napoleon.
I think the highlight today happened in the 16th arrondissement - the chicest of chic suburbs. I followed a madam, all coiffure and couture, walking her lap dog and having her man-servant bend down and pick up the 'merde' in what looked like a white hanky and put it in his pocket to dispose of later.

Le Grand Rex cinema - historical monument.

Went to the movies to see "Ratatouille" an animated picture about a rat in Paris. The great thing was that I saw it at the Le Grand Rex. The cinema was built in 1932 and is registered as a historical monument as one of the last temples of cinema. It is a fantastic place to watch a film in. You can see some pictures of it via this link.
www.legrandrex.com/

Institut du Monde Arabe

Wandered down to the Institut du Monde Arabe. One entire wall of the building is covered in what looks like an Arabian screen but the apertures open and close with the sun. They had a great exhibition of Islamic weaponly from the 10th to 18th century.
Finally went to some bars yesterday and today. Sorta odd sitting at a dinky tablesfacing the street rather than standing around in beer barns that we are used to in Australia.

Pierre et Gilles exhibition

Went to the Pierre et Gilles exhibition at Jeu de Paume. The exhibition showed 120 art works from the beginning in 1976 to 2007 and covers two floors. After all the tourist sights over the past few days it was nice to be surrounded by 'my people', who were there in droves.
Wandered the Marais and Les Halles. Forum Les Halles is an unspeakably ugly chrome and glass shopping centre built in the 70s but seemingly loved by Parisian teenagers.

Fontainebleau

This morning took a train from Gare de Lyon to Fontainebleau, about 55 kms SE of Paris, to visit the château. This chateau is a lot less crowded than Versailles and I virtually had the place to myself.
Afterwards wandered the town and found a cute little cafe in a cobblestone square packed with diners. Had lunch in the sun and a few red wines.

Pickled heart of the son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette

Went to Saint Denis - home of Stade de France, for World Cup Rubby, a huge immigrant community living in tower blocks and the reason for my visit - Basilique de Saint-Denis.
The church is was the first major structure built in the Gothic style and is where the kings of France and their families were buried for centuries. In 2004 a glass jar with the pickled heart of the son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, the boy that would have been Louis XVII, was sealed into the wall of the crypt.

After 19 months of French classes and hours of study it appears all you need is:

"Bonjour madam/monsieur/mademoiselle" - when you go into a shop or restaurant or bar or museum
"Je desire" - when you want something
"Merci madam/monsieur/mademoiselle" - when you get it
"Au revoir madam/monsieur/mademoiselle" - when you leave a shop or restaurant or bar or museum

Canal Saint Martin

Ouch! I have sore feet from all the walking.

I wandered the four and a half km length of the Saint Martin Canal. It was opened in early 1800s and narrowly escaped being filled in and paved over for a highway in the 1960s.

This evening I went to a cafe where I was never served and never understood why and so went to the movies instead.

In 'Pariscope' -the weekly events guide - I counted up 267 different movies showing this week.

Rue de Vertbois

Here is my little rue in the Marais. Next door to the apartment is a tiny shop where a man makes violin bows - not the string, just the wood bit and further down the street a young guy repairs what looks like old railway clocks.

Spent most of today is wandering around the Left Bank et Les Halles - my old haunts from the 80s. It does not seem the same as I remember it. My old cafe is now a 'sportsmans bar' and my hotel has been turned in a vintage clothing shop!

While there are still dogs under my feet in the restaurants, a mayor in greater Paris has been forced to give up the use of a repulsive spray on the homeless to move them on!

The centerpiece at Place de la Nation

The flight from Sydney just seemed to go on and on but the connections worked and my luggage and I turned up at Charles de Gaulle. I caught the train into Paris with the tourists and the usual North African and Eastern European train jumpers singing for change.
The apartment was easy to find. It is simple and well positioned and the owner Madam Claude is a honey. She gave me a list of facts for the area, supermarkets etc and now have a place full of cheese and cakes.
I have a 'carte orange' which means I can travel around Paris by metro or bus for a week for about 16 euros -what a bargain. I caught the metro to Place de la Nation for no reason and wandered around the shops and had a few beers in a cafe watching the the world go by.

Bangkok

Bangkok. Smiling faces again. Russia could learn much about customer service

Helsinki

 

People eating bags of freshly podded green peas. Like we would eat strawberries.

St Petersburg

St Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad, St Petersburg. Does not get dark until 11pm and light again at 4.30am!

Moscow

 

Magnificent Moscow.

Yekaterinburg

Where Asia and Europe meet. Also best known for the place of death of the Romanovs and also thousands in the Stalinist purges 1937 and 1938.

Getting serious "Trainlag" as we keep putting the clock back and as we cross Russia.

Trans Siberian Railway

Train No1 "Rossiya" - Vladivostock to Moscow service. Once on the train you revert to Moscow time. No matter where geographically you are. Two days of train, birch forests and very occasionally little villages.

Pull open curtains in the corridor to see the view and the provinitska pulls them shut. She runs a tight ship that one! She vacumes and dusts, She keeps toilets locked and opens them only at very odd times!

Lake Baikal - Russia

 

 

We get the first hint of Lake Baikal through the fir trees before the train runs along the shore for 200 kms of tunnels and cliff sides. Irkutsk was once known as the Paris of Siberia. It is a very European city even though it is on same longitude as Bangkok. In the afternoon wandered to the lake side for a swim but the water feels just above freezing point!

Mongolia

The Naadam Festival at Ulan Bator and then a few days camping in the steppes.

Magnificent scenery. Eagles circling via the thermals, marmot like rodents running around the grasslands.

Beijing

Up at 6am for an early morning stroll around Tiananmen. The square was already busy with kids flying kites and people having their photos taken in from of the portrait for Chairman Mao.

Great wall is beautiful even if totally reconstructed. The wild wall further along is even more impressive.

Hong Kong to Xi'an

 

Traveling through China is like a Zang Yimou movie set. Rice paddies, water buffalo, workers in the fields and little brown mud brick villages. Even in the countryside the air is polluted from the coal power stations.

 

Xi'an is very pretty. Old city walls, wide boulevards and tree lined streets.

 

Terracotta warriors are amazing especially the ones partially unearthed. Just and arm or face appearing through the earth.

Hong Kong

 

Two days to re-explore Hong Kong. On the second day I took the ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island and then the stairs to the Mid Levels I forgot the escalator to the Mid Levels go down not up in the morning! Finally made it. The view from The Peak still spectacular.