Week 4 Paris and Isle
sur la Sorgue
In France Monday is the day many restaurants and some
businesses are closed, as we remembered when we looked for somewhere to have
lunch at the Parc des Buttes Chaumont.
Feeling the need for some quiet, we had caught the Metro to a sub line
of “our” line 7 to this park in the south of the 19th
arrondissement, the district where we stayed.
The park was created on the site of a rare high point on the
outskirts of Paris, a former quarry and rubbish dump, transformed by the vision
of Baron Haussman into a lovely park, with views across to the other high
point, Sacre Couer.
We walked through the park to
the town end, finding a café opposite the town hall, where we watched crowds
gathering outside for turned out to be a Jewish wedding. This would have been the formal legal aspect
of the marriage, carried out at the town hall.
While we were watching, a cacophony of car horns erupted, with one car
tooting endlessly and going around and around the traffic circle. We were mystified by what seemed to be a
sudden breakout of bad motorist behaviour, until our waiter explained that the
driver of the circling car had just been married, ahead of the group we had
been observing and the other drivers
were tooting their congratulations!
Wedding party at
Buttes Chaumont town hall – the bride in white in the centre left.
While enjoying a leisurely and pleasant lunch, we realised
that we were within walking distance of the apartment, so we set off towards
the Canal St Martin, which joins Canal St Denis near the apartment..
Canal St Martin, heading to Canal St Denis and La Villette
The bridge over Canal
St Denis, very close to the apartment in Porte de la Villette.
Terry heading for home
Tuesday 24 September 2013 Montparnasse
and Ron Mueck
Montparnasse was one district of Paris we had not yet
explored, and as it was also the location of a rare and acclaimed exhibition of
the Australian sculptor Ron Mueck, we set off on the Metro. As usual, we arrived around lunch time, ate
at a sidewalk café and joined the queue at the Cartier Foundation, where the
exhibition was being held. The
sculptures are of human figures of varying scales, but all extraordinarily
lifelike and poignantly so.
Unfortunately, photos were not allowed, we were allowed,
however to take a photo of the gallery from the outside.
My birthday treat was a bicycle tour of Versailles, and was a highlight of our trip. Versailles is so huge it would be impossible on foot to see all that we were able to on bicycle. Our guide, who was English, has degrees in French history and literature and lives locally, so he was able to provide with sufficient background to make the visit interesting. We cycled to the local market, along the way we heard the strains of La Marsellaise and observed a ceremony at the (very grand) town hall honouring the fallen of WWII, which war still resonates strongly in France.
We bought our picnic lunches at the local market and then
set off on our bicycle journey of around 15 kilometres. We were delighted to learn that the first km
or two were along the route of the Tour de France. We stopped at the delightful hamlet created
for Marie Antoinette, then enjoyed our picnic along one of the lakes in the
vast grounds of the palace.
Finally, on what was reportedly a quiet day, we approached
the palace itself, its extravagant and extraordinary excessive decoration, and
its crowds.
All the bodies crammed into the various rooms open to the
public made viewing difficult, and hot.
The famous Hall of Mirrors was made particularly unpleasant – crammed
with gawping shuffling crowds, making the experience claustrophobic and quite
unpleasant. We hurried through without
pausing to take photos and out into fresh air, eventually cycling back through
the town and to the station for the return journey. Because it was my birthday, we paused in Isle
St Louis for a café dinner (disappointing as usual) and crossed the Seine just
after sunset, with Paris looking like a movie set.
Thursday 26 September 2013 La
Villette & Barbes Rochechouart
As we were leaving Paris the following day, this was a day set
aside for preparing for our departure.
To minimise our luggage until we returned to Paris, we decided to buy
two sturdy carry on bags to replace our small backpacks. We looked locally without much success, and
decided the best place would be the area near Sacre Coeur in the next
arrondissement, so off we went.
As we emerged from the metro at Barbes Rochechouart, our
immediate impulse was to turn around, quickly.
In this area of cheap goods, every corner was occupied by men of every
hue, apparent ruffians gathered in animated groups with their eyes on the
street action. But despite standing out
in this crowd and feeling a little like targets, we were on a mission, and made
our way through the crowds to the nearest cut price luggage shop, found exactly
what we wanted, and quickly headed back to the relative peace of La Villette. 
Our regular
boulangerie at Crimee, on the way to La Villette.
Friday 27 September 2013 Train
to Avignon and drive to Isle sur la Sorgue
Like clockwork, we woke, packed and caught the tram to Porte de Vincennes in
the south east corner of Paris, then metro to Gare de Lyon and our train to
Avignon. At Avignon TGV station we
picked up our hire car and headed towards our next destination, Isle sur la
Sorgue. We made our way with the help of
our in-car GPS and our memory of our trip there four years before.
Once settled into our room at the lovely home of our friends
Diane and Andrew, we shopped at the local supermarket and prepared dinner,
which we ate outside once Diane and Andrew arrived for the weekend from Geneva,
where they live and work during the week.
Saturday 28 September – Sunday 29 September 2013 Isle sur la Sorgue
Saturday was a relaxed day, and quiet, Judith having
developed a cold (we blamed the Hall of Mirrors). Breakfast came from the local
patisserie. We walked along the
Carpentras Canal behind the house and wandered around Isle sur la Sorgue,
interested to find it much livelier this time, it still being tourist season, albeit
late. We ate a wonderful dinner at a restaurant
in a village nearby. Finally, good food.
Carpentras Canal 28
September 2013
After an overnight storm which knocked out the power for a little while, and a lot of rain, we visited a
subdued local market on Sunday morning.
As the weather began to clear, the market livened up and we wandered
about, enjoying the atmosphere.
Stallholders also became more animated, enjoying apparently robust
exchanges between themselves and shoppers.
The produce looked fabulous – wonderful local cheeses and cured sausages
in particular.
The sun came out in the afternoon and we enjoyed lunch outside once again, under the magnificent plane tree that dominates the courtyard of the house.
We farewelled Diane and Andrew and after another meal under
the plane tree, we settled in to a quiet night at “home” watching BBC on cable
tv.
