Experiences to savour

What did we see?

• London: museums
• South-westish France: castles, caves, cuisine, churches and medieval villages
• Loire Valley: chateaus
• Normandy: English/French history, from Joan of Arc to William the Conqueror to D-Day landings
• Paris: museums and monuments
• Singapore: family, who are also friends, in a completely different environment

Theme highlights in France?

• Medieval villages
• Food
• Old churches
• D-Day landing beaches

Most enjoyable experience not already reported?

Most churches in France are left open for the public to wander in.  In one little village (whose name I no longer know), I attempted to go inside an old, interesting-looking church, but the door was locked. An old lady walking past asked me if I wanted to go inside.  After I replied "yes", she asked me to wait outside the front door, and she would get the key and unlock it for me.  She then disappeared for several minutes, and I was beginning to wonder if I had misunderstood her (bear in mind that our conversation had been carried out entirely in French).  Then the door suddenly opened from inside, and I enjoyed a personal tour of a lovely old church!  Enjoyment factor = (lovely church) * (kind old lady) * (successful conversation in French).

Overall highlights?

• Better appreciation of the 'real' France
• Sense of French history
• Sharing fantastic new experiences with my best friend (yeah, yeah, bring out the violins)

Looking back - my final post (until the next trip!)

Well, we've been home for three days now, so it's time to collect my thoughts and take a retrospective view of our time away. Here goes!

The travel arrangements all went without a hitch, although the 20 hours in transit coming home from Singapore was a bit exhausting.  A number of our flights were quite empty so we were able to spread out to make ourselves as comfortable as is possible in cattle class.  It is still my dream to upgrade to business class at least once before I die!

All of the accommodation we had chosen was great - no duds.  My favourites were the hotels in Bayeux and Paris, as well as the B&B in St Jean d'Angeley.

In spite of the extremes of weather, we weren't inhibited or stopped from doing any of the things we wanted to.

London in the snow was lovely and our day out at Bletchley Park where the snow had actually settled on the ground was very pretty.  My London highlight was the play we saw - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.  If you've read the book, you'll know the story, but I would recommend it even if you haven't.

We managed the language just fine and grew in confidence as we went along.  We found that what we had heard about the French appreciating it if you make an effort was true.  Allan was awesome - always willing to have a go and enjoying communicating in the home language.

Provincial France appealed to me [Allan: and me] more than Paris.  We saw such a variety of things, and could have spent much more time there.  The Dordogne area was probably my pick [Allan: and mine] - everything is so old and the history becomes more interesting to me as I get older! The countryside is very pretty and the 'natural wonders', especially the rock formations, were amazing.

Normandy and the D-Day landing sites were moving, especially Pointe du Hoc, where you could see the craters made by the bombs back in 1944.  It was a very haunting place to be, although quite peaceful.  Seeing so much live footage of the landings - the grim determination on the soldiers faces, the men falling as they were hit, and the bodies on the beaches was very sobering, as were the 10,000 crosses at the American cemetery. I am very grateful not to have lived through war times.

The Bayeux Tapestry was more interesting than I expected - it is 70 metres long, so must have involved years of work.

We saw heaps of stained glass windows in cathedrals and chateaus around the country.  Some simply seemed ostentatious, but most just added to the austere beauty of the building they were in.  Some cathedrals were serene and beautiful, some were just OTT. 

The moments I loved were where we just strolled through towns absorbing the atmosphere and the environment.

Paris was busy and crowded, but very 'buzzy'.  Strolling down the Champs Elysee was great and the view from the Arc de Triomphe was spectacular.  I liked it even better than the Eiffel Tower view - it was closer and more immediate some how.

You will know from the blogs that eating out in France was amazing.  It is always a treat to not cook when we travel, but to sit with a glass of wine, a beautiful meal and your best friend and debrief the day is priceless!

Our dinner cruise on the Seine with P&J was a highlight of Paris - a nice meal combined with the sights as we travelled along the river and the twinkling Eiffel Tower was a fitting end to our time in France.

Singapore was an eye opener - so different from anywhere else we had travelled to.  Even though you might expect it to be a concrete jungle with so much highrise, there was so much greenery and so many open spaces that it's really quite pretty.  It is clearly a very planned city and very clean too.  Having D&M to show us around was a huge bonus and it was great to catch up with them on their 'patch'.

So, all in all, we had a ball for the whole five weeks.  Hanging out for the next trip already!

Have to say thank you to my travelling buddy.  He sorted out our itinerary and did heaps of research so that we got the most out of the time we had.  He looked after me so well, dealt with my occasional (!) meltdowns, and was generally awesome!

Coming soon...the final post

As soon as we catch up on our sleep!

Not sure if it is today, yesterday or tomorrow!

Sitting in the transit lounge at Brisbane Airport, it's 5 am Aussie time, 3 am Singapore time, and we haven't slept yet.  Our flight left 20 mins early, and took 50 minutes shorter than expected, so we're on the ground here for about 5 and a half hours.  Then we fly to Auckland, have 2 hours there and then we're on the plane to Wellington.  It'll be a long day, but we're good so far.

Before we left Singapore, we went out to explore Little India and Chinatown.  We got down to Little India in time for a tropical downpour so it became a bit of a wet t-shirt competition!

Eventually we bought a couple of cheap umbrellas so we could wander around all the little shops as well as a giant emporium called Musafas which stocked absolutely everything, but especially electrical gadgets, watches and jewellery.  Not sure about the quality but it all seemed ok.

Chinatown was equally bustling, but different in that they were very in your face as you walked past their doors, trying to entice us in.  I think I was offered around 50 foot massages by the time we left! Would've been nice, but as my shoes and socks were wet from the rain, putting them back on after a lovely massage wouldn't have been nice.

I did avail myself of one service - a sweet little Singaporean lady gave me an eyebrow shape.  She suggested 'threading' which is a way of doing eyebrows without plucking or waxing. I had heard of it, so I said yes after she promised me it wouldn't hurt.  Well...think rubber band twisted tight then run over your skin as it unwinds, ripping out hairs as it goes!  Ow!  And she did my whole face!  It did make a difference but I am not sure I'd be in a hurry to repeat the experience.

Once the rain stopped, it got very steamy and hot, but on the whole we coped pretty well with the heat.  We stuck in the shade as much as possible and we were in and out of air-conditioned shops and buildings, trains and buses.

One thing with all the aircon is that there was always the dull roar of the units, so it was never quiet.  D & M's apartment had 5 units - multiply that by four apartments per floor times 20 floors times two towers and you get an idea of the noise level!

Shopping in Singapore (not really!)

We were off (without our friendly tour guides this time) to the famous Orchard Road for a bit of retail therapy this morning.  This road is definitely not cheap street, and interestingly all of the iconic shopping centers seem to have a very similar selection of shops.  So it was a bit of 'seen one, seen them all'.  All the famous designers had stores, as did Cartier and all the well-known jewellers.  Had another go at persuading Allan that a necklace in the Cartier window might suit me - this one was only $26,000 in Singapore dollars - half the price of the one in Paris!

Allan discovered a humungous book store and whiled away an hour or more there.  Luckily, our luggage allowance is under pressure so he could only buy three books - a little necklace on the other hand, could have slipped into the suitcase easily!

The heat was getting to us a bit so we took an air-conditioned train out of the city.  The rails move from underground to elevated as you go out, so it is a good way to see some more sights.

Singapore is very lush and green as you would expect with the tropical climate, but I am really impressed with the amount of premium land set aside for greenery.  There are masses of tall thin apartment blocks, so I guess the small building footprints are what allow the green spaces.

There is a lot of wealth here and in some areas, it seems no expense has been spared to create an opulent looking city, as well as one that seems to function very well.  There are apparently 5 million people here in a land mass that is the size of Lake Taupo, but everything just seems to work.

Had my first swim in the pool in the midst of a thunder storm this afternoon.  Refreshing!

Hold your head like this...

Come on Allan, you can do it.  You're at the Regent now, so stop slouching and sit up straight.  Hold your head still and look straight ahead, not down or up.  No, not like that, like this...

And remove that Graham Henry smirk.  Smile on the count of three: 1... 2... 3... say "high tea".

Ok, that's not too bad, not perfect, but near enough for now.  Well done Allan, I knew you could do it.

And now for something completely different and amazing....

Today we both slept in until after 11 am - unheard of for us, we were obviously more tired than we thought.

With the morning gone and a tropical rainstorm moving in, we decided not to venture out until our 3 pm appointment for high tea at the Regent.  Well!  I have never seen anything like it in my life.  It was a buffet and was really more like a full-blown dinner with the presentation of high tea - i.e. tiny tidbits, beautifully presented.

There was a fillet of wagyu beef with Yorkshire pudding and roast vegetables, heaps of seafood, little savory tartlets, and then there were the desserts!  Exquisite!  We only took one photo, which doesn't do it anything like justice, but it was truly a sight to behold, in beautiful surroundings.  There were bottomless cups of tea (dozens of varieties) and coffees of all sorts, and cheeses.

What can I say - we did our best!  Rolled out of there at 5.30 pm.  To say we were replete would be an understatement!

D & M are back to work tomorrow - it's been great to see them, but also to have their local knowledge to help us get the most out of our limited time in Singapore.

We have tomorrow and most of Tuesday to navigate ourselves, then it's sadly off to the airport for the final leg of the journey.

Looking forward to seeing everyone again!

Sounds and sights

So...Singapore is pretty amazing.  Even the locals were saying it was hot today - 35 degrees and just a slight breeze to take the edge off the humidity.

It was midnight before we got to bed, so we were a little disappointed to be wide awake at 4 am.  That was it for Allan.  I managed to drop off a couple of hours later and then slept until ten, so the day started late.

David and Mary took us for an explore of the local area, and we popped into the global picnic day at the international school where they both work.  There are 75 nationalities at the school, and lots of them had prepared their ethnic foods for all to sample at the picnic.

Later we travelled by the MRT train to some gorgeous gardens for a wander.  The trains were great - clean and bright and very roomy, and the Gardens were amazing - a $1 billion investment with lots of very interesting structures and, as you would expect, very lush and green.

In the same area, there was a spectacular three towered hotel and casino with a roof garden and viewing platform on top of the 52 floors.  We didn't go up as you had to be well dressed to get into the bar (which we weren't!) or pay $20 pp.

There was a helix bridge across the river, which took us to an open-air restaurant / food court of vast proportions where we had planned to eat.

However, we couldn't get a table so we ordered food to go and sat on the esplanade and watched the lights come on.  Twilight is exceptionally short here due to Singapore's proximity to the equator. As a bonus, we watched a laser light show across the water while we ate, and an electrical lightening show afterwards.

In all, lots of new sights and sounds quite unlike anything I've experienced before.  We coped pretty well with the heat - took frequent rests and we were in and out of aircon, which helped.

High tea at the the Regent tomorrow!

Au Revoir

So sad to be saying goodbye to Paris, but more especially to France.

The suitcases seem to have shrunk, even though we haven't bought anything (except Allan has purchased a number of books about places we've been to).  We were grateful to have the use of Phil and Janet's room after we checked out, especially since we weren't required to check-in at the airport until 9.20 pm.

We were out in time for an early lunch before a loooong visit to the army museum at the Hotel des Invalides.  Lots and lots of armour, uniforms, guns, cannons and other weaponry.

It did begin to pall after a while for me, but the history of the world wars was more interesting, as were the sections on Charles de Gaulle and Napoleon.

We saw Napoleon's tomb as well as those of some other famous dudes in the Dome.

The Dome was pretty spectacular but a little gaudy with all the gold!

We had a final predinner drink with P & J, sitting outside in the boulevard. C'est la vie!

We took three trains from the hotel to the airport - quite straightforward even with the luggage.

Our Air France flight was delayed by 25 mins, but made good time.  It was the first flight we have been on that has been not so full, so we could spread out. We managed a few hours sleep each, but it's now midnight in Singapore, so need to sleep!  Very, very hot and sticky but great to catch up with family here.  Good night!

Four Kiwis and a boat

We had a lovely night out on our river boat dinner cruise, despite some minor commuting woes.  We could see our boat from the promenade, but the steps down were closed.  Fortunately we were able to communicate from afar with the crew using sign language, so they didn't sail off without us.

We had a table near the front and it was just lovely sailing as we ate nice food and drank nice wine, with good company!

The piece de resistance of course, was the twinkling of the lights on the Eiffel Tower as we sailed past on our return.  There was even dancing!

Amazing how many Parisians were picnicking along the river bank even at that hour of night.  Don't seem to be any rules about alcohol in public places, so they're all drinking wine, but we didn't see any drunk and disorderlies on our travels.

By the time we disembarked, the RER train had closed for the night, so the two derelicts sleeping in the subway told us, so we wandered a bit further to find another Metro station.

A fitting finale to our French fling. How's that for alliteration!

Off to Singapore tonight...a new experience for us both.

The beginning of the end

The weather has finally come right for the end of our French sojourn. It was 23 degrees and sunny for our visit to Montmartre and Sacre Couer.

It was a bit of a hike up the hill, but worth the effort for the views - I think we have seen the Eiffel Tower from every which direction now. The Sacre Couer was beautiful - so much more understated than most of the other cathedrals we have seen.

Sadly, photos were prohibited inside, so nothing to preserve the memories.  Nice day out though.  We followed a Frommer's recommended walking route which took us to another cute little church, a very, very old cemetery and the Moulin Rouge.

But wait there's more!  We saw not one but two film shoots.  The first was behind the cemetery and looked like a French CSI.  The poor actor playing the corpse had to play dead for a very long time!  I don't know what the other film was, but it was set outside the Moulin Rouge.  Something a bit different!

Off to dinner tonight on a boat cruising the River Seine - special treat for the end of this part of our holiday.

The beginning of the beginning of the end

I decided to get out a bit earlier than Sue this morning and headed down to the other end of the Champs-Élysées to have a closer look at the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde.  Something to look at on every corner on the way there and the way back...

Quelle horreur!

Today we had our biggest rip-off of our whole holiday.  We had lunch at a little bistro not far from the hotel.

We strolled down there to eat with Janet and Phil who had just flown in from Wellington.  We were looking for cheap and cheerful - it wasn't overly cheerful and it certainly wasn't cheap!

After our mains, the waiter arrived with a platter of sweets and we all succumbed to temptation.  Imagine our horror when the bill came and we were charged 8.50 euro each for a chocolate eclair or a Mille-feuille. That's about $13 - eek!  He obviously saw us coming.

To walk off the calories, Allan and I wandered along the Champs Élysées and climbed the Arc de Triomphe. It was great to soak up the atmosphere of the avenue.

I window-shopped at the Cartier shop - I saw a lovely necklace - a bargain at 39,500 euros, but Allan declined to buy it for me.  Can't think why!

[Allan: oops, that's not a photo of a necklace]

We rejoined Janet and Phil to head off to a one man show called 'How to become a Parisian in one hour'.  It was hilarious and the guy (a French comedian who spoke in English) was very clever. So good fun.

Dinner then home to bed.  One more day to go in Paris - shame!

The Louvre

We (and 20 gazillion others!) went to the Louvre today.  When we were here five years ago, our visit was very rushed due to an electrical fire which had knocked out some of the access points, necessitating a long walk to get in, and to an obnoxious local guide who was somewhat Hitlerish, so we were looking forward to ambling our own way around.

So many people, especially in the areas leading to the Mona Lisa.  Must be so much money tied up in the art here.

We split up, agreeing to meet back at the hotel.  Allan was a bit dubious about leaving me to negotiate the Metro alone but we wouldn't have had a hope of keeping track of each other amongst the masses.

As it happened, I was fine with the Metro, but it took me half an hour of walking around in circles to find the station!  I loved the sculptures especially.

It was very warm inside - they don't seem to temperature control the environment to protect the art as they do in the British Museums.

My complaint, if I had one, would be about the maps they give you, and the general 'traffic' flow.  I'd be the first to admit that I am a bit of a girl (sexist I know, but true) when it comes to reading maps, but I struggled to figure out where I was, let alone how to get to where I wanted to go!  Gave up in the end and just followed my nose.  The tourist attractions I like best are those which have a defined route so you can a) see everything logically and b) so everyone is going the same direction.  At the Louvre, there are side alleys with different exits, there are dead ends so you have two way traffic, so it's easy to miss things, and you end up with a melee of people.

Anyway, all good.  I finished first and checked out the underground Carousel shopping centre.  Very elite shops with the most beautiful window displays, but window shopping was all I did.

Allan went on to the Pompadou Centre which he enjoyed.  [Allan: the building at least as fascinating as the art!]

We found a more 'quality' restaurant to eat at last night.  It was done out with upright canons used for up lighting, and the lights were a set of three cannonballs strung together with a chain.  Pretty cool!  Food was good too!