Awesome visit to the Louvre today, did not see it all, but saw most. It is so big and an exhausting few hours wandering around. It is not necessarily my artistic cup of tea as my interests are more modern, but it is certainly an amazing collection.
If you have followed my blog for a while you will know I like close up shots of the faces on statues – There was way too many to choose from at the Louvre ! These are from the Egyptian and European collections.
Day 189, Wednesday 11 July 2012 – Paris
Earlier start to breakfast today, coffee wasn’t any better, damnit ! had a bit of a planning session morning and a visit to the local laundromat. While the washing was on we went to a cafe round the corner and had a great espresso and I spent an hour preparing yesterdays blog post. The internet in the hotel is sporadic and even when it is working it hopelessly slow – at least it is free I guess.
We headed off for a late lunch up Boulevard St Germain where I had a great onion soup and a Stella Artois, while people watching near the Seine. I loved how some of the buildings are sagging in the middle – a bit like me.
Notre Dame from the Seine
After lunch we checked out the Bastille.
And then Place de Vosges
With its homage to Victor Hugo.
We then wandered the streets back towards Notre Dame.
How is this for a location for a basketball court !
The queue for Notre Dame was ridiculous..
So we headed off from there to the smaller queues at La Conciergerie and Sainte Chappelle. Both part of the historic Palais de la Cite, now the Palace of Justice.
La Conciergerie started off in the 6th century but most of what can be seen is from the 14th when King Charles V left for a more secure location and left the palace in charge of a concierge who was given power to run the palace and the nearby prison. Numerous prisoners of state were kept there until the revolutionary period of the 1700’s when it used by the various revolutionary council factions to house their opponents during trial and up to execution day. The most famous being Queen Marie-Antoinette and Robespierrie himself who was part committee that set up law of suspects which led to the “reign of terror” that swept Paris in the 1750’s.
I loved the vaulted ceilings in the Hall of men at arms, originally started in 1302.
After the dubious charms of La Conciergerie we joined another short queue for Sainte Chapelle. A chapel built under the wishes of King Louis IX (later Saint Louis) between 1242 and 1248 to house the relics of the passion of Christ.
The entry is via the lower chapel.
The upper chapel, houses the great shrine, which contains the relics of the passion of Christ, including the crown of thorns.
Even the floor was ornate.
The interior of the building is stunning, it is constantly under minor renovation but the stained glass is all original and amazing to look at, a bit too far to photograph under low light, but I highly recommend a visit to the chapel.
Dinner was bread, ham cheese and wine – oh and another bottle of my new favourite beer, Punk IPA.
Day 188, Tuesday 10 July 2012 – Paris
Lousy first Parisian sleep, very frustrating as I am so tired, but I did drop off again late and not wake up to 8.30 ! Breakfast in the hotel was crossaint and baguette and loads of bad machine coffee. The good news is the day had dawned with sunny skies, the forecast I saw when I was in England was for bad weather till Thursday, so a clear Monday was a real bonus.
The plan for the day was ambitious – to walk to the Eiffel Tower, over to the Arc D’ Triumphe and back to the hotel via the Musee D’ Orsay.
However, I got distracted numerous times on the way, the first stop being the Chapel St Germain. I particularily loved this wooden statue, it was not old (1965) compared to some of the stone and marble work. It was a very nice chapel.
We walked past numerous well known bistros on the way but many were too crowded to stop for a morning coffee, and I have plenty of time this week to visit one.
Next stop was this lovely little square complete with a small rotund Frenchman enjoying the ambiance.
The square was at the entrance to Basilique Sainte Clotilde.
I loved the back streets, we were walking parallel to the River Seine but back a few streets from the main thoroughfares, there were very few people around. I particularly liked the huge wooden doorways, entries into courtyards for the apartments behind, every now and then we got a glimpse through open doors into these courtyards and some were beautiful, with small statues and flower gardens.
The next stop was the Hotel D’ Invalides and Napoleans Tomb.
The queues for tickets were quite long (or so we thought) so we decided not to stop and investigate further and carried on for coffee and lunch on the way to the tower.
Wow – the Eiffel Tower ! I have been looking forward to visiting this for many many years. I am going to have to say that yes it was very cool, it is a beautiful tower and the design and build is magnifique. However, it looks so small ! I guess after all these many other towers have been built that are so much bigger, I was not disappointed, just taken aback about how wee it is !
Man, I thought the queue at the Hotel d’ Invalides was bad, the queues at the tower were insane, I am guessing one of the queues was over 500 metres long.
There was also only one lift working to it was just a waste of precious time to wait. Paris appears to be a lot like the Angkors in Cambodia, at the main attractions there are swarms of tourists but ten metres off the beaten track it is deserted. I think I will keep to ten metres out !
The day was getting away from us so we decided to flag the Arc d’ Triumphe today and head off to the Musee d’ Orsay. It was 3.30pm when we arrived and the queue was thirty minutes long, we decided to visit even though it closed at 5:30, we can always come back ! We went straight up to the Impressionist section, which was very crowded (as were all the main rooms) but did see all my favourite artists, Monet, Manet, Pissaro etc etc.
The view from the top – no photography allowed inside the museum, though this place seemed to be an exception.
We then checked out the post-impressionist section with my favourite Seurat on display as well as some Signac, but I am not such a fan. And then the Van-Gogh and Gauguin exhibition, I am not a huge fan of either, but wow ! I recognised most of the work, most of their most famous paintings were here, and very unprotected. The famous Van Gogh self portrait was just hanging on the wall and would have been so easy to touch. It was a pity it was so crowded.
That was pretty much it for time in the museum so we headed back towards the hotel slowly wandering the streets past heaps of small galleries and a small amount of street art, plus this awesomely named kids clothing store.
We met up with Mal, Sally, Ben and Leane at the Pont Neuf and wandered around for a bit until we found somewhere for dinner. There are masses of cafes, bistros and restaurants around the left bank, a number with street front dining, which would have been great except that people can (and do so fanatically) smoke there. We had a great meal together and followed this up with an Armagnac and espresso at a small bar up the road. It was good to see them again and Mal looks in great shape after a few days rest, they are off back to NZ on Thursday.
My first day of strolling some of the streets of Paris’s left bank. There was not a huge amount of street art, though there were some stencils and stickers I liked, hope to see more as I work my way round the streets and alleys.
Day 187, Monday 9 July 2012, Paris
Another day, another country !
Surprisingly, though I spent close to two years in the UK in the mid-eighties and did pass through a small section of France on my very restricted European trip in 1987, I have never been to Paris, one of the world’s most iconic cities. A very good friend of mine is spending a week in Paris as part of a whirl wind trip around the globe so I am joining her for a week of wine and food, museums and galleries, wine and food, key sites and wine and food. I am sooooooooooooo looking forward to the Louvre.
This morning I bade au revoir to my cousin and his family, who kindly dropped me and my luggage off at Upminster underground station as it was raining. Two tubes later I was at St Pancras train station and queuing to go through security and passport control for my flight train to France.
I have split the ride to Paris in to two to reduce the cost. As it is school holidays in France the price of everything has gone up and leaving it to the last minute didn’t help either. The price from London to Paris direct was 190 pounds (almost 400NZD) so I am going to Lille in France and catching the uber fast TGV train to Paris, saving myself about 40 pounds, though it takes a little longer.
As well as being excited about going to France I was also really looking forward to getting the fast train and going through the channel tunnel for the first time. This was not an option when I was living in the UK and I really do like train travel. Though I will admit the Eurostar is way flasher than the trains in Thailand and Vietnam !
The Eurostar took an hour to get to the tunnel and about ten minutes to pass through into France, though it was virtually impossible to tell the difference as the landscape remained the same – gentle rolling farmland on both sides of the channel. We arrived in Lille soon after and I had a thirty minute wait for the SCNF TGV train to Paris. I used my token three words of French to order lunch at Lille station – “un cesar poillet s’il vous plait” “merci”.
The ride from Lille to Paris Nord took just over an hour and I will confess to spending a bit of that time looking at the inside of my eyelids rather than the countryside, though it was more of the same until we hit the outskirts of Paris. I did get royally confused in Gare du Nord station, but eventually found my way to the correct RER platform. I am finding Europe a bit more challenging than Asia, I think it is because most people look like me, so I expect them to speak like me, in English, but of course they do not necessarily speak English. In Asia I looked like a tourist. It is a head thing and I am sure I will get over it, just haven’t been in a foreign language country for a month ! The trains on the Paris Metro are different to the London tube, but equally as grubby.
From the Luxembourg RER station it was a ten minute walk to the Excelsior hotel, probably less if I had started in the right direction !
It is the school holidays in France, so while there are a lot of tourists in Paris, many Parisians leave town for a while. There are lots of little alley ways to explore which is something I am really looking forward to doing.
The Excelsior is a two star hotel in the heart of Paris, on the left bank and ten minutes to Notre Dame. I met up with my friend Emily and once sorted when for a walk to find some food. The weather was so nice we went for a stroll around Notre Dame which I am definitely going to come back to – what an awesome building, for something built in the 1100s the detail was extraordinary.
The sunlight was amazing, it was “magic light” time , just the perfect time for photography, but sadly my head space wasnt right, I am very tired and just a little dissorientated at the moment so I didnt really get into wandering around taking photos tonight. There is plenty of time.
Day 184 – 186, Friday 6 – Sunday 8 July 2012, London and Richmond
I was determined to get back up to date with the blogs, so not my best efforts, but then again I am not exactly a writer anyway. Hoping to get back into more regular posting now. I sort of have a semi finished plan in my head for the next wee while. Once I have confirmed a few things – and worked out what I can and cannot afford I will update “The Plan” page. I still have to work on a menu system for the blog, but have not had the head space to be able to do that in recent times. Maybe this coming week.
I am now back to some semblance of normality – though what that really means for me these days I am not too sure. While I was away on Coast Path Run I passed my six month on the road milestone, so my version of normal is living out of a back pack and staying in a different bed most nights.
I am fortunate (I think !) to have been born in England and brought up in New Zealand, I have the best thing in world – dual nationality and two passports. I am also extremely lucky to have family in England and after I returned from the south coast got spend a night or so with my cousin and his family in Upminister on the eastern out skirts of London.
The last few days have been a bit blur, I have not recovered from the massive sleep loss accrued over CPR, my cousin has twin two year olds who rise early, so long lie ins were never going to happen. On Thursday I drove the Spaceship back to its base close to Heathrow airport and met Mal and Sally who delivered the second one and we were all picked up by Mal’s sister who took us back to her house in Surrey for a end of run celebration. I stayed the night there and went up to London on Friday morning. I have again ditched the Canon 5d in favour of my Panasonic GF1 to save weight and space.
My first stop (in the damn rain) was the Imperial War Museum just outside Waterloo station. I used to love this place when I was a boy, and it has not changed that much, lots of appeal for boys with tanks and guns and planes on display. There was a very good holocaust exhibition on, hard to say I enjoyed it, but it was interesting.
A piece of the Berlin Wall.
I strolled on in the drizzle over the river and past the houses of parliament and Westminster Abbey.
past the statue of Boadicea (look her up if you have not heard of her)
and the London Eye.
Through Smiths Square,
And on to Tate Britain.
I enjoyed the Tate, I paid the 15 quid to go and see the Picasso in Britain exhibition which I thoroughly enjoyed, the gallery is undergoing some renovation so some displays were not available, though I am sure I will be back.
You can tell I was on the last stop on the underground !
On Saturday I caught the train back into Fenchurch St train station in London and did a walk by the Tower of London on the way to the tube.
One side of the Thames is ultra modern
And the other not….
From London I jumped on the underground and headed to my old stamping ground of Richmond Upon Thames. From late 1985 – late 1987 I lived in Richmond, in fact I met and married Deana here in that time as well. I had arranged to catch up with some old friends, and was really looking forward to visiting. The town hasn’t changed that much, the core is the same though the shops and some of the pubs had changed. I was really pleased to see my old local, The Marlborough was still there, though it has been completely refitted in side – with the bar moving from one side to the other.
It was also cool to see our old flat still looked the same from the outside, probably hadn’t been painted either !
I spent a couple of hours aimlessly wandering the streets, it took me a while to find the Vineyard graveyard, i used to pass this every day on the way to the train station and grew to really love it. I have a number of photos taken during my time here and one of my favourites is of these two grave stones, though back then the small one had an “anarchy” symbol spray painted on it.
I spent the evening in the company of old friends Simon and Franciose, it was so good to catch up, Simon has barely aged in the 15 years since I last popped into Richmond on a work trip to London. Simon and I went to see some young bands playing at a small club in town associated with the church he goes to. The musicians were great, great voices and good songs, but I found it all rather tedious – disappointed that so many young people were playing “old peoples” pop rock. It was good to see some live music though.
I stayed the night at Simon and Francioise’s and bade them farewell late morning and headed back into London. It was great to see them again and I really look forward to coming back to Richmond when I return from the next phase of my travels.
I took a walk up Regents St to have a look at Carnaby St.
When I arrived here in 1985 I loved Carnaby St, I bought Doc Martins, some great brothel creepers and my first (and only) leather jacket there. Today it is just a plastic facade of what it used to be and i left in disgust, had a pint and caught the train back out to Upminster – where I finally accepted the weather and brought and umbrella. Which was fortunate as it pissed down on the walk back to my cousins !
Tomorrow, Monday – I am off to Paris !
Bon nuit, mon amis 🙂
Days 165 – 181, Sunday 17 June – Tuesday 3 July 2012, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset
Coast Path Run (CPR) had been in the planning for quite some time and I was aware of it before I left NZ last December. The run was to raise awareness of mental health issues and raise funds for MIND in the UK and the Mental Health Foundation in NZ. The plan was to run the entire length of the 1014km South West Coast Path which runs through Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset in southern England – in 14 days ! The runners were Tom Bland from the UK and Malcolm Law who I know from NZ, until the start line Tom and Mal had not actually met face to face.
Before I left NZ I had suggested that if I happened to be in the UK at the time of the run I would come along and show some support on a couple of days. However, due to a conflict in exam schedules Mal’s wife was unable to come to the UK until half way through the run so Vicki, a mutual friend of Mal and Mine sent me a “can you help” email. As I was kinda getting over SE Asia I said yes and found myself in Minehead on the Dorset coast at 8.30 AM on Sunday June 17 for the start of this epic adventure.
My role in this craziness was to support Mal, Tom’s mum Sheila was supporting Tom for most of the event, with Tom’s brother Mike doing a few days in the middle. Supporting meant driving the “Spaceship” campervan, providing food and fluids, medications and ice as required at the rest stop, taking side trips to supermarkets when cravings come on, packing and unpacking the van, washing, cooking, cleaning etc etc so the guys can just focus on the run. It meant for a number of long days, 6 am to midnight was the norm for most of the run.
It is very hard to summarise such a long time in a short piece, if you have followed my blogs then you will know that I do tend to ramble on, so a summary post is going to be a struggle.
The start line – Mal and Tom
The run started well, we had good weather for most of the first few days, the scenery was varied, the trail in good condition and Tom’s friends Garry and Chris took turns running with the guys. The days were long and Sheila and I did a fair bit of driving – done some spectacularly narrow and windy roads, on some roads the hedges were brushing both wing mirrors.
As the run progresses injuries took there tool with both guys nursing strains to various parts of their legs. On day 7 Tom’s knee was too painful to run so a temporary halt was called to the run so a physio could be found in Penzance to make an assessment. Mal and I went and had lunch in a pub while Tom was assessed. The physio did a great job and the next day Tom was moving quite freely, though ended up running with walking poles the next day. 
By this stage the pace had dropped and as they were already half a day down it was clear it was not going to be completed inside the planned 14 days. A new plan was drawn up to finish inside 17 days.
However, on day 10 Tom had some strange swelling and incredible pain in both shins and after some serious thought decided to stop and seek medical advice. This was a huge call as the run was Tom’s baby and he was utterly gutted to have to stop – medically it was the right one. Mal decided to go on with the run and his wife Sally and I did a few sections of running and walking with him over the remaining few days. There were a couple of close calls on day 13, Mal had been suffering from some serious twinges to the left shin, one being so bad a halt was almost called – but five minutes later it had settled and from then I knew he was going to finish on schedule on day 17 – even though it was down to a walking pace. The weather on the last couple of days was pretty awful, low low cloud, rain, wind and cold, just not pleasant at all, the second to last section round Portland was just dire, nothing to see due to the fog and we walked past prison walls, quarries, housing estates and wastelands, it was a real struggle. For the final section another NZ friend ran with Mal to the finish line and it was all over at 6.57 PM on Tuesday 3rd July. The record for completing the Coast Path thoroughly broken and close to $20,000 NZD raised for NZ Mental Health.
From a support perspective the event was hugely challenging, the days were long and very tiring and as I got tired I started making small mistakes and got frustrated and on occasion grumpy.
There was an awful lot of driving, I did close to 2000 miles in the 17 days, in many places the coast path was he short option with the road significantly longer. I am pleased to say I only missed one check point over the 17 days and that was due to having almost a two hour drive to complete.
There seemed to be no time to do anything, yet at the same time lots of time was spent waiting, often standing in the rain gazing at the horizon, ready to spring into action with chairs and jackets, tea and snacks when the runners arrived.
One of the key frustrations for all of us was the lack of communications, lots of places had no cell reception so we could not easily get messages to or from the Mal and Tom to see where they were. Internet reception was almost non-existent, most of the hostels had no wifi, this made planning ahead harder and I was completely unable to blog, either for myself or for CPR. Whenever we had some mobile internet we would post an update to FaceBook, but some days we had none at all.
Highlights
Mal completing the run and Tom being there at the finish line
For most of the run the views were stunning, such an amazing variety of countryside, each day was different.
I got to do 100 or so km of walking and running in a wide variety of locations in a variety of conditions.
Driving round the weird and wonderful narrow lanes of Cornwall, especially when Sheila was leading!
Meeting the Blands – Tom, Mike and their parents Sheila and Richard.
Loads more wildlife than I expected to see – a badger, squirrels, rabbits, hawks, pheasants and other birds. The cows and sheep were remarkably unafraid of people, at one point we had to go around a couple of cows as they were not going to move off the track.
Local runners Garry and Chris helping out with the run legs, guiding and encouraging Mal.
Lowlights
Tom being injured and having to pull out
The weather really sucked at times.
Lack of internet access
Being too tired to sleep some nights
Not taking enough photos
Not getting enough time to spend looking around the villages and taking photos.
Getting stuck in one way systems !
The weather and the views, sun, rain, fog and wind.
There were some great buildings – and many I did not get to see.
some great views
some fun times
some tears (of joy)
and some bad facial hair
Where is Phil now? 