Saturday was a ‘nothing’ day. Just mooching around, doing lots of walking in new areas and being too tired for dinner – yes folks it does happen that I miss a meal.
Sunday morning and much excitement as I go to a local cafe to have some coffees before Danielle arrives. At 12:00 I head to Opera to meet here at the Roissy bus where she is sitting waiting for me - we embrace as though we haven’t seen each other for a long time – it was only two months ago but seemed so much longer.
We head back to the hotel and decide to go to the Marais for a traditional Jewish lunch followed by the Picasso Museum. I must confess to liking much of Picasso’s work but the museum, although itself quite beautiful was poorly curated. Some paintings hung without lighting, others above doorways or in dark corners as though afterthoughts and there was no sense of an orderly passage through the museum. That said 70% of the works were great although some small number of the signs etc. could have been in English.
We met Belinda for dinner and went to a Japanese recommended by the hotel and what a good recommendation is was. It was a Teppanyaki house with excellent sashimi (no sushi) and exceptionally cooked to perfection beef and scallops grilled in front of us. We met a very friendly French family and shared the time with them. Then back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Next morning we decide to go shopping before lunch where we buy some tablecloths which Linda and I had planned to get next time we were in Paris, some gourmet goodies for lunch and then the D’Orsay museum but being the idiot I am it was shut on Monday so that is a ‘next time’ activity. We rent bikes – yes people – I rode a bike across Paris back to the hotel where we did the washing and relaxed before dinner for the last time at Petite Pontoise. Some have told me that I write too much about food – well it is a big part of my travels and something I enjoy.
Tuesday, Danielle spent the day with her friend Juliette while I mooched around and walked around parts of Paris I hadn’t been in before. I go to pick up the car and when I ask whether the salesperson spoke English I was told we were in France and people speak French. Pity she didn’t understand that without the millions and millions of ENGLISH speaking tourists she wouldn’t have a job. Anyway I then find out I need a passport to collect my car – no exceptions – back to the hotel to collect it and back to the car rental place where the bitch anxiously awaited my return. Anyway a nice large Citroen the size of which I would regret at every car park I entered.
At 18:00 my niece Anna arrived and she had a quiet evening on her own while Danielle and I went for our ‘Meeting the French Dinner’. Through an internet site, not surprisingly called www.meetingthefrench.com I had arranged to have dinner with a French couple at their home. The meal is from a local restaurant or catered and it is an opportunity to ‘meet the natives in their natural habitat’.
The couple were late 20’s professionals who lived in a one bedroom apartment in a nice part of Paris. This was their first experience with this ‘service’ and they were obviously intent on making our visit a good experience. The apartment was well lit with tea candles, champagne awaiting our arrival. The meal was excellent (have to cut down on my food appraisals) and the company outstanding. This was their response to my thank you email:
Hi David, All the pleasure is for us. I pass a great moment with you. If you want come back, sleep it's will be with a great pleasure. Bye Marc
His spoken English was almost perfect and his partner Sarah understood everything but we suspect was embarrassed to participate in the conversation too much lest she messed up.
Wednesday: we wake at 7:00am and leave the hotel around 8:00 heading for Versailles. Somebody really should teach the French something about queuing theory and the optimal way to take people’s money and pass them into attractions. Queue for 30 minutes to buy tickets, passing the information desk on the way which interests nobody and then get to the window to buy the tickets and have everything that the information desk should have explained to the tourists explained to them to ensure that the waiting time is optimised.
I had been to Versailles before but after seeing 50 of the 150 rooms and having a certain sameness I headed for the gardens. Here we rented a golf cart with a GPS commentary for a one hour tour of the gardens which was an excellent way to appreciate the size and beauty of the imperial gardens.
Next we go to France Miniature. Without boring you this place has a history in Stern family lore. It was here when Danielle was 10 that we said if you find out how to get there and everything else about it we would go fully expecting nothing more to happen. But.....she went down to the French speaking concierge and managed to get all of the information, directions, price and everything else – we were snookered. So it was that we decided to return and what a good decision. It is here that one can get a true appreciation of the depth of history that exists in France. France in its entirety is laid out on hectares of land with each significant monument, town, chateau, castle, monastery etc. is reproduced ‘en miniature’ – again something I would recommend to anybody visiting France.
Where to next was the discussion in the car –Danielle chimes in ‘I have never been to Switzerland’ ... ‘too far says me’ so we head to Lyon. A funny thing happened on the way to Lyon – we headed for Geneva. We arrive at 10:30 at night to find that every hotel is full and during the week a hotel room is ‘pas possible’. So we drive out of Geneva to parts unknown and at around midnight we see a Mercure Hotel which has rooms available to we take a room and the next morning we open the curtains to see the hotel surrounded by snow-capped mountains. We have wound up in Chamonix looking up at Montblanc – an omen for a pen collector like me.
We pack the car with the intention of taking the cable car up from the 2300 metres we are at, to the 3800 near the top of Montblanc. Obviously the Versailles ticketing team have been employed to set up the Chamonix to Montblanc cable car. Despite charging a mere 30 Euros to go up the top there is a two hour wait till we will be able to get on the car. Moving right along we head towards Turin – hey third country in less than 24 hours and wind up for the evening in a small town just short of San Remo on the Italian Ligurian coast. We ask he hotel for the best restaurant in town as we snicker to ourselves only imagining what we will be getting but we are pleasantly surprised by pasta with lobster and fish baked in salt followed by their version of pavlova all of which was extremely good.
As an aside there appears to be no cheap eats in Europe. In a small town which admittedly seems to attract tourists a two course meal will set you back $A35 which is itself isn’t too bad but it is very hard to eat for much less.
Now let me think.... It is Friday morning and we head for the Ventimiglia markets which is the largest market in Europe where we spend about 2 hours buying very little and head of for neighbouring Menton where Linda and I had spent two weeks in a rented Villa while playing in the 2003 Open European Championships. I drive up the hill to the villa where we stayed reliving the sharp turns and narrow roads but enjoying the amazing views down to Menton and the Riviera.
We go for lunch to Menton where a Pizza seems to be the choix du jour. We approach a restaurant and after asking for seats not in the sun and having the owner explain that those seats are over there are in the sun while the ones we consider to be in the sun aren’t really in the sun. OK whatever....he brings two menus for the three of us and after 7 or 8 minutes when we tell him we are ready to order and fails to return we walk of and fail to return and he bids us farewell in the background. I can never enjoy a meal under these circumstances.
We go to the pizza restaurant next door where we have a great meal with excellent service – pizza, warm goats cheese with apple on toast and gnocchi gorgonzola – Yum. We walk around Menton which is a lovely place and clearly nicer than the Italian coastal towns we have passed through.
On to Nice where we have booked a hotel now realising that all hotels are full at this time of the year. After a short rest and catch up on the internet we head out for dinner fully intent on avoiding any ‘Menu Touristico’ (aka Prix Fixe) so we manage to find a wonderful Asian restaurant on the road from Nice to Antibes. An excellent Chinese meal and back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Next morning we head off at 10:00 to the Chagall museum in Nice which I would strongly recommend to anybody likely to be interested. Linda and I were here in 2003 and recalling it as being memorable Danielle, Anna and I went there. A quick coffee in the gardens before entering and my memories held true with a wonderful exhibition of art that I really do like. Certainly worth a repeat visit.
We leave the museum and head along the Nice shoreline to Cannes and Antibes where we have lunch sitting by the beach. A lovely gnocchi with asparagus and salmon and tomato with buffalo mozzarella. On to Mas Aurelia where we will spend the next six days with Michael and Vivien Cornell. The house is outstanding – all modern conveniences
After we arrive at their place at 17:00. An unpack and freshen up and we are off to dinner in Arles. This city was chosen because it was half way between where Vivien’s son and daughter-in-law were staying and we were located. The Jules Cesar restaurant was quite outstanding. Sitting on the balcony surrounded be well-groomed hedges in the fading sunlight with good food and company was just magical.
Sunday morning and Anna was leaving us for Brussels so we drove to Avignon to have a look around, drop her at the TGV and buy food for dinner which Danielle and I decided we would cook. Garlic Scallops, Tomato w Basil and Mozzarella, Salad, Mange Tout (snow peas) and Skewered Lamb and Beef followed by stewed fruits we had cooked in the afternoon and a wonderful cake called Mikado – almond/chocolate. We finished eating at around 10:30 and played some bridge and off to bed after 8 hands of bridge where the bidding had to be in French.
Monday and a relaxing morning. A 40 minute walk in the beating sun with a reward of a nice cup of coffee in Eygaliere at the end of it. Back to the house where I am now sitting and writing this blog to catch up on my laziness for the last few days.
Have spoken to mum and am pleased to report that everything has gone as well as possible. She will be leaving hospital on Wednesday and spending a few days with Jerome and Ludmila. As you can imagine all of this happening with us on the other side of the world is difficult but it seems the worst is over and she is making a good recovery.
Sunday morning and much excitement as I go to a local cafe to have some coffees before Danielle arrives. At 12:00 I head to Opera to meet here at the Roissy bus where she is sitting waiting for me - we embrace as though we haven’t seen each other for a long time – it was only two months ago but seemed so much longer.
We head back to the hotel and decide to go to the Marais for a traditional Jewish lunch followed by the Picasso Museum. I must confess to liking much of Picasso’s work but the museum, although itself quite beautiful was poorly curated. Some paintings hung without lighting, others above doorways or in dark corners as though afterthoughts and there was no sense of an orderly passage through the museum. That said 70% of the works were great although some small number of the signs etc. could have been in English.
We met Belinda for dinner and went to a Japanese recommended by the hotel and what a good recommendation is was. It was a Teppanyaki house with excellent sashimi (no sushi) and exceptionally cooked to perfection beef and scallops grilled in front of us. We met a very friendly French family and shared the time with them. Then back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Next morning we decide to go shopping before lunch where we buy some tablecloths which Linda and I had planned to get next time we were in Paris, some gourmet goodies for lunch and then the D’Orsay museum but being the idiot I am it was shut on Monday so that is a ‘next time’ activity. We rent bikes – yes people – I rode a bike across Paris back to the hotel where we did the washing and relaxed before dinner for the last time at Petite Pontoise. Some have told me that I write too much about food – well it is a big part of my travels and something I enjoy.
Tuesday, Danielle spent the day with her friend Juliette while I mooched around and walked around parts of Paris I hadn’t been in before. I go to pick up the car and when I ask whether the salesperson spoke English I was told we were in France and people speak French. Pity she didn’t understand that without the millions and millions of ENGLISH speaking tourists she wouldn’t have a job. Anyway I then find out I need a passport to collect my car – no exceptions – back to the hotel to collect it and back to the car rental place where the bitch anxiously awaited my return. Anyway a nice large Citroen the size of which I would regret at every car park I entered.
At 18:00 my niece Anna arrived and she had a quiet evening on her own while Danielle and I went for our ‘Meeting the French Dinner’. Through an internet site, not surprisingly called www.meetingthefrench.com I had arranged to have dinner with a French couple at their home. The meal is from a local restaurant or catered and it is an opportunity to ‘meet the natives in their natural habitat’.
The couple were late 20’s professionals who lived in a one bedroom apartment in a nice part of Paris. This was their first experience with this ‘service’ and they were obviously intent on making our visit a good experience. The apartment was well lit with tea candles, champagne awaiting our arrival. The meal was excellent (have to cut down on my food appraisals) and the company outstanding. This was their response to my thank you email:
Hi David, All the pleasure is for us. I pass a great moment with you. If you want come back, sleep it's will be with a great pleasure. Bye Marc
His spoken English was almost perfect and his partner Sarah understood everything but we suspect was embarrassed to participate in the conversation too much lest she messed up.
Wednesday: we wake at 7:00am and leave the hotel around 8:00 heading for Versailles. Somebody really should teach the French something about queuing theory and the optimal way to take people’s money and pass them into attractions. Queue for 30 minutes to buy tickets, passing the information desk on the way which interests nobody and then get to the window to buy the tickets and have everything that the information desk should have explained to the tourists explained to them to ensure that the waiting time is optimised.
I had been to Versailles before but after seeing 50 of the 150 rooms and having a certain sameness I headed for the gardens. Here we rented a golf cart with a GPS commentary for a one hour tour of the gardens which was an excellent way to appreciate the size and beauty of the imperial gardens.
Next we go to France Miniature. Without boring you this place has a history in Stern family lore. It was here when Danielle was 10 that we said if you find out how to get there and everything else about it we would go fully expecting nothing more to happen. But.....she went down to the French speaking concierge and managed to get all of the information, directions, price and everything else – we were snookered. So it was that we decided to return and what a good decision. It is here that one can get a true appreciation of the depth of history that exists in France. France in its entirety is laid out on hectares of land with each significant monument, town, chateau, castle, monastery etc. is reproduced ‘en miniature’ – again something I would recommend to anybody visiting France.
Where to next was the discussion in the car –Danielle chimes in ‘I have never been to Switzerland’ ... ‘too far says me’ so we head to Lyon. A funny thing happened on the way to Lyon – we headed for Geneva. We arrive at 10:30 at night to find that every hotel is full and during the week a hotel room is ‘pas possible’. So we drive out of Geneva to parts unknown and at around midnight we see a Mercure Hotel which has rooms available to we take a room and the next morning we open the curtains to see the hotel surrounded by snow-capped mountains. We have wound up in Chamonix looking up at Montblanc – an omen for a pen collector like me.
We pack the car with the intention of taking the cable car up from the 2300 metres we are at, to the 3800 near the top of Montblanc. Obviously the Versailles ticketing team have been employed to set up the Chamonix to Montblanc cable car. Despite charging a mere 30 Euros to go up the top there is a two hour wait till we will be able to get on the car. Moving right along we head towards Turin – hey third country in less than 24 hours and wind up for the evening in a small town just short of San Remo on the Italian Ligurian coast. We ask he hotel for the best restaurant in town as we snicker to ourselves only imagining what we will be getting but we are pleasantly surprised by pasta with lobster and fish baked in salt followed by their version of pavlova all of which was extremely good.
As an aside there appears to be no cheap eats in Europe. In a small town which admittedly seems to attract tourists a two course meal will set you back $A35 which is itself isn’t too bad but it is very hard to eat for much less.
Now let me think.... It is Friday morning and we head for the Ventimiglia markets which is the largest market in Europe where we spend about 2 hours buying very little and head of for neighbouring Menton where Linda and I had spent two weeks in a rented Villa while playing in the 2003 Open European Championships. I drive up the hill to the villa where we stayed reliving the sharp turns and narrow roads but enjoying the amazing views down to Menton and the Riviera.
We go for lunch to Menton where a Pizza seems to be the choix du jour. We approach a restaurant and after asking for seats not in the sun and having the owner explain that those seats are over there are in the sun while the ones we consider to be in the sun aren’t really in the sun. OK whatever....he brings two menus for the three of us and after 7 or 8 minutes when we tell him we are ready to order and fails to return we walk of and fail to return and he bids us farewell in the background. I can never enjoy a meal under these circumstances.
We go to the pizza restaurant next door where we have a great meal with excellent service – pizza, warm goats cheese with apple on toast and gnocchi gorgonzola – Yum. We walk around Menton which is a lovely place and clearly nicer than the Italian coastal towns we have passed through.
On to Nice where we have booked a hotel now realising that all hotels are full at this time of the year. After a short rest and catch up on the internet we head out for dinner fully intent on avoiding any ‘Menu Touristico’ (aka Prix Fixe) so we manage to find a wonderful Asian restaurant on the road from Nice to Antibes. An excellent Chinese meal and back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Next morning we head off at 10:00 to the Chagall museum in Nice which I would strongly recommend to anybody likely to be interested. Linda and I were here in 2003 and recalling it as being memorable Danielle, Anna and I went there. A quick coffee in the gardens before entering and my memories held true with a wonderful exhibition of art that I really do like. Certainly worth a repeat visit.
We leave the museum and head along the Nice shoreline to Cannes and Antibes where we have lunch sitting by the beach. A lovely gnocchi with asparagus and salmon and tomato with buffalo mozzarella. On to Mas Aurelia where we will spend the next six days with Michael and Vivien Cornell. The house is outstanding – all modern conveniences
After we arrive at their place at 17:00. An unpack and freshen up and we are off to dinner in Arles. This city was chosen because it was half way between where Vivien’s son and daughter-in-law were staying and we were located. The Jules Cesar restaurant was quite outstanding. Sitting on the balcony surrounded be well-groomed hedges in the fading sunlight with good food and company was just magical.
Sunday morning and Anna was leaving us for Brussels so we drove to Avignon to have a look around, drop her at the TGV and buy food for dinner which Danielle and I decided we would cook. Garlic Scallops, Tomato w Basil and Mozzarella, Salad, Mange Tout (snow peas) and Skewered Lamb and Beef followed by stewed fruits we had cooked in the afternoon and a wonderful cake called Mikado – almond/chocolate. We finished eating at around 10:30 and played some bridge and off to bed after 8 hands of bridge where the bidding had to be in French.
Monday and a relaxing morning. A 40 minute walk in the beating sun with a reward of a nice cup of coffee in Eygaliere at the end of it. Back to the house where I am now sitting and writing this blog to catch up on my laziness for the last few days.
Have spoken to mum and am pleased to report that everything has gone as well as possible. She will be leaving hospital on Wednesday and spending a few days with Jerome and Ludmila. As you can imagine all of this happening with us on the other side of the world is difficult but it seems the worst is over and she is making a good recovery.
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