We spent a few days in London to celebrate Christmas with my aunt. The Christmas lights looked beautiful along Oxford Street and, with the daylight gone by 4:30, there is plenty of time to see them. The lights show the city in a much more flattering way than we see during the day time.
We also treated ourselves to a trip to the theatre to see “Come from Away”. Whoever thought up the notion of writing a musical about planes landing in Newfoundland after US airspace was shut down on September 11 must have been on drugs, but we loved it and would recommend to anybody if you get a chance to see it.
Another other item ticked off the bucket list was a visit to the William Morris Gallery, his home during his teenage years. As well as photos of Morris and his family, there were many examples of his work and a small reproduction of his shop in Oxford Street.
After Christmas, we set out on the ferry to Holland (now rebranded as the Netherlands) to make our way to Amsterdam, then on to Germany.
Then we received the phone call. Lee’s mother, Maureen had been very sick and we received news that she was in a very bad way, so we cancelled our plans and turned around to head back to Cherbourg before catching the next available flight to Melbourne. Sadly we did not arrive before she passed away on 31 December.
Maureen was a huge fan of the French Feed. She loved reading the blog and, if there was nothing new to read, she would go back to older posts. Rather than waiting for notifications, most days she and Jim would have a look to see if there were any updates. And she wasn’t backward in reminding us that it had been a while since we had uploaded a new piece. She was a big motivator in helping us to keep up the effort and it was lovely for us to be able to share our experiences with her. RIP Maureen
It’s been a while since our last update, but we are still here!
And in case you haven’t heard, much of France is on strike. December 5 was dubbed Black Thursday when schools, hospitals, trains, police stations, all closed while most government employees went on strike. The main grievance is about the current government’s plans to push back on pension reforms. Currently there are about 42 different retirement pension regimes and the plan is to simplify these, and in the process pushing back the retirement age for many professions. So the French are not happy.
Strikes here are more than just a protest march or stop-work meeting at the local football stadium before adjourning to the pub. An unwritten rule in France is that if the police count a million people marching during a protest, the government will drop its plans. Given that the police are also protesting, we wonder how accurate their counting will be.
In Cherbourg they reported about 5,500 or 8,000, depending on who you believe. One of the fun things that the protestors like to do is block the roads. They do this by either blocking access with large trucks, or they drag big wooden pallets to the centre of the road and then set fire to them. So this means that nobody can get through to drive to work, deliver goods or services or whatever else you may want to do. Petrol stations have run out of fuel so even if you could get through, there is no petrol anyway. It’s surprising how this appears to be quite acceptable and nobody is unsympathetic to the protestors.
All very peaceful but LOUD
All this affects many Australians living here who have travel plans over Christmas. Trains to Paris and connecting flights are a mess. We are getting the ferry to UK and then over to Germany via Holland. Good old Clio should get us there. I have to leave a few days before Lee so I am getting the ferry to Poole and then planned to get a train to London but guess what? There are trains strikes in England right through December.
There’s not much else to report here. Weather is cold and wet with some very serious gale force winds coming in from the English Channel. But occasionally we get some clear skies and treated to a sunrise like this.
Last week, Lee had to visit Paris for a couple of days for work so I tagged along. One of the items on my bucket list before we leave France was to visit the Musee d’Orsay and last time I tried, the queue was a mile long. So this time I booked my ticket in advance and, of course, there were no queues anywhere.
I don’t know why they call it a museum instead of an art gallery. The building was originally a train station for the World Fair in 1900.
This was the main part of the original train station and they have tried to make the most of the natural light. Off to each side are many small rooms to display the art works.
It was abandoned for a long time till the French government decided to transform the building into a museum which holds mainly French art, dating from 1848 to 1914. There were many very well known paintings on display and I spent about 5 hours looking at nearly everything there was to see but I can understand how people could spend much longer. Below are some of the more recognisable paintings (sorry about the crookedness, blame the photographer)
One of the best things was to be able to see up close the way these paintings are done. Here is a fun fact, many of those on display were done in the ‘neoimpressionism‘ style.
(The term Neo–Impressionism refers to a pictorial technique where color pigments are no longer mixed either on the palette or directly on canvas, but instead placed as small dots side by side. Mixing of colors takes place from a suitable distance, in the observor’s eye, as an “optical mixture“. You learn something every day. Here is an example – see the detail of the hand in the bottom right corner.
My visit also included checking out the Christmas decorations in GalleriesLafayette and did not disappoint, although I don’t think they have finished yet.
At the left of the photo you can see a viewing platform
Another bucket list item was the Paris Opera House. The French really have a handle on opulence. It is very much in use nearly every night for opera or ballet performances with tickets starting around €100. I wasn’t really expecting much but it was stunning, the detail on even the doorknobs, curtain sashes and out of the way corners was amazing. Well worth a visit.
Section of the Grand Staircase leading to the various levels. Those gold painted tyres are a mystery.This section was tucked away, but still so beautiful, full marble pillars and intricate tile work on the floor.Many of the original costumes were on display.The Salon du Glacier
Those were the highlights of the visit. But can’t sign off without mentioning that November is offal month in France. That’s right, offal has it’s own month. You can buy offal anytime, but there is a lot more of it around in November because the calves that were born in summer have now reached the 20 week mark, so they are slaughtered and there is a sudden glut of testicles, sweetbreads, heads and hearts.
We have just returned from a week in London. We were kept busy with some family stuff and also I went to a 3 day genealogy conference held at ExCel, a large convention centre in the eastern London. (Comic Con was held at the same venue, some people there to find out about family history had their eyes popping over some of the costumes).
We caught the ferry across to Portsmouth and this coincided with the quarter final France vs Wales World Cup match. Here is a bit of context about the photo below.
There was a sizable group of English and French people (nearly all men) sitting watching the match and if you saw it, then you would know it was a bit of a nail biter. The photo was taken a few minutes before full time. Wales had just scored and put them in front for the first time in the match. The score was Wales 20, France 19. Could go either way. The crowd roared – nope, not a bit. Apart from a baby making noises and the commentary on the TV, it was so quiet. Nobody yelling at the players or complaining about the refereeing or cheering on their team. Nobody was making a sound. Put Australians in this scenario and you would have heard them all over the ferry.
The man circled had his head in his hands and was the only one showing any emotion. He was French.
We stayed at The Victory Services club near Marble Arch which was lovely. This is for members and former serving members of the Armed Forces in Commonwealth countries. It was a fantastic location, and included 50% discount to park Clio at the car park under Hyde Park. She was in very exclusive company. We decided that most of the cars were for short term lease for the well heeled visitors to London and probably come with a chauffeur as an optional extra
We went for a stroll down Oxford Street and along Regent Street. So many of the shops are chains that you will find in any major cities and towns, but we couldn’t leave without popping in to Selfridges, Hamleys and Liberty London. You expect prices to be high in these places, but Liberty really outdid themselves. £85 for a scented candle, £350 for a cushion. There must be people who pay these prices, otherwise they wouldn’t charge that much. We resisted.
In between the downpours we walked through Hyde Park and checked out the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. Apparently it was designed to “express Diana’s spirit and love of children“. It was made from 545 pieces of Cornwall granite, ” each shaped by the latest computer-controlled machinery and pieced together using traditional skills“. It probably cost an eye-watering amount but to us it just looked very much like an open drain.
No visit to Hyde Park is complete without seeing squirrels. They are very friendly and obviously used to being hand fed. We had a few come up looking for a feed and, when they realised there was nothing on offer, they scurried away.
Hyde Park is also the home of the Animals in War Memorial. It was unveiled 14 years ago by Princess Ann and commemorates animals that died in war and conflicts. It is not huge and sits between two fairly busy roads, but well worth stopping by to have a look.
And in keeping with the animal sculptures, a few metres away is this horse statue. Usually horse statues are the base for showing off military or royal figures, but this one, created by Nic Fiddian-Green is called Still Water. The artist is well known for his horse sculptures and he has a number of these dotted around, but this is the biggest. This was installed in 2011 and the pigeons loved it so much that Fiddian-Green hired a cherry picker one Sunday morning in 2012 and cleaned it himself.
That’s the highlights of the week. We stocked up at Sainsburys in Portsmouth on things that are hard to find here – S.R flour, water crackers, breakfast cereal without added sugar and chocolate, curry paste. Then we Brexited out of there (ha ha).
After exploring much of Normandy, we are setting our sights on travelling a bit further to see neighbouring Brittany. We had heard a bit about Dinan, a town not far from St Malo so we took off in Clio to check it out.
We knew very little about Dinan but to us it looks like it escaped relatively unscathed from WW2. So many of the Normandy towns are a mix of very old and relatively newish buildings. Unfortunately the newer buildings are often quite ugly due to the urgent need and lack of funds after the war.
Dinan is built on the Rance River and has direct water access to the harbour at St Malo. It is really hilly and must have been a nightmare to try and build on those steep slopes hundreds of years ago. They obviously knew what they were doing because many enormous retaining walls still look like they could remain standing for a few more centuries.
Originally Dinan was a walled city, and much of the original wall remains. To further protect the city, the moat was widened and counterscarp (an outer wall) was built around 1470. This was then converted into a promenade around 1750.
The promenade on the left. This is a long way up from the river so filling that moat with water must have been challenging.Another part of the original wall. This gives a sense of how hilly the town is.This is the Governor Tower. In the 19th century it was sold to private citizens who built a massive house on top (see below). It was eventually bought back by the municipality and the house was demolished in 1990.
This is looking down on the Port of Dinan.The main part of the old town is on the top of the hill on the left.Let’s build a house of stones. Big stones. And do some fancy brick work above the second floor. And then put an arched window in the attic. With more fancy brick work above the arch. And big stone chimneys. And don’t forget a really, really steep pitch on that roof. With slate tiles. And no power tools or safety equipment. And make sure it sill looks good in a few hundred years. Easy peasy.
Dinan looks amazing, day or night. There has been a lot of money and effort put into restoring and maintaining its character and it so worth a visit.
We were lucky that we were there on a Sunday outside ‘peak’ season and we can imagine this would be packed with tourists during summer. Regardless, this is a definitely a place that we will be returning to.
We haven’t been anywhere new lately, just revisiting some places we have been before, so this post is about some “I didn’t know that” items.
In breaking news, the local mayor has just announced that Cherbourg will be the first town in the Channel area to ban the use of synthetic pesticides. This is part of a campaign to help the bee population and try and get the dwindling wildflower vegetation (like red poppies) to recover. It’s a nice idea, but the ban will only apply within five metres of homes and the state rail operator is still allowed to use glyphosate along the train tracks.
This translates to ‘we want poppies’
This may already be a thing in Australia, but banks are now issuing debit cards to children from 12 years of age. This is supposed to help them and parents by not having to rely on cash and reduce the risk in case of loss or theft. It appears like a prepaid system, (like mobile phone plans) and will only be available for limited amounts of money, set by the parents.
Speaking of children, school lunches are quite something. Canteen workers are employed by the school to cook hot meals every day from fresh local produce. Prices vary between French municipalities and depends on family income. In Cherbourg the average price is €3.50.
Here is a copy of the weekly menu posted on the school gate for parents to see.
We are about to receive some free iodine tablets. These are being issued to anybody living within a 20 km radius of the nuclear power plant. We are slightly outside that radius but, lucky us, we get the tablets anyway. Apparently, in the event of a nuclear accident, the release of radioactive iodine into the atmosphere “could constitute a risk to health”. When it is swallowed or inhaled, it latches on to the thyroid gland, so taking the tablets will saturate the gland and so the radioactive gremlins don’t latch on. How comforting.
One thing that French take very seriously is their butter. It is a part of every meal, both for cooking with and eating with baguettes. The type of cows, the seasons, the type of grass, even the type of soil on the dairy farm all contributes to the taste and quality of the butter. The more expensive butter will come packaged in waxy paper in a more rounded shape than your standard block of Western Star from Coles or Woollies.
But the really odd thing in Normandy is that, for a region that is famous for its dairy industry, 95% of the milk sold is long life milk. Very few people buy the fresh stuff and one of the explanations is that the French never drink plain milk or add it to tea. They are a nation of coffee drinkers (until it’s time to pour the wine of course). It’s also easier for the retailers to not have to worry about refrigeration and use by dates for all the milk they sell.
Last blog about Italy – unless of course we go back there. We would love to see more, but then there are so many other countries we would like to see. Life can be a struggle.
Anyway, Day 5 – we caught a train from Florence to Lucca, a little over an hour away. Lucca is a small town best known for its very well preserved wall that surrounds the old part of the town. The wall itself is really wide as it was built when cannons, rather than bows and arrows were the weapon of choice. Now the top of the wall is very busy with walkers and bike riders. We hired a couple of bikes and did the 4 km circuit. Twice. Once clockwise and then anti-clockwise. The weather was perfect and not too crowded.
Every bike ride in Lucca should end with a chianti or an aperol spritz.
Day 6 was our last day in Florence and we visited the Boboli Gardens. This a a vast space right near the city centre and, like most things, was built and paid for by the Medici family. A word about that family – nearly all historic monuments, works of art and other such things we have seen have been ordered and paid for by either royalty or the church. The Medici family was neither, they were filthy rich from commerce and banking and became a very powerful political dynasty. They ended up producing four popes and many family members married into royalty throughout Europe, but as far as Florence was concerned, nearly everything on the list of major art and cultural attractions is thanks to the Medicis.
Anyway – back to the Boboli Gardens. The Medici family established the layout of the gardens, creating an Italian style garden that would go on to become a model for many Europeans courts. It is geometric, with open expanses and small garden rooms. There are plenty of statues, fountains, grottos and views over the Florence rooftops.
So then it was time to return to Cherbourg. As you can tell, we loved Florence and hope you enjoy the blog.
We are now on to Day 3 – it was a Saturday and we spent the day in Florence just wandering. It’s always good to find the interesting, quirky and random things so here are a few examples:
The original statue of David is in the Accademia Gallery and just down the road there is a university that looks just like a museum. Here is the entrance to the university and their staff obviously get sick of tourists wandering in looking for David.
Cappuccinos in Italy are much the same as you would get if you ordered a flat white in Australia. Never saw any chocolate sprinkled on top.
That is the Ponte Vecchio on the left. The river looks like there is not much of a tide difference. So how do you get to those paddle boards????Public drinking fountain
Day 4 – Pizza and gelato making class. This was so much fun. We hopped on a bus and were taken up into the hills outside Florence to a small farm. After a visit to the herb and vege garden to pick some items for our pizzas and a few berries for the gelato. We then went through the process of making gelato (quite simple – it’s all about the right ratios), and then we started on the pizza dough. Our teacher for this was Lucca – what a hoot. Main things we learned: only use fresh yeast, don’t overload with too many toppings, squash tomatoes with your hands (cutting seeds with a food processor makes it bitter), 48 hours to prove the dough – 24 at room temperature and 24 in the fridge, don’t cut the pizza with a wheel – attack the whole thing with a knife and fork. Can’t wait to practice all this.
It was fabulous. After taking out a second mortgage to buy a sandwich and water at Charles de Gaulle Airport, we flew to Florence and based ourselves there while we explored the city and some of the Tuscan countryside. All those beautiful photos of Tuscany that you see on travel sites are spot on. Even though Florence was crowded (which you would expect) it wasn’t too bad and for the most part, the weather was perfect.
We saw so much and took a gazillion photos so this time we will break up the blog into a few parts.
View from our hotel overlooking the courtyard of the Medici Palace.Ponte Vecchio, one of the world’s most famous bridges and home of the most over priced jewelry you will find anywhere.
Day 1 – after a morning of walking around some parts of the city we visited the Uffizi Gallery, (which is not the home of the original statue of David as some people may have thought – learn something every day when travelling) but still plenty of paintings and statues dating back many centuries. It is amazing how well preserved they are, the colours of the paint are still so vivid after 500 or so years.
We call this the Gallery of Awkward Poses. It was during this period that the science of physiotherapy was born.
Day 2 – Bus trip to Tuscany countryside. We hopped on a bus with about 50 other tourists-nearly all American or Australian, and headed out of Florence to see some of the other areas of Tuscany. As well as some picture perfect views of rolling hills we visited Siena, San Gimignano and Pizza, with a stop for lunch at a chianti winery. Here’s the day in pictures:
This was outside the world’s oldest surviving bank – Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, founded in 1472. The faces looking down from under the eaves belong to the who’s who of Italian movers and shakers – Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus..the list goes on.
The things you find out on a guided tour! This little extension is a toilet. Back in the day, people would do their business in these little appendages. Then at night time they could just open the trap door and empty the contents on to the lane below. But not permitted during the daytime.View at lunchtimeNo Tuscan view is complete without a few olive trees.No prizes for guessing what this is.
The funniest thing about this spot was looking at everyone taking that very original photo of trying to push the tower up or whatever. These are just a few.
That’s the end of Part 1. Stayed tuned for more…….
We have had a bit of a quiet week but trying to make the last of the warm sunny weather. There has been an invasion of cruise ships and ferries in Cherbourg lately, but that still doesn’t provide enough incentive for many local businesses to stay open. August means holidays and nothing interferes with that.
Here are a few random photos for your viewing pleasure.
This is a photo of Cherbourg from our highest point. I’ve tried to be a bit creative so hopefully you can read the text.No idea who lives here but couldn’t resist a photo. This is not far from our place and it’s not that common for people to leave their gates open so we don’t often see these pretty places.I could say that I was being very creative and deliberately set this up to take a photo of myself in the mirror. But that’s a lie. Didn’t even notice this until later when we were looking at the photos. We were checking out some people setting up for hang gliding. It looked like unorganised chaos – people and cars everywhere.The cows here are so funny. Like seagulls, they always seem to face in the same direction. They just stand there munching away, but as soon as you stop to look at them, like some pre-organised arrangement, they all just freeze like statues. So many captions you could think of for this photo.
It’s that time of the year when the tides are really extreme. The photos above were about 5 hours apart. Where does all that water go?
thefrenchfeed 