The past few days might have gone by in a blur….so much has
been packed into them….but without the distractions of mundane routine they sit
indelibly on my mind and increasingly waiting to be shared on the tip of my
tongue. On Friday hubby and I caught a plane to France via an interminable
amount of airplane food fed at accosting times for my usual digestive routine,
intermittent and achingly painful sleep and airport shuttling and scuttling! We
were a near miss for the Abu Dhabi connector to Paris as the flight out of Singapore
was late and then the Abu Dhabi airport was closed for a while and left us
circling the air in its wake. However that is now in what seems to be a distant
past and we are nicely ensconced in the heart and soul of France.
Paris was surprisingly as wonderful as my youthful romantic
memories of it led me to believe. Only this time it was so nice to be sharing
it with a soul mate. We arrived a tad later than we had envisaged but still
early in Paris time, and were off and into the thick of it at 9am. I was hoping
the taxi driver would speak English and give me a little settling time before
needing to use my rather rusty, small and shy French. Of course not, I should have
known and my “Parlez vous englais” was greeted by a rush of fast “Non, non. #@????” Oh dear....but I managed to work out a price
and give directions that did get us to the Hotel! Relief…nothing like jumping
straight in!
We spent day one, walking…..walking a lot…..the first 15
minutes from hotel to Eiffel tower was too tasty and we kept on like moths to a
flame………the Seinne, Tuilleries gardens, Musee d’olongerie, Obelisk, Place de la
Concorde, D’orsay, Invalides…a little market shopping in Rue Cler and around
the block a few times with minor deviations that kept our hotel just at bay…but
obviously we found it again eventually……and then at night we did the Eiffel
tower…beckoning us out from our view of it on our hotel room verandah……we got
to the top just in time for sunset and it was worth it…we stayed until much
later and strolled home through the park…dare I say it …ah Paris in the spring
time!
We fell in love with Paris, eating crepes take away,
croissants and coffee at sidewalk cafes, drinking wine on our verandah, picnics
and sketching in the park with half the local population and flowers everywhere.
We ventured further out to Monet’s gardens at Giverney and took in the Musee
Rodin and its incredible gardens just down the road. We lucked upon a photography
exhibition by Mapleton, took a cruise down the Seinne, waving to young lovers drinking
wine on its banks and ventured in the crypt at Napoleon’s Tomb……and we had the
tiredest legs, matched only by our silliest of happy grins!
It was actually hard to say goodbye to Paris…..and maybe a little
scary too….now we were venturing on to the France by car part of the journey……..
and inevitably we got lost in Paris trying to get out of it!!! Wrong side of
the road, little familiarity with the format of road signs, a scanty idea of
French road rules and one big crinkly map with too small writing…….in the end
we took a Parisian approach and blustered our way out with daring and gusto…..and
found our way Mont st. Michel…… (Though I did have to ask a few folk for
directions along the way)…my best French now consists of “Pardon, je suis
perdue”……Hubby and I agreed that if he was to drive I was in charge of
directions and that meant asking for them and hopefully understanding the
response too…….
We stayed the night on Mont st Michel at a little inn called
le Mouton Blanc…(the white sheep)…at the base of the ancient Abbey. Being there
at night and getting up at 6am the next day to walk the cobbled streets, visit
the chapel of Madeleine and trek up the 100’s of steps to the Abbey to look out
across the tidal flats that separate the Mont from the mainland and watch the sunrise
was truly one of the most spectacular things I have ever done! It was a stroke
of genius to stay on the Mont and avoid by virtue of timing the crowds of
tourists that gather there each day.
We ate breakfast ravenously after our trek and perfected the
art of breakfast buffet shopping…which nicely provided us a picnic on our next
drive…..yoghurt, baguette, cheese ( gotta love the French practice of Camembert
and brie for breakfast) and a couple of serviettes.
And then we drove along winding, verdant roads, through
medieval little towns with breathe in streets and cobbled pavements, past the ruins
of ancient fortresses, bright red
poppies and musing cows, to Carnac…home of megalithic dolmens and standing
stones…..and of course “le page” long stretches of wild untamed beach……
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