New year salutations/ Paris, France (days 5, 6)

Well hello to 2008! I hope the transition from one year to the next went well for you all. A quick look at the newspapers would show that not everybody made it through, so lets count our blessings.

I'm about to embark on the final chapter of my France trip, just so I can crack on and tell you about my Crimbo!

Wednesday

The cab was booked to take us to the Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp, a 30 minute drive away. Gregg was irked by two situations; the 1st being that the chapel was only open for two, 2 hour windows a day, meaning he would not have as much time to take in the building as he had planned. He had intended to use sight, touch, hearing and smell to not only look at the building and walk away, but 'bathe' in its design and build and inception, almost to promote an emotional reaction. The 2nd irksome matter was the fact that the cab driver would wait, and take us back to Belfort: but only for one hour. Gregg was so downhearted. His intended all-day exploration had been boiled down to a concise hour.




We all had our hotel breakfast before leaving, and had also to pack all our belongings because check-out time was at 12pm, just about the time we hoped to be back from the chapel. As it was, we did get back in time to fetch our bags and check out, only to place our bags into storage so we could go and explore the fort!

Gregg had ventured out at the crack of dawn to investigate the fort, as his midnight effort had bore little fruit, his camera had died on him. He was sporting a brand new digital SLR camera and every photo was experimental! The fort itself was at the top of a hill and a path meandered its way to the castle structure at the top, circling the building, on its way, at least once. If I remember rightly, our return train to Paris was leaving at 2.30 and at 1.45 we were atop the fort. A mile from the station, with about an hour walk back to the hotel (if we went back the way we came). Thankfully we had noticed a quick way back. Dan still got quite itchy, hating, having to rush around.




We safely boarded the train and were soon being whisked back to Paris. Our apartment owner pal had responded to our missed call from the day before and was more than able to provide us with a place to stay that night. Once but in town we wasted no time dumping off our bags and heading back out. And to the Buddha Bar, an ultra trendy bar/restaurant in the West End for a couple of drinks (at €10 a pop), then back to République, feeling that it had much more to offer than on our first trip there. We found a quaint Italian eatery that had a live jazz band at one end of the small diner. Of course, it was all in French, as was the menu and my beef dish turned out to be smoked beef (raw in my eyes) and I found it unpalatable. Still I ate about half of it. The late nights and early mornings had started to take there toll on me and my head was pounding. Once back in 'our' neck of the woods, Pigalle, I took an early bath (at 1 am!) while Gregg and Dan stayed out at a local bar.






Thursday, our last day!

Breakfast; juice, hot chocolate and a croissant. Next stop, our missed stop from Monday; Ville Savoye. We got a good hour and a half there, but we were still harried out the closing door. We had lunch in Poissy before Paris again, this time 'shopping'. Time to get some goodies for the folks back home. We hit the Champs-Élysées looking for some stuff, Dan lucked out but me and Gregg were still empty handed so we crossed over to Montmartre, the part of town on the lower hill below the Sacré-Cœur. Lots of boutique shops round there, still, time ran out on us and we had to get our bag and head on over to Gard du Nord. It was time for us to come home....

Paris, France (day 4)

Well that last entry took 3 hours from start to finish.. Here's hoping I can get that time down.......

Tuesday

It had always been the plan that at some point we all would leave Paris and head to a building of 'architectural' interest elsewhere in the country. Gregg had picked a chapel near the Swiss border. An option to visit Switzerland was thrown on the table, which met with universal agreement. The decision of when we went there, and how long we stayed, was made on the Sunday; leave on Tuesday with an, as-late-as-possible, return to Paris, on Wednesday.

With us only planning to be away from Paris for 1 night, we hoped to keep hold of our room for when we returned, unfortunately we could not reach the apartment owner and had to vacate as originally planned with all our luggage. At the station we discovered, to our horror that a trip to Switzerland would cost over €200! So a quick fix was needed fast. Gregg and Dan spoke with one of the window ladies and returned 10 minutes later with 3 tickets to Belfort, the town near the chapel. They were cheap, next-day returns, but still cost €100 each. The journey would take 4 1/2 hours.

Arriving in the early evening our first mission, was to find a place to stay that night. Gregg bought a local map and over a beer we found the most central hotels. Our main choice turned out to be a bit pricier that hoped so we trekked back to a hotel we had seen near the station. That one was full, so back we when again to choice number 1.



Gregg fancied some 'real' French cuisine and asked for some traditional restaurants. They were in the old part of town and admittedly the first place we'd been where no-one could speak English. I had rabbit and duck; Gregg had guinea fowl and I can't remember what Dan had, but it was good eating. After dinner we wandered around town and found a fort guarded by a massive stone lion. Suddenly the place had character and was no longer just a place to crash for the night.



We ended the night in a bar two roads away from our hotel. Much later Gregg went for a litle midnight walk. Dan and I hit the hay (not together mind ('I was never confused')), for the next day was the reason we'd travelled there; Le Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp.

Christmas Interlude/ Paris, France (day 3)

Well hello! Sorry for the interruption but a minor yuletide festival got in the way. I don't really care much for Christmas; it feels like the world grinds to a halt and every day feels like a Sunday. And Sundays are always the slowest, dullest day of the week (for me anyway). Christmas for me means; lots of time with my Playstation. Yay!



Sadly, I was in the middle of recounting my France trip when St Nick rudely interrupted, so in my infinite anal retentive need to keep Squish Pages in event order, I need to finish my French story before I can get into the other fun stuff that has happened to me this December. Even more daunting is the fact that we (myself, Gregg and Dan) were in France for 6 days :- Saturday through Thursday, and I'm only up to Sunday.... Which means I've gotta 'flood' my blog today.

Hopefully I can stick with it because this is gonna take allllllll daaaaaayy!.......

Monday

We 3 awoke early(ish), for this was the day we were to visit our first architect driven building, but first, breakfast at the Sacré-Cœur. We grabbed a few daytime shots then attempted to unearth Jim Morrison's grave (I made a funny) after being told it was in the vicinity. After some wandering around we found the cemetery but it was the wrong one! Jim Morrison was on the other side of town, too far away for us to get to in our timescale. Gregg filled the hole with an impromptu visit to a house of interest that was ultimately back near the Sacré-Cœur.




From there we headed to the train station that would take us to Poissy, a Paris suburb and home of the Villa Savoye. The train out was one of those double decker numbers (they are WELL cool). A short cab ride took us to the Villa Savoye, but we were not there long to realise that the house was closed. Gregg's book stated that the house was closed every Tuesday, in fact it was closed every Monday. D'oh! We walked back to the station and returned to Paris with a very dejected Gregg; he was really looking forward to seeing the Villa Savoye.



By now it was 3pm and Dan and I decided it was a good idea to visit the Louvre, an attempt to salvage the day. Gregg at first still wanted to see some buildings and was to head to south Paris on his own to find one, however with time against him he settled on the Louvre. Despite there being notices everywhere the said 'no photography', pretty much everyone else were taking photos - so we did too!








The Eiffel Tower was our next destination, so we had only brief 3 hour stay at the museum (believe me, the place is so vast that it would need a whole day just to visit every room in there!). We took a walk to the bottom of the Champs-Élysées to catch a train to the tower.





'Three tickets to the top please.' It seemed a good idea at the time but my nerve went on the lift ride to the 1st level. And that's where I stayed. My fear of heights took me no further. Dan and Gregg went to the top and reported that it was deathly cold and windy up there. Our bellies were grumbling by now, and we went for dinner. After the previous night's dinner debacle, we stayed out and ventured to an area named République, kind of like Shorditch is in London, famed for the trendy bars and restaurants. (Incidentally we went to eat in République twice during our stay, and both times was the worst food of the trip)

As always, much love goes out to wikipedia.org. 'Oh great and wise leader!"