France - Sunday to Saturday (Home, Patricia leaves & Geocaching))

So far I have been able to keep my blog up to date, even when we are busy, but strange enough, when you're not busy any more you forget to write and the week has gone before you know it....

It was a very quiet week though.  Monday and Tuesday we mainly spent the day at home, resting from our trip to Versailles and Paris, which was just wonderful.  The trip, that is.  But I guess the resting was wonderful too in a way.

As I said, we had a few days of rest and I spent a bit of time cleaning the house.  Housework is a never ending job, even if it is not your own house. ;-)  Patricia needed her washing done before moving on and on Wednesday she packed in readiness for her trip and cleaned her part of the house while I did the rest. 

On Wednesday night Michèle and Jean-Pierre came upstairs to say goodbye to Patricia and and wish her a safe trip.  Communication mainly goes via Michèle's laptop and the translator on it, but it works well, so why not. ;-)

We also took a few pictures, which I mostly forget nowadays, but Michèle insisted.  Fortunately.

And then it was Thursday and time for Patricia to move on.  She was going back to Sweden to spend the last few weeks with daughter Dianne.  Unlike me, she needed a visa for Europe and her visa runs out on Christmas day unfortunately, so the next few weeks will be spent in the spirit of Christmas in Sweden I think...

We left mid-morning for our drive to the train station at Laval.  The weather was not the best, but the rain stayed mostly away.  Arriving at the train station we had the little problem of the car parks having been dug up, so no parking at the station.  After a good look around I found a spot in one of the nearby streets.

I have heard that reverse parking is no longer being taught, but I am glad I learned it and can still handle it on the right side of the road, because it comes in very handy here in those very tight spots!

Since we were early we walked around town to have a bit of look.  Not much really.  It didn't seem to have an 'old' centre like most of them have.  So, we looked for a little café for a cup of coffee instead and found one.  The owner was proud of his cooking and baking skills and wanted us to try one of the sweets.  I must say, it was delicious.  Very flaky pastry and caramalised apple on top.  As only French bakers can make it!

Next it was time to head to the station, and since the platform for Patricia's train had not yet been announced we had plenty of time.  I headed to the ticket office, because I needed train tickets for my trip to the Netherlands in December.  I had tried to book on-line, but unlike Patricia's, my credit card was not accepted.  I couldn't use Patricia's either, because I would need to show the credit card with which the tickets had been paid when I wanted to pick them up!  

It is frustrating at times that there is no rhyme or reason why credit cards are sometimes accepted and at other times not.  Patricia's worked in the supermarket, but not when we wanted to get fuel, at the same supermarket!

Anyway,  I got my tickets and Patricia's train arrived, so we had to say goodbye.  I drove back and arrived at a strangely quiet home.  Different, but not unexpected of course, and we had done the same thing in the Netherlands a few years ago.....

On Friday I did my usual work on the computer.  I am still working on new exchanges for next year, but as always, it's very slow going with more negative than positive responses.  

As it was not a bad day to go out I decided that a long walk was in order.  I have walked a lot these last few weeks, but with Patricia it is more like a stroll and I needed good old-fashioned excercise, so I went out to look for some caches nearby at Désertines.  It should have been a 4.5 km walk for 5 caches, but I ended up doing a lot more than the alloted 1 1/2 hours and got only 2 caches out of it.  No problem though.  The caches were only the excuse to go for the walk....  ;-)

I had parked the car at cache no. 5, which I could not look for, because it was rather busy right at that moment.  So, I started walking and ended up on a track that was roped off after a few hundred metres.  I kept walking though and came out on a road which I followed till I saw the sign: Circuit de la grande Haie. I had thought that the whole walk would be on that particular track, because of the name of the caches, but it was only part of the walk.  I found the next two caches and kept going, until I was stopped by a friendly lady in a car who asked if I was lost.  No, I wasn't, but I was walking towards a farm, she said, and that was where the road ended!  Oops, lost after all. ;-)  So, instead of walking to the next cache I had to retrace my steps and walked the same way back as I had come.  Probably just as well I didn't go for the next two caches, because the walk would have lasted a lot longer than the 2 1/2 hours it now had taken! Can't complain about the excercise though! :-)

#1794 - #4 Circuit de la Grande Haie (cache)

#1795 - #3 Circuit de la Grande Haie (cache)

Upon looking it up on Google Earth I should have followed on from where I came and cross the road, but.... the track ahead of me was so muddy that I couldn't have possibly gone there anyway, so backtracking was the right thing to do in the end.

Then I still have a few pictures that Michèle gave me the other day that I couldn't post earlier:

Patricia and I in front of the big goat
(the dog wasn't invited in the picture.... ;-))

A novel way to announce the Christmas markets

Patricia and I upon leaving for our trip to Versailles

And last but not least, Saturday was a quiet day again.  Too quiet, but I had a headache that I couldn't shake, so I didn't want to exert myself too much.  

Michèle had been busy though.  She and Jean-Pierre came upstairs to bring me a large piece of home-made carrot cake, a big bowl of potato-and-leek soup and a container of, again, home-made apple sauce.

Since Patricia had made carrot soup instead of the potato-and-leek soup that she had planned to make I had just bought some cream and wanted to make the soup myself today, but now we're through the last leeks, so if I want to use that cream I will need to buy some leeks.  Well, why not? ;-) Perhaps tomorrow if I feel any better.

France - Saturday (Paris)

Saturday, 18 November 2017

After having sorted out the little problem we had with the heaters in our room we are ready for another day in Paris.  The problem I mentioned was a rather funny one, by the way.  The radiators in our room and bathroom had been working really well and we were not cold at all, but all of a sudden we had two cold nights.  They would be on, but grow cold very quickly early in the evening.  We had talked about it to Bénédicte who could not understand it.  To help us out she gave us a separate heater which worked properly and supplied enough heat.  This morning however, when we went downstairs to walk to the station she came out and told us what had happened.  She had a hand-held thermostat for the system and this resides on top of the piano in the hallway.  A few nights ago she had moved it and without realising it she had put it under a lamp that comes on early in the evening!  Of course, the heat of the lamp....... etc......  So, puzzle solved! ;-)

Next we walk to the nearest railway station, Versailles Chateau, the one we were at the day before. We walk up the stairs and..... the doors are locked.  Next we see the notice that we had ignored the day before:

Not in the picture, but just above the dates and days it says: AUCUN TRAIN, which means as much as: NO TRAIN.  Had the notice just said: PAS DE TRAIN, I would have known, but the other expression I did not know!  Anyway, I found out when I looked it up on the translator on my phone and now we had to find out how to get to Paris if not on the train from this station.  

I could work out from the writing that the trains were still going from Versailles Chantiers, which was only a 10 minute walk away, so after some debating we decided that we would catch a train from there. 

Once there we bought new tickets, although this time no return tickets, so that we couldn't get them mixed up and we would also have a choice of which station we would return from.  After some more puzzling I discovered that we could take the train from here to Montparnasse and catch the metro from there to Pigalle, the nearest stop for the Place du Tertre, Montmartre and the Sacré Coeur. A kind gentleman at the information office confirmed this and we were on our way.  And even the turnstyles opened today!  So far they did! ;-)

Well to keep the story about the rest of the day brief:  We had coffee at two places, bought crèpes for lunch and visited all three places that I mentioned above, including at the end of the day the Moulin Rouge.  Patricia had not been to either of those places and I had never really seen the Moulin Rouge in real life, so we were both happy with our day.

It really was another day with funny occurences though.  As we leave the metro station Patricia sees a Macdonalds across the road and says: "Oh, let's have a coffee here!", so, we walk to the store only to be met by much emptiness!  Well, we're in Paris.  Let's go to a real café instead!

Montmartre

A steam boiler with numerous taps

I had to have roasted chestnuts. 
The last time I ate those was in winter in Athens more than 20 years ago.

Le Sacré Coeur

Le Moulin Rouge

After four days of flat out walking, ánd climbing numerous stairs (don't forget the ones at the Sacré Coeur) we were ready to go home and put our feet up.  We found our metro station easily enough and were ready to change trains at Montparnasse.  However, I made it through the turnstyles this time, but not so Patricia, who eventually found a police officer who 'let her out' with her key card. :-)  Patricia says she has now more grey hairs than when she left home in September!!!

Metro station at Pigalle

Looooong travellators between stations

Oh, and before I forget: one of the stations we passed is named after my granddaughter: Madeleine  (Or would it be the other way around? ;-))  I had wanted to take a picture at the platform, but couldn't, so a picture of the names in the train would have to do...

On the walk home from Versailles Chantiers station we popped into a supermarket to get the necessary groceries so that we would have something to eat upon arrival at home the next day and then walked 'home' to have a quiet night.

France - Friday (Paris)

Friday, 17 November 2017

Looking outside the weather is not very promising, it is raining!  However, the plan was, and is, to go to Paris, so we get our umbrellas and walk to the nearest station where we, according to Bénédicte, can catch the train to most of the stops in Paris.  For us this is Champ de Mars, closest to the Eiffel Tower.

This is a whole new ball game for us: obtaining tickets from a vending machine, finding the right train and platform, etc., but we get there.  As the machine offers a 'round trip' to Paris, consisting of two tickets, we go for that, so we know we will make our way back from the same station in Paris!  Yeah, right!  Like that works.  But I will get to that story later.

We get on the train.  The correct one, I may add. :-)  And when we get off at Champ de Mars we walk to the Eiffel Tower.  I had been telling Patricia about how I never made it to any other levels than ground level, because there was always something going on when I was in Paris.  Next thing we see this great fenced off area round the tower, and I think: "Here we go again!"  However, it wasn't as bad as it seemed.  A large area has been fenced off, but an equally large area is set aside for security, because, as we now know, all the major tourist attractions nowadays are secured.  Very unfortunate, but it's a sign of the times we live in.

My first thought: There we go. 
That's all we get to see of the Eiffel Tower.... ;-)

Further down we look up and are so impressed (again!).  It makes Patricia take her first selfie!!! ;-)

Of course, I couldn't stay behind and took mine as well:

After we had our fun we bought tickets to go up to the second floor.  We've seen enough stairs to last us a lifetime (and there are even more to come) so we took the easy way out with the lift.

Once there we took our pictures of the sights all around.  The weather wasn't optimal, but we didn't care.

Pont d'Iéna and Place du Trocadéro

Champ de Mars

Champ de Mars

Looking down from the inner walkway

Impressive.  All of its 324m.

 We have coffee and lunch at a little snack bar and enjoy the views.  Then it's time to go, as we want to do more than just visit the Eiffel Tower....

It's been my fourth or fifth visit to Paris, and I like to do a few things that I have never been able to do before.  'Climbing' la Tour Eiffel was one of them and a boat tour on the river Seine is the next.  Frank never really wanted to do a boat trip, but Patricia does, so here we go.  We walk to the Bateaux Mouches ticket office and buy tickets for the next boat.  As it will be a little while we walk along the Seine till it's time and take some more pictures.  As you do! ;-)

Le Pont Alexandre III

Five years ago Frank, Wim, Gerrie and I walked here and took similar photos.
Such memories...

Every big city 'needs' to have an Eye I believe....

Part of the Musée du Louvre

La Tour Eiffel again...

...and again...

We round off the day with another cup of coffee at one of the real 'Parisian style' outdoor seating places of a café and then walk back through the Champ de Mars where we also look for a geocache.

Enjoying our coffee and watching the world go by....

#1793 - Toute première fois (cache)

As it was quite busy and I could not have a real good look I took my trusted extendable mirror out and spied the container in no time.  We logged our find and were on our way again.

The train station was easily found, but.... not easy to get into!  Our return tickets would not open the turn styles!  In my case it could have been the fact that I had switched the tickets upon entering and leaving earlier in the day, but Patricia's didn't work either.  No help to be found and the vending machine was broken, so we could not buy new tickets.  The only way open for us was to sneak in through the gate that let people through to get out.  Two smart Alec youngsters pointed out to us that we were cheating, but were not inclined to assist us, so we didn't care and walked on.  We got on the train alright and were wondering how the hell we were going to handle this on the other side.  Patricia even more than I, because she doesn't know a word French and hadn't travelled that much on the trains in France.  (Well, I didn't tell her I hadn't either.  I just showed a brave face. Haha)

However, we shouldn't have worried at all, because on return at the Versailles station we could freely walk through, because all the machines were taped off.  There were notices everywhere as well, something about the trains that we didn't really worry about at the time, although we should have!  That story tomorrow....