Gare de Nord and rain! After a brief misplacement of ourselves we found our hotel. This time, because we are leaving from Gare de Nord for Lille, we have chosen a hotel in this area and it turned out to be quite a good idea. We were quite near the foot of the Montmatre hill so after we had dropped our luggage we set off for a walk. It was pretty cold and miserable but we enjoyed looking at the buildings and shops and gradually climbing up hill. Businesses are somewhat grouped in parts of Paris. Around our hotel there were lots and lots of bridal shops and as we walked we passed a great number of fabric shops. The weather began to get to us however and we became increasingly cold so we found a delicatessen where we bought a few basics and a fruit shop where we purchased the ingredients for a salad and returned to our tiny studio apartment. It had a really basic kitchen but just enough utensils for me to produce a one pot dinner with a green salad. Our purchase of a cheap bottle of French red wine made this a great meal…..but before dinner we hopped on the Metro and headed for Trocadero and a good view of the Eiffel Tower. It was cold and wet but it made the tower very impressive. As we rode above ground on our way home it started to sparke with flashing lights……so I knew we would have to return.
The next morning saw us heading for the flea markets, somewhere I have long wanted to visit. Now I know where to shop when I want to furnish the chateau – seats, mirrors, chandeliers, vases, clocks and ornaments. Also lots of books, posters, postcards and old records. Shame about the force 9 gale, the pouring rain and the intense cold!!!!!!!! We waded through water in streets blocked by what seemed to be a million autumn leaves blown from the trees and Tony’s umbrella disintegrated.
So what to do next? Obviously dry out….but where and how? Experience guided us and we headed for the Louvre where we knew the air would be very dry. They have extended the restaurant section and there is lots of food available in all sorts of global styles.
We had interesting sea food and salad. Then we spent the rest of the day following endless corridors and climbing endless steps. If you haven’t been there you may find this hard to understand but the place is huge!
We saw lots of our old favourites including Venus and Mona and wandered through the antiquities section for hours. Coffee and then time to return to the tower and see it with all of its lights......simply stupendous!
That left us just one day…big decisions to be made. I have been trying to get to Sacre Coeur for 49 years and 2 previous trips to Paris. Last time we made it to the outside and there was a festival on and a queue about a mile long. Rain was not going to stop me this time so off we went and I loved it. It was a very misty and eerie view of Paris from the church.
We were wet and cold again and needed another art gallery. This time we chose the Musee D’Orsay – lots to see there! The art works that we saw in Canberra are not back on display yet so I was very pleased to have already seen them This time we saw the blue portrait of Van Gogh – I far prefer it to the one they had in Australia.
And of course you can never go to Paris without a trip to Notre Dame. It was quite late in the afternoon when we arrived but that meant fewer people inside. I think that the round windows are some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
I still have a few things to see and do in Paris – perhaps next time?
Tuesday saw us heading for Lille on the TGV. 2 years ago we drove through Lille looking for a room for the night. Eventually we found one and the receptionist gave us instructions to park the car. We never found the parking area and we never found our way back to the hotel – we wanted to see if the streets were really that difficult to negotiate. Wisdom taught us that a place near the railway station would mean less bag dragging on cobbled streets so we checked into the hotel and set out. What a wonderfully confused city!
In the day and a half we have spent here we have been lost (of course – we always get lost because I keep getting distracted from the plan and we wander). We have been rained upon, almost blown away, hit in the face by fast moving sleet, frozen and delighted by some simply wonderful buildings, shops and restaurants. Cakes, chocolates and Christmas treats have had me drooling and today I found the first craft shop of the entire trip! It was a beauty.
It has become a bit of a silly thing to look for chairs in windows. In Paris and Bordeaux we could find none – must be because they are all in Lille. Very strange.
We bought chairs exactly the same as this (except for the colour) in the early 1970s.
We had dinner in a down market bar in a side street and had local Flemish specialities. Tony had Carbonnade Flamande(he likes mine better) while I had potjevlesch – a terrine of tradition meat – porc, lapin and poulet. Quite an interesting meal.
Today was Remembrance Day and a public holiday. If you hadn’t known that was the reason for the majority of the businesses being closed you certainly wouldn’t have been enlightened by any visible alteration to advertising, clothing, shop decoration etc. Experiencing the absolutely vile weather really makes you appreciate the hardships of the people who fought here. It isn’t too bad when you have thermals, woolly caps, fur lined gloves and your coat and you are returning to a nice warm hotel– sleeping in a muddy ditch when you have wet feet and no comforts must have been hideous especially considering that people were trying to kill you.
Just a couple more days in France and we will spend them in Calais, looking at the Lace Museum and trying to find the house where my French ancestors lived. Hopefully it will be a little warmer nearer the sea.
