Paris, Amiens and finally, Calais

Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Paris, Versailles, Amiens, Wimereux, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
We're sitting in Le Van, here at Camping Huttopia Versailles, after already spending two hectic days in the City of Lights. Our campsite is quiet and clean and well-run . . . as we’ve come to expect from French commercial sites.

But first we must tell you about our neighbours for two days . They hail from the Gold Coast, and having retired, are now finishing a tour of Europe with . . . . a full size Formula Junior, open wheeler race car in their specially equipped van! Roger and his wife are keen race participants and they’d just come from a meeting at Spa. The car sits in the back of the van. There is a platform above the car which is also their bed base and access to bed is via a four rung ladder. How about that? But, there’s more, they also know an acquaintance of ours who live right next to our friends Alex and Brian. This planet is a small place!

Now, let’s tell you about our Paris adventures to date. Each day we buy two one-day Mobilis tickets which gives us unlimited travel on all Paris transport for a cost of €22. Of course we were late up on day one, and did not time our meeting very well with Aude, our French friend. Getting off at Notre Dame, we ignored the cathedral ('did it’ well and truly last time) in favour of coffee and a browse through the Shakespeare and Company bookshop – a Paris ‘must’ for English speaking book lovers . Then we sauntered down the right (or was it left) bank of the Seine towards the metro station Les Invalides. It was a perfect day, cool but sunny and not too many tourists. Anyway, after a rush we caught up with Aude and had a wonderful hour catching up with her travels after leaving Australia. Also spent a considerable amount of time encouraging her to come back to Oz. Anyone have a job available for an attractive, bright (Master’s Degree in communications and something else) young lady, with impeccable French, very good English and possibly something else we don’t know about? And, she has good references . . . Us! Also makes excellent coffee.

Then it was onto the Pere Lachaise Cemetery - 110 acres and a humungous number of graves. Of course the first one to visit was that of Jim Morrison. After that we searched high and low for Oscar Wilde’s grave but it eluded us. We had been warned it was hard to find and confirm that is the case. But it was peaceful walking down the avenues and lanes that separate the different sections and we had a lovely afternoon .

Day 2 did not start auspiciously. Again cool and sunny. Our attempts, however, to pre-book tickets for the Eiffel Tower proved fruitless. So, Peter decided that it was not worth even going – remembering the queues that greeted us last time. Kathy, forever the optimist (it’s hard living with an optimist), suggested that we go and have a look anyway. Peter (know-all, and pessimist summa cum laude) finally agreed knowing that he’d be able to photograph the queues for you. On arrival, as you have probably already guessed, we were greeted by queues of . . . nothing. Ten minutes after arrival we were through security checks and on our way to the summit! Jeez it’s great living with an optimist. Now, if Kathy could only get used to living with a grumpy old man, everything would be perfect! The Tower tour was amazing. The views from the summit were breathtaking. And the crowds were thin. How lucky were we? A visit to Galleries Lafayette, and a walk past the Opera House brought us to the Champs Elysees . By this time, ready for a drink, we chose a pavement café and ordered a beer and dry white (it was beer o’clock). And wonder of wonders, the bill only came to €19 (about A$30). Not a bad day at all.

And today wasn’t too bad either! A crisp morning, and we mean CRISP . . . 9°C initially but quickly warming to a delightful 20°C by midday. First item on the agenda? Sainte-Chapelle . . . is a small but intensely beautiful monument to . . . don’t really know what to say. It was built to house relics from the Passion of Christ and did so for some time until the Revolution when they were either looted or destroyed. So, that’s one ‘monument’ reason. Another might be the sheer beauty of the huge stained glass windows, or, the culmination of Gothic structural engineering. In the end it is probably more mundane than that. To me (Peter) it’s a monument to the naiveté of people who thought that God resided in buildings that touched heaven, when all the time He resides in the natural world outside . Having said that, it is worth seeing just for the artistry of the builders and adorners. Second agenda item – lunch and coffee, which we had after a walk through the laneways of the Latin Quarter. Final item? The Musee de Orangerie on the right or left bank of the Seine (still haven’t worked it out) across the river from the D’Orsay. This should be a must if you want to see the works of Masters (Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso and others) in a wonderfully simple setting and with no crowds. In fact there was so much it was overwhelming. So, that was the culmination of another fabulous day. Tomorrow is Versailles day.

When we said Versailles day, we should have stipulated ‘all things Versailles but not the Chateau’. This is because we ‘did’ the Chateau big-time last time. Not going to talk about the weather except to say it is certainly consistent which is great for us. Our first stop of the day turned out to be, well, negative. Remembering the excellent coffee and croissants we had at Starbucks Prague, we entered Starbucks Versailles for more of that . We won’t tell you what it was like. Suffice to say that Starbucks is back up the top of the list of places to avoid when we get back to Oz. Next stop was the Chateau Gardens and we spent a pleasant hour and a half getting lost in the maze of walkways, lanes, roundabouts and paths. Really! Everything is bordered by hedges that must be 3 to 4 metres high. Very relaxing none the less although by the end of the morning we were ready for a table, chairs, food and drink. These we found in the market square area of the city and after demolishing baguettes and soft drinks trekked back to Le Van and a rest. Tomorrow we heigh-ho for Amiens – it was going to be Rouen but the only city campsite won’t return our calls to see if they will have room! Bizarre!

Our trundle up to Amiens turned out to be anything but! Leaving Versailles, Sheila took us on an intricate dance along the highways that circle Paris. Unfortunately, at a critical juncture she led us onto an exit that had a 2m barrier over it . The barrier was made of hanging ropes with heavy weights on the end. Let us remind you that Le Van is 2.3m high. On no! The line of cars exiting behind us ruled out the possibility of reversing out of our predicament. With no alternative we slowly made our way under the barrier. Bump, smack, "was that a crack?", crash, bump, and we were through, turning back onto the highway we’d just left. At this point, we came to another exit. Sheila said something while Peter was dribbling on about the damage to roof and we drove past the exit. We now know this was a mistake! For the next half an hour we drove through the outer suburbs of Paris following Sheila to the letter, and eventually found our way back onto the Amiens/Calais freeway (A16). Then it was a case of looking for an Aire where we could stop and check the damage. Twenty minutes later we came across an Aire. Just in time to stop Kathy throttling Peter!

Oh woe is me! (Peter writing). Leaving Kathy to make strong coffee and warm up the croissants, I climbed slowly up and onto the roof . Damage? Zip . . . turns out Le Van is made of strong stuff. Of course, I knew that all along but had to play the ‘worried look’ game . . . . Let’s see if Kathy edits this out. Whatever! It served to make the coffee and croissants even more delicious.

After checking into Camping Parc des Cygnes, Amiens, we took the after lunch bus into the City. The guidebooks, google and bing, all listed the Cathedral Notre Dame as the top attraction. Another cathedral, we hear you say, but listen, this one is worth a special trip. It is Gothic Splendour supreme. We cannot say what makes it so special. Certainly if God was living just a little way up into the sky, this Cathedral would be scraping heaven. It is LOFTY. But there was more to it. For a gothic cathedral it was surprisingly light inside, and the ornamentation while being intricate was in no way gaudy. If you’re in the Amiens area, visit it. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking down to the Somme and Parc St Pierre . And, here was a sight, a long stretch of the river bank was cordoned off for fishermen (no, we did not spy any fisherwomen). Wielding exceptionally long rods (and each of them had at least two, and some even had six) they were casting into the river and catching, as far as we saw in the twenty minutes we were in the park – nothing. But it was relaxing just watching them on a beautiful autumn afternoon.

Next morning, we were off to Wimereux (just north of Boulogne-sur-Mer) and saw us getting up at 7AM. Coming back from our weekly shower (that’s a joke everyone) we saw the most beautiful sight, the dawning sun was rendering the vapour trails of the airliners a flamingo pink. We counted at least 30 of them, ranging from sharp new ones, to diluting fluffy lines in the sky. Oh boy! This is a wonderful life.

Now we’re now at Camping Municipal L’Olympic, right near the beach and marine boulevard. This afternoon we walked along the esplanade into the town of Wimereux . It being a bright, sunny Sunday afternoon the walk was crowded with families and couples out enjoying the last vestiges of summer. What a fabulous picture! The tide was right out and people (mainly Mums but we don’t want to be chauvinistic) pushed prams right down to the water’s edge. Unfortunately we chose to lunch in the village centre. Unfortunate because no more than an hour later we walked back along there and the tide had already come 50m up the beach and was lapping up walls of the esplanade. Must be quite a sight watching a tide surge in like that.

Soooo, today is our last day of sight seeing in Europe for tomorrow we embark on Le Shuttle for the UK. We decided to spend it in Boulogne-sur-Mer. It so happens that this town has a cathedral called the . . . wait for it . . . Notre Dame. Seems that veneration of Our Lady is rife in France. Everywhere has a Notre Dame. The cathedral’s claim to fame is that it was built by a priest who had no idea of architecture and the importance of theme i .e. gothic, renaissance, Romanesque etc. In fact, there was much adverse comment from the ‘knowing ones’ of the time about his hodgepodge. Turns out, however, that it is a very attractive, light and pleasing building. A pleasure to walk through. The rest of the old fortified town also looked interesting – the old castle or chateau, a museum dedicated to the history of the town, and down by the harbour, an exhibition dedicated to the events of WW2. But, we ran into the European problem. Sundays and Mondays are difficult. Much is completely closed. Also the majority of such places close between 12.30 and 2PM. One has to plan these things! So, after the Cathedral we lunched at a side walk café and walked slowly back to our campsite, where we are currently getting ready for the crossing tomorrow.

So, it’s goodbye from Boulogne and thanks for all the fish! If anyone doesn’t get that, read Hitchhikes Guide to the Galaxy.

Talk to you from England . . . first stop Eastbourne . . .
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Comments

Alex Warner
2014-09-30

Oh my! I have so enjoyed your commentary that It feels as though I have been there with you. And fancy bumping into a friend of Rick's! Enjoy your last few weeks and I know these entries will give you so much pleasure when you go back over them in months to come.
We are enjoying Turkey although today I missed a step and have done something to my foot....hobbling at the moment. After a hot bath, ice, massage and a good night's sleep I'm counting on it being better tomorrow for Ephesus. See you back in Sydney with bells on!!! xxxxxxx

Anne Day
2014-10-01

I have to agree with Alex. Your blog has been fabulous and has given us readers a wonderful experience "travelling" with you during your amazing trip. It will give you both such pleasure reading it in the future.

Enjoy the rest of your trip and safe trip home. Looking forward to seeing you in November

Bernie (your son)
2014-10-01

I expect you to put your prodigious blogging talents to good use in the future in order to top up my intheritance after all this galavanting. ;)
Bloody old people these days, never used to be like this....

Turandot
2014-10-03

Inspired! Super pics ... want to see all of these places and travel the slow roads and back roads.

Joan McMurray
2014-10-04

Hi Travellers, Wow!!!!! None of you look like you've put on and ounce with all that croissants and coffee. Lucky you.. Fantastic experience, never to be forgotten and maybe repeated? Views are just wonderful you've been to all the places I've read about. Oh well. Lots and lots of GBU's love Joan (GBU God bless you's)..

2025-02-10

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