Paris

What a great city Paris is!  There is so much to do and so many things to see.

One of the first places that we went to see was the Opéra Garnier (the Phantom's Opera).  It is very beautiful inside.

And this is the chandelier that they say fell on everyone.  It didn't really.

Of course, we went to see the Eiffel Tower.  One of the best places to see it from is in front of the Trocadero with all its fountains.

Look at all the people who were lined up waiting to go up the Tower.

Another important part of Paris is the River Seine.  There are 37 bridges over the river and this one, the Alexender III bridge, is said to be the best.  You can also see one of the dozens of barges moored along the banks of the Seine.  This is someone's home!

We had to drop into the oldest patisserie in Paris.  They have been making bread and yummy cakes in this shop since 1730.  I had a piece of their very tasty "flan".

As well as all the buildings, Paris has some wonderful parks and gardens.  This is a lake and picnic spot in the Bois de Boulogne. 

In the same park are a famous race-course (Longchamp) and the Roland Garros tennis courts where they play the French Open.

The most beautiful garden of all is the Jardin du Luxembourg which is the garden at the parliament house.

Ros had to do a bit of guard duty at first.

But, then she got to laze in the sun with everybody else.

And even found a piece of "authorised lawn" to lie on.

I hope that you have enjoyed sharing our holiday with us.  See you in Perth.

Vichy and Bourges

We spent a whole day driving from Avignon to Vichy and drove across the very famous "Bridge in the Sky" in Millau.

Vichy became famous because the Romans found hot water there for their spa baths.  Many years later, the Emporer Napoleon III spent a lot of time in the city because he wanted to use the water to improve his health.  All of his court members followed him and built lots of fancy houses.

They also built a fancy theatre where they put out the red carpet for Ros.

The whole town is very pretty with lots of trees and gardens and shady pathways.

The farm where we stayed was also very nice.

It was called Chevre Noire which means Black Goat, but we did not see her.

Another day we went to another town near Vichy called Moullins (moo lah) and had lunch at a very fancy café.

We also saw the very old house where St Joan of Arc lived for a while when she was leading the French army.

Bourges is another beautiful city with one of the biggest cathedrals in the world.  It has beautiful gardens (the Archbishops' Garden) and it looks really fantastic.

A lot of people were dancing in the garden.

We had a bit of a dance around, but not on the dance floor.

We also went to a very fancy palace.

And look what Ros found inside!!

Next stop Paris and next blog from there.

Avignon and around

Avignon became an important city because the popes moved there from Rome for 100 years during the 1300s.  They built a very big palace and the bishops and cardinals also built big houses.

This is the grand palace of the popes.

Avignon is very busy at this time of the year because they have a big festival with lots of different plays and shows;  so the town was very busy.

Even Snow White was there.

Another famous thing at Avignon is its bridge.  There is a French nursery rhyme that goes: "On the bridge at Avignon everyone dances all around", so we did.

Another day we had a very colourful day in the area near Avignon.

The first town that we saw, called Gordes, was all made of grey stone and it looked like the whole town was tumbling down the hill.

Then we went and saw the lavender that is a beautiful blue colour.  They grow a lot of it in this area for making perfume.  It smelt wonderful!

Then we went to the town called Roussillon where they mine bright red and yellow soil to produce ochre for making dyes and paints.

Around Lyon and onward

The town near to the place we stayed to visit Lyon is called L'Arbresle (pronounced lah brel).  It is also a very old town and it has a beautiful church made out of yellow stone.  Because it is a honeycomb colour, Ros called it the Violet Crumble church!!

In the same area we found a special museum and theatre about a very famous French puppet called Guignol.  He is quite a naughty puppet and often gets into trouble - a bit like Mr Punch.  We even had a turn at being the puppeteer.

Then we moved on to a town called Maussane-les-Alpilles (Mow sarn les alpeels). On 14th July the French celebrate Bastille Day, which is like Australia Day.  All the towns have special celebrations and fireworks.  The most exciting event was called an Abrivado. 

First the white horses parade down the street.

Then they come back leading a wild black bull called a "taureau".  The silly young men run after the bull and try to make it stop, but the bull always wins in the end.

One day we saw some of the bulls in a field.  On the fence there was a sign.

It says "Danger of Death.  Bulls."

In another field we saw this tractor.  I don't think that it is going too far.

Lyon

Lyon is a very old city.  It was important to the Romans because it was built just where two rivers, the Rhone and the Saone join together (the confluence).

We stayed at a nice bed-and-breakfast on a farm. See the view from the window of our room.

As you walk around Lyon, you see the rivers and their barges many times.

There is a very big market where they sell all kinds of good things to eat and drink.  One of the favourites is the cheese.

It made us so hungry that we had to go and find a "bouchon", one of Lyon's famous cafés, and have a really nice meal. 

There are lots of beautiful buildings in Lyon.  My favourites were the opera house:

and the church, called the Basilica of Our Lady, which is high above the city.  We went to Mass there on Sunday.  To get there you have to go up in a funicular!!

The other really interesting thing that we found was a two-storey merry-go-round.





A few more days

One of the most interesting places that we have visited is Bibracte, the site of a celtic city built, in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, high on a mountain.  Even Julius Caesar never attacked this town.  Instead he traded with them for the metal products that they made. They became very rich and the archaeologists have dug up the foundations of a house that covered about 4000 square metres.

 But, it was cold on the mountain and when the Emporer Augustus offered to build them a new town in the valley near the river and the main road from Rome to Paris, they all moved to Autun.  We went to Autun and visited its beautiful cathedral.

The next day we went to Beaune, a pretty city that produces lots of wine.  There were lots of nice buildings.  There was the church of Notre Dame, for example,

and the hospital that was built hundreds of years ago for poor people who got sick.  It has a very colourful roof. 

The best thing was that you could see all of the good parts of Beaune by taking the little train.

On Wednesday we went and explored the little villages in the hills above Nuits-St-George, the city near where we are staying.







There were lots and lots of vineyards, but some of the vines looked a bit sick.

We found a great place for lunch in a little town called Villars Fontaine.

On our way back we stopped at another church, St Symphorien, and were not the only ones there.