Paris at 90

My aunt grace celebrated her 90^th birthday while I was in New Zealand and so I suggested she might like a trip to Paris to make up for my absence. The downside being I would go along too!

We met up in the champagne bar at St Pancras and had a celebratory glass before catching the Eurostar. The train was very crowded something of a surprise to me for a 2pm Tuesday departure. Fortunately all went to plan and we arrived at the Gare du Nord around 5.30pm Paris time and caught a taxi to our Hotel in the Boullevard Raspaill close to St Germain de Pres. Our room on the 6^th floor was pleasant not very large but good bathroom and space for clothes which were distributed around before we set off for a little explore finding a typical bar to have a glass of wine

before we went and had a very good supper in a recommended local restaurant, Grace enjoying a chocolate pudding to die for!

One of the places Grace particularly wanted to visit was the Musee D'Orsay where there is a special Manet exhibition being held at the moment, so after a very good buffet breakfast we set off to walk the short distance passing a lovely flower shop on the way.

The queues at the museum were staggering so we decided to try another day somewhat earlier(!) and therefore jumped on a hop-on-hop-off bus and had a wonderful scenic tour to Place de la Concorde with it's obelisk,

the Champs Elysee up to the Arc de triumph, round to the Trocadero and Pallais Chaillet and Tour Eiffel.

We carried on past the Hotel Des Invalides

and Rodin Museum before returning over the Seine again to the Grand Palais with a special glass and girder roof. 

This was followed by the Place de Madelaine, Opera and of course the Louvre.

At Notre Dame we changed onto a different hop-on-hop-off bus to Place de la Bastille where we alighted and walked to Place des Vosges which I'm not sure I had visited before where we stopped for a late lunch, listening to a violinist, very

civilised,

before visiting the Musee Carnavalet which houses much about the history of Paris and we wandered around for sometime before catching some buses back to close to the hotel arriving around 7pm, a long day. We tried a different restaurant also good but perhaps not such great value before taking a slightly circuitous route back to the hotel via Les deux Magots and Flores on the Boulevard St Germain, haunts of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemmingway and Pablo Picasso. We didn't stop as they are now rather more of an expensive tourist attraction.

On Thursday as we still had access to the hop-on-hop-off buses we decided to leave the Manet until our last day when it wasn't available and set off on foot to the Musee Cluny another on Grace's list to see the Lady with the Unicorn series of tapestries.

They were magnificent as was the whole museum about the middle agesset in a wonderful building.

We got the bus up to do a circuit including Montmartre, stopping off to visit Sainte Chappelle with it's amazing stained glass windows 

 and lovely ground floor arches

before stopping near the church of Sacre Coeur taking the funiculaire rather than attempting the steps (I was pleased!)

after having lunch in a little bistro nearby. The views of Paris are stunning but the church was rather crowded and the lighting of the Christ figure not as dramatic as I remembered it from previous visits. 

We then had to rush to get to the base of the Eiffel Tower to pick up a boat for our Champagne tasting cruise! Catching an interesting sculpture on the way.

Another treat and it was a joy, 3 different champagnes including one Grand Cru with top-ups and good views of the river.

We only managed a few steps to the most local restaurant for supper but it was full of French people eating and a very enjoyable meal.

Already our last day, up early to check out and walk to the Manet, still a queue but not quite so big and we got in, enjoying both Manet and in my case a pre-raphaelite exhibition comparing early photo's taken at the same time with the pictures, which was also good. The D'Orsay was originally a train station which makes the inside different and has a lovely impressionist section too. We then caught a boat along with some 'old people' who made Grace look my age(!) for a final lunchtime cruise 

we had vouchers for an aperitif so Kir Royale's arrived and then 3 courses and coffee for just over £30 a head with an hour and twenty minute cruise, a bargain! While we were afloat I got this lovely picture of the Eiffel tower looking somewhat out of place!

Also this bridge where there are railway tracks on the top and a road underneath with large hanging lights.

Plus a picture of these lovely ladies enjoying the ride.

Time to wend our way back to the hotel and then onto the station for our trip back home, a lovely and memorable short break to a beautiful city and I'm not sure if it's the depression or our ages but the Parisiens were amazingly polite!

Melbourne final days

After our quiet day woke up to some high cloud and typed up blog while I remembered what we had been doing. Weather cleared up so we went back to the Yarra valley and one of the small vineyards we had visited where they were doing lunches with a jazz quartet playing on the lawn.

Quite delightful and some local made ravioli and pinot noir later everything was right with the world. Unfortunately the clouds gathered just a bit early at 3pm so we came home through pouring rain, in theory to have a barbecue! However grilled meat later and some more wine and all was well with the world having been joined by Joanne one of Tricia's other daughters.

Fortunately woke up to better day on Monday and ventured back to Melbourne, got off the train at parliament and then walked to the gaol which held Ned Kelly amongst other felons, famous armour on show

so pretty interesting. They also had some details of a lady inmate, I shan't tell you what she was there for!!

To the Greek precinct for lunch (no good looking waiter though) before heading through Treasury gardens where Cook's cottage is situated, brought all the way from Scotland to show where the 'founding father' of Australia lived before his voyage.

There is also a Tudor village presented by Lambeth in thanks for food help after the 2^nd World War (a bit plastic but no doubt the thought was there!!).

Then on to the river where, as it was Labour day (bank holiday) fair in full swing with rides to make my stomach curl.

A different take on the city with the sun shining

and had supper on federation Square in an Italian restaurant specialising in skewers of fish and meat which with salad, chips and wine was a great way to end the day.

We began our trip to Phillip Island famous for it's Penguin Beach on Tuesday arriving just before lunch. Has villages called Cowes and Ventnor so very Isle of Wight like! We stopped first at a surfing beach, tested the water, very cold but wet suits obviously helped the surfers.

Sorry tried everything to save a zoomed photo showing this guy close up but couldn't save and upload so just have to imagine!

There are many lovely beaches

and after looking at some we checked into our hotel and changed into warmer gear and set off first for 'the Nobbies' a headland with islands off the south west coast

and saw a wallaby on the way to the penguin coast so have done well with indigenous wildlife!

Unfortunately photographing the penguins is for the professionals but we had great view from sky box as the penguins after a hard day fishing for food struggled with the rip tides on the beach before eventually managing to stand up and make a dash for the relative safety of the scrub at the back where they make their burrows. There are now so many that some have a very lengthy walk up the hill watched by us humans! Final day and after early coffee went down to Pyramid point named for obvious reasons!

Then onto another nature reserve area which includes a heritage farm with a few old breeds of animals and some great views before

arriving in  Rhyll for lunch which is a small sailing village

to a restaurant with lovely views too!!!!!!

Great end to our little side trip so back during the afternoon to pack ready for early start home tomorrow, will take a long time as going back to Auckland before heading to UK. It has been a wonderful trip and I could sooo easily just carry on travelling! Hope you have enjoyed all my notes look forward to seeing many of you in the not too distant future, you will be tested, but first I look forward to reading it all myself!

Signing off for the last time (this trip!!!!!!)

Janet

Melbourne part one

Flight from Sydney interesting for smoking mountains (hopefully not the beginning of forest fires)

Tricia waiting at airport waving flag and easy journey back to her daughter's home where we are cat sitting for Noodles.

Lovely house, they are a very fortunate couple to have such a spacious home at their age, so thank-you Marian and Mark and hope you have great time skiing in Canada.

Off to Yarra valley to do wine tasting, weather rather cloudy but very enjoyable tried a couple of large wineries, rather corporate, and two small wineries with much better wines and in one case we met the winemaker. However, we did get to see in one of the larger wineries, the grapes being taken into the crusher as they were harvesting already on the south facing slopes of the valley.

We had lunch in a cheese making dairy very low key and all the better for it, and made it back for a fish supper at home.

Public transport bus,train and tram to and around Melbourne. They have a free shuttle bus about their city

and we got off for lunch at Lygon Street which is the Italian area and saw an amazing pastry shop with gateaux to die for, (but resisted!) called Brunetti's and found a good pizza place for lunch. Continued on the bus to Dockland/Harbour town area now trendy apartments

Then caught tram to get full experience to get back to centre past an 'old' building i.e. more than 100 years

and went to the Immigration museum, interesting to read about how they controlled entry including a 'dictation' test given in any language they chose, so if didn't like the look of you gave it in a foreign language! Crossed the river, still the Yarra, to the south bank where there is also an arts centre so much like London! Also home to Eureka Tower, tallest in the city where you can go up to the top and walk on a glass floor looking down over the city, not Tricia's thing so I didn't test it!

Weather cloudy all day but didn't rain so quite good for sightseeing but photo's not in Sydney class.

As the weather predicted to get better Tricia offered to drive down the Great Ocean Road the following day which proved fairly epic. Started off cloudy and it is a fair way from where we started in the northern suburbs. Interestingly, quite a large part of the road looks like this

when I would have expected it to look like this!

The road was built by returning war veterans and there is a good memorial to their efforts

After stopping for good fish lunch in Apollo Bay and then turned off the inland(!) road to take a road to Cape Otway where the oldest lighthouse in Australia is situated. On the way Tricia said look out for Koalas and lo and behold I did!

Having seen them in the reptile farm in Sydney quite strange to see them in trees by the side of the road saw 3 altogether so chuffed. The weather had cleared up by this time so lovely views of the coast from the lighthouse,

which I climbed and Tricia stayed on the ground to take my picture.

It also had a 2^nd World War radar station, brings home that it really was a world war seems so far from what I think of as the war being in Europe, totally ignoring the USA/Japan aspect!

Back on the road to The Twelves Apostles rocks (a few missing now) as limestone being eroded by the sea, fairly spectacular high cliffs and rock formations and walking back from one of the viewing stations saw an echidna so good day for wild life as well.

Long drive back on inland roads and having left at 9.00am back about 10.15pm having stopped for only about 15mins on the way back for coffee and cheese roll, really felt for Tricia who had to do all the driving. Slumped on the sofa for a well earned glass of wine and news of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, seems the Pacific ring is well on the move at present, glad I've already done LA !

Quiet home day on saturday which was also sunny, so white wine and a book, what better!!