Europe 2019 : Day 32 North to Paris

Monday 9th September

Our train from Niort to Paris wasn’t leaving until midday but John had a 10am medical appointment at the hospital there, so we were up early, packed and been dropped off in the town centre in time for John to make his commitment.

Niort street with sea snake

Eve, Perry and John wait for the train

It was good to wander around the city just going wherever the streets took us. We found the city centre, a couple of cathedrals and the main shopping district before heading back to the railway station. We’d only been there a few minutes when Eve and John turned up. Time for a coffee, a chat, and tearful farewells before the two-hour train journey up into Paris. Luggage problems again. Not enough space but we figured it out in the end.

Robyn had booked us into an Airbnb apartment in Montmartre up by Sacre Coeur Cathedral. She had stayed in the area six years before with our daughter Catherine on the way to England – Cath studied in Norwich for a semester at the end of 2013. Rob had tried to get the same place as previously but it didn’t seem to be available this trip so we were over to the east of the cathedral, a bit further away.

Apartment lounge

The place was tiny, though serviceable for two. It is quite amazing how much you can get into a small space (I’m thinking somewhere between 30-40sqm) if you really try. My suitcase ended up on the living room floor as there wasn’t room for it in the bedroom, and the kitchen was in a small alcove in the hall. The major thing to consider is what you’re using it for. We wanted the location and somewhere to crash out at night. It served both those purposes very well.

After getting into the apartment following a coded keypad at the front door, a coded key store inside a mailbox, the world’s smallest elevator (1 person and 1 case at a time), and depositing our stuff, we headed out into the wilds of Montmartre.

Robyn was particularly interested in showing me the spots that she and Cath had frequented and by the time we had wandered around looking at all of that it was time for the walking tour we’d previously booked.

Moulin Rouge

Drinking fountain

Obligatory cake shop

 I guess if you get the right people running such a tour then you’ll be presented with interesting snippets and stories in just about any location you care to name. We certainly got that. In the two hours that followed, we were told about famous singers who lived in the area, cafes which featured in major films, the infamous nightclubs and theatres of the district, the drinking fountains, the weird statues, the vineyards at the top of the hill, and the history of the cathedral. We ended there with a great view over the city, a bit of a thirst and some degree of hunger. The walk had been well-paced and entertaining. Which is all you could ask for.

The cathedral

The view

Tired

Rob’s favourite café/restaurant from her previous visit appeared to have changed style so we found a place nearby. Even the Parisian waiters weren’t as surly as I remembered. Fed and wined we headed back to the apartment and a well-earned sleep.

Europe 2019 : Day 31 A Quiet Australian Barbeque

Sunday 8th September

Continuing our theme of "lazy days at the end of a French summer", Sunday had nothing planned other than a barbeque in the Harveys' backyard in the late afternoon.

Again everyone was up late-ish so it was decided that a brief walk around the village was in order. Steve, John and Mike took off to visit a local car-boot market while the rest of us only got going in the late morning.

The gang assembles

The village of Nieul-sur-l'Autise is not exactly big, which suited all of us that day. The Royal Abbeye was explored along with the village square and the famous bagette vending machine, but after about an hour it was back home for a bite of lunch and a snooze before the main activities of the day.

John's main grilling bbq is a small weber kettle which I hoped would be big enough for the job at hand. We'd purchased some charcoal the day before but once I had the kettle set up I figured that wood coals were going to work better. 

Julian scavenged in the garden for some herbs for the pork and I got the rest of the meat ready and had the fire going in good time for Steve and Liz to arrive. Everyone found a spot around the table for drinks, cheese, pate, bread and whatever else Robyn and Lucy had found the previous day. People always ask if they can help on occasions like this, and while I appreciate the gesture, I tend to want to do it myself. The fire was going to take some watching, not because the process was difficult but because I was using a equipment I hadn't used before and needed to ensure I didn't stuff it up. I did ask to be kept well supplied with drinks.

Wood burned, coals formed and the bbq went pretty well, though, as I found out later, one chicken skewer didn't cook all that well. And I would have done things a little differently next time to get a better result, but that wouldn't be happening.

I had also been a bit worried that we might not have enough to eat but the extra salads helped round out the fare and I suspect a few people had got stuck into the cheese a bit earlier.

Robyn was aiming to work on a pavlova for dessert and had all the makings but working in someone else's kitchen with some unfamiliar ingredients can make for frustrating work. Success was achieved, however, and the pav put an excellent final touch on the day.

The sun went down rather quickly and the day turned cool, so we retired indoors for some drinks of higher alcoholic content. And to top it all Steve and John treated us to an organ and guitar version of "Waltzing Matilda" for which we were very grateful.

Europe 2019 : Day 30 Wood-Fired Pizza in the Backyard

Saturday 7th September

After a slow start we headed to the Fontenay-Le-Comte market. Our main aim for the day, other than a spot of lunch, was to pick up some supplies for an Australian barbeque that Julian and I were organising the next day. This was our way of saying thank-you to the Harveys for having us, and also as a way to have a day just sitting around doing very little. We all needed that.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I can travel, with fairly busy days, for about four weeks before I hit the wall. After that it starts to become a tad tedious. Maybe it’s the constant movement, or the information overload, but after 28 days or so I’ve had enough and want a rest doing absolutely nothing. We couldn’t really do that on this trip so we aimed for the next best thing and stayed with friends who weren’t going to make our days too hectic.

The market street

A wander around a market is always a good thing, checking out the street food (a lot of Asian here), cheeses (all types for Robyn though I’m a bit more picky), and meat on offer. I went wandering with Julian – another change method, walking around with someone else.

Baskets everywhere

We found the meat section up a set of stairs and proceeded to buy some sausages, chicken skewers and pork. We then went looking or the others and found them in a small café, with some drinking coffee and others having a glass of wine. Julian and I settled for a beer or two before we moved on to the supermarket where we’d rented the car.

Suitably provisioned – though Robyn had great difficulty finding the right sort of cream she needed for the pavlova she was planning - we headed back to chez Harvey for another drink, and a snooze.

Eve, John, Mike and Pat take it easy

In the evening John fired up his wood-fired pizza oven in the garden (all my fault apparently) and after dinner people drifted off to bed as sleep beckoned.

Robyn gets snoozy

A quiet day. And a good one.

Europe 2019 : Day 29 Sloth and Snails

Friday 6th September

We finally had a day when it didn’t really matter when we got up. We had no immediate pressing arrangement for the early morning so lounged around the house having breakfast and finishing off our washing. I sometimes think we try to fit a bit too much into each day, so having a sleep-in, even if it was only for an extra hour, certainly made a big difference.

Julian Warner and Lucy Sussex (who we’d last seen in Edinburgh) were due in by train mid-afternoon. This had caused a bit of a dilemma as we now had six people to move around for a few days, yet the Harvey vehicle could only safely transport four, five at a pinch. But John had it all arranged so we set off late in the morning to pick up the second vehicle at a rental place next to the major supermarket in Niort. I had been warned about this a few months before so had got myself an International Drivers’ Licence back in Australia. I hadn’t needed it previously in Ireland, Northern Ireland or northern France and was hoping I might get some use out of it. The woman behind the counter took a look at it and handed it back, took my Victorian Driver’s Licence and my passport, and photocopied both. Another opportunity lost. I did have the thought that if I hadn’t taken the International one then that’s the one she would have asked for.

I’d had a car with an automatic transmission in northern France and although this one was manual I’d overcome any level of anxiety I might have had by this time about driving a left-hand-drive vehicle so the changed arrangements didn’t bother me.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was a lazy time, just what we needed. Eve and John headed off to pick up Julian and Lucy from the train, and we got through a final load of washing.

The afternoon consisted of a few drinks in the late-summer sun while we caught up with what the new guests had been doing over the past few weeks.

Heading out to dinner

The main event of the day, other than the arrival of a couple of other hangers-on, was a walk along a nearby river and then dinner at a delightful little auberge to celebrate John and Eve's 40^th wedding anniversary. I tackled the snails for an entree. Not sure why I bothered; they were hard to get out of the shell and tasted of not much more than the garlic sauce. Still, when in France...

The auberge

The table

Europe 2019 : Day 28 Trains and Crepes

Thursday 5th September

This was the day for heading further south into France to stay with our friends Eve and John Harvey. We had seats booked on a train leaving Charles de Gaulle airport around 11, and, given our previous experiences of the car rental firm a few days previously, we decided to leave Amiens early, complete the drive and drop-off well ahead of time and simply sit in the trains station over a coffee.

When we were looking into the booking of this car in France I contemplated the possibility of driving down south and maybe dropping the car off there. But the drop-off fees were ridiculous – a few hundred dollars. The closer to Paris for the drop-off reduced the fees but not enough to make it worthwhile. In addition, the drive from the airport was going to take 4-5 hours, the train only 2 and a half. The choice seemed pretty clear.

In the end the whole process of getting on the road, filling up with petrol close to the airport, and then dropping the car off to the car rental place proved to be relatively painless, even with the minimalist signage inside the airport.

We had to change terminals to get to the station but the robot train running between the two was very efficient and we had time for a coffee and croissant before boarding.

The one thing I hadn’t taken into account was the fact that I was leaving from an airport train station. So were a lot of other people. And they all had lots of luggage as well. We found our seats okay but had to pile the two suitcases in the aisle by the very small luggage racks. A lot of other people had done the same so I didn’t feel like I was going to be on the end of a reprimand from a French train conductor.

But it was all uneventful. The train rattled along at a great clip and we got to our changeover point, Poitiers, on time. And our connecting train came in on the same platform which made the final leg to Niort a simple affair. Still had a bit of a luggage problem however.

The gite at the Harvey's

Eve and John Harvey picked us up at the railway station and a short drive later we got introduced to their house and attached gite in Nieul-sur-l'Autise. We had the gite to ourselves for the night until Julian and Lucy arrived the next day.

Perry squints

But a quiet drink was called for, a catch-up on holidays, and then dinner with Steve and Liz (English friends of E+J who also lived in the same village) at a creperie in a nearby town.

Crepes and pizza

A good time was had by all, and I was especially taken by the bright light, a major contrast to the dull days we had for most of the time in Iceland.

Europe 2019 : Day 27 South to Amiens

Wednesday 4th September

We arrived at breakfast the next morning in the B&B to discover we were the only ones staying the previous night. The owners had decided, at some point, to start their late-summer break in the country from this day and had not accepted any bookings after ours. We did ask why they didn’t just send us a cancellation and they stated that we had booked so early, and they had accepted, so that was it. Given the location in the middle of the city we were extremely grateful.

Discussions ensued about the previous night and we were then treated to an unusual history of the Menin Gate. The husband came from a long line of stone-masons and it was his grandfather who did a lot of the major work on the gate’s construction after World War I. We got to see a number of old photos of the planning and construction, along with glimpses of the city before the gate was completed. Fascinating stuff.

We had the morning to ourselves in the city. We figured we needed to head off at about noon for Fromelles and then to go on to Amiens where we were booked in for the night.

The Cathedral was open so that was the first stop and Robyn’s great-aunt had written about it for the Advocate back just after the war. It wasn’t bombed by the Germans as the Pope at that time had extracted a promise that it would be spared. So the building was as it had been for some hundreds of years. A rarity in that part of the world.

Ypres Cathedral main altar

Cathedral nave

That wander around the church and the nearby cloth house (at one time the largest privately owned building in the world) brought us up to the opening time of the In Flanders Fields museum located at one end of the building. This gave a great overview of the whole of the first World War, as it was played out in Flanders, but after about an hour we’d had enough. The suffering gets a bit bleak and over-powering after a while and we needed a break.

So, chocolate.

The chocolate counter

Our B&B hosts had recommended a small chocolate shop between their place and the Cathedral and we spend some time there allowing the proprietor to pick a few selections for us: some for people at Robyn’s work and some for us for Christmas. It reminded me yet again that Belgium is such a great place for both beer and chocolate. So much so that I’m amazed Robyn and I haven’t moved there.

The Fromelles area that we wanted to look at consists of two main sites: the museum, and the site of the battle, which is now known as V.C. Corner. We got to the museum at about lunch time so settled down to another meal at the same spot as the day before. We were a bit bemused by the fact that no-one came out to ask us what we thought we were doing, so we finished up and went into the museum.

While there Robyn got into a discussion with the staff about the DNA program they had run about ten years before. She found out that someone was still running it, to some degree, and collected the details for later contact.

Robyn walks towards the memorial wall

W. R. Riordan listed on the memorial wall

V.C. Corner is a few kilometres down the road from Fromelles, where the 1916 battle was fought and where Robyn's great-uncle, William Edgar Riordan, died. The museum had on display a map of the battle lines showing where each battalion was situated, and, of course, William's, the 54th Infantry, was front and centre. He didn't stand a chance. He was listed on the memorial there, as he is in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

This all started to turn a little sad so we headed off to Amiens for the night. The cathedral here is the biggest in France. An amazing structure. There are a number of Australia references in the church which made it even more interesting.

Exterior

A quiet beer in the restaurant area between the cathedral and the river, dinner down by the water and we headed home for bed.

Europe 2019 : Day 26 North to Ypres

Tuesday 3rd September

Prior to this trip, and after we had decided to visit some World War I memorials, we’d undertaken a bit of research to see what sort of tours were available. We found some that were run by Australians but they would have entailed a very long day: 6:30am hotel exit from Paris for a return at close to midnight the same day. We just couldn’t face it. Plus they were expensive and probably wouldn’t have been as specific to our requirements as we would have liked. So we decided early on to do it on our own, in car, at our own pace. I’m glad we did. Though, of course, things don’t always run smoothly.

After breakfast we drove around Villers-Bretonneux to get a feel for the place. We’d noticed a number of Australian references in the town the night before and a quiet drive in the morning identified quite a number of others. Some of the shop and pub names were specific and there were Australian flags flying outside the town war memorial and town hall.

Town sign

Town war memorial

We dropped back into the Sir John Monash Centre again as Robyn wanted to check out the gift shop – nothing she was looking for – and to take a few photos. And then moved on.

The main aim of the day was to visit Fromelles where Robyn’s great-uncle had been killed, and for me to check out the memorial at Le Hamel where my mother’s father had been severely injured.

Le Hamel was first. This was the major battle of Monash’s career (4 July 1918), one that he won in around 90 minutes using a combination of all his armed forces: infantry, artillery, tanks and aircraft. Monash’s meticulous planning ensured the Allies suffered only minimal casualties, with one of the wounded being my grandfather. His new tactics became the norm for the Allies for the rest of the war, even though Monash himself was despised by the other Allied generals.

Being so close to Villers-Bretonneux the memorial at Le Hamel isn’t that big. The interesting thing was standing on the main rise on the site, looking around the countryside and realising that just over 100 years before the whole scene would have been one of total devastation. None of what you can see now was there at the end of 1918.

From there it was 90 minute drive north to Fromelles where we hoped to visit the new museum that had been built in the town by the Australian Government. Unfortunately when we got there about lunchtime we found that it was shut on Tuesdays. So not the best planning after all. We stopped for lunch outside the museum at a small bench and table and discussed out next move. There didn’t seem a lot of point staying in that particular area as we had the chance to pass through it again the next day as we returned back into France from Ypres, where we were staying the night. Maybe the guided tour would have known about the closure but then we might well have been forced to miss the museum completely if we’d gone with them. In any event we had some level of flexibility and intended to make the most of it.

Perry cuts

We had a room booked in a B&B in Ypres in Belgium for the night and given we’d missed out on Fromelles we decided to make a couple of more stops along the way north.

The Plugstreet 14-18 Experience is a newish museum in Ploegsteert in Belgium – the Allies in the first World War tended to Anglicise (or more accurately bastardise) the place-names. An interesting little place with details on the war in Wallonia.

Memorial at Plugstreet

That helped to pass a bit of time. As did a visit to nearby Saint-Yves, site of a Christmas truce between Allied and German troops over Christmas 1914. I’m not sure the current locations of the trenches shows the true gap as I wouldn’t have had any trouble tossing a grenade from one to another, which is what I would consider to be a better indication of the separation distance.

Ypres B&B (middle)

Ypres was attained and a good park found in the street outside the B&B. Robyn had booked a place that was very close to the Cathedral and the Menin Gate which we wanted to visit. So finding a park, and being able to utilise the B&B’s visitor’s parking pass for the night was an added bonus.

Dinner was at a small restaurant in the town square. Robyn was stumped by a huge cauldron of mussels which she needed help to finish. I think she might have struggled after getting stuck into my frites.

Robyn eats

Each evening at 8pm in Ypres, a ceremony is held at the Menin Gate to honour those that passed through the arch on their way to the Western Front. We had been warned to get there early and by 7:30 the best spots had already been taken. I was okay as I could see over most of the people in front of me and it was only later that Rob told me that she watched most of the ceremony on the phone screen of the bloke in front of her. There were a lot of phones being used to record it.

Menin Gate, waiting for the ceremony

Gate post-ceremony

Last Post was played, a minute’s silence observed, wreaths were laid by about 5 or 6 groups of people, and then Reveille was played as a call to the living. It was a very moving ceremony.

Ypres main square

A Belgian beer in a nearby bar, and then an ice-cream back on the square finished off a busy, but excellent day.