Gaudi and Picasso

Monday

Today we started the day off with a visit to the Canadian Consulate where we met more people who had been robbed. On our way to the metro stop we saw Casa Batllo, a famous building designed by Gaudi, a world famous architect and Barcelonian superstar.(click on the word "Gaudi" or the word "Casa Batllo" for more info). We took the metro to Gaudi most famous work, "La Sagrada Familia". The architecture is so advanced and so detailed that it has been under construction since 1882 and is only between half and three quarters of the way done. Every inch of the outside is covered in statues; from a distance it looks as if it is melting. The inside is not as detailed but it is vast and innovative in design. Fully worth the small fortune it cost to get in. In continuing with our Gaudi theme we went to Parc Guell. Designed to be a suburb community for the wealthy, the project was scrapped and turned into a public park. Very impressive and a nice place for a stroll.

Tuesday

We woke up to pouring rain and decided to stay indoors and visit some museums. We spent about 30 minutes looking for the Picasso Museum, so much for our staying indoors plan. They had hid it in a small alley. Despite all that it was only 9 euros for the entire family and well worth the money. When you think Picasso you think cubism, it turns out that he was much more than that and Cubism was only one of his phases. One of my favourite parts was a room full of variations of a single painting. For the rest of the day we wandered around, went to two different markets, ate Tapas for lunch and, following their 5-0 win against real Madrid, I bought an FC Barcelona cap.

Barcelona day 2

After that bad start to Barcelona and a bad nights sleep (the rooms were boiling hot), we were not very inclined to wake. But we had to eat and be out of the rooms by 10 am. We took the suburban train to Plaça de Catalunya. We found the Canadian consulate but it was Sunday and therefore closed. We headed to La Rambla, a world famous boulevard. It was crowded and we had heard that there were lots of pickpockets. Despite this it still retained a fun atmosphere. There were human statues all over the place and souvenir shops full of keychains, postcards and various FC Barcelona products. When the street ended at the port we took a little break, watched a boat try to park and soaked in the atmosphere a bit. We walked back up through Barri Gotic (the old quarter) and went back to the hostel to relax.

Barcelona

We left Languedoc yesterday and are in Barcelona. We had been warned about pickpockets and scammers before so we were ready to watch out once we got there. What we did not expect was to be robbed on the motorway in broad daylight. We were about 15 minutes away from Barcelona and nearing our junction when the car beside us started waving at us, pointing at our tire and telling us to pull over. My dad had been noticing a bit of wheel wobble earlier and was therefore not surprised. We pulled over and the man came over to us while his wife stayed in the car. He was panicked and pointing at the tire and talking frantically in Spanish. Then another man jumped out from the car (he had been hiding) and grabbed our computer and my mom s daysack. I was the only one to see this as Dad was out looking at the tire and Mom was looking back. I jumped up and screamed: they re taking the computer.
I then learnt that in situations like this, I do not stay calm and collected, but instead Adrenalin takes hold. Not thinking, I started running after the guy. He jumped in his car and they sped away with his door still open. I ran after the car swearing at the man as loud as I could. Unfortunately, I only later realised that all my efforts were lost as we are in Spain now and he probably did not understand English. When we got to our hostel we got directions to the police office and spent some time seeing the city while we looked for the station. 2 hours of time, to be precise. The streets are a maze and seem to all be one way. I had a nice blog written and ready to post about our last week in Azille unfortunately you will have to be stuck reading this one instead. By the way, does everyone like the youtube video?

Youtube

I figured out the Youtube thing now.
I have my first video on. It is of the Pompidou center fountains.
Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAuvlGs_HqE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Languedoc

On Saturday we left the cold and rain in Auvergne in search of warmer weather in Languedoc. The Motorway was amazing. It hugged cliff sides as it climbed up gorges, and then crested hills with views over the plains for hundreds of miles. On our way south we got to cross the Millau Viaduct: one of the tallest bridges in the world, and certainly the tallest in France (although it was designed by an Englishman). Our gite here is great. It is really big, in a nice town and only a short walk from the bakery. Since the owners are British, we get British T.V.   As I write I am watching the England vs France football (soccer) match on i.t.v. So far it’s not looking good for England.

Sunday was the town’s “Vide grenier” kind of like a big town garage sale. People had set up shop right outside our window, and since the main floor is at ground level, with no front yard and the house has a big “For Sale” sign on it, there were people looking in our window all day long. It was very weird.

Later that day my dad and I went for a bike ride with the bikes that came with the gite.

Well, our attempt to find better weather seems to have been futile as today (Monday), was wet, windy and cold. Luckily our destination today was nice even with the rain. We went to the medieval city of Carcassonne. The city is on top of a hill and it is surrounded by not one, but two rings of ramparts with a combined 52 towers. It was so well built that no one dared to attack it. What a shame seeing as they built the second ring of ramparts and thickened the walls to defend from the Spanish who never came. With the weather as such we had the place to ourselves, (not even the shop owners to keep us company). The French store hours are very hard to understand).

Where we are staying there are vineyards everywhere and olive and almond trees growing on the side of the road. It is very strange.  Although I do not recommend eating raw olives off the tree because they taste so bitter I thought they might be poisonous. They are much better after soaking in whatever they soak them in. They’re also good on bread, and in pizza (mmmmm…)

On Wednesday we went to a pretty town called Minerve. They had a big gorge and in the side of the rock was a giant entrance to a cave that passed under the cliff to the other side of gorge (The gorge does a U-turn).

Auvergne

Sunday 7th of November 2010

We’ve left Paris and are now staying in the Auvergne, a hilly, sometimes mountainous, region in the middle of France. It is a traditional area famed for its cheese and sausages.  We have a nice gîte in a small village near St-Nectaire.  Today, we explored the town of St-Nectaire itself. The town is a popular tourist destination in summer but it seems that everyone has gone on vacation for this week; we figure they have all gone to Corsica, as it is the only place in France where it’s not raining. The bakery is closed half the week and most of the sites and attractions are closed also.  Luckily, they had a nice Romanesque church for us to see.  It had very ornate, colourful pillars.

Monday the 8th of 2010

SNOW!!!!!!!!!

We wanted to go to Mont Dore today, to do some hiking. Somewhere along the 1400+ meter mountain pass, it started to snow. By the time we got to the top, it was so snowy and windy that we could barely see where we were going, luckily, we could see enough that we knew we were at the edge of a big downhill. We pulled over to the side of the road and got out to look around. The wind was blowing so hard that as soon as I stepped outside my jeans were frosted with the cold, blowing snow. When my sister tried to get back inside during a particularly strong gust, her door would not open. We decided not to continue and instead we went back to the gîte and sat around in front of the fire and read all afternoon.

Tuesday the 9th of November

After our failure to hike yesterday, we decided not to give up and to try again. Unfortunately it was still slushy. We went for a 3 km hike around a lake then decided our feet were too wet and we returned home.

Wednesday the 10th of November

After two failed attempts to hike and knowing it was going to rain we gave up on that and went to Clermont Ferrand, local metropolis and home of the Michelin tire empire. When we finally parked our car, we walked through the old town up to the “Lord of the Rings-esque” black volcanic rock cathedral. Since it, along with everything else was closed till 2 pm, we went to the tourist information office and watched a movie about Romanesque architecture, very interesting and educational too.  When 2 O’clock came we went to the Michelin Boutique in the main square. They had all sorts of interesting memorabilia, including Michelin Man keychains (known in France as “Bibendum”), Michelin Bags, Michelin t-shirts, Michelin postcards and a little Citroën C3 with the Michelin Logo and pictures of Bibendum all over it. Since the C3 was less than two Euros, I decided to ignore any discouraging comments made on my blog, (Janet!) and add it to my collection of little Citroëns.  Then we visited the cathedral and another small church too. On our way out, we drove past the city’s huge Rugby stadium “Stade Marcel Michelin” (Clermont Ferrand are reigning French champions), The Michelin Adventure museum, and many Michelin warehouses and factories.

Thursday the 11th of November

Happy Birthday to Mady and Christy, our cats! They are 5 today.

Well, our first sunny day yet. We took advantage of it and headed out on a sixteen km hike. Three hours, tons of amazing views, a few big hills, one muddy road and one cow with giant ears. A hike worth waiting for.

Friday the 12th of November

It turns that the nice weather was too good to last. Another rainy day. Despite the rain we had a good day. The snow had melted on the road and we made it to Mont Dore. Although the snow was gone it was still gusting with wind and pelting with rain. The highlight of the drive was when we saw someone in the distance whom we thought was on a motorbike. When we got closer we realised it was a scooter. At this point we were blown away by the fact that it had not been blown sideways on the road up. When we passed it, we looked and saw that it was an elderly women bringing her groceries home. We still do not know how she managed to do it.

The town of Mont Dore was not that great as everybody was away and most of the stores were closed. Besides we could only see a couple hundred metres in front of us. We went for a three km hike between three waterfalls it was all very nice, but wet. On our way back to our gite, we stopped at some caves that used to be Roman baths and are now a major tourist attraction. We had to wait for 45 minutes and pay a bit but it was all… not worth it. A couple of years ago I went to two amazing caves in South Dakota. They had all sorts of Amazing stalactites, and the walls seemed to be covered in snowflakes and diamonds. These caves had some cool limestone stalactites but nothing that amazing, there were only a few “rooms” you could go into and the Romans seemed to have left without a trace. They just used the pools as they were, No columns or statues like in Bath.

I rate it a 1 out of 4 fountains in our new rating scheme.

Paris, days 2,3,4,5

Monday 1st November 2010

Today we woke up early and went to get our Indian visas.   When we got there, we asked the guy at the desk for papers to fill out.  He told us there were a few copies at the back but we had to photocopy them ourselves at the 20 centimes a page photocopier.  12 sheets later (3 pages each) we filled them out and managed to hand them in.  We were told it would take two to three weeks for them to process the applications.  After that we went to Père Lachaise cemetery and saw famous dead people such as Chopin, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Gertrude Stein and Molière.  The cemetery was beautiful with graves inches apart all over the place.   Jim Morrison’s grave was the first I’ve ever seen with three security guards and a barrier in front of the grave. 

We also went to see the Louvre courtyard and its pyramid.  It was beautiful in the afternoon light and our pictures don’t do it justice.  Although we decided that we would rather forego the hour and half long line up to enter the museum.  On our way back to the hostel we stopped at Centre Pompidou, a building with all the pipes and vents on the outside rather than in the walls.  The building was cool but the fountains were better. 

Pere Lachaise 

Grafitti near Jim Morrison's grave

Pompidou Center

Tuesday 2nd November 2010

Today was day three in Paris; first we climbed the staircase up the Eifel tower.  The views were amazing and we could make out all the Parisian landmarks.  My favourite view was that of Sacré-Coeur on top on Montmartre.  When we got back down I bought some key chains from one of the many street vendors.  We then took the bus 69 to Ile de la Cité.  We had lunch beside Notre Dame then joined the crowds inside the Cathedral.  The inside was nice but not that amazing because for one, it was full of tourists like us, and also I have seen more Cathedrals in the past two months than I have in my entire life.  The outside was amazing though.  Especially, the judgement day Portal, the carvings of the devil torturing the newest editions to Hell were interesting, but very gruesome (boiled alive, starved, fed to the alligators).  We then went to Ile St-Louis and bought some world famous Berthillon ice cream; it was delicious.  On our way to the Latin Quarter we walked over a metal bridge with padlocks all over it.  When couples start dating they put a lock on the bridge.  If they break up, one of them goes and takes the lock off the bridge. 

In the Latin Quarter we got some frites for a snack and my Dad bought some new hiking shoes, which he is very proud of.  Then we walked up to the Pantheon and sat on the curb in front for 15 minutes doing nothing but watching students from the University of Paris faculty of Law and take pictures of Dad’s new shoes. 

Sacré-Coeur

Notre Dame judgement day portal

Lovers' Locks

Students outside the Pantheon

Wednesday 3rd of November 2010.

Today I was very reluctant to get out of bed, luckily I was hungry enough to make myself get up so I could have breakfast. The breakfast at the hostel was great, they have a granola cereal with coconuts and raisins.  When we had fuelled we went to Montmartre a famous artist neighbourhood.  We saw Sacré-Coeur, a marble Basilica, with views over the city.  There was a mime there but he was not very good.  In the streets it was very touristy and there were artists everywhere asking to sketch you.  After a while it got annoying so I was tempted to start asking if they wanted me to sketch them.  There was also a guy who grabbed my finger and started weaving a bracelet onto it with the intention of making me buy it when he was finished.  We decided that we wanted more good views so we went to the Tour Montparnasse the tallest building in Paris proper.  It was so unpopular that just after they built it, the city made a law restricting building heights within the city.  It has the fastest elevator in Europe, 56 floors in 38 seconds.  The views from the rooftop were amazing.  When we got hungry we went to the market and bought a French specialty – Falafel!  Next stop was the catacombs.  Deep underground tunnels with walls made form the bones of millions of dead Parisians.  They were built because cemeteries were poisoning the water so the city told the Priests to move the bones underneath the sewers into abandoned mines.  The bones were neatly stacked and they had even made hearts and crosses out of skulls, creepy, but cool.  The tunnel went on for two kilometres and that is only the tiny section that they have open to the public.  It is impossible to describe how many bones there were.  You were allowed to touch the bones if you liked.  A fun game to play is to guess the name of the person you are looking at and his or her life story.   With time to waste, we relaxed at the Jardins de Luxembourg.   Then my Dad and I went to La Defense, a modern skyscraper district.  The main attraction there was gargantuan arch(basically a big hollow cube).  I felt completely dwarfed.  It is probably taller than the Richardson building for all you Winnipeg folk.  If you ever go to Paris avoid riding the RER.  It is like going to a rock concert in a labyrinth full of people and impossible to navigate.  The metro is fine though. 

View of the Gare from the Montparnasse Tower

View of the Luxemburg Gardens from the tower

Thats Jim, he was a plumber

More bones

Grand Arch de la Defense

Notice the guy on the steps.

Thursday 4th of November

Our last day in Paris...  We had two more things we wanted to see today, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Musee Rodin.  The Musée d’Orsay is the national museum for impressionist and post impressionist art.  The museum is housed in an old train station but it looks more like a palace.  There are carvings on the wall and an ornate gilded clock in the main hall.  The best parts of the museum were the Van Gogh section and a special exhibit on an artist named Gerome who painted historical paintings.  He had one painting that was set in the coliseum that showed the Christian prisoners in the middle and the lions and tigers coming out from underneath the ground.  In the next painting, the guards were bringing the cats in and slaves cleaning up the mess.  Very Gruesome. Later, while we were waiting at the bus stop to catch a bus to the Musée Rodin, a parade of soldiers in their ceremonial outfits came by on horseback.  They were a brass band as well and they played us a tune while trotting along. While they past us one of the horses stepped out of the line and stopped to have a pee, the soldier’s face turned bright red, it was hilarious. A street cleaning crew followed the horses, they managed to clean up the street quite effectively.  Later we found out that the parade was to welcome the Chinese president.  We got our bus across town and stopped for lunch in a small park, where a homeless person was ripping branches off trees.  A woman notified the park officials and 10 minutes later security had arrived and threw him out of the park.  Paris is never boring.  Anyway, when we finally got to the museum after those couple of delays we found out it was well worth the wait. It was dedicated to Auguste Rodin, a famous sculptor.  We saw lots of well-known works including the Thinker and the Burghers of Calais (City Official). 

Later that night, while my Dad and sister stayed home, my Mum and I went back out to the Latin Quarter for supper. We found a Greek place and we each got gyros with frites for four and a half Euros a piece. They were delicious and, by the end, we were stuffed. Then we went to the Champs Élysées. While we were walking by we saw a Mc Café, yes a café run by McDonalds. We went in, but just to look and sneak a photo.  We were too stuffed to buy anything.

The Thinker

Statue of Victor Hugo

The Brass Band

How embarrasing

I played with the exposure a bit for this one (and with no tripod!)

The Troubador

Uh oh he's noticed us

 McPatisseries

Paris blogs

Just for the record, I am writing my blogs on paper but I will not be able to type any Paris blogs for a few days. Be patient.

Paris Continued

Continued

Well, we got to our hostel no problems.  We found some street parking and then went inside to check in.  When we got to the desk inside, we were told that we could not get our key for another hour –until 3:00. 

“But it is 3:00” we proclaimed.

“No” they said.  “The clocks went back an hour yesterday night.”

We walked back to the car embarrassed and then whiled away the hour in the neighbourhood.  After we got our key, we settled in.  We went out and bought metro passes that allow us to ride on the metro, the tram, the RER and the bus as much as we want. 

With a few hours we headed to a metro stop halfway along the Champs Elysées.   When we climbed out onto the street I was blown away by my surroundings.  I felt the same way I did when I first walked up into Piccadilly Circus.  As we walked along the Champs Elysées There were lots of cool stores including Citroen, Mercedes and Peugeot showrooms.  In the Citroen showroom they had 7 circular platforms on one central pillar, all with cars on them.  I don’t know how they got them on there.  I bought a miniature Citroen car as a souvenir.  (They are a French company).

The Champs Elysée was extremely busy.  It was hard to walk, as it was so crowded.  When we reached the Arc de Triomphe, we noticed that the 8-lane roundabout didn’t have any lanes marked on the road.  It was an everyman for himself scramble.  We decided to take the underground walkway.  

Because tomorrow is All Saints Day, there was a special memorial about to start when we arrived.  20 minutes later, when it still hadn’t started, we overheard that there had been an Al Qaida threat.  We left and returned to the metro and set off for the Eiffel Tower. 

As soon as we got off the metro at Bir-Hakeim near the tower we could see about 5 guys selling Eiffel tower key chains - 5 for 1€.  As we got closer we saw even more.  The price went down though - 6 for 1€.  We were distracted by the real Eiffel tower which was bigger than I expected.  There is a huge square between the pillars, jam packed with tourists as it was a holiday (All Saints).  After walking around aimlessly for a bit we decided to go back to the hostel and get some seep. (Did I mention that we have a view of the Eiffel Tower from our widow).   

 Citroen Showroom

 Arc De Triomphe

 Tour Eiffel

Champs Elysées

Paris!

October 31, 2010

I am writing this from the car on the route peripherique around Paris.  About 5 minutes ago we drove up a big hill and could see many Parisian landmarks such as the Eifel Tower and Sacré Coeur.  We are now passing over the Seine River.  Now we are driving through the Bois de Boulogne, well under it.  There are so many things I want to see.  I can’t wait. 

(To be continued...)

Happy Halloween!

Orléans

October 29, 2010

Today we decided we had had enough of châteaux and that we wanted to head to the city. We went to Orléans, a small city on the Loire. After we managed to get through the traffic maze, the first thing we did was go visit the art museum. The best part was the exibition about print-making.   They had a ton of prints from medieval times. One thing we noticed was that most of them were very gory. We also went to the Huge Cathedral and I bought some French books to read as homework. After that we walked along the river and had Döner Kebab with frites for supper.