First Week in Paris

Tuesday: We were out and about for the sunrise this morning. I wanted to take some photos from the Trocadero looking towards the Eiffel Tower and knew that it would be impossible to get the shots if I didn’t rise and shine early. It was just great walking along the deserted streets at that hour. Ian went off again for another walk during the morning.

French Army on Parade

Fontainebleau Chateau

Wednesday: We caught the train out to Fontainebleau Station to visit the Fontainebleau Chateau. The first references to the chateau are in 12th Century , all the Kings lived in the palace and all made changes and renovations over hundreds of years. There are something like 190 rooms and 80 hectares of gardens and lakes. After our walk around the grounds we had a great lunch in a local café before I went back and did a tour of part of the interior. Ian spent the afternoon in the local village. The train trip was about 40 minutes (70 miles) from Paris. The trains are just so comfortable and fast.

Thursday: The renovations of the Petit Palais are now complete and I went off to a Yves Saint Laurient Exhibition of his fashion designs from 1957 when he started with Dior up until 2002 when he had his last Collection. He died in 2008. It was a walk down memory lane from Vogue Magazines and interesting to discover his motivation for some of his designs. I’m certainly old enough to remember the “trapeze’ dress. The fabrics were just beautiful. Ian, in the meantime, spent some time wandering through the Palais. In the afternoon we visited the Musee de L’Orangerie which was also being renovated when we have been in Paris before. Two circular rooms house 8 (4 in each) of Monet’s huge canvases each between 12 and 17 metres long. Both rooms have a water theme, the first with water lilies, clouds, reflections, setting sun and the second room is willow trees again reflections at different times of the day. Just amazing. There are other permanent collections here and the current temporary exhibition is Paul Klee which was interesting. Today has been raining so the weather really cooled down. Jacket day.

Friday: Took a long walk out to the Notre Dame where we had our picnic lunch. On the way I saw an Exhibition of Willy Ronis. His Social Documentary photography spanned from 1926 to 2002. Just an amazing collection of social history from France, England, USA, Germany. He said in an interview that was being screened that he stopped photographing in 2002 when I started having trouble keeping the camera steady and didn’t like using a tripod as they are too restrictive. After lunch we went to Place des Vosges which I had fond memories of during a previous visit however was disappointed today it just didn’t seem the same. Guess everything changes. Took a few photos along the way and in the Park. We caught the Metro back. Been watching the French Open, can’t understand the commentary of course which doesn’t matter but we are stunned at how they just move from one match to the other quite often just at set point or even match point and then don’t give results unless the French player wins. I think they are more biased than aussie compares.

Saturday: The luxury of staying in one place for a while is to be able to go back and retake some photos that you can see could be better so this morning we were up early and walked back up to the Trocadero to retake some images up there. After that we walked along the right side of the Seine to Mirabeau Pont. It was lovely along here early in the morning with great reflections in the water. By this time we were ready for breakfast and called into a Café. The coffee is wonderful and breakfast this morning included a freshly squeezed orange juice, yum.

Ian Loves the markets

The main reason we came this way was to go to some markets that we had been to before and found them and brought some home made terrines and fresh asparagus as well as a big bunch of red roses. These markets are just wonderful. We ate one of the terrines for dinner last night. Delicious. We caught the metro back and both were ready for a sleep in the afternoon. Later Ian went off for another walk and I wandered around the neighbourhood shops yet again. We have watched a bit of tennis and saw Nadal beat Leyton last night. There mustn’t have been any French players playing at the same time because we actually got to see the whole of that match.

We are surprised just how warm it is in Paris since our arrival on Saturday. As we are not able to get the television to tune into anything like news we really don’t know what the temperature is. Our flights were great and we would have no problems recommending Etihad airlines. We left Sydney on time, arrived and left Abu Dhabi on time and arrived in Paris on time. This has got to be a first when it comes to international travel for us. The food and service was excellent and the seats, for cattle class, were We arrived at the apartment too early, the cleaner hadn’t been, so left our luggage inside and went off to have some breakfast, not that we needed more food and saw some young fellows in military uniform so wandered over to the Invalides (military building) to see what was going on. We watched some sort of ceremony happening. All very formal however have no idea what it was about. By the time we wandered back down through the markets picking up some food for lunch, the apartment had been serviced. Neither of us were going to have a sleep however we both managed to have a nap for half an hour or so. Ian decided to go for a walk and I thought I would go off looking for something to photograph late in the afternoon. Both of us walked far further than we planned so were completely exhausted and had a quick dinner before hitting the bed for a huge nights sleep.


Sunday: We caught the Metro to Bastille and had some lunch near St Martins Pont before going off on a barge along the old cargo canal for 4.5 kilometres. The first half of the canal is underground and then there are six double locks which all took time to fill as we travelled up to Place d Arsenal. The commentary was great and great and the names given to the bridges, ponts etc all have some historic stories. Dead Man’s Bridge. This is where there was a huge gallow where 60 people could be hung at the same time. We past the Hotel du Nord which was where the film by the same name was made. Obviously this is a well known movie as the French passengers all looked very keen to get a photo as we went by. Back via the metro to Invalides which is only a short walk from the apartment.

Monday: Ian went off early to see the Turner Exhibition (last day). I rested at home my feet are huge so thought I should keep them up a bit today.  I went off shopping and picked up some cheese, pate etc for lunch.  We decided to go off to the Grande Palace which was opened today (it is a public holiday but no one seems to be able to tell us why except that it is some religous day!!!  The palace was originally built for the 1900 world expo and has recently been renovated and is now used for expos and other such things.  It is empty at present.  The next thing is a Russian Exibition later in June.   After that we went up to the Champs Eleyees which was closed off to traffic today and turned into a Natural area with all sorts of crops in great tubs.  There were hundreds of people milling and looking at the various displays.  It was just so hot.  We made our way half way along and decided to call it quits and walk back home.  Our Sydney landlords visited us this evening. 

NORTHERN SOJOURN

We are heading off on Thursday for two months travelling in Europe. Our first stop is Paris.

APRIL -

The 31st March saw the first day of the Port Now Exhibition and two weeks later the book that we have published in conjunction, also entitled Port Now was released. To me this was like the climax of a long two year gestation. The exhibition has been a great success with more visitors to the Glasshouse than any other exhibition since the Glasshouse Art Gallery opened about this time last year.
My photography is non existent at present however I will take the camera out of moth balls soon and make up for lost time.
Sadly a dear friend of old, Len Clark passed away during the month and we all came together to help celebrate Len's life in Sydney. After the service the Randy Rovers went off to the Hunters Hill Club, had dinner and reminisced for a few hours over numerous bottles of red. Luckily Ian still doesn't drink and was in good shape to drive. Most of the wives know that they are the designated drivers very early in these get-togethers.
Ian spent the early part of April in Brisbane, firstly watching Andrew play Basket Ball in the Regional titles. He was impressed with Andrew's ability. After these finished he stayed up and kept Andrew company for the last week of the school holidays.
We are having such wonderful weather it is hard to believe we are now into May. Till next month.

APRIL WHAT A MONTH IT'S BEEN

After an exciting end to February and then into March life slowed down a little. Ian celebrated his real birthday very quietly, we went out to lunch at River View Cafe which is a lovely luncheon spot over looking the Hastings and always a breeze which we badly need on a very hot humid day. A storm came up the river just as we finished which cooled the air. He then went off to Brisbane on 1st April to watch Andrew play basket ball in the Classics. His team was put up to Division 1 and they did not expect to do very well however came 8th out of 12 so not too bad. I had a quiet easter at home. Ian stayed on and will be home today, sunday 11th. I have been catching up on some odd jobs at home when I have been at home. Had a great afternoon out doing some photos with Rob Smith one day and have played golf a few days.
Our Port Now Exhibition is now opened at the Art Gallery and I am delighted with it. At times I thought this simple idea I suggested to the Camera Club was turning into a monster however it has all turned out well and the book "Port Now" will be released this week. Copies are $18 if you are interested let me know.
Sadly a very dear friend, Len Kennedy Clark, passed away on Thursday after a long battle with that inciduous desease. The funeral is on Thursday in Sydney.
Our plans are progressing for our trip overseas. It's getting to count down time.

Family visit

To start the celebrations for Ian's 70th our children met us in Sydney as a surprise birthday weekend for Ian. He really had no idea and when there were lots of shouts and horns hooting he asked me what it was all about. He then realised that the New Zealand family were there as well and the shock actually set in. We spent a lovely night together on the Saturday eating lots of great food prepared by Kathy. Our family don't get together very often and when they do lots of stories are told of many happenings over the time they have not seen each other. The little girls enjoyed the fun as well as Mars and Andrew. Sunday was the family picnic day at Wahroonga Park. The weather was kind to us this year an the rain held off for the day. We had a huge chocolate cake for Ian and all the little ones had a great time helping him blow out the candles.

Monday was a bit wet and miserable so we had a fairly quiet day. Some went off for a walk, Ian and I took the girls to the park for a while. Later in the afternoon, Ian, Brooke and Guy went into town and did the Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk. This was the only thing Ian really wanted for his birthday and he enjoyed it immensely even though it was wet and blowing a gale. He was happy to share the experience with Guy and Brooke. Unfortunately Sean was not able to do it as well, his hip certainly isn't up to that sort of activity.

Tuesday was spent at Taroonga Zoo. This is great and the little girls had a great time. Andrew had fun and enjoyed taking some photos. The ferry ride was a bonus. Sydney Harbour is just so beautiful. We came back into the city, had some dinner at a pub down at the quay and waited for the city lights to come on and be visable. Guy was keen to show the girls what a big city Sydney is and how wonderful at night. They loved seeing the laughing face across the harbour at Luna Park and found it hard to believe that daddy climbed the bridge to the very top the previous night. We were all glad to fall into bed that night.

Wednesday, Ian and I caught the train home whilst the NZ family drove our car to our place. Brooke and ANdrew caught the plane to Brisbane.

We had Guy,Rae and the girls for ten wonderful days. It is just great spending time with them.

Last Friday they drove back to Sydney and we caught the train. After picking up the car we drove on to Canberra to see the Paris Exhibition on Saturday. They flew home on Saturday morning early.

The Paris Exhibition was wonderful and it was great to catch up with Mikki and her family. We had a great run home on Sunday.

This was Ian's birthday celebration. Don't know how to celebrate the real day which isn't until 31st. Have to think up something special.