Back in Tasmania

I  am back to reality. Everything seems so far away. I had such a wonderful holiday with wonderful people and here  I am. Maybe this is the way that adventures go. It is impossible to continue an adventure and that is what makes the exercise so special. My thoughts are very geared towards all the people who made the whole thing so great and I believe that it was the people I met that made it amazing.
I have no great urge to go away again soon but I would love to see all those people again. I love being at home. But everyone needs an adventure.... it makes us great. I will be going to Vietnam again next year and I will have everything in place.
Thank you everyone!

Au revoir, Farvel, Hej Hej..... and goodbye ............

to the wonderful countries I have travelled through over the last nearly two months. It is time to regather reality , face the credit card and kiss the doggies!
My last day in Paris has been brilliant......... Roy, I found La PLace de Tetres and the artists are in full swing and I had my face drawn/sketched................... I can't wait to show you. It was Vittorio, and I have a pic of him tooooo! Montmartre is wonderful.......... regardless of wandering millions.............. It is placed around Sacre Couer.... which many years ago was supposed to have been the centre of druidism and paganism for that area. It is the highest hill in Paris and I know because I walked up all those steps to see the artists and to look over Paris. It was here, too that I was able to find wonderful mementos of Paris......... I didn't want Chanel etc..... they are all over the world..... but the hints of the cossacks who plundered that part of Paris and the martyrdom of St Dennis( who lost his head)..... it is all there.......
I imagined the artists of before... Dali and Picasso........... and I guess Toulouse Lautrec? The streets are narrow and the houses have small balconies with red geraniums............ If they could only see it now... packed with souvenir shops and so many eating places.... It would take me 50 years to eat at every one and I don't think I quite will have the time!!!!  
So, even though  there were so many people in Paris, I have come to think that this is the charm.....( in some parts it is not charming)..... but in most it is and I loved it. It is summer now and today , again, was so hot..........
So goodbye to the friends I found around the world........... To McBazza and Louise, to Jo, To Phillipe, To Unner, To Birgitte, To Osten, To Michael and to those wonderful Australians who I met in Vietnam at Halong Bay.
Thanks to Air France, I had better adventures than I would have even begun to suppose............... so Vive L'Air France! The waiting in line with Hank and the others... Enriquetta and Julietta............. and the tears!

Next year it will be..........???????
I will put up some photos when I get back to Australia. The flight tonight is 12 hours then I only have one and a half hours in Singapore......... 7 hours and back in Melbourne.

And so........

How fortunate am I! This morning I attended a mass in Notre Dame Cathedral. The enormous, cavernous ceilings echoed with the voices of two tenors who led us in the service of song. Such a feeling to sit where history caressed the air, where surely Quasimodo really did yearn for his woman, where kings and queens had worshipped..... when music wells in such spaces, it brings a level of spirituality that is hard to find.
For an hour I remained transfixed and silent..... it was only when the whisperings and the shuffling feet of those who were not at the service but who were spectators, became too much that I left.......

From there I wandered through the tiny streets near Bvde. St Germain, looking for un cafe creme and un croissant which I found very very easily. Sitting in the sun, I had time to contemplate the day......
So off I wandered along to the Fromagerie, another Patisserie and le Vignoiner(????) . I had decided that today would be spent observing  and contemplating and snoozing in a park.
To my enormous pleasure I was able to procure a superb Brie( suitably smelly), un baguette and a cold half bottle of Pol Roget.... but a glass?  Off I wandered to the bus stop and in a wonderful exclusive tourist shop ..... found a beer glass that would suit!

So.... , trembling with excitement, I caught the bus and headed to Le Jardin Du Luxembourg, where I found a beautiful little spot to sit on the grass. Making myself very comfortable, I was about to unpack whenle gendarme blew his whistle................. NO SITTING ON THE GRASS! Right, well, I wasn't going to argue with the gendarmerie de Paris!

So , I caught another bus and , filled with reluctance, cos I had been there before, I headed off to the Jardin du Tilleries... near Le CHamps Elysees..............

Forlornly gazing at the thousands already gathering, I gathered strength and soldiered on. Nothing was going to get in my way today!

And I found a spot.... by myself, in the sun but some shade, and settled in..................

A Glass

Pol Roget

Baguette et Fromage

Sleepy me..............................

But I awoke..... and continued on to go to the Eiffel Tower and make a huge trip around Paris..........

It is my last night tonight......

Tavelling in Paris

It is not always easy to know where to go and what to do... the trouble is that 1000000 tourists want to be int he same place as me if I wish to visit Le Louvre, Place de la Bastille, Sacre Coeur, Montparnasse...... and I have spent the day avoiding as many as possible.
I have used the Open Bus tour and through that, and a very early start, I was able  to miss most of the hordes until quite late in the day. The Open Bus travels over four different routes, each one allowing for a different part of Paris. From this day, I have decided how to best use the time remaining.......
I travelled around the streets today and you can hop off the bus wherever then just get back on when ready.
I did go to Gallerie Lafayette........... to the shops ! Sadly many of the shops are the same as in Australia and all the clothes are for summer........ plus, I think Paris is rather expensive. Coffee costs 4 Eur!!!!!!!!!! Le vin is rather good and I have found a beaut little place in Rue Monsieur le Prince where he has exquisite wines and I have forced myself to taste a few..........
The weather is beautiful.... real summer . With this, everyone is out and about. So many people! I have been wanting to go into Notre Dame but there was a Saints Day today and thus it was overflowing then this afternoon, I had thoughts but , really, you couldnt move for people! Not exactly spiritual gratification!

Tomorrow I am going to lie in the gardens at Place de Luxembourg as suggested by Fox and Amanda, drink a little champagne and eat baguette and pate............ just a little Sunday brunch! Then I will go to Sacre Couer and try again..... maybe I might get there!

Places to be......

There are some places in this world that every person should visit. I think perhaps that Paris is one of those places.... and at the moment it is full of every person in the world visiting it and it is not even tourist season yet!!!!
I had met the crowds of tourists on the day I arrived as I ventured out into Paris to get a quick orientation. Notre Dame oozed thousands and the other million was walking along the Seine.
I decided that it would be  better to get out early so that the beauty was not hidden by people.
Walking through cobbled streets towards the Seine, I saw the signs that spoke of stories long ago - Rue Voltaire, Rue Monsieur le Prince , and especially Boulevard St Michel.... cos we all know the song.
The Seine was calm... no boats and no people. The city was gradually coming to life as workers plodded to their daily job and cars were driven through quiet streets. I wandered into the Place de la Louvre... I was about first there.

The architecture is wonderful. The sheer beauty and splendour of the constructions is amazing and I guess it is really the grandeur

I spent ages wandering around the outside.... wondering how one actually got inside!!!!!!!

THEN... I went through an arch and saw across the place a line of people.. already!

The Louvre is amazing.. an awesome collection of beautiful and wonderful pieces. I can't possibly write about all of it... but yes Venus de Milo was there.... but I couldn't find Mona. One of the most awesome sights was the Napoleonic Apartments.. such absolute splendour. You can almost imagine the intrigue and the whisperings within those walls and amongst that wealth.

This was the sight that greeted me when I left!!!

And then came the hordes.. it became impossible to move as there were so many people. I know.. I had been told that there would be crowds but I still imagined some level of motion occurring! I had been there for three and a half hours.... and I had seen what I wanted to and could see.

It was beautiful to wander in the Jardin de Tuillieries and along the Place de la Concorde... along the Champs Elysees and towards the Arc de Triumphe... I thought of Hitler , when France surrendered and he had his troops drive up the Champs Elysses..........

By the time I wandered and so on I had done 6 hours so I figured it was time to have a little sleep........

Ah! I am truly in Paris........

I am at the last place of my trip..... Paris. Arrived at a good hour but by the time we traversed the traffic.... and the road to Lyons was very much fermee so the traffic was horrible............. but I am here at Cluny Sorbonne and what a wonderful hotel! I am right next to The Sorbonne University and have spent the latter part of the afternoon people watching at La Place de La Sorbonne.
My hotel actually has windows that open... first place in my travels that I have found that.

Tonight I dine at Le Restaurant Polidor......

Danish PICS

I was forced to eat a Danish icecream.The concrete bunkers washed into the sea.A volcanic ash sunset over Northern DenmarkThe bunker we climbed into.Danish sculptures  of three women waiting for their husbands to return from the sea at Hanstholm.