Paris: the last hurrah!

Kupka at the Pompidou Centre

Friday 26th May: Chartres to Paris

We spent the morning speeding down the A1 freeways, which we had avoided the entire trip, so we could get to the Airport which was where the car lease place was based.

If I do say so myself, I did a magnificent job of navigating through tangles of freeways and weird Google maps directions. We didn't get lost once, but I was exhausted by the time we reached our destination. The chaotic roads confirmed that it was a good decision to return the car outside Paris and not contend wiht the traffic, the one way roads, the lack of parking etc etc that defines paris streets.

It was almost sad to farewell the car as it had done very well: It was a C3 Citroen Picasso, for future reference. Not available in Australia.Perfect for two and spacious enough for three people and all of their gear, but small enough to park easily and with enough power to speed along the highways at 130 kms per hour, when we weren't doing 30 kms through a tiny village! We leased the car...it wasn't rented. If you want the details of why and how speak to Ewan.

Our apartment is the second set of large windows
from the top

We managed to get ourselves on to the SFR train and then the Metro to the Marais where the apartment I had booked was located ( AirBnB: A sunny apartment....). Flaminia, a young Masters student who lives there, rents it out when she goes away and it was perfect for us. The location was fabulous. For those of you who know the area it was almost on Rue Rambuteau about 5 minutes walk from the Pompidou and close to the Louvre, Opera, the Seine etc. The only downside was that it is on the third floor of course: not the quite the attic but close! And the steps are old wood and not very straight..but we've seen worse  and can manage any steps now.

The view from the bedroom window

So many steps!

Some of the furniture he designed was available for purchase at the Pompidou shop: just a bit too big for the suitcase though!

After we had settled in we headed for the Pompidou which is a couple of minutes walk away. On the way we checking out all of the shops in 'our' street, Rue Rambuteau, which was teeming with cafes, bars and people.

And it was hot! The weather forecast was predicting temperatures as high as the mid-30's for the next few days so it was time to drag out the summer clothes from the bottoms of our bags and use the sunscreen ( essential for queuing in the sun to get into the more popular galleries).Some very enterprising young guys sell 1 Euro bottles of water to those waiting for entry.

I love the Pompidou but it is looking a bit tired, we both agreed. It was hot and so the external walkways to move between floors were really hot and stuffy as they are made of glass/perspex, and to be honest, they needed a good clean.

Compacts he designed for a Japanese cosmetic firm

A set of stairs

But the highlight was a fabulous exhibition by an English guy called Ross Lovegrove who is a designer who plays with shapes and creates some beautiful , and often practical pieces. A staircase, chairs, compacts for makeup, a pseudo car, weird shoes and some pieces simply for the beauty of the shape.

Check out the shoes

Modigliani

There was also a 3D printing exhibition which neither of us really liked much: Ewan spent all of two minutes there - and then we headed off in different directions to view the permanent collections.  Ewan and I don't wander around galleries together because we wander at different paces, and like different art, so we set a time to rendezvous for coffee at the cafe and off we went. Unfortunately the  Contemporary exhibition space was closed as they were setting it up for the summer crowds....and that applied to lots of the galleries and Musees we visited .

But the modern gallery was fantastic and had a wide range of pieces to see: here's some random photos of pieces that caught my eye.

Picasso

Paul Klee

The view from the top of the Pompidou: abstract sculpture
 and the Eiffel Tower in the distance

It was a great start to a few days in Paris and we were glad to stagger home, find something to eat in óur' street and throw ourselves into bed

your acclimatising to the heat, and the joys of Paris, correspondent

Dianne

On the road to Paris and home...... via Chartres

Thursday 25th May: Rochecorbon to Chartres

With only a week to go we are heading towards Paris to spend a few days before catching the Eurostar to London and the plane home.

First port of call was to go to somewhere closer to Charles De Gaulle Airport so we could farewell the car at the lease place there, rather than attempt to drive through the convoluted streets of Paris.

But before we hit CDG we farewelled Julie after a sumptuous breakfast and packed up all of our (slightly damp) clothes and headed for a hotel in Chartres for a night.

As we drove along the back roads the landscape changed back to the endless fields of wheat and rapeseed with no fences, and large farmhouses that characterises northern France. The occasional chateau perched on a hill was gone.And only a few cows to be seen. there was still another village wiht a church spire, a cluster of houses and some large trees to be seen every few kilometres, and we practiced our French trying to work out how to say their names.

As we wandered around we came across an avenue of trees planted to commemorate the Resistance and a very moving statue under which the body of Henri Moulin, one of the leaders of the Resistance movement is buried,










Suddenly we heard lots of patriotic singing in loud voices and hundreds of boy scouts, each dressed in the uniform of their brigade,  came striding by. I was particularly taken with their berets! Very French!

Chartres is known for its Cathedral, formally known as Cathedral de Notre Dame Chartres. It is one of the best preserved medieval cathedrals around, having escaped bombing, significant fires and attack during the French Revolution. The object everyone comes to see is The Holy Veil, supposedly worn by Mary. To preserve the piece of white material it is displayed in a dark glass cabinet .... so I missed it completely! It is obviously very sacred as there were a number of people praying in the chapel next to it.  Then I realised that it was a public holiday ....Ascension Day so that explained it.

Remarkable wall carvings that were more like statues
rather than a carved panel

Unlike most Cathedrals we have seen, almost all of the stained glass was original from the 16th century

The size of the Cathedral is impressive as it is very high - nearly 40 metres and very long - 300 metres. Certainly one of the largest we have seen.

We walked up to the tower on the left as high as the bottom of the green copper roof, then walked along the lower edge of the roof and stood in the two big arcways before going into the actual roof space

After a quiet walk around the inside I noticed that there was a Tower tour on offer which we decided to do, despite the fact that it was in French. It was a while since we had to climb a tower anywhere so we felt the need to do this one.

The unrestored stained glass windows

A close up view of the flying buttresses

 It was disappointing that there were no English tours.They did provide us with a brochure in English but it is pretty difficult to listen to over an hour of fluent French. However the tour was an amazing experience . We weren't sure where it would take us but knew it would be over 200 steps. I must say I am much more adept at climbing small stone spiral staircases with ropes for handrails than I was when we first arrived. Especially as the steps are often worn and uneven which adds to the challenge.

First we climbed more than 150 enclosed stone spiral steps straight up and came out on the outside of two unrestored 15th century stained glass windows.

You can see some of the group
walking along the ledge: it was wise not to look down

Then we climbed along a narrow ledge with stone railing (fortunately) before going up and down some more stone spiral stairs and inside the copper roof of the building to look at the struts keeping it up.

The spectacular inside of the roof

A few of the stairs were the start of the spiral stairs that go up to the top of the spire, although the guide assured us that no one ever did.
You can see all of the staircase in this photo but we didn't go too high fortunately!
 As this was probably the last cathedral of the trip....and we had seen very many of them in all shapes and sizes....it was appropriate that this impressive one was it.

Check out the detail: even the stockings!

You often don't get close enough
 to appreciate the detail in
 the stained glass
 in the cathedrals and churches
we have visited

After we came back down to earth we thought we would do something entirely different and visit a Museum of Stained Glass called Musee de Vitrail. One floor was old stained glass and lots of detailed explanations about it, how to make it, the significance of the stories, how to detect when restoration or 'stop gaps' had been inserted. The lower floor was all modern glass and very beautiful.

There were a series of panels with the same rose on them, using every technique possible to use on glass: fascinating as they were all different.

More subtle technique

A dazzling set of panels

After we had been so rude about the number of kebab shops in France we had dinner at the Istanbul .
 Grill which was actually lovely Turkish food and the guys who made it were very entertaining.

Back to the hotel to pack the bags properly as we were headed for Paris and the last trip in the car so we needed to pack everything into fewer bags, so we could negotiate the Metro. We seemed to have collected a lot of 'stuff' some of which we had to leave behind!

 your well-packed and overloaded correspondent

Dianne

The last chateau.....sounds like a movie title!

Wednesday 24th May

We couldn't give up on Chateaux until we had seen one of the most important ones known predominantly for it's stunning gardens: Villandry. Built in the mid-1500s by the same designer who built Chambord this is a really superb sight. The actual Chateau has been lovingly restored by a rich American and her (destitute) Spanish husband in the early 20th century and brought up their family here. They were both scientists and applied themselves to the restoration based on research and reading historical texts.

The mother's bedroom

The Chateaux is very modest and has been modified to enable a family to live there comfortably. But the reason it is so popular is the gardens: a Love Garden, Sun garden, herb garden, kitchen garden, water garden, 1200 wild lime trees ..... and a maze to top it off! The pictures tell the story!

The shapes in the love garden are hearts, daggers
 for a broken heart, butterflies for flighty love etc etc.

Espaliered lime trees

The bright colours of the lettuces and cabbage sin the kitchen garden

Me contemplating the topiary in the herb garden.
Maybe that's what my garden needs!

The maze entrance

The water garden

After we spent a few hours wondering why our garden bears no resemblance to this garden (probably has something to do with an army of gardeners!) we took ourselves off to tour Tours and it's old town.

We started with the excitement of the laundromat, before going on a wander around. Tours is another town where the old town is lively as it is centrally located and has many of the major shops located within it.

A very cute cafe

We were happy to return to our quiet cave , and I went for walk along the banks of the River: very green and lovely. At one point I came across 'snow' which was actually soft white seed pods floating in the air.

A quiet night at home and another day done!
you contented correspondent

Dianne