A Wintry Weekend in Paris

Getting lost was a theme for us this weekend - our first time in Paris since we have been over here. We arrived in Paris late on Friday night and drove away from the airport with clear directions about how to find the IBIS hotel, only 5 minutes away from the airport. After a number of circles (all Paris roads are built as big roundabouts we reckon because we always seemed to end up where we started), we found the hotel and parked the car, went into the reception area only to be told in fluent French (it took a number of arm waves and shakes of the head) that we were in the wrong IBIS. Turn left and go straight for 5 minutes and it is on the right. With bags back in the car we eventually arrived at the right destination. Two hotels within 5 minutes of each other and with the same name! I am sad to say it wasn't the last time we managed to get lost - driving to Versailles the next day the receptionist gave us good directions and we navigated the ring roads, passed the numerous off ramps and through the city to the palace. Coming back was a different story, as all the names on the signposts were different and we just managed to miss the centre of Paris (and I think the Arc de Triomphe - where we have heard insurance companies don't insure you). Anyway trips to the airport, museum and back to the hotel all held similar delights and we sighed a huge sigh of relief everytime we got to our destination. So, enough about our navigation skills and the roads (except I have to say motor cyclists are a law unto themselves - weaving between cars and across lanes at 130 km/h - sent shivers up our spines). Back to Friday night. It was 11.00 at night, and we found our room, turned on the lights but there was only darkness. Being hardened travellers we tried the light switch, looked around for the slot for the card to go in, but with no success. I stayed with the bags while Harry hurried downstairs to have the card recoded and was told 'just switch on the lights'. Well we had tried that already but did it hopefully once again with no success. Funny, in those situations you begin to doubt yourself and think 'What are we doing wrong?'. Harry went down once again and sheepishly escorted the receptionist up to our room who tapped the light switch and said in very cute English 'ooh no lights'. We got another room. As French hotel rooms go it was clean and rather spacious (we met a Canadian couple who not only complained about the size of the room but also the size of the soap!!). The second night, we came back and couldn't get into the room at all and as things happen in 3's were fully expecting something else to happen on the last night - it didn't. Our hotel was situated, as I said not far from the airport, which is why we decided to hire a car and do some exciting things outside the centre of Paris rather than trying to get into the centre every day. We thought initially we were in a group of hotels, but after getting lost on the first day discovered within walking distance a lovely little town called Roissy en France with some shops and the council building decorated for Christmas and a Chinese Restaurant (where we had dinner one night and I got all excited with the garnish - crisp, fresh lettuce leaves - and so ate those while Harry had most of the spring rolls).

Versailles, I had been told was great, wonderful, pretty and so I was looking forward to the wander through the palace and then hiring bikes to cycle through the grounds. The upside of going in winter is that there are no queues and you don't have to negotiate round lots of bodies and heads to get photos but the downside is a lot of things are 'closed for the winter' - including the bike hire place. The palace, as you might expect was palatial, ornate, colourful and huge. We wandered through the numerous bedrooms, hall of mirrors, past the chapel and found that both of us were looking through the windows longing to be out there in the chilly but quite pleasant day. Jeff Koon (an American sculpture and balloon artist) had an exhibition in the palace and it was a contrast to see the modern with the 1700's decor and furnishings. The Dauphines apartments on the ground floor and Marie Antoinettes rooms in the Grand Trianon (Louis XVI gave her these apartments in 1774 and these are the rooms where she 'escaped from the rigours of court etiquette') were probably my favourite - simple in decor so that you could enjoy the furnishings (imagine myself sleeping in one of those beds), carpets, art work. I was looking for an exhibition on the 1919 Treaty of Versailles where many famous politicians gathered at the palace to sign the peace treaty - well that is all I can remember from my World War One history lessons in the 4th form. There was no mention of it - and I thought afterwards that it was only one event in the life of the palace - and this was really about how the French royalty lived in particular Louis XIV and XV.

So, we wandered out to the gardens where statues were covered to prevent damage from frost, ice, snow and moss and fountains were sitting in the middle of puddles rather than a picture of watery elegance. We wandered around the gardens (no flowers at this time of year - except other parts of Paris did have pansies and a few other hardy flowers), around the canals up to Marie Antoinette's little group of apartments (they say she was the only queen to impose her personal tastes on Versailles and who scoffed at Court traditions), the little Queen's hamlet (the village that once served the palace) and through the many trees before settling in a restaurant for Harry's birthday lunch.

The birthday boy chose to go to the Le Bourget Aerospace museum (described as 'the world's most beautiful collection of flying machines, prototypes, past and present mythical aircraft: Concorde, DC3, Mirage, 747, ariane rocket, spacecrafts...). I enjoyed wandering through the Concorde (this one actually carried passengers - we'd been through others but they were prototypes) and 747 (they look very flimsy when they are stripped and you can see just how many nuts and bolts hold that thin metal together - Harry assures me it is 'modern, tough' stuff - and as it has taken me to a number of places so I guess he must be right), the display on hot air balloons, the first bird-like aeroplanes and the space programme (funnily enough I left Harry to take the photos and at the end of the day there were no photos of the displays that interested me!!). I wandered around and managed to get a number of security guards running, when I opened a door that wasn't chained or labelled as an emergency exit but it set the alarm going. I walked away with a sheepish sorry while they yelled at me in French - glad I didn't understand what they were saying but I could imagine!! Anyway, from Haz's perspective -he enjoyed looking at the French prototypes some of which never saw production. There was a mix of other European aircraft which he had only seen in pictures before.

While I was sitting having a coffee waiting for Harry to finish his tour of the museum I picked up a Fat Tire Cycling Brochure - we saw Berlin on bikes earlier in the year and had a great time. The company offered a cycle ride to Giverny - Claude Monet's home. It was winter, so the cycle ride wasn't on but we drove to the little town and it was the highlight of the weekend for me. A lovely little town (closed for winter), but we walked around it, past the home and garden Monet had planted 'the garden is my masterpiece'. There was only one other tourist couple in sight (they get 500,000 a year so at other times it must be quite busy) and all the locals were inside or away for the weekend. It was tranquil and I could see why Monet spent most of his years in the little village. The gardeners of the village should be proud of their winter display and had obviously taken a leaf out of Monet's book. It was one of the places that I would like to go back to in another season to see the Japanese inspired water garden, water lily pond, orangerie, the many reflections in the water that he painted and his home that had been renovated in the 1970's after its decline after the Second World War. We visited the little church cemetery where Monet is buried (along with lots of other family members - which kind of made it nice and personal), and the gravestone of 7 English people who died when their Lancaster Bomber crashed at the south of the village during the night of the June 7 1944. The memorial includes a propellor blade from the plane and gravestone includes a photo of the seven men, their names and donations left by people for the upkeep on the cemetery plot.

And back in England...

• Can Britain still be Britain without its pubs? Pubs are on the decline - at least 5 pubs go out of business every day, the price of beer is at an all time high (even with the decrease in value added tax) and for the first time in nearly 1,000 years more than half of Britain's villages have gone dry.
• Unemployment continues to climb, interest rates have fallen, but the number of repossessioned homes is climbing
• Bristol won the 'City of England' award. Well, that's interesting because the new shopping mall - also won 'best mall in the world' (according to what survey I have no idea - but the architecture is very interesting). A number of people have mentioned to us that a city in the UK is anywhere which has a cathedral. Not quite believing that it wasn't based on population I 'googled' and found out some interesting facts. The common meaning of the word is 'a large town' or 'any town in the UK which has a cathedral'. But get this - not in the UK. In the UK a town is granted the city status by the Queen on the advice of Her Ministers. Competitions for city status are held when the Queen decides there should be one and it is often during important Royal anniversaries. So the UK has little city's eg St David's in Wales with a population of 2000 (that's about the same size as Paekakariki), and Wells with 10000 people (boasts to be the smallest city in England). There are also very large and densely populated urban areas which aren't cities such as Milton Keynes (210,000), Northampton (190,000) and Luton ( 190,000). So, we learn something new every day - and again wonder about the impact of historical events on a community!!
• and another interesting historical fact. Henry VIII ensured that churches were well maintained (at least the altar that is in the east of the building - it never occurred to me they were all placed in the east but will take my compass as we go through the next few to check). He made owners who had homes near monasteries, or built on previous lands owned by the monasteries responsible for repairs. It doesn't have to be on the title - you just are. One couple have a £200,000 debt to pay for their local church repair bill and have to sell their farm to pay the debt - problem - who will purchase a farm with that hanging over them in the future? They thought about repealing the act to ensure only those with a title mentioning the debt would have to pay but haven't done anything about it yet - hence the family have paid over £186,000 to fight the law, but lost. Poor them!
• Someone told me about their aunt who bought clothes and a hat from a shop to go to a funeral. They tucked the labels in (proudly took off her hat and showed other funeral goers) and after the funeral returned them to the shop and got their money back. The discussion started by me reading an article of a woman who spent £160 on clothes and then discovered the shop had a 20% sale the next day - she returned them all - and then repurchased them at the lower price.
• it is lovely weather at the moment - cold as - icy in the mornings but no rain. We are careful cyclists but some aren't and have paid the price.