Day 83 Sitting with Sartre and walking with Baz

It was with the help of the Metro and our trusty feet that we headed out on Day 83 to explore the famous Latin Quarter of Paris. We had heard that this was the traditional home of writers, artists, poets and thinkers who frequented the many bookshops and cafes in the area. We found evidence of all of these past inhabitants but also noticed that a new gang seems to have turned up and were taking up residence. We had seen this group clustered in ghettos in New York and many of the European cities that we have visited. We generally try to stay well away from this mob as we consider them not to be of our social class. You may have heard of some of their names and we would like to warn you that you too, may come across the likes of Prada, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Co, Cartier, Swarvarski and Chanel. They seem to be everywhere!
After walking for quite some time we decided to rest our tired feet and have a coffee at one of Paris’s famous haunts the Café de Flore. This café has been a refuge and meeting place of many famous writers, academics, philosophers and thinkers throughout the last century. We were able to sit and sip our cappuccinos and wonder if Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir had sat at the same table. We considered being and nothingness but decided that the pursuit of beauty, life and joy was much more productive.

Later in the day we headed out to the famous Montmartre area to take a bird’s eye view of the city from the north. The view was almost worth the tourist crush, which I guess we also contributed to. Later we strolled past the famous red windmill outside Moulin Rouge (made even more famous by Baz Luhrmann’s movie). The style of the Montmartre area do not exactly fit our taste but to sit with Sartre and walk with Baz made it another surreal day in Paris.

Day 82 A true blue Eiffel Tower

Paris is a city of beautiful buildings. Paris is a city of culture. Paris is a city of wonderful art and music. Paris is a city of great food. Paris is a city of high fashion. Paris is a city of love. We had heard all of these things about Paris and we knew it would be a special city in which to end the European part of our trip. Paris is also the only European city that we have visited before. In 2004 we were able to have a wonderful weekend with our three teenage children in this famous city. We have very happy memories of this very special time as a family. This time we do miss our children, but now we are enjoying this romantic city as a couple.

The day began with a serious attempt to tackle the sales in Paris’s famous department store Galleries Lafayette. We were on a mission to buy an outfit for the mother-of-the-groom as our son Tim is getting married in November. Incredibly we met another Aussie couple, who are on the exact same mission, their son is also getting married in Sydney in November. The only difference is, that this other mother-of-the-groom (the husband whinges to Richard) had already bought two outfits elsewhere in Europe but keeps panicking that the weather might be hotter or colder than she expected and therefore she will need another option.

Later that evening we set out to do something that we did not do last time, and that was to see the sights of Paris at night. We began at the Arc de Triomphe and enjoyed watching the spectacle of the traffic negotiating the roundabout around the arch. It has to be the most bizarre and entertaining intersection in the world. We then wandered down the The Champs-Elysees, which radiates out as one of the 12 axes from the Arc de Triomphe and is one of the most famous streets in Europe. It is lined with many of the top designers’ shops, and we were surprised to see that it is now also resplendent with futuristic car showrooms.

After leaving the Champs-Elysees we made our way through some of the backstreets of the 7th Arrondissement towards Paris’s most famous icon, The Eiffel Tower. The tower seemed to be even bigger than we remembered and we were delighted to see it resplendent with blue and purple lights. After some time admiring it from close quarters we strolled down the Champ de Mars to view it from a distance. We sat on the grass with thousands of others and enjoyed Mr Eiffel’s wonderful creation as the blue lights were further enhanced by a sparkling show of silver fairy lights that twinkled at 11pm.

Can it get any better? Well actually yes!
Crepes from the street vendor parked close by, served with chocolate and cream! Luckily we had walked over 20kms today.

Day 81 A Paris Apartment

After a long train trip we arrived in Paris in the early afternoon and set off to find our apartment for the next 6 days. The simple task of getting from one of Paris’s main train stations to our apartment was made much more complex by maintenance on the Metro. This meant that we had to find one Metro line, then a bus, then another Metro line to get to our ‘home’ in Paris.

We have stayed in a variety of different types of accommodation on this trip but whenever possible, especially for longer stays we have tried to rent an apartment. To be honest this is a great deal more complex and risky than organising a hostel or hotel. Firstly it’s not a matter of speaking to a 24-hour multi-lingual reception desk but rather speaking and negotiating directly (with the blessed help of email) with a local. Also finding the place and coordinating a rendezvous to pick up keys etc has also been more challenging as even our best plans are sometimes complicated by such things as disruptions to the metro or train connections that don’t quite work. Also to be honest transport to these places is generally a lot more complicated as they are just in normal suburban areas not in convenient, central locations like hostels and hotels. Having said that we do much prefer to stay in an apartment. Here is a list of some of our reasons.

1. Generally renting an apartment is much cheaper; for example this apartment is less than half the cost of the very nice but tiny 3 star hotel room that we stayed in when we visited Paris in 2004.
2. There is much more space. This particular apartment is nicely decorated (it’s so French) and has a large bedroom/dining/lounge room, (let’s call it a slightly cluttered multi purpose room) plus a bathroom and a kitchen.
3. In Paris we are living on the second floor of a normal apartment block behind a huge classic wooden door in the 20th Arrondisssoment. We really enjoy the feeling of living like Parisians – even if our French is appalling.
4. We love having our own place and after a few days it really feels like home. Many people like having their room serviced in a hotel but for us it is nice to know that we are the only ones coming and going from our rooms.
5. Probably our favourite reason is that we are able to cook our own meals. We need to confess that our cooking is very basic- often we buy ready-made fresh meals and only heat them up. We have even cooked frozen veggies at times. However not only has this reduced the cost of our food by about 75% (even compared to budget restaurants) we can choose our food without the complications of trying to order in a foreign language. For us we really enjoy buying a few days food and then knowing that there is food in the fridge to eat when we are ready. And as we have mentioned before we love to find the local markets, and buy enough fresh food for a feast! Another bonus is that we can have cereal with milk for breakfast and we don’t have to eat croissants with ham and cheese as they are often the only things offered in hotel breakfasts.
6. Finally it is great to meet the local owners of the apartments, as was especially the case here in Paris. The lady who owns this apartment is charming, helpful, knowledgeable and welcoming… she has even invited us to her home for dinner (with lots of ‘Allo, Allos’ )

As we wrote this we opened the window for some fresh air and a neighbour was playing Bruce Springsteen!


PS We have read a lot of stories of people who rented apartments on the net- sent money only to find out the whole thing was a scam. To avoid this we have used agencies such as VBRO and Cross Pollinate, which have been great. This apartment was on a personal recommendation and no cash was exchanged until we arrived.

Day 80 Pintxos in Basque Country

So far for all but 7 days of our trip we have been in non-English speaking countries. With all the difficulties associated with this, we have managed really well, mostly due to the patience of many locals and the willingness of so many to share whatever English they have. San Sebastian to us has been particularly interesting because we are not even sure what language the locals are speaking. We had assumed as we were in Spain that they might speak Spanish, but that was our first mistake. As we are close to the French border we thought they might speak French, wrong again. Apparently most of the locals speak the Basque language or at least some form of dialect. Nonetheless people are very friendly and as usual we manage to get by somehow.

As has been our custom Day 80 included a lot of walking. We began by climbing a small mountain behind our Pensione, which is topped by a fort and huge statue of Jesus. The view was amazing and after taking the longer scenic route down we then walked the entire length of the two beaches, which circle the bay. We really enjoyed paddling our poor tired feet in the cool but refreshing ocean. At the other end of the second beach we rode up 185 metres on a one hundred year old funicular, which took us to the top of another hill where we were afforded a complete panorama of this elegant coastal city.

Later we could not resist a visit to the vibrant shopping district made more exciting by the July sales. However the real highlight of the shopping was the fresh food market in the centre of town. We have enjoyed many colourful markets in many countries but the fresh food including the seafood from the local fishing boats completed this culinary picture. In spite of not having a fridge at our Pensione we bought bread, cheese, salami, cold Spanish omelette, salad, brownies, Madeira cake and cherries to afford us an exotic picnic.

Dinner was even better. Spain is famous for Tapas, the name given to a wide variety of appetizers, which are a highlight of Spanish cuisine. These appetizers became delicious meals for us in Barcelona. In San Sebastian they have a local version called Pintxos. Basically all the bars and cafes have large selections of Pintxos on the counter and you simply load your plate and pay for what you eat. The variety, colour and taste of these delicious Pintxos, most of which include some type of seafood, is quite amazing. We chose six different types in one café and then another six at a noisy pub. Do we eat to travel, or travel to eat? We are not sure. What we do know is that San Sebastian deserves its reputation for unique and wonderful fresh food.

Finally our day ended as it had begun with another long walk to the third beach and back to town around a headland that we had not previously discovered. At 10pm on a cloudy evening we watched the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean.

Day 79 Madeleine for morning tea

After our unexpected overnight train ride to San Sebastian we arrived bright and early at 7.30am. After a brisk 20-minute walk we arrived at a new form of accommodation for us a Pensione; a very comfortable room in a type of small hotel in what was once a private home situated in the old city of San Sebastian.

Most people have probably never heard of San Sebastian and you may be wondering why we chose to stay here. During our planning sessions we realised that we had the time to go to Barcelona but the next question was “Where to next?” before our final destination in Europe; Paris. After examining the map and reading the guidebooks the beach city of San Sebastian seemed to be an attractive option.

San Sebastian has much to offer. It is situated on a shell-shaped bay surrounded by hills and mountains with a beautiful wrought iron lined promenade that runs the entire length of two of its adjoining beaches. This pretty town has been described as Spain’s most elegant and fashionable resort city and has been the summer retreat of the Spanish royal family for many years. We are so pleased to have found this wonderful place with its three beaches (one with real surf), a harbour, a classic ‘old town’ with narrow cobblestone streets and quaint little shops and some of the most fantastic food not only in Spain but the whole of Europe.

In an odd way it even reminds us of our favourite seaside town in Australia, South West Rocks. Sure it’s much larger than South West Rocks (population of 180,000 rather than 4,000) and sure it has a bit more history (it has a fort built in the 12th century rather than a gaol built in 1880) and it’s on the Atlantic Ocean not the Pacific Ocean but nevertheless with its sea wall, river, wonderful walking tracks, hills and beaches and also great bread shops there were some very real similarities.

One highlight of our day was a visit to a little coffee shop called La Vache (The Cow) for a very overdue breakfast at about 11am. After being attracted by the simple but homey decor we were delighted with hot chocolate and a little bread roll with prosciutto and capsicum and a chocolate croissant. Thinking life could not get any better we noticed that the CD playing was Madeline Peyroux one of our favourite contemporary jazz singers.

Finally we have to mention that the weather on Day 79 was cool! It was a very mild 24 degrees– wonderful after we had endured 13 days in a row of temperatures over 35 degrees!

Day 78 To reserve or not to reserve that is the question

As much as we have loved the freedom of our Eurail passes there has been one hassle (which we had been warned about), which has become more of a problem the longer we have been in Europe. The theory with a Eurail pass is that you can just hop on or hop off any train you like – it’s all free once you have paid for the pass. Before we left home we had followed a debate in the travel sections of the paper about Eurail passes and reservations. It seems that on some busy, high-speed routes reservations are now compulsory and even pass holders have to book a seat and pay for a reservation.

For the first 5 weeks in Europe this did not seem to be an issue. The trains were by and large quiet and we did not reserve. Often we were on regional non-reserve trains but even when we were on better trains it did not seem to be an issue that we had not booked…. until Italy.

On a train from Como to Milan we were greeted by a guard, who demanded our reservation. We said “no reservation” and he shook his head, muttered something and stomped off. This was the first time anyone had made an issue of it. Days later on a train from Milan to Florence the same scene played out except this time the guard grumped a phrase that we would hear often and could easily understand “You pay now!”. After punching several numbers into his calculator he came up with the figure of 18 Euros, which we had no choice but to pay.

This happened several times in Italy so we were never sure whether to pay up front for the reservation or risk it and see if we would get a shake of the head or a “ you pay now”. It seemed that every time we reserved a seat the train ended up being empty or the guard forgot to check and every time we didn’t book the train was full and the guard would demand “You pay now!”. One day we caught a train from Rome to Naples, we did reserve and it cost us 40 Euro for a ninety minute trip (ouch) – only to find that those tickets weren’t checked at all and the train was half empty.

There were the couple of trips where we did not book and ended up in an overfull train without a seat. One day Richard enjoyed a couple of hours on the floor. Quite a few times we had to vacate seats for people who had booked (rather embarrassing really). On one occasion we had to give up our seat to a lady and her cat, which obviously did have a reserved seat. The smelly cat sat in its cage on a seat while we sat on a fold-up seat in the hallway.

On Day 78 we were meant to catch an early 7am train from Barcelona across Spain to arrive in San Sebastian late in the afternoon. After considerable discussion we decided to do the right thing and reserve a seat the night before. Barcelona is a very busy station and we waited for an hour in a queue only to be told that the 7am train was fully booked, as was the midday train. After quite an animated discussion in broken English and even more broken Spanish we finally discovered that our only hope was to get the night train. So we booked a sleeper compartment on the train that was to leave at 10pm and arrive in San Sebastian at 7.30 am the following morning.

As a result we found that we had an extra day in Barcelona and feeling slightly at a loose end we found an English language cinema and watched a very bleak Nicole Kidman and Jack Black film to fill in the time before boarding the night train.

However boarding this night train was a very unique experience. This part of Barcelona Station resembled an airport with x-ray machines for all the luggage and a departure lounge. Every ticket and reservation was checked before we were allowed onto the platform so it was very fortunate that Richard had listened to Wendy and that we had a reservation .

On the train we actually enjoyed a very nice double-bunk cabin with its own shower (well actually a trickle but it was warm and wet). We missed seeing the scenery but did arrive in San Sebastian having enjoyed a reasonably good nights sleep.

Sometimes we have chosen our own adventure on this trip, but this sleeper adventure chose us, and we were glad to have experienced another feature of Europe’s train system.

Day 77 Dancing in La Rambles

As the temperature again peaked at well over 35 degrees we decided that we needed some help to see more of Barcelona so we signed on for the ‘hop on hop off’ Barcelona Bus Turistica. As Barcelona is quite a large city it was a perfect way for us to take in more of its highlights, which are quite wides-spread, and difficult for us to explore on foot.

Highlights of the day were the Olympic venues from 1992, more of Gaudi’s strange and incredible architecture, the home ground of the famous Barca Football Club, Barcelona University, which is over 400 years old, and the beautifully restored beach-side area.

Before the 1992 Olympics Barcelona had a huge derelict beach area, which were probably little better than slums. This area gave way to the Olympic village, which later was sold off as upper end private housing and has become the seed of a redevelopment that is now a modern and architecturally impressive area. Although the beaches are not really up to Australian standards they are pretty good for Europe, with sand and beautiful clear warm Mediterranean waters. The crowds on this hot Sunday afternoon were much like a mid summer day at Bondi, huge!

Speaking of crowds, on Day 55 we mentioned that we were in Geneva for the first night of soccer’s Euro 2008. For the last month we have followed the fortunes of many of the countries involved as we have travelled across Europe. We cheered with the Italians in Florence when they beat France. We cried for Gus ( the ex Aussie coach) when Russia was eliminated. We were a little terrified when the orange army of spectators from the Netherlands ( or as the Italians call them ‘Olanda’) passed us in a train station in Bern. Incredibly on Day 77 we found ourselves in Spain on the night of the final with Spain, the underdogs, set to do battle against the mighty and invincible Germany. After Spain had scored in the first half, the whole city held its breath and the streets were deserted as the crowds in the bars stood in silence watching the match, fearful at any time that Germany would equalise. With the final whistle Spain had defied the odds with a stunning and historic victory. They had not won an international football tournament since 1964. Within minutes of the victory the whole city erupted as people poured out onto the streets in their thousands, the lads were dancing without shirts on their balconies, on the streets, on top of trucks, and even up the light poles. Flags, horns, home made fireworks, explosions and euphoria flowed through the streets. It was great to be adopted into this scene and to share the joy of an unexpected victory. Espanol, Espanol, Espanol Oi Oi Oi ( or something like that! )