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Like a Parisienne

12 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by pvaustralien in Cycling, Itinerary, Locals, Paris, Tour de France

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bastille day, eiffel tower, fete national, paris, plage, tour de france, velib

After our epic (well epic to us) Tour des Australiens – St Georges sur Erve to Paris, 274km over 4 days – we settled into to a lovely little quiet studio apartment in the shadow of Tour Eiffel for a relaxing 10 days. Having been to Paris at least a couple of times before, we’d seen the biggest monuments and were really looking forward to taking our time exploring Paris in a more leisurely way.

The apartment was gorgeous. Located on a quiet street in the 7th arrondissement (Eiffel) right opposite the Musee du quai Branly with a spectacular view of “the tower” from our little terrace (what other tower in the world is photographed this much?). We could actually see the tourists on the tower. We waved at them every day so I hope they saw us. By the end of the week she became “our tower”.  For those who don’t know, the tower is lit up in beautiful golden lights in the evenings, but after sunset, every hour on the hour, it also comes alive with thousands of sparkling lights for 5 minutes. We didn’t need a clock in the apartment, all we had to do was listen to the cheering from the street every hour as people were surprised and delighted by the lights! We had everything we needed inside – an almost complete kitchen with everything except an oven, a bed area, lounge area, dining area, bathroom and balcony. Along with French TV and fast internet, it was perfect.

“our tower” at night

We spent Saturday having a little wander around, letting our legs recover, stocking up on some grocery basics, before checking out the spectacular fireworks that lit up the sky over the Seine to celebrate the 14th July, or fete nationale. Interestingly, this date is not referred to as Bastille Day in France, only by the rest of the world. None of the pictures we took did the show justice, but this is what we watched:

The fireworks are set off from the Trocadero, so we only had about 200m to walk from the apartment to enjoy this fantastic show. What a pity they didn’t have any off the tower itself like last year though.

We wanted to go to a couple of museums that we hadn’t been to before so we got 4-day museum passes which generally allow you to “skip the queues” at most of Paris’ attractions. However (tip #1) it usually means just skipping the longest queue, but there is still a shorter one with other people holding the same sort of pass!  In order to buy the pass, you do have to queue up at the ticket counter somewhere so, (tip #2) we did this at our most convenient museum, Musee Branly, literally across the road, which also happens to be one of the less popular museums so there was barely a 5 minute queue before we had our passes in hand. First stop would be Musee D’Orsay on the Seine.

But first we decided to check out the system of community bicycles that has been going in Paris for 5 years now, the velibs. We had seen many people using these bikes on our previous trips and were determined to have a go since we had so much time. We found that you can easily buy a short term pass online (1.30Euro for a day, 8Euro for a week).  The way it works is that there are many many bike stations all over the city, you enter your code in the computer terminal at the station & choose a bike to take, then you can return it to any of the other stations in the city. The first 30min each time you take a bike is free, and if you go over the next 30min only costs 1Euro. Well what a fantastic system! We used the velibs every day for a week and only once did we go over that free 30 minutes, bringing the total cost for two of us for the week to a grand total of 18Euros! Now we got all over the city in that week. For example, on the first day, we decided to go to Montparnasse station to book our high-speed train tickets back home, so off we set from Rue de l’Universite. 29 minutes later we were “returning” our bikes to the bike station outside Montparnasse tower and walking in. After sorting that out, we decided to ride down to the St Germain des Pris area for a bit of a wander around & a drink in that quarter – always fabulous for its atmosphere. So with the velibs around every corner, we were set for our explorations.

Paige with our “velib” bikes

Musee D’Orsay was fantastic – a beautiful building full of art to enjoy. We also discovered the ballroom upstairs and the rooftop space which has a gorgeous view over the Seine, across to the Tuilleries and the Louvre. Magnifique, especially in the lovely summer sunshine.

Musee D’Orsay – looking out through the big clock

That evening we had the ultimate Parisienne dinner – we packed our backpack & took off on the velibs for a picnic on the banks of the Seine, complete with baguette, fromage, pates, olives, rillettes, and of course a lovely bottle of rose from the Cote de Provence. Mmm, heaven. We sat & ate our little picnic while dangling our legs over the side of the concrete banks in the late evening sun, waving to the tourists on the boats, just like a Parisienne!

Our next museum was the Palace at Versailles. Just a short train ride from the centre of Paris saw us joining the 1 hour queue for entry into this amazing place. We thoroughly enjoyed the beauty and splendour, but could understand why the people got sick of Marie Antionette and her spending ways! Wow. It was interesting to see the very rooms she & Louis occupied when they were invaded and the little doorway through which she escaped – if only for a short while.  A spectacular palace and gardens.  We stopped in Versailles for lunch but wished we hadn’t really. It’s all geared for tourists (and there are MANY)  and we left feeling that we had missed out on the real France for the day.

The front gates at the Palace of Versailles

Friday came and the sun was out again, a perfect summer day! The Paris Plages had been set up and were now ready for action so off we went on the velib bikes down the Seine to Pont Neuf. The Paris plages are beaches that are set up every summer for the enjoyment of the Parisiennes. They bring tonnes of sand on barges down the river and parts of the river bank, along with the square in front of the Hotel De Ville, are turned into lovely summer beaches. The Parisiennes love it, and many were seen out simply sunbaking on the sands. I was watching the little kids playing & realised how much we take our beaches for granted in Perth. I bet most of these kids hardly ever see the real thing. These beaches also come complete with ice cream stalls, playgrounds, boulles for hire, bars and buskers. They certainly do it well, and we enjoyed an afternoon strolling around with our icecreams and camera.

After the plages we set off on velibs again to the museum of the catacombs. Unfortunately we didn’t time this well, and arrived at the back of the queue just in time to be informed that they were cutting off the queue for last entries – we had missed out. Never mind, we’ll save that one for another trip. Wandering around the area we found, of all things, an Aussie bar!! We took photos but decided we were not sad enough to go drinking in an Aussie bar in Paris, haha. We had a laugh though, one of the giant beer cans was decorated with “Austria”… perhaps the painter got sick of all those letters in “Australia”?

Seeing the Aussie bar got us in the mood for a drink so once again we jumped on the velibs and headed for St Germain de Pris, found a nice bar/café and sat at the streetside tables to enjoy a rose and people-watch and get ourselves all excited for the big day tomorrow.

And of course, Le Tour….

Sunday was THE day. Yes, all you cycling enthusiasts out there know what I’m talking about… the day Le Tour arrives on the Avenue des Champs Elysees! The culmination of three weeks of hard work for all those cyclists.  We had been looking forward to this day for months and what a beautiful day.

We made a very early start in order to be with a tour group by 7.30am. Why a tour group? Well this tour was on bikes, around the Champs Elysees itself, yes the very course our riders would be taking in the afternoon. Decked out with my Aussie cycling shirt, off we set with a group of about 15 or so and our Australian tour guide (yes, from Perth no less). It turns out there were many Aussies in town that day, there were others in our tour group, and later on the streets we saw many of our flags proudly flying. The cycle tour was a lot of fun. In around 2 hours we had ridden up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, around the roundabout (thank goodness traffic was being closed down, it wasn’t the usual chaos) back down again to the Place de la Concorde,  and then off around the Louvre. We couldn’t take the whole circuit as the police were gradually closing everything off, but we had a good ride around well before the crowds came out.

Cycling around the Arc de Triomphe

Back home we packed a backpack for the afternoon, bought some fresh chicken salad baguettes from the boulangerie around the corner & set off to find a spot on the barriers. We got a spot with only 1 couple in front of us, and managed to hold our space despite more and more people trying to sqeeze in and around (and in front of) us. There must have been millions on that street in Paris. After waiting all afternoon, amusing ourselves trying to read the free French magazines that came with Paige’s new yellow cap, the time came for the riders to arrive. The Union Jack was out in force for Wiggins, but there were lots of Aussie flags on display too. The cyclists sped by us, again and again until the finish. Unfortunately it was all over all too quickly, but at least we saw those famous laps live and the atmosphere in Paris was worth it.

Go Cadel!

And the winner is…. Wiggins (with some of the peleton)

Lots of Aussies in the crowd

We celebrated the end of Le Tour with a few drinks at our local. After having a good chat with our waiter, and teasing him for not remembering us from our previous trip with Mum & Dad, it turned out that he did remember us when the penny dropped and he reeled off the drinks we had all ordered on that first night. He was so delighted that we had kept coming back through the week that he surprised us with a round of drinks on the house. Another lovely Frenchman – you see, the French are very hospitable!

Monday was spent having a quiet, lazy day, soaking up the last of ‘our’ Paris, and enjoying a quiet dinner in a small family-owned bistro in the 7th. Up early Tuesday morning, we were all packed & riding off to Montparnasse (on our own bikes again) before we knew it.

Au revoir Paris, a bientot!

Our own Tour de France

15 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by pvaustralien in Cycling, Paris, Tour de France

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Tags

cycle, cycling, paris, rambouillet, tour de france

This week we departed on our own Tour de France. We cycled from Saint Georges-sur-Erve to Paris, a total of 273km over 4 days. We stayed in chambre d’hôtes (B&B’s) along the way for 3 nights. We arrived in Paris, the day before Bastille Day and will depart Paris the day after the real Tour de France hits town.

Day 1 – Saint Georges-sur-Erve to Belleme (86km)

Day 1 of our tour took us from Saint Georges to Belleme and was by far the toughest leg of our tour. Leaving Saint Georges we were faced with several climbs up and over 250m hills before hitting a flat section for about 30 km.

Our last 15km into Belleme involved more hills at around 250m. it seemed that we were just going up then down and back up again. By the time we got to Belleme, we were exhausted. Fortunately, our chamber d’hôte (Hotel d’Suhard) was not only warm and inviting, but it was also extremely beautiful, old, very French, and our hosts had paid attention to every little detail. Perfect. Paige didn’t want to leave.

Hotel d’Suhard was very welcoming.

We did not have lunch on Day 1. We had planned to get something along the way, but typically, like our past experiences, France shuts down between 1-3pm, making it difficult to get some lunch, so coffee and snickers bars would have to suffice. At least we had room for the pizzas we demolished in the evening.

Day 2 – Belleme to Courville-sur-Eure (65km)

Day 2 saw us leaving Belleme for Courville-sur Eure. This route had a few large hills to climb initially, with a larger 234m climb in the middle. The last 30km was all down hill.

We arrived at Domain du Tronchay, a working apple orchard. We had booked dinner with our hosts Edith and Francois as we were a bit out of town. That proved to be a real bonus, as dinner was a full-on French gourmet experience with our hosts. It gave us a great opportunity to converse in French as Edith and Francois did not speak much English. However that did not pose a problem and we were able to understand each other very well. The food was sensational and with many bottles of wine, calvados, hazelnut liquer in our bellies, we headed off for a good nights sleep.

Day 3 – Courville-sur-Eure to Rambouillet (65km)

Day 3 was an easy ride, basically flat the whole length. We got to our hotel around 4pm. This time there was no luxury as we opted for a basic motel. Nonetheless, it was comfortable for two very tired cyclists. Our motel was about 3km out of Rambouillet, so we caught a bus into the town centre for dinner. We had a few drinks in a bar before stumbling across a very nice restaurant that served lamb shanks. We had been hanging out for lamb shanks for awhile. These were no disappointment and nor was the rest of the meal. Le Cheval Rouge in Rambouillet is definitely a recommendation.  We caught the bus back to the motel and crashed.

Day 4 – Rambouillet to Paris (64km)

With sore legs and backsides we started on our last day. This leg sounded easy, reasonably flat for the first 25km then cycleways all the way into Paris. Ha! The flat part proved easy enough, but the cycleways were another thing. Up and down, stopping and starting, dodging dogs, children and pedestrians. It proved to be quite difficult and by the time we had hit central Paris we were ready to call it quits. We eventually managed to make our way to our apartment, but had an hour wait until we are met by the apartment rep. We decided to head off for a few well earned drinks at a bar around the corner.

We had booked an apartment very close to the Eiffel Tower. Very close indeed. We have 10 days in Paris, but the first day will be spent recuperating we think. We have the fireworks for La Fete National (Bastile Day), so I think we will be sitting on our balcony for the evening with a bottle or two of champagne.

All up, we did 274km and spent 14 hours on the saddle. Not sure if we want to repeat that effort over 4 days again! Well we may, but we will be better prepared for it. The crap European weather has not allowed us much opportunity for riding.

Tour de France

08 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by pvaustralien in Cycling, Tour de France

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One of the attractions of France to us was the opportunity to cycle around the magnificent countryside and villages. Similarly it was also an opportunity to see the Tour de France close up and participate in the roadside festivities that we have seen on the TV and dreamt about over the years. As a bonus, the first Aussie cycling team in the Tour de France (Orica GreenEdge) was making its Tour debut, along with Cadel Evans, defending his title.

We had planned to see some of the tour while in France, so when the route was announced, we booked a hotel room in Rouen. The closest stage to where we were, were stages 4 & 5, arriving and departing from the Rouen in Haute Normandie. This was a bonus as, Rouen was only one of two towns on the whole tour that was hosting a finish, and a start, of a stage. So we would get to see two stages. We will also be in Paris for the last day of the tour.

Rouen

Armed with our Aussie flags, we drove up to Rouen in the morning. The tour wasn’t due to arrive into town until 5:30pm. We checked into our hotel on the outskirts of town around 1pm and took the bus into centre ville. The reception at the hotel said we were lucky to get a room as there were no other rooms available in the town (and Rouen is not a small town). Indeed, when we booked, on the same day the tour was announced, there were only a handful of rooms available. We met many people during our stay who said they were staying in Paris overnight and catching the 1.5hr train back to Rouen the next day for stage 5.

We checked out a vantage point, on a bridge over the Seine River, about 1km from the finish. As we had about 4 hours to kill, we decided to head to a small bar we could see nearby. We met an Aussie and Kiwi couple in the bar, had a yarn to them, and then noticed others listening in, more Aussies! The place was crawling with them. Around 4pm we headed back to our vantage point, which was now taken by a crowd. We managed to find a spot nearby and settled in to watch the tour caravan. A 20km long cavalcade of sponsor floats and displays. The cavalcade is a regular on the tour and precedes the riders by about 30 minutes. Heaps of promotional crap is thrown out to the crowd along the way. We ended up with several key rings, lollie bags, caps, vouchers, water bottles and other useless junk. All good fun. paige was wearing her Aussie cycling jersey. It soon became obvious that she was a target for the sponsors to throw their junk at. Australians seem to be very popular in France, with several of the sponsor floats chanting (cringe) “aussie, aussie, aussie” as they spotted Paige, hurling heaps of stuff at her. However, there were plenty of other Aussies around judging by the number of flags around. One aussie couple spotted us and decide to hang around with us for the rest of the day.

Aussie Paige

The caravan came and went in about 60 minutes, the riders came and went in about 20 seconds. Well most of them did. There was a huge crash about 500m before us which splintered the field and will prove to have a telling effect on the final result of the Tour.

After the finish, we strolled up to the finish line, along with about 20,000 other people. Deciding it was too much, we headed off to find a bar in a quieter part of town across the river. We found a nice bar and settled down to a couple of drinks. We met a charming American named Joe, who was following some of the Tour. We chatted about the similarities and differences of life in Australia and the US for a while. Very pleasant evening. We decided to head off for some dinner, following some drunk Norwegians. They looked like they want to party, but the town was fairly dead. I think they were in the wrong part of town for that.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and headed back into town to watch the departure of stage 5. We found a good spot in the town centre that offered a good position for taking some photos. There was only one other person near us. Guess what? Another aussie!

Same deal as the previous day, the caravan came through the town first, followed by the riders. The departures are always a bit more sedate than the finishes, and none of the riders appeared to be in a hurry, so we had plenty of opportunity to get some good photos.

It was all over very quickly, so we headed off to find somewhere for lunch. We came across a little bistro in the historical centre of tow. They had a two course meal with, cafe and a glass of wine for 12 euro ($15). Can’t beat that!

After lunch we headed back home, looking forward to the finale in Paris. The Tour de France is apparently the third most watched sporting event in the world, after soccer World Cup and the Olympic. It certainly was a wonderful experience to see close up, and I’m sure it will not be our last.

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