france in a nutshell

the journey from paris to dijon was uneventful. we nearly got fined because we didnt fill in our eurail passes, but we feigned ignorance and he let us off. we go to dijon and found the camping grounds fairly easily. we set up camp (and by we i again mean jess) and set out to explore the town. if you've seen chocolat, thats exactly what it looked like. all the streets are cobble stone and they have old fashioned street lights. very cool. we had an ok night camping; the 'surprisingly good' inflatable mattresses were not so good as they wont stay inflated anymore. but the ground was 'surprisingly soft' so we survived. the next morning we got up and went for a ride. we got fresh pain au chocolats and a baguette from the campground and set off along the river. we rode aimlessly for a while before coming to a huge lake! it was awesome. we rode around it and found a 'beach' where there were kids playing. the water was a bit stagnant and the sand was red, but other than that it looked like any other beach.

this camp ground had a lot less bugs than the one in paris, so we weren't as diligent as we should have been. we were reading in the tent one night when it started thundering, so jess went to clean her teeth and then i went, and when i got back jess was standing out of the tent looking petrified. there was a huge grasshopper in the tent! the thunder was still going, so we were frantically trying to find something to catch the grasshopper with. 

jess ran to the nearest caravan to see if they had a container. she came back with the smallest tin can i have ever seen. 'well i'm not going in there to get it!' so, i had to be the hero and get the grasshopper. i cornered it, and put the can over it as quickly as i could. i had it! hooray! we weren't going to have to sleep outside tonight. 

then i realised it was on my leg! i screamed, threw the can across the tent and jumped outside. just as i got out it started pouring down. within 30 seconds we were soaked through. i looked at jess, and she shook her head. i sighed and bent back down, ready to get in the tent and we saw it on the bug screen. we screamed and ran around for a bit before flicking it off - OUT of the tent. we got back in and checked thoroughly for bugs and kept the bug screens closed for the rest of the time.

there were markets on in the main square of dijon on the weekend, and they were fun to look around. there was also jazz down at the beach on friday night, but we went to check that out and it was more heavy metallish than jazz... 

we got to lyon on sunday. it was quiet, and all the shops were closed. they were all closed on monday as well, which is good because we couldn't go shopping. we rode all along the river and found a communal feet dipping pool. i know it sounds gross, but the water was fresh and clean, and we saw two guys testing it on two different days. there was an awesome atmosphere and there were kids sliding and splashing in the water and families having picnics. we got some food from the supermarket and had a picnic there one night. 

we saw a mini eiffel tower in the distance, so we set off to find that. we found these ridiculously steep stairs leading up the main hill, so we left the bikes at the bottom and started climbing. we found all these cute little parks and quaint houses. it was crazy to think that people have to climb up those hills every day, or ride their scooters up them - and they were cobble stone. the view over lyon was awesome from the top - we could see all the french roof tops and chimneys. we never ended up finding the little eiffel tower though...

bordeaux was next on the agenda. our train got in at 11.45 and as we stepped off the train a thunderstorm started. just our luck. luckily we had booked a hotel close to the train station, and we didn't get lost! we spent most of our time in bordeaux riding around and along the river. the people were pretty rude, so we tried to avoid talking to anyone. there was another communal water feet dipping thing, and this was another favourite of ours for picnics. we had our first bottle of french red wine there, which was quite nice.

we got to montpellier on sunday. we stayed in a really nice part of town; there was a square that was always bustling with activity around the corner. at night there was restaurants, street performers and markets. its quite easy to get lost in montpellier. there are hundreds of little streets and alleys that lead on to new streets and alleys. we were going to go to the beach, but seeing as the the weather was a bit too overcast for our liking we stayed in town exploring all the streets. 

we're now in marseille, and its good to have a sea breeze. well, jess thinks so anyway (i didn't really notice...) we walked all around the harbour last night, turning our noses up at the restaurants and pretending that they werent good enough for us, even though we couldnt afford the bread there.. (prices were $40 - $70 for nearly everything!!) but we enjoyed being snooty before going around the corner to get $5 kebabs. 

today we went on an adventure to try and sell our bikes. we went looking for a bike shop, but couldnt find one anywhere! in every other city we've seen two or three, but none in marseille. when we eventually found one it was closed for the month of august. everyone goes on holidays here! we thought it was strange seeing as thats when they would do a lot of business, but each to their own. we ended up giving the bikes to a couple of guys working for the red cross. 

we're off to florence tomorrow, we have a huge day of travelling ahead. we're leaving marseille at 6am and getting to florence at 6pm. bring on italy!

there isnt heaps to add to anges account of our france experience. it has been nice, but we've definately spent enough time here. looking back, the best places have been lyon and montpellier. i liked lyon because we pent most of the time by the river in the feet dipping water thing, which was really nice. it was nice to see some families and nice people out and about too, because they all came down to have picnics. 

i liked montpellier, because is was different. a lot of the other places were the same as one another. montpellier had a really nice atmosphere and had a really nice layout. it was fun to explore all the little alleyways and gardens. 

its sad to say goodbye to the bikes, but they have really been a life saver in france. it meant we were able to see more of the towns we went to and also not have to walk past the people leering and spitting at you. buying the bikes is definately one of the best things we've done and i recommend it to everyone thinking about it. trying to get rid of them proved hard though, as ange said. we searched for hours for a store, but in the end i saw these people around our age who were trying to get donations for red cross, so i went up to one of the guys and asked if he wanted our bikes or if we could donate them or something, and i think he thought i was joking, but then i showed them to him and gave him the keys and he looked perplexed and like he might cry! so i'm glad that they've gone to good homes.

i am looking forward to italy so much. we're camping in three of the places, so that'll be nice and for the other places there's finally hostels!! we love hostels. mainly because they are a lot cheaper than hotels. and they have a kitchen. and i cant wait to cook some vegetables. i know. weird. but i am well and truly sick of bread!

ps... flickr hates us. i dont know why. i dont know how to fix it. but one day you will see the rest of our photos. 

paris part two

plane tickets over here: $2000

crepes at the eiffel tower:$25

coffee sitting outside:$9

getting mistaken for parisians not once, but 5 times: priceless!

(i dont know if this is more a compliment to us or an insult to the french... haha)

after our long sleep we got up and headed out for a much needed espresso before joining a walking tour at place de saint michel - across the other side of town. we rode like crazy and just made it! the walking tour was cool; i learnt a lot of stuff i didnt know before. such as the three different levels of the louvre were completed at different times. each king wanted to change and improve it. i asked the guide which kings did which levels and he couldnt tell me. i was a bit disappointed. whoever can tell me which king completed each level gets a present when i get home! i really want to know and dont have time to google it, what with gallavanting around europe and all! we also learnt that all the gardens are all square to 'dominate the plants' weird.

we went to the eiffel tower. its one of those things you have to do, really, isnt it? we got there at about 11 (after getting lost on the metro TWICE!! and then finding out a line was closed and taking this ridiculously long route that took an hour and a half longer than riding there!) and lined up for an hour. when we finally got to the front of the queue and got our tickets we were all hyped for the climb. by level one we were desperate for water, which i realised we'd left in the hotel room - i wondered why my bag felt so light! - oops. we climbed up the rest of the 700 steps to the second level. the view was awesome! we joined yet another queue to buy tickets to get to the top, and then lined up again to get in the elevators to get up there! they were the fastest elevators i've ever been in! im not the best with heights, but jess seemed to love it. the view from the top was fantastic! paris looks awesome from the sky. 

we joined yet another queue to get in the elevators to get down and 

then walked down the 700 stairs and felt we could justify a crepe for lunch...

we headed out to versailles in the afternoon to stand in another queue for an hour to get tickets to get in to the palace. the palace itself was fantastic. it was strange to be walking around a place that had so much history. we saw the room marie antoinette was in when the palace was attacked during the revolution, and the door she escaped through. we snuck on to a tour half way around the castle and then ran off when the guide realised that we werent meant to be there. we did learn a few interesting facts though! the garden was HUGE! we set off on a trek to find marie antoinettes hamlet, but they were closing the grounds early so we got kicked out. we tried to sneak past them by pretending not to understand french or english, but they seemed to know how to say "WE'RE  CLOSED! GET OUT!" in every single language. 

on sunday we went to watch the end of the tour de france. we left the bikes at the hotel and walked in, found a good spot on the rue rivoli at around 2pm and waited. and waited. and waited. our 'good spot' turned out to be not so good, as it was the only two metres on the whole street that was in the sun. yes, i had suncream on. no, jess didnt. yes, i got burnt, no, jess didnt. dont ask me how that works. jess reckons its the 1/8th italian she has in her blood. i reckon its false advertising on suncreams part. 

after about an hour there was a parade. that was very exciting. we saw lots of floats for haribo (our new favourite lollies) vittel (water) and even an australian one. at 4.30 there was another parade, but this time it was the offical cars and motorbikes, just before the riders. and then the riders came down the road in a big group, only one out in front. and we cheered and clapped, and they were gone. two and a half hours of waiting for half a second?? but no, they came around again. we were on the inside of the circuit so we saw them come around a few times and each time there was more and more space between the riders. how exciting! 

after that we went back to the hotel to pick up the bags before heading out to our new accomodation: camping. yes, i know, me and camping dont sound like we would go together. but im poor, and paris is quite expensive, so i was willing to give it a go. for one night, anyway. we got out to the campground alright, found a spot and pitched the tent. well, jess pitched it and i picked a fingernail. but i unrolled the self-inflating mattresses and pulled the sleeping bags out of their covers, so i think the workload was spread quite evenly. 

i slept well the first night, but if this trip has proven anything to us its that i can sleep through ANYTHING. jess was kept awake by some noisy germans putting up their tent at one am. so, i woke up cheery and ready to go to the louvre, and jess woke up ready to kill someone. i promised her a nutella crepe AFTER we saw the mona lisa, and she brightened up. when we got to the louvre it wasnt nearly as packed as i thought it was going to be. the ugly triangle (built to stop congestion at the entrances) was clearly doing its job. as we bought tickets there were two american girls next to us asking the cashier: "where are, like, the lines to get in? wheres the entrance?" we shook our heads and walked towards the entrance sign.

we pretended to be interested in the various paintings and sculptures as we walked through the halls, but really we were doing what everyone does in the first five minutes: hunting down the mona lisa. we did, and it wasn't as much of a hunt as we thought. the crowd around the painting was unbelievable! i pushed my way to the front to get a good photo and only got three bruises from the experience! next on the list was the venus de milo. we walked back through the paintings and sculptures and found it quite easily. we wandered around for a while and found the medieval louvre exhibit. that was cool; we went underground to see the original walls of the louvre. 

on monday we went to notre dame before heading up to montmarte to do another walking tour. we met out the front of the moulin rouge, which means red mill. every second shop was 'le moulin something' we saw the only original windmill left in montmarte.

 when the russians (or the prussians, the guy kept changing his story) invaded they knocked them all down, but one farmer stood up to them, so they strapped him to his windmill and let him spin to death. before they could knock it down they were driven out of france, and the farmer had the last laugh. well, you know what i mean. we saw where vincent van gogh lived. its just a regular apartment and somebody lives there now. we also saw his favourite restaurant-slash-brothel. its still a popular restaurant, but no longer a brothel. we saw a statue of the patron saint of paris: st denis. he came to preach christianity, so they cut off his head and he picked his head up and recited the gospel. everyone converted to christianity after that, and they named montemarte after him. it translates to the hill of the martyr. we also saw pablo picassos favourite restaurant, where he paid with his paintings when he was poor. the owner of the restaurant sold the paintings when picasso made it big and retired to the south of france. we also saw le sacre coeur - the church of the sacred heart. the church was breathtaking, and so were the views of paris. when we got back to the bottom of the hill we decided we had done enough excercise to warrant another nutella crepe.

it is safe to say that we wont be flying back to perth, we'll be rolling back. seriously. i've had enough crepes to last a lifetime. but they are so delicious that right after i swear i'll never have another one, we mysteriously walk past a crepe stand, and it smells so good and the crepe maker is standing there smiling saying 'would you like a delicious lovely crepe filled with delicious lovely goodness madmoiselle?'. how can i resist that?!

anyway, as you can see by everything ange has written thus far, we've had a good time in paris. i will say though, that it wasn't what i'd expected, and i was a little disappointed.. i think the real paris has been long washed away with the tides of tourists, who have consumed every little part of its charm and uniqueness. you cant go anywhere without someone trying to sell you something, or being jeered at or having people push past you like you don't exist. though the first morning we were there, when we were out and about before everyone woke up, it was breathtaking, and when we were riding out of the louvre gardens and caught a glimpse of the eiffel tower, it felt like a movie, you know, like an experience that isnt quite real, because its so beautiful. thats the paris you dream about.

our last day in paris turned out to be a really great day. we went pillow shopping, because neither of us could stand another night sleeping on rolled up clothes. we were succeessful after about an hour of trying to find a shop that resembled a pillow shop. what does a pillow shop look like?! i have no idea either. we then jumped back on our bikes and rode the streets to find a market that ange had read about.

we pulled up the the markets and saw that for the most part, it was closed. strangely, a lot of people shut up shop for the summer here. we found one little stand that was still open, and got a few slices of french cheese, as we had decided we were going to have a little french picnic by the river. we then went to a bakery and got a baguette and two beers, and rode down the the seine. we didnt have a picnic rug, but the pavement was pretty soft looking, so we sat down on the edge of the walkway, like many others already had, and had a really nice dinner of cheese, bread and beer. perfect. there were lots of people who had come down after work with their friends and a bottle of nice wine and a hamper and having little french picnics like us. it had a nice atmosphere. lots of ferry boats were passing with heaps of people on them, and i even got ange into waving at them, because i recon it makes people happier when they wave, so we sat there for a while and waved at the passing boats. 

after a while, we wandered down the walkway and found all these little semi-circle alcove things were people could sit around an area overlooking the river. a lot like an open air auditorium or something. it was then we realised the time, and it just so happened to be the place that the swing dancing was going to be on that night! we saw some guys setting up some speakers and so we sat on the steps and waited. then they started playing classical music and doing classical dancing, so we guesed we were in the wrong spot. we moved into the next semi-circle and suddenly ella singing 'frim fram sauce' wafted past our ears. woohoo! we got up and started dancing and it was awesome. theres nothing like dancing outdoors on a barmy evening with a bunch of nice people. just like at kristian and jennas wedding. it was great. we stayed a lot longer than we'd planned, and it ended up getting dark and the ferrys going past had spot lights on them and all the people on the ferrys were pointing and waving at all of us dancing. we retired back to the campsite feeling buzzed from dancing and laughing and waving and to top it off, we had pillows!

paris part one

ok, so as of a week or so ago, our trip has taken new path. as you read in the previous post, we've bought bikes, saddle bags, a tent and some (surprisingly good) blow up mattresses. we've planned to do some camping in between hostels and the like, because it is very very expensive to stay in france and italy as there aren't many hostels (in france mainly) so you have to book a hotel. for example, the hotel we booked in paris cost €60 a night, and the camp ground in paris cost us €60 for four nights! so camping is the way to go. before ange tell you how its all going in france, i must tell you the story of how we got to paris.

so we got our tickets from the lady who didn't have a clue what we were saying, so we were hoping that we had the right ones. all in all we had about 10 separate tickets, some to put on our bikes for each trip and some for us. to get from berlin to paris, we had to take this route: berlin to kassel hoff, kassel hoff to kosch, kosch to paris. it takes four hours to get from berlin to kassel hoff, four hours to get to kassel hoff to kosh, a six hour wait in the station and 6 hours to get from kosch to paris. it was going to be bout 20 hours travel time. we could get back home in nearly that time! so we psyched ourselves up for a long trip with little sleep.

we were to get the first train at 10:30am, so we got up in enough time to get to the station. it took a lot longer to walk there than we thought, so we were really pushing the time when we arrived. i then realised that i'd left our awesome lock for the bikes at kelly and prues, and we didnt have enought time to go and get it, so ange ran off trying to find a lock because we weren't sure what to expect security wise on the trains. the only problem was that it was 10:20 when she left, therefore right on 10:30 when she got back. we had no luck with getting a lock, and ange was starting to get quite stressed.. i could tell by the panicked look and the slight twitch in her left eye.. we went into commando mode and flew through the station to find the train. we were the last ones left on the platform, and they were yelling at us to get on. only we had no idea where to put our bikes, so we went up to a conductor looking man and showed him our tickets and he said to go to the other end of the train "shnell!" which means quick! so we raced down there and were confronted by a scary short lady who wasn't pleased that we were running late. she asked for our tickets, and ange opened the ticket folder she was holding and we both just about vomited when we saw there were no tickets. this of course was impossible because we'd just shown them to the man a second ago! we looked back and saw one lone ticket on the platform, and summised that they had fallen out our in our mad dash. ange ran back to get the ticket and look for the others while i tried to reason with the scary lady. ange came back with the one ticket and the lady just yelled at us to get on the train. so ange tried to get her bike up the stairs, but got stuck. everything then caught up with her, and she burst into tears half hanging out of the train. in seeing this i tried to help get the bike on the train while still trying to explain that the tickets were there a moment ago. the train driver then came out of his cabin next door and started to help pull the bike on, and then ange accidentally dropped her big bag off the train. the only problem was that she dropped her bag right on top of the scary short lady. so at this moment, i'm picking up anges bag off the platform, apologising, the lady is fixing her glasses and looking disgusted, ange is having a breakdown on the train, and the driver is standing there, holding the bike, looking like he wished he was anywhere but there. so we finally got everything on the train, but we still had the problem of having no tickets. i tried to speak german, but all i know is "nein, das ist mein hamburger!" which wasnt going to help us.

when she saw ange crying, the lady softened a little, and wasnt yelling at us anymore. she told us to go and sit down, and thankfully we had our eurail tickets which helped. she still wanted our other tickets though. she then left to do her rounds, and we were given some breathing space. ange had calmed down, and i was freaking out that we had no tickets for the whole trip and how were we going to communicate this to the ticket inspectors and why should they believe us? then about an hour in, the lady simply walked past, and handed ange a wad of paper. now it was my turn to get a tad teary as we realised that it was our tickets! the man that we had asked at the start had seen us drop them and taken them onto the train. geez! we went and found the scary lady who wasnt so scary anymore, and gave her one of the little koala bears that we bought with us. she was very chuffed. it was nice that we could communicate to say thankyou even though we couldn't speak each other's language.

the rest of the trip through the various stops in germany was, thankfully, very uneventful. the 6 hour wait from 7pm till 1am was a killer, but we survived. about half an hour till our train was leaving, we thought we'd be smart and get on the train early. when we got up there we realised that everyone had had this idea, and the train was chock-a-block. to make matters worse, it was a gross smelly train, and you had to go in cabins with other people who had all taken their shoes off! we opened door after door on sleeping people to try and find a seat, because our designated seats were being slept on by someone who refused to get off and slammed the door on us. the only cabin we could find that had room had one man in it, so we asked if we could sit there, he said yes and we walked in. big mistake. it smelled so bad, which was possibly his feet, and to top it off, he was smoking inside the cabin, which was tiny. when you've been travelling for a very long time with no sleep, its easy to get irritated by little things..

six hours later, we arrived in paris...

... and walked out of the train station looking super excited (well, as excited as one can look after a crappy overnight train) only to be spat at by a creepy man. lovely. we walked down the street and found our hotel. i walked in and asked if we could leave our bags there until check in time. the desk man was quite rude until i produced our booking sheet, at which point he decided he was my best friend. we left our bags there and set off with the map i stole from the tour guide from the start of our trip. we rode down a few random streets and found a patisserie. we couldnt resist the delicious looking pain au chocolats, so we asked (in our best attempt at french) for some, and the lady seemed to understand us. woohoo! we continued riding and ended up at the louvre. it was awesome. picture this: riding from the seine through the gates and seeing the sun hit the louvre (and the random glass triangle) and its all shiny AND there was NO ONE around! it was 8 oclock and the louvre opens at 9, so we missed the tourists.

but, we didnt miss the traffic. after we'd walked our bikes through les jardins tuleries we found ourselves smack bang in peak hour traffic on the Champs-Élysées. it seemed like like a nice easy ride from the bottom, but when we got to the top and looked down our jaws hit the road. we'de ridden two kilometres up a cobblestone street that was packed with cars. it was one of the most scary moments of my life! we took photos of the arc de triomphe before setting off in search of the eiffel tower. we could see the top, we just needed to find a way there. we turned a corner and bam! there it was. we were on the opposite side of the seine, overlooking the eiffel tower and paris. we got delicious overpriced pretend-nutella crepes and coffee with cream in it (CREAM!?!?!?!?) and sat down to breakfast number two watching paris wake up. there were a few early rising tourists about, but not enough to distract the men selling little eiffel towers (you buy, you buy, three for one euro - special price, just for you!) and every single one tried to sell us them. i was happy to pretend i didnt speak french OR english and enjoy the crepe and the view, but jess got more and more angry. which, in turn resulted in them trying to provoke her more. hilarious, from my angle, but dont tell jess i said that.

we rode to st germain de-pres to check out the shopping and it was there we had our first ham and cheese crepes. that was the turning point where we knew that we would eat nothing else in paris. until, for lunch number two jess, had yet another crepe, this time with REAL nutella. uh oh. this was swedish soft-serve all over again! every morning for the rest of paris there was no "good morning, ange!" but "WAKE UP! lets go get crepes!"

at 2pm we rode back to the hotel and crashed. we slept for 24 hours straight! no more overnight trains for us! we woke up refereshed and eager to explore paris some more...

... but its getting late so we'll tell you about that next time!