Borderline

Abbévillers, Jura

23 September

Yesterday I went from France to Switzerland to France several times. I even walked along the border and came upon boundary-markers, from different times. There are many dated 1788, with a bear on one side and a fleur-de-lys on the other, perhaps separating the Canton of Bern from France. The other main dates found are 1817, after the Napoleanic wars and 1919, after WW1, with RP (République Française) on one side and CS (Confédération Suisse) on the other. All in the course of a little afternoon randonnée, when you are 2km from the Swiss border.

The previous day we didn’t get as far as Switzerland but it was 100 metres or so above us when we were at the Source of the Doue river, not to be confused with the Doubs, which is pronounced the same. Jo, the husband of my friend Laurence, is involved with a community project to restore the old mill house and mill wheel in this very pretty site, and to make an educational feature, probably about the use of water, in the restored buildings.

Jo and Laurence live at 600 metres, so a little walk is pretty picturesque. This a cow-bell country as well - wherever you walk you will hear the clang clang of bells. There are even clanging cows in a paddock over the road. It was good to be there in warm weather, with flowers out all over the place and a sunshade over the outside table for the midday meal. I have always been here mid-winter before, with snow all around.

This time we walked along the paths that are usually followed in snow shoes or cross-country skis. Over paddocks with thick grass (excellent when covered with snow) and also through leafy forests, which are very picturesque when snow-laden. Our goal was a meteorological station, which you can see from their house. We made it! (We drove up to Roche d’Or first, which is where in 1990 we all had tremendous fun with sleds.) Note the very cunning stile, with a lift-up piece so you don’t have so far to climb over.

I enjoy the way their house is so well-designed and built for their needs in a mountainous climate. Jo designed it himself, with plenty of storage for food and drink, a workshop, laundry of large dimensions, almost like a downstairs kitchen, a separate cellar for fruit, veges and wine, a drying room, and plenty of room to put ‘stuff’. from skis to boots to sleds to summer furniture, pingpong table and snow-clearing gear! And that is just the basement. The upper stories are incredibly well-insulated, with thick layers of different insulation material. Well ventilated where required. There’s an attic area as well, also for ‘stuff’, often that of their children, now away from home but visiting with grandchildren. Impressive garden, especially when you consider the climate, and Jo built the garden shed himself.

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Jura

Musée du Quai Branly

Quai Branly, Paris

20 September

Imagine walking along a wide path beside the Seine, towards the Eiffel Tower, with the river and the Bateaux Mouches on your right and all manner of upright, squared, official buildings, with or without the French flag, across the road to your left. Quite normal. Imagine now, that the buildings disappear, to be replaced by a thick glass fence, metres and metres high and long, long, long, behind which grasses, ferns and other relatively non-Parisian growth flourish on little hillocks - well, it’s not flat, anyway. Oh and look! Above the gardens, on piles, is a building. Long, dark, not square and with an interesting system of pseudo-shutters to tame the light. Not as complex as those of the Musée du Monde Arabe but effective enough when you are inside.

The feeling is that the designer of this new museum (Jean Nouvel, who once had an exhibition in his honour in Wellington) wants to takes us right out of our habitual world and place us somewhere quite different. The grasses and ferns have curving paths, paths which lead you past the café, past the shop, into the building, past the metal-detectors and their personnel, into a new space, from where you will choose whether to enter the collections or go to the theatre, cinema or a workshop.

Let us choose the collections. Another curving path will take us up and away. Transparencies accompany us, perhaps some of the peoples we will be relating to, or some thoughts, or we may even have to walk through waves projected onto the floor. Now that IS a rather weird feeling. Not a straight line to be seen, not even in the hand-rail. And the light changes. We enter what is almost a tunnel, but actually just a corridor with subdued lighting. We come into the light, not bright, just brighter than dim and find ourselves still in a land removed from the everyday. The walls that delineate the sections are much more akin to an earth bank than a wall as we know it. Collections start here.

The first section (the visit has a direction) is Oceania, and for the Antipodean, this is probably the most interesting. The number of museums from all over the world that contributed to these collections is stunning and the variety of exhibits far wider than we are used to seeing. Starting with New Guinea and a number of exhibits from various ‘men’s houses’, we wend our way through a large number of other Pacific islands and other significant rituals or possessions, including a cloak and tiki (and other items) from NZ and some large paintings of Dreamings from Australia.

Not just glass-encased exhibits, either. There are lots of little screens where you can watch videos or a sort of power-point projection related to the culture. There are some innovative technologies too, like a hemispherical model of the Pacific with, for example, simulations of the sea currents and winds of the Pacific. Later on you can follow the voyages of the early Pacific explorers from France and England particularly, on the same ‘screen’. That is actually a hopeless description. Suggest you just go and see it. There are 16 sections to the sequence so it takes quite a while but I found it fascinating.

Asia has its own section, as do Africa and the Americas, north and south. There is also a mammoth collection of musical instruments, and a raised multi-media section with all the videos from ‘down below’ plus large-screen programmes on language and languages and some sociological aspects. In terms of language, a lot of what I learnt 35 years ago specialising in linguistics, about sounds, grammar, word order etc is here presented clearly and interactively for everyone. Alex and I had fun relating seven mostly-unknown languages we heard to their name and the area they came from. We did well, too. Mention bien, I would say.

Because of the Rugby World Cup there are many special events about the participating countries and the roof has been made into a rugby field. I didn’t see it but there are photos. On the TV news I saw a short film of the haka being taught to a large class of enthusiasts. The bookshop is specialising in books about rugby and the windows have displays of several rugby players, including a New Zealander but my photo isn’t very good. There are two big ‘photos’ (digital images, anyway) relating to rugby or Maoridom – La bataille des nobles sauvages by Greg Semu, who was artist-in-residence over the summer, and All Blacks liés par le sang, 4 metres long, presented by the All Blacks to the museum in November 2006 to mark the centenary of the first All Black-France test match. Let us leave aside the blood and DNA of the players being incorporated in the varnish. It has been nicely sterilised and presents no risk to the viewer…

Anything that really stands out? Yes, and I couldn’t find it again to show Alex later in the day! A garment, a kind of coat, made out of salmon skins, treated in some manner. It was just beautiful, a light blue, and you really had to look hard to see the fishy origin. I looked for it in Americas but I guess it must be in Asia. Oh well. Next time perhaps. No photos allowed inside at all. But there are some of the outside.

Photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/QuaiBranly

A castle on the Loir

Chateaudun

17 September

The plains of Beauce are vast and fertile. Once you get out of Paris heading for Orléans, this is what you see. Well-known for wheat, the plain also has other crops and there is a huge field of sunflowers just down the road, at this end of the plains, ready for whatever you do to sunflowers at the end of summer. The cathedral of Chartres is usually most associated with la plaine de Beauce but Madeleine (of Beaugency, on the Loire) and I ventured north to discover a lesser-known castle (actually on the river Loir - no e), at Chateaudun. This is another small town which has preserved a number of the older houses for the benefit of the tourist industry.

Madeleine, who lives scarcely 30 km away, had not been to Chateaudun before and was delighted with what she met there. Dun is an old word for fortress and we have here a 12^th century round tower which is very fortressy. The word led to the family name Dunois, so Chateaudun is the castle of the Dunois family. Jean Dunois was the faithful companion of Joan of Arc – remember it is quite close to Orléans here. This guy, born 1402, fought the English from the age of 15 and had honours heaped upon him, as well as being educated and cultivated, or so we are told.

There is a lot to see here, for a small castle. Medieval, Gothic and Renaissance. The basement kitchens have huge chimneys right across the width of the (vaulted) rooms and there are displays about spices and menus, which make it all the more interesting. There is a spacious chapel, dating from the 15^th century, with remarkably well-preserved statues of saints. The 15^th century wing shows us a pretty comfortable place to live, with tapestries (from Brussels, Paris and Amiens) on the walls, lovely windows with lots of choice with the interior shutters, and a selection of trunks, mostly 16^th century. Ornate staircases, from different eras, are a feature. And there’s a medieval garden too, very fashionable at the present time.

The older houses on the tourist circuit are mostly still lived in, though some have notices on the door preventing people from occupying them until they have been repaired. The castle stands high above the river and there is an upper town and lower town, at least nowadays. Reminiscent of Angers but smaller. The touristy bits are on the castle side of town. As I said before, for a small castle there is a lot to see. Glad we went.

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Chateaudun

La vie est belle

Avrieux

7 – 12 September

Avrieux is a little village situated somewhere around 1100m in the Maurienne valley, 6km from Modane. This is called ‘sauvage’ by the locals but is still pretty developed in our terms. There I was, quite high above the valley, after walking for a couple of hours, and what do I see but a flag saying Welcome! Not only could I have had a beer there but a fantastic choice of meals and even stay in the dormitory for a reasonable price as well. (Fort Marie-Christine). It would be fair to admit that although I had got there the hard way, there was a road leading almost right to the restaurant. But still. Pity I was so well equipped. I bought a couple of postcards in compensation.

The views in all directions are just amazing and the walk had the added-value of 5 forts covering the entry to the valley, and a new explanatory museum on the route. The Forts of Esseillon. Not Vauban, either. These were for artillery beyond Vauban, quite a lot later (early 19^th century) but also used in 1939-1945. On the Aussois side of the forts, plenty of ski-lifts in view but we are still at the end of summer. Shame I wasn’t here before the end of August, as I could have taken some of the big lifts up really high but they are July-August only in the summer and we are now September.

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/TheForts

La Norma is a ski and summer resort in the opposite direction. Completely closed now (early September) except for some workmen but the summer tracks are still usable and I managed to get up to 2000 metres where to my absolute surprise the restaurant was open. (Yes, there is a road…) This time I did have a beer, even if I didn’t need it (too well prepared again) and chatted to the young guy there (25), who after working 8 years at McDonalds bought the restaurant with a friend. With 3,000 gondola trips an hour, and more people passing by on the double chair, they have good patronage. He wants to come to NZ (land of Lord of the Rings) after the next ski season. He will not need to work. To go down I took the road, as in the ski season, it is not a road at all but a long ski trail. In fact, as a road, it cannot be relied upon after mid-October. I passed ski-lifts of various sorts and also ski trails which by-pass the road. I don’t recommend 10km of road-walking for the hips or legs though. It was a relief to get back into my forest track for the last hour or so.

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/LaNorma

After two 8-hour walks, Sunday was deemed to be a day of rest and I strolled around the village, up to a waterfall and the chapel of St Benoit. And down to the river and the chapel of St Roch, which looks like a garage used for storage. There are 6 chapels in this area! Most very small and with special reasons for existing, for example to protect against the plague (which was rife here for over two centuries), avalanches, floods, crop failure and even sore throats. However, it was an English family who, for unknown reasons, founded the church of Saint Thomas-Beckett in 1214. Nowadays people come to see the baroque reconstruction of the 17^th century, which is fairly overwhelming but amazing in such a small place. The chapel of Notre-Dame des Neiges is also in the village itself, not 500 metres from the church. Also worth seeing, it seems, but locked due to theft.

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Avrieux

My last big walk, also about 8 hours but much more leisurely, took me up to 2906 metres, to Lac du Génépy. I was absolutely elated, not just to get there but to find a family of marmots fairly near the top and an ibex (small horns, must be female?) nibbling what it could find on the terrain near the lake. On the way I had a cup of hot chocolate at the 2344m Refuge du Fond D’Aussois (because I could…) then was shouted a beer to eat with my (homemade) lunch at the Refuge du Dent Parrachée (2511 metres) by a fellow walker. On the way down from the lake I met up with two more walkers who offered to take me back to my village if I stayed with them. This would save me two hours and I was pleased to have the company. They had stayed the night at the Dent Parrachée and stopped off there to collect their things, have a drink and a chocolate crepe with cream. What else could I do? Delicious, fabulous view, lovely weather…

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Aussois

I totally recommend where I stayed (La Grange, Avrieux). Nathalie was very accommodating and it was she who took me from and to Modane and drove me to the starting point of my walk, the two hydro dams, at about 2000 metres. The restaurant down the road (La Cascade) also saw me twice. They have an astonishingly good menu for very reasonable prices. The prices for meals at the refuges are totally reasonable, just for the record.

Seen from everywhere I climbed is ONERA. Warwick, this will probably interest you. Modane and the valley were heavily bombed during the war and the government saved the area from a pretty dire economic situation by creating an aeronautic research centre here (later renamed aerospatial). In 1950, the turbine for the biggest wind-tunnel in the world started turning, driven by water that comes hurtling down the mountainside from a great height. Plans for dams had to be enlarged. All good employment for an area devastated by the war. Now there are 4 wind tunnels (Mach 0.15 to Mach 12 – NASA uses these ones) and a massive amount of water in various dams linked to each other to provide water for ONERA’s turbines in any situation.

However, over time, came the closure of other industries, no longer needed. And ONERA was not taking on more people. An exodus began. La Norma was established in January 1972 to provide employment for locals and stop this exodus, to bring the villages back to life. Two communes, with revenue from hydro-electricity were able to finance almost all of the development and the first guys to start to set it up (mayors who worked at ONERA) did all the groundwork after they finished work.

For the skiers among you - La Norma is a family field (5000 beds), reasonably priced, limited compared with the big ski stations but still pretty extensive: 700 hectares from 1350m to 2750m, 65km of tracks, 17 lifts of various sorts, one of which is a gondola. The big bonus is that from La Norma there are shuttles (supplement payable 6€) which allow you to go to 3 other stations, either up or down the valley or over to the other side of the mountains, to the Val Thorens valley (gondola takes you there in 20 minutes from the base at Orelle). Val Thorens also links to the Trois Vallées for the ultimate in skiable area (domaine skiable) www.la-norma.com There are 24 ski stations in this valley of 120 km, all relatively small compared with the biggies. Which are enormous.

Modane is not very big or very interesting but it is where the train leaves from and I spent a night there. There is an interesting and free display of the Lyon-Turin high-speed train link which by 2020 will take 4000 trucks a day out of the Maurienne Valley and put them onto trains. Not to mention passengers. From this valley a mighty tunnel (53km) is going to be put through to Italy. This is not the only tunnel but is far and away the most impressive. All this is part of an eventual east-west link from Lisbon to Budapest and later Kiev and also a north-south link from London and Amsterdam to Naples. I didn’t know about any of it before, although I did see on TV the other night a new (the second or third) truck-train which links Luxembourg with Perpignan. The train cars take the whole truck.

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Modane

For me, the high level walks and the fantastic views, the refuges, the alpine grass and the animals were all just wonderful. La vie est belle.

The beguinage

Hoogstraten

The Beguinage at Hoogstraten is one of 13 protected by Unesco and one of 26 left in Belgium. There used to be some in what is now the French side of Flanders and also in the Netherlands but there is little left of most of these. This Beguinage was also in a bad state until the early 90s, when some townspeople decided to restore what was left of this cultural heritage and made it happen. The houses are now in an excellent condition and lived in, while a couple have been made into a museum. The director of the museum is a friend of Joëlle’s and explained many things to us.

For example, there used to be beguinages all over France but the king (or pope?) didn’t like the idea of independent women living their lives with no rules and ordered that they cease to exist. Unfortunately Belgium was a little too far north for the orders to be executed and a surprising number survived. The big one in Brussels ( about 1300 women, 3% of the population at its height) was built in the 13^th century but unfortunately totally demolished by the Calvinists during the wars of religion. The women worked during the day, supporting themselves in the drapery/tapestry industry.

The Beguinage was simply a community of single women in medieval times, who wanted to be economically and physically free, free to work and contribute in their own way. Women had separate apartments joined into a long row, though there were often two bedrooms, so people would in fact share facilities, such as they were and rent for a room would be paid. Usually there was some common land in front of the rows of houses and often a vegetable garden at the back. Here there is also a small house or a large shed at the back, used for drying turf for the fire.

In this beguinage there was a convent attached, but unlike other convents, the beguinage convent allocated a large cupboard to each woman, who looked after her individual needs, including the preparation of food. That is, each nun led an independent existence.

The beguinage would have some sort of church attached, as life independent of the church was mot really conceivable at this point in history, and as numbers grew, the church might have to be rebuilt, as at Hoogstraten.

As society has changed it has become possible for women to live self-supporting lives free from male domination in other ways but for centuries this system was the only alternative to marriage or a convent, at least in this society. It’s good to be reminded.

At Hoogstraaten there was also an interesting exhibition on other communities, even that of Robert Owen in Scotland, New Larnark. All good food for thought.

Photos :

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Hoogstraten

The good news places

Ghent

Ghent was inscribed on my memory at primary school, with the fast-moving poem “How they brought the good news from Ghent to Aix”, so it is no surprise that once within visiting distance of this famous city I should want to go there.

Ghent is a mixture of the old and the new. Houses dating back to the 14^th century, reached by modern trams. Or a horse-drawn cab if that is your taste. Modern restorations have followed the designs of old, such as the newly-restored Corn Quay, which has once more close access to the water. This was so important to the prosperity of Ghent. Some of the canals of old were filled in long ago, but you can still see signs of the past. Water was the life-blood of the city, ensuring the transport of goods. Luxury woollen cloth (made from imported English wool) brought prosperity in the 13^th to 15^th century. The guild houses along the quays, which seem to be 13^th-18^th century may appear to reflect a power and prosperity in the hands of both merchants and artisans but in fact there was a continual struggle for power between the bourgeoisie, the small craftsmen (middle-class) and the workers in the textile sector. Greatly simplifying the historical facts, the labour movement and Belgian socialism have origins which go back 7 centuries, based in Ghent, but there have been many ups and downs, crises and sidetracks over this time.

There are places from which you can see the towers of three churches at once. (Or maybe two churches and a belltower, the latter used to regulate the lives of the citizens both time-wise and notification of danger or celebration.) There is a dragon right on the top – they are up to the third dragon now. The other two are in the belltower which I climbed, partly to see the view and partly to see the carillon. Bonus: a fascinating film on the making of brass bells (2006). It would appear there is still a good market for such items.

I visited the cathedral of St Bavon to see a famous set of altar paintings from 1426-1432, which contains a first foray into perspective in art. In addition it has most amazing detail in all its many diverse parts, from the people in the pictures to the draping of the clothing.

The Chateau of the Comtes has been massively restored over the last century and more but they have retained quite a lot of the original and I was pleased to see a panel of the fish-bone pattern in stone that I had seen and photographed at Hautpoul (12^th century. I think.) It is now a museum for medieval weapons (interesting) and instruments of torture (frightening).

Wandering through the streets of Ghent is absolutely fascinating. You just never know what you will see around the next corner – a glimpse of the canal or the river, a very old house, perhaps made into a restaurant, a more modern (say 18^th century) building, which combines styles of the past to make its own statement. The view of the restored Corn Quay has a couple of modern additions which bring us nicely into the present. The old Butchers’Hall (15^th century), which brought all the butchers under one roof so that the quality of the meat could be controlled, is now a restaurant where you can try the regional dishes at a reasonable price.

Travelling to and from Ghent from Antwerp was an experience in its own right. There are no tolls on Belgian motorways and trucks from all over Europe use this route, to the extent that the right-hand lanes of the many motorways seem to be a constant stream of trucks, from The Netherlands, Poland, England, Germany, Spain, Romania and France for example. I found it pretty overwhelming. In addition, there is no way at present that the Belgian government can recoup the losses from the destruction of the road surfaces. So it is a total win for the trucks.

Anyway, that’s Ghent for the day. And it didn’t rain!

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Ghent

Leuven

Of course, I had to go to Leuven. For the uninitiated, Leuven is our Wellington Belgium café so naturally the real thing was on my visiting list.

Leuven is partly a student town and in summer the students aren’t there. But it has a stunner of a town hall whatever the season, and a mixture of other interesting architecture - large, such as the cathedral and the university library, and smaller, as in the individual houses and buildings.

There are several streets of shops, which I wandered in at my leisure. And sat in the sun, or at least the warmth, as it had been raining all morning in Antwerp. And the trucks on the 10 lane motorway were still fairly overwhelming!

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Leuven

Flanders

Well Antwerp really

19–28 August

Belgium is bikes. At least Flanders is bikes. And bike lanes. And bike paths everywhere. And priority to the cyclist, even if not enshrined in law.

There are bikes for Mums and Dads with one or two children’s seats attached, bikes of all sizes for kids, bikes with a drawbar and a little chariot attached for one or two children, bikes with a drawbar that has half a bike for a small person who pedals but does not steer, or as an alternative to the latter, a kind of clamp that will attach the front wheel of any kid’s bike, lifting it off the ground, so that again the child pedals but does not steer. There are bikes with big baskets for delivering goods, with smaller baskets for carrying goods and all manner of saddlebags – diverse sizes, colours and styles. Families bike, young people bike, middle-aged people bike, elderly people bike. You can park and ride (places to leave your bike near some tramstops) and take your bike on the train. The bike I watched unfold on yesterday’s train was small, with both wheels folding out, or in, depending on whether you want to use it or pack it up.

Flanders is flat, too. That probably needs to be said about here.

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Bikes Belgium

Flanders is also art. The Antwerp art gallery (Musée des Beaux Arts) at present has a section displaying works from the Amsterdam art gallery, while it undergoes renovation, so there is an abundance of great art in the city. Rubens’ house has its own display. There is a special collection in the Meyer van den Bergh Museum, which was built to house his collection after he died. Any ‘Patrician’s house’ that you visit will also have an art collection on the walls. The Rockox House is another example. Not that I took photos of the art. There is just too much.

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/RubensAndRockoxHouses101628277989220379025/

The Plantin-Moretus museum is even more special, as it is a Patrician House with all the art, tapestries, busts and portraits (by Rubens…) you would expect but in addition has loads and loads of things still left from the days when the rest of the building was a printers. (Plantin was a printer and publisher.) Unesco World Heritage: This complex is the only printers and publishers from the second half of the 16^th century, complete with fully-furnished residence, equipment, company archives and library, to have been preserved anywhere in the world. If you are interested in printing (or have read The Queen’s Fool), this is a place to put on your visiting list. Next time I would take more photos and have a better camera. Outstanding.

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Plantin

English is widely understood here in Flanders and you would choose it over French to communicate, for cultural reasons. With my German and English I can understand the gist of a lot of the Flemish, but the details escape me, so the names and explanations on artworks or in museums are a bit of a trial. In a more practical situation, I actually put away my tray in a self-service restaurant as I couldn’t work out the details of what was on offer for what price, and I couldn’t see how the salads worked (small plate, large plate – not obvious at all). And anyway, I remembered I had promised myself chips from Number 1 Frituur, recommended to me by several people. A reminder of how our students feel when their knowledge is till pretty basic. You can see some Flemish in the Rive Gauche album.

The cities are all very close together, easily accessible by train or motorway. There are two motorways linking Antwerp and Brussels, for example, and Joëlle and I went to Brussels from Antwerp twice for social reasons. Once to meet friends for a drink and a meal out and again to see the exhibition on Leonardo Da Vinci and go to the movies (Jindabyne!). Movies in Belgium are screened in the original language with subtitles, whereas in France they tend to be dubbed. We also went to Leuven, where Joëlle works part-time, Ghent – as tourists, and to a town called Hoogstraten to visit a friend and the Beguinage.

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Antwerp

Flanders has more cows than I have seen for a while. In between the cities there is plenty of green grass and cows are the most likely inhabitants. They live outdoors at this time of the year but the farms all have big barns to house the animals once the weather gets colder. There are also market gardens and greenhouses, so at least some of the food consumed is grown here, despite the profusion of trucks on the road.

Like Shanghai, Antwerp has both an elevated walk along side the river and a pedestrian accessway under the river. The one in Antwerp dates from the 30s as far as I could gather and remains in good repair while keeping the feeling of its decade. There are two very long escalators leading down to the tunnel itself, escalators that the keen can carry their bikes up on if they don’t feel like waiting for the lift, spacious as it may be. Once up and out on the other side, there is a whole new world awaiting you. Spacious and modern, a mixture of social housing and separate houses (or more often two houses joined together.) Lots of green, even a beach, from where you have a fine view of the petro-chemical installations in the port of Antwerp. This is not to distract from the attractiveness of the beach and there is a row of summer cafes lining the area behind it. Oh, and very pretty little buildings for stabling your bike for the day at the tram stop.

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/RiveGauche

I’m nearly finished. Just need to mention the bird-market and the zoo. The bird-market sells birds. Ha! But not just birds, also rabbits, dogs and one or two other living things, plus everything else you have ever seen at a market, including new bicycles. And cleaning materials. Lots of them. Plants. Flowers. Antiques and junk. Food. Sundays. Then you can waddle down to Rubens’ house (not far) and see if you can catch some musicians performing in the area.

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/BirdMarket

The zoo. Yes. In the middle of the city. Right next to the rather magnificent Railway Station. If you actually want to know much about it, go to Wikipedia and look up Antwerp Zoo. Otherwise you can just check out the photos. I have to say I spent nearly all day there. I’ve never seen so many elephants! I hadn’t seen an okapi before either. Or a large hairy spider that looked like you could pat him, except that he was in a cage. Glass cage. Even a kangaroo and kookaburra. Penguins in a refrigerated area. Actually, the display areas are often really well done. Wellington has space, but Antwerp can offer a zoo visit on a cold winter’s day because there are many animals with inside-outside dwellings. Sometimes tropically-heated dwellings. And we get to see them preparing the food for the monkeys, and looking after small things and hatched things. The day I was there a guy with a leather glove was training a falcon. Shades of Puy du Fou. Anyway, if you don’t like zoos and cages, don’t go there. But I really had my eyes opened to new (for me) animals, and the surroundings are very pretty.

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/AntwerpZoo

Stepping back into history

Moingt, Montbrison

15-18 August

Paul, whom Chris has known since he was 8, and me since I was about 25, was there at the station to meet us when we arrived at St Etienne from Lyon. Taking the train to St Etienne instead of Montbrison opened up a world of extra possibilities and I am grateful to Paul for suggesting this.

Over the next few days Paul, Helen, Chris and I explored pockets of the region – countryside, churches and monasteries, the parents of a friend in Wellington, the charming little village of Lay where Mother Aubert was born – and had Nouska to give attention to between times.

Our first walk was in the summer pastures for the sheep. Sheep are brought up to these higher fields and looked after for the summer before being taken back to, perhaps, somewhere much further south where the summer is very hot and there is no feed. There is a lovely sign of a sheep telling walkers how afraid of dogs she is and asking people to please shut the gates as she might run away.

Relatively close by is the Romanesque church of Champdieu, 12-13^th century, built for a community of monks and fortified during the 100 years war. Quite unusual to see fortified towers. And a lot of the monastery buildings are also well preserved, so a very interesting place to visit.

Another interestingly preserved priory is at Montverdun, on a rocky outcrop above the plain. There are bits and pieces here from 12^th to 15^th century. It is quite something to be in the presence of buildings where people have lived for many centuries and which continues to be used. There is quite a good view over the plain of Forez, too (in the photos). And a view back to Montverdun from the other side but you will need to zoom in on the centre of the photo to see it.

Still on the stepping-back-into-history side, are the Benedictine Abbey and the Franciscan convent (Couvent des Cordeliers) at Charlieu. The abbey is 9^th to 12^th century (Romanesque) with Gothic additions 15^th century. The convent on the other hand was originally built in 1280 but destroyed rebuilt, sold after the revolution, restored, as is the history of so many religious institutions here. It has an interesting church with murals and a wooden roof, and a fine cloister. Inside the abbey is a really interesting display on life in a monastery.

Our trip to Lay, quite a bit to the north, was great, with fine weather to help us along. In the Mairie of Lay itself, the mayor has a soft-spot for New Zealand, as his son was looked after by a New Zealand family when he did a language year in England maybe 20 years ago. They are still in touch and he gets a present of NZ wine every year!

All the photos I took of Lay are in a separate album as those that want to see the photos will probably want to see them all. For those of you not familiar with Mother Aubert, seeing the house she was born in will not mean much, so just leave them out.

Photos at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Montbrison

and

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Lay

Towers and tapestries

Angers

14 August

Just an overnight stop at Angers, as Chris wanted me to see the tapestry in the castle. Romain found us a list of hotels, I made a phone call, and voilà, there we were a few days later, right opposite the castle, with a splendid view of a couple of the towers. Sometimes you fall on your feet.

Most of the day was spent in the castle, both inside and out. The photos are only of the outside as the tapestries are in a darkened room to protect them. There is also a photo of our hotel taken from the ramparts! This castle has 17 towers so there is a lot to get around on the outside, including a garden planted in the 50s and vines from the 60s. There are a series of free guided visits of the castle that take you to places that are normally locked, and if you did the three of these (we did two) you would have an excellent tour of the whole castle. It has often been used as a prison, for example, and one of the tours takes you to all the various places people were imprisoned, from a dark tunnel-like structure for lunatics (if my memory serves me) to the rather gracious Governor’s residence for Fouquet (1661), who was deemed to have used public money unwisely.

The tapestries of the Apocalypse are particularly worth the visit and take up two long galleries of probably 50 metres each. 14^th century though no doubt restored or repaired at various times they are very big – like metres high - and woven in extra-ordinary detail. The galleries are wide enough for you to be able to get some idea of the overall effect and you can get close enough to see the detail. There are guided visits but you also need time just to linger and look and take yourself back more than six centuries.

Photos at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ 101628277989220379025/Angers

Elven – it’s a place!

Elven and Gavrinis
10-13 August

Our stay with Alex in Elven was just great – so good to catch up with her again after 9 years and to meet her two little girls, Ambre and Fleur. (Ronan was away and didn’t arrive back until the day after we left.)

Between sitting in the the sun, shopping at the local market, attending an open-air concert in Malestroit, where Alex’s parents still live, checking out the crepes in Vannes, visiting an island, spending some time on the beach and just catching up in general, we had a very busy weekend!

The cairn of Gavrinis needs a particular mention. Alex worked as a guide here over one summer and was particularly struck by its energy. So a visit there was a must. You take a boat from the port of Larmor-Baden and the guided visit is included in the deal. The boat-trip is only 10 minutes but the waters have tremendously powerful currents surging around. You would not want to fall overboard.

To avoid brushing the sides of the inside of the dolmen, bags are left at the office and also to protect the interior, cameras are not allowed. So my photos can only show the outside. The cairn, as it is called, is a dolmen covered with stones, and dates from the neolithic period- dry stone walls – somewhere about 3500 BC. At the time the sea level was much lower and the area had much more land than nowadays.

The size is striking – 50m across and 6m high – and for many centuries it looked simply like a stony hill. The interior, which is the dolmen itself, has a 14m ‘corridor’ with a square room at the end, 2.50m each side, in the centre of the mound. The corridor and chamber are covered with huge stones, of which the largest is 17 tonnes, covering the room itself. I don’t know whether all these figures are helpful in trying to visualise this place. But the stones are massive, the corridor pretty long and the age seriously old. The sides of the corridor and the room are covered with carvings which no one is quite sure how to interpret. They look a lot like gigantic thumb prints to me!

There are other things worth mentioning. Like the fact that the sun at the solstice shines right through from the entrance to the room at the back; the air inside is very fresh; and the energy inside seems to be restorative, something that Alex feels strongly is important about this place.

So there we are. Another little insight into our past. Well before Stonehenge. And even the great pyramids.

Photos at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Elven

Entertainment or Education?

Le Puy du Fou - Le Grand Parc
8 August

Disneyland it is not, but theme park of a sort, yes. No rides but plenty of ‘spectacles’, performances of various sorts. Even our meal was part of a performance. People book a year in advance to come here to see the evening show (Cinéscénie) with more than 1000 people playing out historical scenes, but these performances are only twice a week (in June, July, August) and we just went for the day. A long day, as it was open until late that day. And if you have a campervan, this seems to be the place to come. Lines and lines of campervans greeted us when we arrived and scarcely any fewer when we tottered off home, probably after 9pm.

Le Grand Parc recreates historical scenes for us, both in the setting and the shows. Every year it grows bigger, as a new setting and new shows are created during the winter for the following summer season. Last winter they built a new hotel in the form of a Roman villa, with ‘themed’ bedrooms. Access straight into the park from there.

One of the shows that impressed Chris and me the most were the birds of prey, falcons, eagles and others, who swooped just above our heads, there and back, there and back, fetching some kind of offering from a gloved hand as a story or legend was recounted to us.

Our lunchtime meal was also pretty special. Here we were guests of François 1er and Henry VIII, part of a crowd of both ‘English’ (red head bands or crowns) and ‘French’ (blue). Took only a few minutes for the French to have identified themselves as English and to be barracking for their side! All sorts of interesting contests for us to watch and interact with as we ate. And the meal was exceedingly good, and in tune with the times, considering the crowds they are catering for.

We made our way around the various areas. The forest, complete with a Memory Walk about the Vendée massacres, (which are treated less vividly in the Cholet museum). The fort from the year 1000, the Medieval village, the town, the old castle, the 18^th century village, swordfights and musketeers from the time of Richelieu, with amazing horses, which seemed unbothered by rain or noise, dancing away to the music or racing around the (pretty large) stage. And, of course, gladiators. And Christians. And geese. Throw in some lions, cheetahs, chariot races and a Roman Arena and you have quite a spectacle, in the English sense.

This park can only get better. It is added to every year and has 23 schools attached which train up the people they need to run all aspects. So educational in most senses of the word and great, often interactive, entertainment.

Photos at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/LePuyDuFou

Seasides and sandbanks

Cholet
5-10 August

What a delight to meet up with Romain and his parents again. Romain wrote to New Zealand seeking a penfriend at least 10 years ago and ended up being featured in one of the Correspondence School French booklets. The Soulards have offered us hospitality on at least three occasions and we are just waiting for the day when Romain will make it out to NZ, a country he has been passionate about since he was quite small.

The weather was so kind to us that we were able to eat outside on the lawn (see pics). Apart from the local museum and a group of wholesale-type-outlets (Marque Avenue) we weren’t in Cholet much. The coast is relatively close and we went to three places, all very different, involving sea water.

First, St Jean de Monts, where the beach is long and wide, bordered by dunes to the north and a small forest to the south. We ate lunch here in a very typical summer restaurant (see pics), then to Notre-Dame des Monts, after which Hubert and Nelly went to a funeral and Chris and I did the area on foot, returning through the forest. Although there were clubs for children, including a learn-to-swim pool on the promenade, and those little cabin-things you hire to can leave your stuff or change, the beach itself resembled very much the beaches we are used to, especially along the west coast of the North Island.

Our next little excursion was to the island of Noirmoutier, a bit further up the coast. A lovely area to walk around, and not unlike the coast near Françoise and Keith’s. We also sat down to have a waffle with chocolate. Fortunately no-one took a photo during the eating of the waffles, but be warned, the sauce goes everywhere! The particularly interesting feature of this island is that although it is linked to the mainland by a bridge, the original access way, remains open to this day, passable only at low tide. Also at low tide, the sand banks are a rich source of shellfish, and the day we were there the number of people out with buckets gathering same was huge!

Actually, I lied about the original access way. The original (first mentioned on maps early18^th century) was a genuine sandbank, formed by two opposing currents, one form the north and the other from the south. Markers were built across the sandbank early on and horse-drawn transport assured a regular service once the passage had been stabilised. The thing we liked most were the ‘parrot-cage’ masts that now show the way, even when the entire thing is underwater, and also provide a refuge for the unwary, caught by a mounting tide.

Slabs of stone were added between 1935 and 1939 during the two hours available between tides. How’s that for persistant? For the numerate, it’s 4.5km long and can be covered by 1.30m to 4m of water at high tide. The bridge opened in 1971 and is a very practical way of getting to and from the island. We came back the more exciting way, especially as the water lapped gently across the road in front of us at about the 4km mark. But it was just great watching nature take over the passage, from the security of a glass-windowed restaurant, until all that showed there had been anything there were the masts with cages. Oh, and the food was just great!(see pics)

St Nazaire: I had wanted to go to St Nazaire ever since Jean-Marc told me about Escal-Atlanic, which simulates a voyage on an ocean liner. It’s closed in January when I am usually in France, so here was my chance. Romain and Chris were both keen and Romain had a rare day off so we were away. Via Marque Avenue and a pair of shoes for Chris.

The river Loire flows into the sea here at St Nazaire and the mouth is so wide it feels rather more like Auckland harbour than a river. We stopped for a bite to eat along a wide promenade with a view across to the other side of the river mouth. Here there are cabins from where nets are let down into the river (see pics). An interesting method of fishing which I hadn’t come across before.

Very different from a traditional museum, Escal'Atlantic simulates a real voyage on an ocean liner. You are treated as a passenger and at your own pace go along a gangway to a reception hall, then follow corridors with glimpses of cabins and even a cabin you can move though. The theme (at least this year) is a trip to Yokohama. You can descend to the engine room (more or less), up to the bridge, experience an emigrant’s deck (not too exciting) visit the hold, experience sea breezes as you walk along an open deck, have a drink in the ‘dining room’, visit the hairdresser, the music room and even the cinema. The exit is most unusual and I won’t spoil it for you in case you ever go there. We all thought it was very worthwhile.
At Cholet we had some really good laughs and I’ve included a few of the ‘inspirational’ situations. Also photos of Chris at the hairdresser (Thank you, Hubert!). Hair trimmed neatly and analysed by Nelly under a microscope. Chris now has much more information on the care if his hair than he ever imagined possible. Hubert and Nelly also took good care of my needs at the salon, for which I am very grateful. A whole new experience for me - merci!

Photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/101628277989220379025/Cholet