A holiday away from the Charente - Part One.

We have never been to the United States before and at the invitation of a number of friends who have moved there over the years, we decided to do some visiting!  We have long time friends from both South Africa and Rhodesia scattered around, so there was much to catch up on and see.  One of the very top opportunities was to spend a few days at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and meet up with Gaelyn from  http://geogypsytraveler.com/; we have been following each other's blogs almost since the day I started blogging.

This post only covers day one and two of a 4 week trip, so I hope you have the stamina for all there is to see and follow!! I still have many photos to look through, edit and check, so this is all going to take sometime!

9 June 2016

One of our friendly French neighbours took us and our luggage to the railway station in Angouleme to catch the TGV (high speed train) to Paris. There he is, wheeling a case!  However, the trip was in doubt until the last minute due to French union strike action. When we had booked all the travel 6 months previously, that wasn't on the radar!!  To cut a long story short, Nigel went to our local station 3 times to check if our train to Paris would run!  Each time he were told yes, and then the day before we travelled, we had an email to say it had been cancelled!!  After another trip to the station,we finally managed to rebook, but all trains were almost full due to cancellations and our seats were upstairs, up which we had to drag 3 cases, plus hand luggage and cameras!

Leaving Angouleme, I could not fail to remind you that it is the city of the  comic strip and a haven for graphic artists; these are a few of the paintings around the railway station.

There appeared to be a Bar - Brasserie behind these doors, but it all looked pretty quiet while we were there - well, it was half past seven in the morning!

10 June 2016

By the time we had arrived in Paris, with arms full of luggage and located and caught the shuttle bus to our hotel, the time flew, so the only photos I managed was this one from the hotel window, looking out at the sunrise the following day, and those below.

There were signs everywhere that the UEFA Euro 2016 Football (soccer) Championship was on in France and  hotels everywhere were packed with soccer fans!

Waiting at the hotel the next morning for the shuttle bus to take us just up the road to........

 Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

These are Air France 'planes, but their aircrews had been on strike intermittently for many weeks, creating enormous disruption. Strikes are still going on as I type this! Luckily we were flying with American Airlines!

Our first morning, with a sunrise, in Delaware, after landing at the nearby Philadelphia airport  the evening before.  We were very tired, as it had been a long two days travel from home, especially with the 5 hour time change!

Also see my daily diary HERE

and My Life Before Charente (updated 09 April 2016) 

The Marais in Paris - Along the Rue François Miron in September

Francois Miron lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries; he was both a magistrate and, which meant he was a king's agent, managing the affairs of such businesses as wheat-measurers and tavern keepers, amongst others! So he got a street named after him!

Rue François Miron, in the Marais area of the 4th arrondissement, starts at Place Gervais where the St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church stands. 

The church appears to be one of the oldest in Paris and is mentioned as early as the 4th century. The present church is recorded as being built over a period of many years! It was started, in the Gothic style, in 1494, the chapels of the apse were finished in 1530 and the transept in 1578. The doorway of the church was built in the classical style in 1616–1620 by Claude Monnard. 

The street  is also home to two of the oldest medieval houses of Paris, at numbers 11 and 13 (see below), dating probably from the 14th century.

On 29 March 1918, a German  artillery shell  fell on the church, killing 88 people and wounding 68 others; the roof fell in as a result of the explosion, which happened while a Good Friday service was in progress. This was the worst single incident involving a loss of civilian lives during the German bombardment of Paris in 1918.

The inside of the church; the windows and roof have been restored, with stunning results.

I took many photos, the best of which I hope I have chosen  for you to see

The rear side of the church 

Numbers 11 and 13 Rue Francois Miron, two of the last 14th century houses in Paris. These gabled houses are narrow, with only two windows per floor. Their sides are built out on corbelling at the first floor level, their facades end with triangular pediments and are topped with steeply pitched roofs that allow rainwater to drain down the sides of the buildings. These houses are easily recognisable, thanks to their half-timbering which was uncovered, relatively recently - during restoration work in the 1960’s!

The sign outside the houses for those who enjoy reading the history in French.

Yet another interesting doorway on the corner of Rue François Miron.

My daily diary can be seen HERE

See also My Life Before Charente (updated 16 October 2014) 

Sorry about the long delay in posts on the above but I will endeavour to keep it up to date more often!

Computer dramas and random photos taken while in Paris two weeks ago

Firstly may I say thank you for all the comments on the last post!  I much appreciate them all. 

September was a difficult month in the absence of my laptop, which abruptly expired! With only my Nexus tablet to work with, I tried to do one post on my photodiary  while in Paris, but gave up in despair.  It copes  with simple photos, but if you try to add captions, it becomes more than difficult, especially with the small screen.   We never did track down the problem with my old laptop, but thankfully the hard drive was unaffected, so I was able to transfer all my files to a new laptop. Because I wanted a qwerty keyboard and a French guarantee, the purchase took longer than I expected. I am now trying to master all the new programmes loaded on it!

These are mostly random shots taken in Paris, where the architecture took my eye as we were passing.  Many I have no identification for, but I thought nevertheless they would be of interest, particularly for those of you who have not visited the city. I will in time get through the approximately 600 (!) photos I took, and do some more specific posts.

We were fascinated by the lighting under the elevated section of the Metro subway line which crosses the river Seine at the Pont de Bir-Hakeim on the west side of Paris.

and the elaborately carved stonework of the architecture close by

in the Square Alboni. The stairs visible in the background lead to the roadway which crosses the river underneath the rail line.

Another view of the quiet suburb of Passy

The location map shows how the bridge affords a good view of the Eiffel tower, just across the river.

Loved this ornate doorway - no 51 somewhere!

Optician's sign at Rue du Pas de la Mule in the 4th arrondissement (suburb) , not far from the Bastille, where the troubles of the French Revolution began in Paris.

Seafood extravagantly displayed, and priced accordingly!

Trees growing in crevices in the stonework!

The green patina on copper covering to a roof dome.

More intricate stonework -those French craftsmen of old!!!!

Boulevard Pasteur; lots of work going on here restoring the old viaduct which carries the overhead metro line.  In the distance, you can see the gold adorned turret on Les Invalides.

An interesting doorway in Rue Monge.

There is a great selection of door knobs and knockers in Paris!

Intricate cast iron Juliet balcony balustrades.

My photodiary  site is pretty much up to date,  so for those of  you who may be interested see HERE.

I have every intention of returning to My Life Before Charente, hopefully in the not too distant future, but time always seems to be at a minimum!

The Drive south......

Many of my readers will know this drive so well, but I thought that I would put on a series of photos for readers from other parts of the world.  Sadly the sun always seemed to be in our eyes, whichever road were were on, and many photos were taken on the move with my £70 Samsung, so I ask your forebearance with the  quality!

Autumn colours by the side of the M20 heading out of London to the Channel Tunnel

Not sure, but this was probably a junction between the M25 and M20, but I thought it was an interesting photo of the four level intersection.

The Folkestone White Horse is a stylised figure carved into the chalk of Cheriton Hill near the Kent  coastal town; an echo of the more famous and much older similar figures in southern England.  It overlooks the English terminal of the Channel Tunnel and was completed in June 2003.

In the queue waiting to board the train that takes us through the tunnel

and on the train.  I may add here that I hate the tunnel; when on my own I always travel by ferry. I am not happy with the closed in feeling and being under the sea!

 

Environmentally friendly maybe, but I am still happier 'on top'.

In my view, the French have brilliant graphics on their motorway  signage and the signs often inspire me to dig a little into the history illustrated on them. This sign, and the one that follows, are in northern France  and depict events from the Second World War, fought bitterly in this area.

La Coupole is a bunker complex built by  Nazi Germany in 1943-1944 to serve as a launch base for V-2 rockets against London and southern England. Constructed in a chalk quarry, the complex comprised an immense concrete dome above a network of tunnels that were to house the rocket launch facilities.  However, due to heavy bombing by Allied forces, the Germans were unable to complete the work and it was captured by the Canadian Army in September 1944 The site was subsequently abandoned and it lay derelict until the mid-1990s when it was redeveloped by the French into a museum.

Eperlecques is the site of another part completed rocket launch base, built and captured in the same time scale as La Coupole. It was designed to launch up to 36 rockets daily and was constructed with the aid of 2000 slave workers. Today, the bunker is preserved as part of a privately owned museum that presents the history of the site and the German rocket programme. It has been protected by the French state as a Monument Historique since 1986.

A shorter route south was suggested to us, and mistakenly we thought Paris might be quieter on a Sunday, so we took a trip on the Paris "Peripherique" (ring road)....    Not a good idea!

Most of the views we had of the great city (above and below) were all underground!! I wouldn't like this in the daily rush hour!

Beauce  is a highly productive, very flat, agricultural region southwest of Paris planted mainly with wheat, sugar beet, maize (corn) and barley.. Production has been diversified to include rape seed, potatoes, vegetables (for the canning and frozen food industries), and pulses.

Wind turbines as far as the eye can see.....

Valencay is  in the Loire valley. Its 12^th century Castle was rebuilt in 1540, but an owner in 1747 knocked down a lot of the building; the much reduced castle is  what can be seen today. Its owners seem to have struggled with finance and taxes – nothing changes!

Le Dorat is an ancient town in the Limousin area, with fine examples of Romanesque architecture, especially the 11th Century Collegiate of Saint-Pierre, pictured here.

We took many pictures of road signs, but due to the adverse light conditions, the above were the only ones worth publishing!!

Finally we made it home!

and the boxes and furniture arrived the next day

to await unpacking!

This post has, with Nigel's help, taken several days to write.  I am still not well and I have a really bad cough which is causing major headaches.  What with lack of sleep I am not a very happy person at the moment. I see the Dr again this afternoon so fingers crossed......  I will get back to blogging eventually!