Interludes ~ Paris, Italy & New Zealand

Our stay at the chateau was interrupted in late October when David and I left to spend time apart on different sides of the globe. I returned to New Zealand to await the birth of our second grandson and David took the opportunity of spending some time at our favourite place in Italy with our very good friends Rob and Jane.

Here are a few of the highlights of our time away.

I think Paris has probably become our favourite city. Each time we return we love it more, Paris was our favoured point of departure from France. 
We only had a short time there but managed to see some new places as well as returning to some of our favourite places from previous visits. As our knowledge of French improves and increases so does our appreciation of things français. 
The architecture, the boulevards, the little streets, the cobbled roads, the corner cafés, the sound of traffic that says ' you're in Paris'.  So on went our walking shoes as we discovered new places. After petit déjeuner we were on the metro and off to Bastille to see the largest open air market in Paris.

La Bastille

 

From there we moved onto visit a cemetery - but not just any cemetery. La Père Lachaise Cimietiere is the largest in Paris. It is HUGE. It was a lovely autumn afternoon and being a Sunday there were lots of people there enjoying a Sunday walk in the autumn sunshine as well as 'looking' people up! The graves of many famous (and perhaps some infamous) are there. The place is so big that you need a map to get around if you are wanting to visit particular graves.


We pinpointed those we wanted to see and David in his methodical and logical manner lead the way. It was a lot of walking and we saw just a very small section. It was not gloomy or sad or scary , in fact it was very peaceful despite being in the heart of a very busy city. It made me think of all the lives that were represented by the hundreds, no thousands, of graves that were there. Some headstones were very plain and simple; some were forgotten and overgrown with moss and lichen and ivy; some were almost pretentious ; some were obviously 'loved' and well kept; others were 'revered' with floral tributes. 

The ones we chose to see included Jim Morrison from Doors, Edith Piaf, Mozart, Chopin and Marcel Marceau.

Moss covered resting places

Family mausoleums

The forgotten...

The famous ~ Edith Piaff

Memorial to World War 2 victims

No one visits here ...

but Chopin's resting place has many visitors

The next day we spent at Le Louvre. In all our visits this is one place we had not been to. 
Of course we had seen and photographed it from the outside many times. We planned to spend the whole day there and what an experience it was.
It is very hard to put in words the feeling and awe that we experienced, not just relating the works of art displayed, but to the building itself.

It is also difficult to choose photos to illustrate what an experience we had. We visited only a fraction of what is available to see. Enjoy the following....

Finally a word of advice - if you visit be prepared to have your 'socks blown off' and be 
prepared to spend a least a day as a minimum. Le Louvre est magnifique!

Then it was time to say au revoir to Paris and goodbye to each other as we went in different directions. David flew to Bologna and then by train down to Umbria to stay with Rob and Jane at their place 'Tersalle'.
Tersalle is a very special place for us and we have had the pleasure of staying there many times. As you know David cannot sit around for very long so one of the reasons for visitng Tersalle was to help with DIY projects/jobs that Rob and Jane had on The List!

But it was not all work....

In Portofino

   After a couple of weeks at Tersalle, David made his way by train up the coast to stay with another friend Sergio whom we have come to know through Rotary and the International Yachting Fellowship. Sergio is the consummate host and David was wined and dined at Rotary meetings and at Sergio and Laura's summer house and their apartment in Rapallo.
However the return to the chateau was not as straightforward and because of delays in Italy, the trip by train, which was all planned and booked, took 23 hours!!



Meantime, my trip from Paris to Auckland took 25 hours! Here are photos to explain the reason for my trip.

Julien William was born on 30 October

Gran's little boy

We had a few days at the beach

Lucas reading to his brother

Chilling out together (Julien was just 2 weeks old!)

Gran's big boy

Gran's gorgeous boys 

But after a lovely time with family it was time to make that long trip back to the chateau.

And we are now 'nous deux' again and getting ready for le Noel....and the arrival of all our family.


Until the next blog.

Wishing you all Joyeux Noel