Monday 1 December - Brian Returns Home

I went with Brian to the Gare du Nord to see him on Eurostar back to London. The Metro trip was very fast. The station was crowded and the military were walking around. It has been a short visit but a full and exhausting one. I took the rest of the day to catch up on a few things. We took stock after lunch and found we were out of cheese, chicken, ham, red and white wine so we will need to do some shopping very soon.

I think Mary and I must be going native. Today we consumed a croissant and a baguette each.

Gare du Nord, central part, seen from the balcony near the Eurostar check in. Monet painted many pictures here.

 The railway even provided a steam engine so he could get the smoke effects right 

Sunday 30 November - Monge market, rue de Mouffetarde and St. Sulpice

Firing up the rotisserie on rue de Levis on Sunday morning.  There were about six being started early in the morning

The Monge Market was in full swing with the full range of fruit, vegetables, fish and meat.
The rue de Mouffetarde had a a similar range of items but there was a large flea market on an extension at the bottom end.  There was dancing and singing to a piano accordion which was good to see.

These kids were being given a lesson on how to make a gallette

Singing and dancing on the rue de Mouffetarde.

We had lunch at a local restaurant with a friendly waitress. Petoncles/magret and confit de canard - all was very good.
After hot chocolate Luxembourg Gardens were pretty busy and the kids were sailing boats.

We were not sure whether this was a real wedding or just a staged shoot.  The bride wore sneakers and probably felt pretty cold.

One little boy was so engrossed with his pole that he nearly took his father's eye out

Talk about over the top decorations

We walked along to St. Sulpice and were surprised to find that a concert with the Magnifica brass quintette was due to start in 20 minutes. They were accompanied by the the Choeur Cantica de Luxembourg and soprano Shigeko Hato. The concert was excellent. It started well with Handel's Entry of the Queen of Sheba and included a number of well known items by Handel, Massanet, Gounod and Saint Saens in particular. The soprano managed to throw her voice well in this large space although the horn and the tuba tended to become lost in the acoustics of the church. There was a great deal of humour, as when a short man had to use a microphone after a particularly tall man. At the last piece the conductor stopped conducting and just walked away and left the singers and players to continue on their own. He wandered back at the end and conducted a rousing finale. All in all a thoroughly entertaining performance.

Saturday 29 November - Exporail, trams and Notre Dame

Brian and I went to Exporail at Pontoise. We took the RER to Pontoise and found the number 30 bus.  There was an elegant tall black lady with a designer cell phone, hair in corn rows, billowy black pants and a purple tunic set off with a black silk scarf who turned out to be the bus driver. She ensured that we got off at the right stop and we followed a few men who looked like railway modellers to the Exposition building.
The show was very good. There were two halls, one mainly for model layouts and one mainly for dealers. The layouts were very good indeed. I particularly enjoyed the small ones modelling a specific station or area. There were exhibitors from Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Spain as well as France. A couple of the modular layouts had an interesting presentation. The viewing area of the module had sides and a top, in black.  Each module was separated from its neighbour by a short black section. This allows each module designer to have free reign as to the theme he wants to develop. One module represented under the sea with the trains running through tubes. This idea was taken one step further by one exhibitor who had built a railway in a tube through an aquarium complete with fish. Lunch was easily obtained but there was not many places to sit down. We finished up sitting on some stairs.
.

Sugar beet

Aurillac station was wonderfully modelled.

Some interesting activities

Click here to see all pictures taken at Exporail 2014

This afternoon we took the RER to La Defense and tram T2 along the Seine to Porte de Versailles. We then transferred to T3a and went all the way to Porte de Vincennes before returning via the Étoile.

This evening we went to an organ concert in Notre Dame. It was terrible. The acoustics were fine but the music was abominable, tuneless, atonal and unpleasant with the the exception of some Bach chorales which were not his best work. 

Friday 28 November - Blanc à Argent

An ancient locomotive at the Gare D'Austerlitz early morning

We arrived at the Gare d'Austerlitz in good time but SNCF were seven minutes late in departing which was the amount of time we had to make the connection at Salbris. Visiting the toilet was an interesting experience. The soap dispenser was leaking into the sink and the speed of the train created a draft up the plug hole with the result that large soap bubbles were coming out of the sink and floating around. The BA crew were waiting for us at Salbris and we made the connection easily.
There was nothing exceptional about the ride to Romorantin. The track is in quite good condition but the train took the curves poorly, maybe as a result of the beating the trucks took before the track was rehabilitated.

At Romorantin I asked a railway official if we could have permission to look around. He took us around personally, complete with high visibility vests. We were taken into the maintenance shop and also to see the old diesel locomotive, number 13, which was built on a steam locomotive frames and wheels. A similar locomotive, number 14, is now at the preservation group in Argy.

These heritage cars cannot now be used because they are not handicapped accessible and they do not have the SNCF signalling

Number 13 is sleeping in a dry shed

This water crane has recently been painted yet it cannot have been used for many years

Romorantin

Romorantin is always pleasant

We had a look around the town and had a coffee. A good part of Romorantin remains derelict and business is not good.
We continued on to Valencay after a lunch sitting in a park beside the river Saulde. The wagons stored for many years at Prunier have been sold to a preservation group. A large part of the Valençay station yard, including a couple of small wagon turntables have gone. There remain traces of track across the front of the station but no clues as to what function it performed. The service to Luçay le Male has been discontinued as of last December. There is a replacement school bus service.

Valencay is still on bad times with a large number of vacant storefronts.

The Waiting Room/Ticket Office at Valencay is a restored gem

Click here to see all pictures taken of the Blanc a Argent this trip

We returned to Gièvres. The station mistresses are still in place, the lady at Chabris still having to crank the crossing barriers up and down by hand.
From Gievres we took the train along the Cher valley to St. Pierre des Corps. In several places there are chalk cliffs with houses built into them. There were also windows and doors set into the chalk.
From St. Pierre des  Corps we took the TGV back to Paris Montparnasse.

Thursday 27 November - Sightseeing

This morning we went to the Jardins du Palais Royal, the Pyramide, the Tuileries and the Étoile. Lunch was at Le Relais de Venise with excellent steak and fries and a very attentive and friendly waitress.

The best place to get a picture of the Champs Elysees is from the traffic island in the centre of the Boulevard

Steak, frites and wine were all very good indeed

Mary always has the vacherin at le Relais de Venise.

The waitress remembered us from the previous visit and is pretty much an old friend

The Frank Gehry designed museum in the Bois de Boulogne is now open but has very few exhibits. The structure is amazing but I am not sure it will make a good museum or art gallery. The building is very confusing to walk through. Full credit must be given to the engineers who made it all work. It is either a masterful piece of architecture or a gigantic con job.

The tourist train was operating in  the park.

We came home for a short rest but then went out again to see the Tour Eiffel at the Trocadero.  The number 30 bus was running late so we took the metro via the Etoile and arrived in plenty of time to see the flashing lights on the hour.  We intended to take the number 30 bus to Anvers then the Monmartre Funicular but the bus was short turned at Place de Clichy so we continued on by metro. The view of the Eiffel Tower was good and there was time for a short walk around Montmartre/Place du Tertre before descending on the funicular and catching a bus back.  Paris feels emptybifvtoyrists atvthe moment.  We have made good use of the Mobilis tickets today.

Wednesday 26 November - Brian arrives

The range of cheeses available here is amazing. I bought a strong Cammembert from the fromager on the rue des Abbesses the other day. It was excellent and it reminded us of its presence every time we opened the fridge. Yesterday I bought an Époisse at Monoprix. We haven't even opened it yet but we can smell it already. It is surprising the way the stinkiest cheeses taste the best.

 

We had lunch today with Gail from Perfectly Paris. It is always good to catch up.
I had a pleasant stroll along Boulevards Rochouart and Magenta to the Gare du Nord. 

Armed military are in evidence here. There were a lot of high speed trains in here - Eurostar, Thalys, SNCF TGV and Eurostar used on the Paris Lille route. One SNCF TGV had a 1981 plate on it whereas one of the electric locomotives had a 1980 plate!

SNCF vintage 1980

SNCF vintage 1981

Brian arrived from London four minutes early and we had a very quick trip back to Villiers.

Dinner this evening was at Le P'tit Canon

Tuesday 25 November - Monceau and Square des Batignolles

From Today's Ottawa Citizen

Off to a slow start this morning so we left the apartment around lunch time. Paris isn't ready for Christmas yet. There are few decorations and there is a marked absence of heavily armed military with automatic weapons in the high traffic areas. Lenôtre had a good display of very expensive delicacies - chocolates were €115 per kilo and some of the pastries were beautiful.
Monceau parc had a good deal of color still, the green grass contrasted nicely with the yellows and browns of the leaves. Being lunchtime the school children were out playing in the park under strict supervision, each kid wore an identifying arm band.

Lunch time at Parc Monceau

We had lunch at a 1930s retro restaurant at Place des Ternes. The food was good (huitres, onion soupe gratinee/magret de canard/smoked salmon with choucrout) but the waiter politely padded the bill so we politely asked him to correct it.
The city road sweepers were out in force along the Boulevard des Courcelles. They were blowing the leaves into piles and up ladies skirts when they could get away with it.

Diva et Chocolats is my favorite boulangerie/patisserie

The Square des Batignolles is always pleasant although much smaller than Monceau. The plane trees have been badly hit by a fungus and several have had to be severely cut back. This is a great pity as one, at least, was planted there in 1840.

Signature Tree at Square des Batignolles

Monceau