Fin - The End

This blog is going to be written in the plane to New Zealand, so it might seem a bit disjointed.  I am in a slightly different time zone it being 4pm UK time, or 5pm in France.  I have tried to move my clock a bit by going to bed later so that at least I move myself a bit closer to home.  Effectively I got myself to UK time.

Art in Montmartre

I am sitting in one of the new Boeing 777-300 with the new seats.  In premium economy they are this shell like seat that reclines in itself rather than someone coming into your face.  The flight is not very full with space in Premium economy but as yet I am not sure about further back in the plane.  The seats are interesting and after ten hours in one I will have a better idea.  The plane does feel very nice and fresh.  Behind me are a couple of Americans of whom the woman complained for the first twenty minutes on the plane about the seat and everything else that it was possible to complain about.  She does the helpless person really well. 

One of my observations was that Americans tended to stand out in the crowd, mainly because they are much louder than everyone else around.  I think it is cultural after having thought about it a bit as it is easy to be prejudiced and make wild generalisations on the basis on or two people.  The person that was behind me was almost a stereotype and it was interesting to listen to her husband who was much more relaxed about it all.  This woman clearly did not like change and I think is used to doing the helpless person.  So,  while I make a generalisation it is also my experience all Americans that I have met are not all like that.   The French do passion very interesting.  Generally, they are not particularly demonstrative but when there is a bit of emotion to express they really do express it and without seeming to be embarrassed.

Yesterday (4 May) was a day for trying out a couple of restaurants, but that was to be after I had gone looking for a game.  Fortuitously I found a shop which sold them where I also  had a nice conversation, en francais, with the shop owner.  I probably paid over the odds for the game but never mind it is all part of the fun of exploring. 

My lunchtime restaurant was Oh Bigre! which I had tried to go to on Monday but had found that it was closed .  Yesterday it was open and the owner welcomed me and I told him that I wanted to do my ordering in French as I explained to him that I was learning French.  I had to ask him to repeat things a couple of times and I asked him a couple of questions to ensure that I understood and then made my order.  It was formule meal which included two courses, wine and coffee.  To start I had Champignons aux Paris and it came with salade.  The next course was chicken quiche.  The wine a Bergerac was very good and went will with the food.  The freshness was great and there were vegetables!!!  As I was about to start my meal a woman came over and asked me if I was related to family she knew because I looked like one of the family members.  I had to say no and explain that I had no French blood at all.

I tried to speak in French with her but to no avail.  She was an artist and had given away her other work to pursue the life of an artist.  She asked me how I turned up at a neighbourhood restaurant and I explained it had been recommended in a book.  She then said she knew a person who was French and now lived in New Zealand and made sausages.   Then I was asked what I was going to do and I said I might go to the Musee d’Orsay.  She said I should go to l’orangie as it had some wonderful impressionist art that never left the musee. So I took her suggestion and went to the musee and was really pleased that I did.  There are two rooms that have a series of murals painted by Monet on the theme of waterlillies.  There is also a  gallery with the works of art by Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, Utrillo, Modigliani etc.  Their paintings form part of a collection of Paul Guillaume who became their friend and who also sold their paintings. I am a great fan of the impressionists but one could see the changes in style of these painters over time  and some were just amazing. There was also an exhibition of Severini’s works from his realist beginning then through a cubism and impressionist phase before he returned to realist method.  I loved seeing the changes in style and for me preferred the later realist style. 

I had tended avoid museums but I am really pleased I went to this one because it was a much more moving, dare I say emotional, experience than I expected.

Being my last night in France I thought it was a good opportunity to treat myself to a great meal.  I headed for one that sounded great but took some searching to find it. Unfortunately it was booked out so I had to go to the alternative plan which meant backtracking to Rue des Martyrs and to a little place L’homme tranquille.  It only had a couple of groups there but I was hungry and was devoted to food and not a bar.  It was just off one of the main party areas in Montmartre.  So I had a really good meal.  I had two courses and a half bottle of Chateau Talfas, a Cotes de Bourg 2006.  The serveuse did it really well, opening the bottle and then pouring it into a carafe to give it some air.  The wine not brilliant but it was good. I decided on a main and dessert.  My main was a Cabillaud en croute (baked cod) and was served with red cabbage and julienned carrot, broccoli and fennel bulb. The fish was cooked to perfection.  For dessert I had a citron tarte which was nice but I don’t think it held to together that well.  It had a biscuit base and was more like a cheese cake than a tarte.   Toward the end of my meal their was a most amusing event.  A client was about to pay for their meal when there was a scream from the serveuse.  A cockroach had appeared near the eftpos machine.  She dropped in and stood back shuddering.  Another client came over to execute the cockroach which was running around.  Finally the deed was done and everything returned to normality after the hilarity. It was a good evening with some very nice food and wine.

Cockroach almost executed

This morning I had to figure out how to get several bottles of wine and other acquisitions into my bag without it getting too heavy.  It meant leaving behind a few things that had met their use by date. Despite that I had very heavy bag, another plastic bag with things that I did not know how to pack in the bag, my backpack which was very heavy as well.  By the time I left the hotel I was festooned with a backpack, camera bag, suitcase and my plastic bag with things in it.  

I had to get to Gare de Nord.  I knew that at my metro stop there was a lift to get me most of the way down to the platform.  It did mean waiting in an area where some homeless had dossed down for the night and most of the morning.  It stank of body odour and urine – not nice. 

To get to the Gare du Nord I had to make one change which was not too bad; only about four sets of stairs to negotiate.  Who needs to go to the gym when there is that lifting and walking to do? 

Beauty tottering in extra high heels in Les Tuileries

I was surprised to get to Gare du Nord and find that there was only one set of steps to negotiate and that there was an escalator.  The train trip to Charles de Gaulle Aeroport was quick, but then there was confusion as the signs to get to Terminal 2 were confusing to everyone including the French.  Eventually I figured out how to get there.  Checking in was the worst part of the experience, the express checking, like our booths, did want to know me. Finally I got some begrudging help and then had to wait for about half an hour to dump the bag.  Not the most efficient system.  When I finally got to the bag drop I was told I had to lose some weight as I had more than permitted.  That meant trying to get weight out of the bag that was primarily wine, not an easy task.  Eventually I made some token effort and was allowed to go my way. 

Once I got to sit for a few minutes in the terminal it was very nice.  Reminiscent I have to say of Hong Kong Airport and had me wondering if the same architect had designed it. 

The Air France aircraft was an A321 the big brother or sister of the A320 and the next interesting part of the journey occurred.  There were a group of Middle Eastern women who seemed to be traveling together with their children.  It was chaos.  The children were completely out of control.  The women, I wondered actually whether they were part of the same family (a polygamous relationship), ranged from one not being much more than about 16 or 17 and had at least one child and was heavily  pregnant, and the other three also seemed to have a lot children as well.  They completely disrupted boarding, seemed unconcerned about the people around them as they disrupted the seating process which is chaos anyway.  The cabin crew were trying to be as patient as they could while they explained what was required of them, including that the children had to have seat belts on.  Throughout the flight there was a cacophony of noise from this group.  As an observer I really felt that I was looking at completely different culture. It was fascinating.

Flying as a way of getting to the UK it was a relatively slow process.  I left the hotel at a bit before 10am, and it was 3 pm France time before I got to Heathrow.  I think that if I had gone by Eurostar I would have been in London Central by about 1:30pm.  It would have been closer to two hours later taking the plane.  However, this journey was part of my ticket so much cheaper from that point of view.

Heathrow used to be a nightmare to go through.  Well I have changed my mind. Terminal 1 was a very peaceful and relatively easy place to go through.  Check-in a breeze.  Going through immigration and security was quick and relatively efficient.  The improvements to Terminal I make the experience now more like that in any other airport.

On the plane the new seats so far are very nice to sit in.  If traveling alone then the window seat and aisle seats are quite good as you are not too close to the next door person although I don’t have anyone next to me.  The centre ones are for couples who might want to talk to each other. 

River of ice

There was  cloud for much of the early part of the journey then it cleared a bit just as we were coming to coast of Greenland.  I had expected a massive cap of ice but near the coast it was rock with a light covering snow.  Then there were what would be rivers clearly just ice.  Then right near the coast clear water.  Then it was the melting ice pack.  For me it was a sight to behold.

The cloud returned then as we got to Manitoba the cloud cleared again and there was patchwork of ice and the brown/green of the tundra.  Then we flew over Lake Winnipeg, it is huge and for the most part it was still frozen.  It was melting around the edges and there were  tiny areas where it had melted but beyond that it was this mass of white.  From the distance I thought it was low lying cloud since it had been cloudy for much of the journey.  In some parts there were these massive fissures formed as I presume the ice melted.  Just stunning!
Toward the end of the flight we passed close to Salt Lake City, the Grand Canyon and I even saw where the Hoover dam is.  Scenically when there was no cloud it was interesting flight.
Unfortunately I did not get an upgrade to Premium Economy so I had to slum it in cattleclass.  There were about 40 seats unsold so there were a few people who had a row to themselves and where the seats were the cuddle class they had an almost reasonable bed to lie on the lucky sods.  Fortunately I had a decent amout of leg room as there was no seat in front of me. I even  managed about five hours of broken  sleep.
The entertainment system on these planes is really good.  The screens are a good size and the resolution is very good.  One of the small changes that have been made to signage is that the lit signs now do have the no smoking symbol, it is now seatbelt, phone and electronic equipemnt.
Overall I thought the planes were quite nice.  Still not enough leg room in the aircraft for these long-haul flights though. So my little voyage to France has finished.  There will be one more blog which will the reflections of the trip.