Birdwatching in the Bois de Bologne

Today we had lunch with Cecile and Gilles (who own our apartment) and their family and we had a lovely meal at their place. On the way to their house we passed by the street market on Boulevard Port-Royal and were amazed by one cheese stall in particular - there must have been over 100 different types of cheese. Luckily we had a small lesson on cheese at their house and maybe they will come shopping with us one day as we wouldn't really know where to begin. They also kindly invited us to their house in Normandy so we can see the Bayeux tapestry (a life-long dream of mine) and drink calvados in situ.

After lunch we had a big walk to the Rodin Museum in an effort to aid digestion! I like some of the sculptures but found the views of the dome of Les Invalides far more beguiling with its gilded shields, flags and other military symbols on the dome, glittering in the sun. I have decided I like architecture more than sculpture. As it was a nice day we walked across the spectacular Pont de Alexandre III which was built for the great exposition in 1900 - there is a great use of gilt in Paris it seems! Hugh was starting to complain about sore feet and this is the man who can birdwatch through swamps for hours on end, so we came home.

To keep him happy, on Sunday we went to the Bois de Bologne to see if we could see some nature. The park, although huge, was filled with an enormous number of joggers and every kind of dog breed known to man! Eventually we found some peace and quiet and some some nuthatches, tree-creepers and even long-tailed tits. Hugh was very pleased and almost smiled! We found a cafe and had some wine (very civilized) and the French version of fast food - a very delicious cheese tart in my case and a hot dog in a baguette for Hugh. It was fun sitting in the sun and people watching for a while. Hugh made us catch the metro home although I prefer the buses - probably because of a slight claustrophobia but also because Paris is so pretty, why would you want to go underground? But I had my reward for being a good wife as Hugh strangely agreed to go to the Opera if we could get tickets - so watch this space!

Fashion and Flowers

I woke up to grey skies and rain today so decided to head off by bus to a branch of the famous Galleries Lafayette department store chain which is near me in Montparnasse. I was in the market for a pretty dress to wear out to the fancy restaurants that I plan to visit and maybe to the Opera. My mission was accomplished more quickly than I anticipated as I fell in love with a beautiful black dress that was reasonably priced and even better accompanied by a helpful sales assistant who found my size. After that I found an angora jumper just right for this cold weather for 20 euros - what a bargain and soon I found I was panting slightly with a desire to buy the whole shop!  I ended on the lingerie floor and left clasping a silk negligee and a rather battered credit card!

It was Valentine's day and such a delight to visit the numerous florist shops around our apartment - as you can see, after much inward debating, I bought this lovely bunch of roses. The sales assistant was making a gorgeous bouquet with tiny roses and little crocuses and many other delightful flowers in a little heart shaped box which was so sweet, but as she was busy I decided not to bother her by taking a photograph. There are many small wine shops around us too and I have made an executive decision to buy the small bottles (325 ml) they have here once a week to learn more about champagne - it is purely for research purposes obviously! Most French champagne is consumed by the domestic market with many small companies which we never see in Australia. That night the rain miraculously stopped so we walked to a nice little Burgundian bistro that I had seen on my travels and ate a delicious potato galette and a huge creme caramel( we shared it) accompanied by a nice pinot noir wine from Burgundy. A great treat to spend Valentine's day in romantic Paris.

The next day was sunny, so after meeting Hugh for lunch, I wandered down across the river to the Place des Vosges which looked gorgeous in the sunlight as you can see and visited the house of Victor Hugo, whose book the Hunchback of Notre-Dame I am currently reading, and whose former apartment overlooks the square. I am having a Victor Hugo moment at present as I loved his book Les Miserables and of course the recent movie. I then wandered around the Marais district and visited the Hotel Carnavalet which, like the Victor Hugo house, is free and full of period French furniture, pictures and china. Of great interest to me is the revolutionary section with Napoleon memorabilia and rustic china with worker motifs and slogans like liberty, equality and fraternity in such contrast to the delicate Sevres porcelain in the rest of the museum. I was quite tired by the time I reached the bus stop but optimistic that all this walking was burning off a little of last night's creme caramel! We shall see.

Marvelous Macaroons

On Tuesday I caught a bus to Le Bon Marche, the oldest department store in Paris which was nice but too expensive for me. Then I pretended to be an intellectual and went to the famous cafe Les Deux Magots in St Germain des Pres where Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre used to hang out. It was fun wandering around the tiny back streets of this area window shopping - particularly the window of Laduree, another Parisian institution, which is too pretty (almost) to eat! I bought a little box of adorable macaroons and have been having one a day with my tea - such a treat! That night we went to a nice function at the Natural History Museum where I tasted my first champagne in France (very nice) and mingled with the people attending the workshop. The canapés were divine and the tiny profiteroles brought tears of joy to my eyes. France is a very civilized place indeed!

The next day I took a bus out along the triumphal way as it is called - from the great obelisk in the Place de la Concord along the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe (although they have ruined the view back to the Arc du Carousel at the Louvre with one of those ferris wheel things). I then went to the Trocadero for a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower, which as I have no desire to climb, I am happy to view from a distance! The cold was nearly killing me so I retired to a lovely place near the Pantheon for a heavenly buckwheat crepe filled with goats cheese, honey and walnuts. Thus fortified I tackled the Pantheon and was rewarded by seeing the tombs of my favorite French authors Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Emile Zola along with Voltaire and Rousseau. I was also surprised but pleased to see a memorial to St-Exupery whose book the Little Prince I was reading to improve my French just before I left home. To that end I bought a copy of a Le Monde newspaper which will probably take me a week to read with a dictionary - quite good value for 1 euro 80! By now the sun was coming out again and I enjoyed wandering around the streets of the Latin quarter noting down some nice restaurants for future visits. I came across the famous bookshop Shakespeare and company which is situated right on the seine with an enviable view of Notre-Dame as you can see. However it is tiny and very crowded to enjoy properly - makes you wonder what it must be like in the summer!

Paris Adventure Begins

So we have arrived in Paris for a 7 week sojourn. The weather is cold and sleety and we have to adjust to a 30 degree drop in temperature. Our first challenge is to get to our apartment and Hugh did not want to get a taxi as he hates taxis apparently and cajoled me with tales of how much fun it will be on the train! Needless to say the trains were not working on that day which we discover after buying the tickets, so we have to work our way back to a bus stop and then clamber on board a crowded bus with our luggage and then drag it down many steps when we finally reach another train station to get to Paris - I have to say my love for my husband wavered a bit for a moment or two! However at last we reached our stop and were met by Gilles who owns our apartment and who walked us to it. It is an adorable hobbit-like place yet one has to be careful not to drop the soap in the shower as it is tricky to pick it up without banging your head! Nevertheless it is very comfortable with lots of shops and restaurants and most importantly a yummy boulangerie nearby. I had forgotten how good French bread is. We braved the cold to walk to the Institute Henri Poincare where Hugh will be working but soon fled the elements to a cafe for coffee and a crepe - we felt very Parisian as a result.

 

After much sleep and plenty of good French wine, I was ready to tackle Paris and bought a navigo card so I can zoom about Paris on buses and metros quite cheaply. I decided to make for the Louvre which I plan to visit once a week and just look at one section as you can easily get museum fatigue in that place. So after a restorative cafe and brioche, I began with the Egyptian antiquities, which although it is not full of mummies like the British museum, it is more interesting to me as it has lots of unusual objects like rolls of linen, wooden utensils and other very fragile objects that are quite rare. Just as I was getting Museum fatigue,the sun came out and I decided to take advantage of this and walk along the Seine to Notre-Dame. This picture is me on the Pont Neuf which despite it's name is the oldest bridge in Paris and has lovely views of the ille-de-cite.

 I had a lovely wander around the little squares and buildings until I reached the Cathedral which is a nice gloomy place with the famous rose windows which sparkled on cue in the weak winter sunlight. After lunch I decided to hop on some buses and just travel around getting my bearings - I travelled along the Rue de Rivoli and saw the Louvre, the Palais Royale and went past the spectacular Opera Garnier. Then I changed buses for a trip past the Bastille and then home. Later we met up with some students of Hugh's lab who are here also and had much fun drinking and chatting in a bar near the Pantheon - it is a very hard life!

Luxurious Lodge

After three days of conference we leave to drive further north for a few days holiday. On the way we see a beautiful hyena, big herds of zebras and wildebeest and the landscape changes becoming more open and more how I imagined Africa with rolling grasslands and only occasional trees. We are lucky to see a group of rhinos basking in the sun and see some spectacular storks in the many waterholes along the way. Unfortunately we get a puncture and greatly fear getting eaten by a lion whilst changing the tyre. It can happen - I saw it in a documentary! Luckily we do not suffer this fate but nervously drive without a spare tyre until we can buy a new one. We stay in Letaba rest camp that night which is also alongside a river and see many almost tame deer in the park. We meet up with some friends Justine and Aleiks - friends from the workshop and find out all the gossip from the workshop with much wine.

The following day we drive in the most northerly section of the park where the vegetation changes to spectacular sandstone plateaus and amazing Baobab trees that sometimes look like the whomping willow tree in Harry Potter when they have red-billed buffalo weaver nests in their branches. We are staying for two nights in the luxurious Outpost Lodge which is spectacular. Our room is like a verandah open on three sides to the most beautiful view across the plains to the Luvuhu river, a tributary of the Limpopo. It is lovely lolling in the bath and watching the sun set and the stars come out. The milky way is superb up here with no light pollution and it is an amazing experience sleeping under a mosquito net watching the stars and then the sun rise. We have an amazing dinner around a fire and get to know our guide Sarah as we are the only people staying in the lodge. The impact of the global financial crisis I think.

We wake up at the crack of dawn and drive for an hour where I have never been so cold I think, but we arrive in a forest full of these wonderful fever trees and get a little too close perhaps to Africa's most poisonous snake, the black mamba. On our return we have the most amazing breakfast/brunch which forces me to sleep for the next few hours just digesting it before the next beautiful meal. After lunch we drive to a breathtaking gorge and climb to the top feeling like such adventurous explorers, at least I do. All too soon we have to leave paradise and head back south. Luckily on the way back we see a leopard sleeping in a tree thereby ensuring that we have seen the famous big five animals of the park. But really I prefer the wonderful zebras whose stripes are so vivid and strange to all these scary beasts. We also see a spectacular ground hornbill who obligingly poses for a picture by the side of the road. It is easier driving back with the sun behind us and we stay at another rest camp called Olifants for our last night in the park. It has indeed been a great African adventure.

Gorgeous Giraffes

We see many elephants which is lovely until Charlene explains that they can be rather unpredictable and can charge at cars if annoyed. Indeed quite soon we see an elephant coming towards us rather fast flapping its ears angrily. Luckily we are a few cars back and reverse quickly but the car in front was having difficulty getting out of the way. Very scary as they are enormous animals. My view of elephants undergoes a change and I prefer from then on to see them at more of a distance. It is great fun looking for all the animals on our list and we soon see many kinds of deer and antelope including a huge herd of buffalos. It is nice getting to know the other women - Becky who is from England and Wendy who is from the U.S.

At night we have a traditional BBQ which South Africans are very partial to and call a Brai. I tasted my first meal of pap, a kind of cornmeal mixture with a spicy sauce, very tasty. We also get to try a number of nice South African wines and talk to many interesting people working on Antarctic conservation from around the world. Our next safari is exciting as we see lions sleeping and then later four lions eating their kill, a buffalo. The event causes a lot of road rage with people eager to get photos and not behaving very considerately. It was all pretty gruesome rather like a national geographic programme but fortunately we were too far away to hear the sounds! I decide I much prefer herbivores and that afternoon we see a lovely giraffe placidly feeding by the side of the road. Again I was looking at the giraffe without noticing it for five seconds, so well does it blend into the environment huge and unlikely though it is.

That afternoon Hugh and I visit the local bird hide and we get up close to a group of hippos snorting and groaning in the water. It was very peaceful listening to them blow water out of their nostrils and flick their cute pink ears. They are very zen and I decide that if there is such a thing as reincarnation I would like to come back as a hippo. We walk around this amazing golf course nearby somewhat anxiously avoiding the crocodiles and the wart-hogs. We see lots of wonderful birds including a multi-coloured purple-crowned Lourie which pleases Hugh greatly. My favourite bird however is the lilac-breasted roller which likes to perch in dead trees so as to be more easily seen. When it flies it has these long blue tail feathers and is extremely gorgeous.

African Adventure

After a long flight across the Indian Ocean we land in Johannesburg en route for Kruger National Park where Hugh has a workshop on Antarctica believe it or not! We hire a car in Nelspruit and bravely drive ourselves to Kruger. We learn later that the organizers of the conference were worried about our safety as security on these roads is not good. I must say we kept the doors locked and were rather relieved to enter Kruger. We had lunch at one of the oldest rest camps at Pretiorskop and Hugh was happy as we saw lots of birds including a pretty pearl-spotted owl blinking at us in a tree surrounded by colourful sunbirds. The landscape was quite thick with thorn-trees so I saw my first elephant by the side of the road without realizing it was there for a few seconds. It is hard to believe that you could miss an elephant!

For the first three days we were staying at Skukuza, the largest rest camp which is located along the river. We stayed in one of the iconic round huts with thatched roofs which are very cute and include little kitchens in the verandah. There are many of these rest camps in Kruger which are quite affordable and very comfortable. I saw my first hippo in the river and fell instantly for these large peaceful creatures. Although they are responsible for many deaths in Africa it is not that they are aggressive but that people get in their way. Much misunderstood I think.

It is lovely winter weather, quite warm during the day but coldish at night. We are still able to sit on the deck for sundowners and to meet the other invitees. We have our first taste of Amarula, the drink made from the fruit that elephants are rather partial to. It is a little like Baileys. Quite nice. There are a number of other consorts at the meeting and we have been allocated a guide of our own called Charlene who takes us out on our first safari the next day. I have bought a nice little tick-list of animals and birds of the park which interestingly includes trees and on our first drive, a number of trees we pass obligingly have names on them which helps me to recognize them and tick them off my list which I find very satisfying!