France 2022

September - November 2022

After two years of delays due to COVID we are finally getting ready to head off to France. We are combining some independent travelling with a walking tour through Southwest France. Read more

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Traveler France 2022
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- Sep 14, 2022
- ⛅ 17 °C
- Altitude: 123 m
- Australia Victoria Hume Tullamarine Airport -37.667869, 144.84607837°40’4” S 144°50’46” E
Day 1
Off the bench and back in the air!
September 14, 2022 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
Our adventure begins! We are currently in the Qantas First lounge (not too shabby) waiting to head to Perth where we will meet up with Bronwyn, who is currently flying from Brisbane. After a short stop in Perth we will make our way to London. We have been warned to expect delays and crowds in London due to the Queen’s passing. Luckily, we only have to transit from Heathrow to St. Pancras to catch our train to Paris.Read more
Traveler Have a wonderful trip. Don't go anywhere near Green Park, The Mall, Constitution Hill. You'll disappear into a 7.5km long vortex queueing to see QEII at Westminster Hall. (Can a vortex be linear?) Anyway, keep away. Xx
9/14/22Reply
Traveler We had departed London by 9.30 and we were on our way to Paris- didn’t see many people
9/15/22Reply
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Traveler France 2022
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- Sep 15, 2022, 3:16pm
- ⛅ 22 °C
- Altitude: 44 m
- France Île-de-France Paris Paris 08 Élysée 48.87325, 2.31803648°52’24” N 2°19’5” E
Day 2
Hello Paris - it has been a while
September 15, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
We arrived a little late into London, but with plenty of time to catch the tube to Kings Cross St. Pancras for our trip to Paris on the Eurostar. The trip on the Eurostar was quick and uneventful. We had planned to get the Metro to our hotel but decided to catch a taxi instead (the thought of having to lug our suitcases up stairs because a lift might not be working was too much to bear).

We are staying at Le Petit Madeline Hotel in the 8th arrondissement - it is a cute, charming, quirky hotel with the smallest lift we have seen! The hotel is in a great location and the staff are very helpful and welcoming. Following a quick shower to freshen up we headed out to explore Paris - it has been a while but we were not disappointed.Read more
Traveler I have Mona Lisa eyes watching me sleep!
9/16/22Reply
Traveler The Eurostar - is a star! Fastest km/Hr I noticed was in mid 290s.
9/16/22Reply
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Traveler France 2022
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- Sep 15, 2022, 4:00pm
- ⛅ 23 °C
- Altitude: 28 m
- France Île-de-France Paris Paris 01 Ancien - Quartier Tuileries Jeu de Paume 48.865711, 2.32492548°51’57” N 2°19’30” E
Day 2
An afternoon in Paris
September 15, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
We left the hotel and explored the area on foot - definitely the best way to see Paris. We found our way to The Madeleine, a very big, impressive church, where we found a nice bar to have a bite to eat and people watch, a favourite Parisienne pass time.

After a couple of false starts (thanks to google maps sending us in the wrong direction) we made our way to the Tuileries Garden, a large public park located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement. I discovered today it was created by Catherine de Medici in 1564, initially as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564 and, post the French Revolution, it became a public park which is well utilised and loved by the Parisians and tourists alike.

We wandered through these beautiful gardens making our way to the Seine and Musee D’Orsay.Read more
Traveler Just live the cafes with seating facing the footpath. People watching being a popular pastime. We even saw a little dog wearing a beret!
9/16/22Reply
Traveler Just love the updates and your smiling faces!
9/16/22Reply
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Traveler France 2022
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- Sep 15, 2022, 6:00pm
- ⛅ 23 °C
- Altitude: 44 m
- France Île-de-France Paris 07 Paris 10 Ancien - Quartier Faubourg-Saint-Germain Orsay Museum 48.85972, 2.32584248°51’35” N 2°19’33” E
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Day 2
Musee d’Orsay - Thurday night
September 15, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
After wandering around Tuileries Garden we headed over to Musee d’Orsay - Bronwyn had noticed that they had a special reduced entry for Thursday evening so we decided to take advantage along with hundreds of other tourists and locals. Musee d’Orsay used to be a train station which has been transformed into a wonderful museum - one of my favourites. There have been extensive renovations since we last visited in 2009, including a greatly expanded Impressionist and Post-Impressionist exhibition on the 5th floor, and a wonderful and very funky restaurant. Many paintings we had not seen before.

There were a couple of pieces, which are a temporary exhibition - a painting and brass statues by the African American artist, Kehinde Wiley from LA. These pieces were so powerful and evoked strong emotions as they had a theme of the oppression of African Americans. As a side note, Kehinde was the first African American Artist to be commissioned to paint a portrait of an American president. He painted a portrait of Barack Obama for the Smithsonian in 2018.Read more
Traveler You guessed it. Mine was the lemon meringue pie! Delicious!
9/16/22Reply
Traveler The French know how to style a renovated train station! Remarkable! I just adore the clock…
9/16/22Reply
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Traveler France 2022
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- Sep 15, 2022, 7:00pm
- ⛅ 21 °C
- Altitude: 44 m
- France Île-de-France Paris Paris 08 Élysée 48.873299, 2.31805448°52’24” N 2°19’5” E
Day 2
More fabulous paintings and views
September 15, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
Here are some of the paintings that we particularly liked - there was so much wonderful art.
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Traveler France 2022
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- Sep 15, 2022, 8:00pm
- ⛅ 20 °C
- Altitude: 46 m
- France Île-de-France Paris 07 Paris 10 Ancien - Quartier Faubourg-Saint-Germain Orsay Museum 48.859825, 2.32743848°51’35” N 2°19’39” E
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Day 2
A impressionist smorgasbord!
September 15, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Van Gogh, Gaugin, Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Sisley and Cezanne and there may be others I can’t remember. It was a fabulous collection to see in one place and there were a number we had never seen before which was an added bonus.Read more
Traveler Ballerinas in blue were a favourite of mine…
9/16/22Reply
Traveler Degas’ ballerinas in blue was also a favourite of mine and not one I had previously seen, along with the Degas brass sculpture of a young ballerina - the only sculpture of Degas that has ever been exhibited
9/17/22Reply
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Traveler France 2022
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- Sep 16, 2022, 8:00am
- ⛅ 13 °C
- Altitude: 68 m
- France Île-de-France Paris Paris 08 Ancien - Quartier Popincourt 48.863005, 2.38660248°51’47” N 2°23’12” E
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Day 3
Pere La Chaise Cemetery
September 16, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C
I know some people may find wandering around a cemetery boring or uncomfortable - not us! We have been trying to visit Pere La Chaise since 2009, when we had the opportunity to stay in Paris for three weeks. Unfortunately, Paris experienced it’s coldest winter in 26 years so, despite several attempts, due to the ice and snow it was closed on each occasion for safety reasons.

Well, 13 years later we have made it. We spent several hours wandering around, searching out some famous peoples’ final resting place and enjoying the general ambiance and grandeur of this place. We absolutely loved it.

We did successfully locate the tombs of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Frederic Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and Marcel Proust. There were many others that we just couldn’t find but enjoyed strolling through this amazing place, searching and finding other treasures.Read more
Traveler It’s such a beautiful reflective place. Makes you very thankful for family… and it was interesting to see interesting symbols and curious emblems on the tombstones. And for many money was obviously no object!
9/17/22Reply
Traveler I also chuckled at the signs where weeds were left wild to say things were left for “biodiversite”. 😉
9/17/22Reply
Traveler how beautiful
9/22/22Reply
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Traveler France 2022
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- Sep 16, 2022, 11:00am
- ⛅ 15 °C
- Altitude: 49 m
- France Île-de-France Paris Paris 07 Ancien - Quartier Arcis 48.856788, 2.35107748°51’24” N 2°21’4” E
Day 3
Street art of Paris
September 16, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
As we have wandered around this beautiful city I have snapped a number of artworks that have appealed to me.
Traveler It’s just so interesting to sees the wide spaces used and then the nooks and crannies used as well. I love that about cities … including my own…
9/17/22Reply
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Traveler France 2022
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- Sep 16, 2022, 11:45am
- ⛅ 16 °C
- Altitude: 55 m
- France Île-de-France Paris Quartier Saint-Victor Botanical Garden 48.84277, 2.35191748°50’34” N 2°21’7” E
Day 3
Place du Mange
September 16, 2022 in France ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
After leaving Pére La Chaise, we headed across the Seine to make our way to where we had booked lunch (more on lunch to follow in a separate entry).

What I love about Paris is all the little markets that service the various suburbs within this glorious city. We wandered around one today in the Place Mange area, full of the locals shopping for supplies for today’s meals. They are so vibrant and colourful and have such wonderful aromas. A wish of mine is to spend 3 to 6 months in such a place within Paris and experience this type of living first hand.Read more
Traveler Oops.. I may have accidentally bought myself some “stuff”… 😉
9/18/22Reply
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Traveler France 2022
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- Sep 16, 2022, 1:00pm
- ☁️ 16 °C
- Altitude: 70 m
- France Île-de-France Paris Paris 05 Panthéon Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve 48.847258, 2.34725348°50’50” N 2°20’50” E
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Day 3
La Table de Colette
September 16, 2022 in France ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
We had planned to have lunch at MUMI today - I had done some research on good Parisian restaurants and MUMI had ticked all the boxes, including consistently excellent reviews. However, a couple of days ago I received an email from them saying that they had to cancel our booking as they had had a fire in the kitchen and had to close for several weeks - bummer!

Luckily, I had kept my notes for a number of restaurants I had researched and La Table de Colette was second on my list and we were able to secure a table for lunch. And, what a lunch it was. The staff, the ambiance, the wine and the food were all top notch. The staff have a real pride in what they create and love to see the joy the customers experience when eating their food.

There isn’t a menu - you just decide if you are having 3, 5 or 7 courses and if you want the matching wines. We went for 3 courses and Ian chose the wine. You start off with an amuse bouche, which was three wonderful morsels that were each divine - oyster leaf on a rice cracker with a scallion mayonnaise, a small piece of fish, again with a divine sauce, on a delicate cracker and finally roasted and dried beetroot with an horseradish cream.

Ian selected the wine which was fabulous, a 2017 Grand Cru Gewurztraminer from Alsace by François SCHMITT which went perfectly with the meal.

First course was a green tomato served with gazpacho and stuffed with deep fried pearl cous cous and other stuff - divine. Second course was zucchini served two ways with a deep fried oyster and an amazingly intense sauce - Ian had his first oyster which he appeared to enjoy. Third course was an ode to Chocolate, a cremaux, a crumb, a sauce, a crisp and more, so much more. The dessert was divine. In fact the whole meal was one I have to rate in my top five food experiences. We also had the best coffee we have had so far in Paris and it was served with delicious petite fours.

After lunch I ventured to the open kitchen to congratulate the young team of talented chefs and got a tour of the kitchen - very memorable indeed.Read more
Traveler What a memorable lunch! Great food and wonderful company!
9/17/22Reply
Traveler yep, I'll have the dessert
9/22/22Reply
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