Friday 14th May. Visit to the Chateau de Versailles.

Going to be off early today so we wouldn't have to line up for long. Tried to book tickets on line but couldn't get through. That had the warning bells ringing and I nearly suggested we make it another day but wasn't game as this was Annette's must see in Paris and I'd be in real trouble if for some reason we didn't get to go before we left. Plan to be there at 8.30am. Reality sucks.

Got there about 10.30am. Never seen so many people in one line snaking around the huge front courtyard. It appeared that even after you got the tickets you then had to line up to get in. Took a punt and sent Annette off to line up to get in. Finally got in and blow me down if they didn't have 6 ATM machines where you could get your ticket. Watched someone get a ticket so out of the line I go and I couldn't get it to work and neither could most of the other people who tried. Back in line inside and around the corner and here were the girls selling the tickets and most were using cards to pay and I guess that was holding up the other machines. Got the tickets at 12 and got back out to see the line had doubled. There was no way the people on the end were going to get in before 3pm. I didn't take a photo of them because I didn't want to be reminded. Annette of course had gotten to the front of her line ages ago and was now waiting on the other side of the fence. We were lucky the guard let me in and didn't make me go to the rear of the line. I must have been just a bit grumpy cause some bugger saw me and had time to carve it in stone and place it in the grounds before I got the tickets. Bloody rude.

 

In at last and even I would have to say it's worth seeing. I might have felt like a sheep on market day and I was glad to get back outside. I did get a few ideas of how to decorate the ceilings and it's easy to see how the old king impressed his females. (and a few blokes as well I guess by my observations). The guards were telling us to carry our backpacks to the front (pickpockets) but that left me feeling exposed.

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Enough of that, we are now outside and it is truly just breathtaking. Many photos and a few ideas but I'd have to buy out the whole block.

This was a section of one of the smaller features of part of the garden. The guide book said that the garden was built over an area of more than one thousand hectares and it looked like it still is. Annette had us walking all afternoon and we still didn't manage to see all the formal areas and didn't even get to see the park land areas. I started to get a bit jaded with the formal areas and lent over a gate to get a photo of a wild area and the gate swung open. Next thing a guard was yelling out Monsieur, Monsieur you cannot open gates. Where the hell did he come from? We must have been in an area the size of Hamilton gardens surrounded and criss crossed by 8 metre hedges. Inside the hedged areas are wild areas the size of our block. (Well maybe not that big but this is the shot over the gate).

 

Suitably told off and laughed at by Annette, off we went to see Marie-Antoinette's farm and hamlet, which is what I was interested in. On the way we saw our first red squirrel, cute little fellow but too quick for a photo. I got a few good ideas from the buildings but I'm not sure if the building inspector would be impressed. See below.

They started shutting off sections at 5.30 and we had both had enough by then so home we went via another gate and walked through another part of Versailles to the railway station. Beautiful buildings and I'm sure it would be worth staying there for a day or two to explore the town.                                         

We used the metro to get there and back and it was pretty simple to get the hang of even for us. The train out of Paris was a double decker so we had a bit of a view of the surrounding area once we got above ground. Back to the apartment, very tired.

(Rod, I don't know about the Scots, the French men seem to be giving Annette enough attention being fair and ginger. Most of the females here are olive and on the smaller size, if you get my drift.)

Au revoir for now.

Out and about in Paris

Graeme - Met the owners of the unit and one of their children last night, lovely people and couldn't be more helpful. They live upstairs and we were to go up at 8pm when they got home. Put the head down on the bed at about 5.30 pm and woke up at 10pm. (No comments from Trev please). Great start but they seemed to think it was normal for their visitors. The lady said she would come and collect us if we were lost as long as we were still in Paris (and she worked this out after only meeting Annette for 5 minutes, boy she was good).
Up early and about on foot. Not sure where were were going but heading in towards the centre. We decided not to take the metro, it shouldn't take long on foot and we would be seeing a bit more of Paris. Ha!!!.

First stop was to the local street market to show Annette (remember I was out and about yesterday) and buy something to eat. Bit of an experience hearing French being shouted at you from the stall holders but very easy to ignore. Nola, a message from Annette, she wants one of these for her birthday.(as seen in one of the many tempting window displays)

Got a bit further along and another huge market. Got a bite to eat and the stall holder asked if Annette was American and when told no AUSTRALIAN he replied that's not as bad then, which made the other french people around laugh.

Further along found the Port de Plaisance de Paris-Arsenal full of interesting boats that people appear to live on. A very nicely kept area. One of the boats had an interesting item attached to the side.

By now it's past lunch, we haven't even gotten to the la Bastille, (just up the street from where we are staying) and I'm beginning to think we should have taken the metro. Evey corner you turn there is something else you want to take a closer look at. It is just unbelievable how old and pretty the buildings are. Every alleyway holds another treasure to find. This is just a couple below.

This bloke was making the biggest bubbles I had ever seen. The children were loving it. Arrived in the main area, so to speak around 3pm. Didn't have time to have a look around as I wanted to check out a map shop so it was over the river to the south side. Discovered a small museum with roman ruins that we will check out later and Annette discovered the expensive shops.

I threatened to put these two onto her if she even thought about going inside. The female officer was doing a pretty good job on a group of musicians how had just started to play in the street. She remined me of one of my work mates actually. Got to the map shop just before they closed and guess what. Had a whole down stairs area full of maps of all France except where we wanted to walk. It appeared to be the only one missing out of about 150 maps. Our plans may have to change. Left there and walked back home, very tired, very sore. Second impression of Paris. Very pretty city where we walked through. Very clean. All the people have been helpfull, even it they thought we were americans. This was the only odd thing we saw and it reminded me of someone.

Until tomorrow
Au revoir

Arrived in France

Still having trouble loading photos. Finally got the packs packed. Can't say we had way too much stuff but it weighed way way too much. I can see I'll end up carrying more than I wanted to carry. Felicity drove us the 3 odd hours to Melbourne where we had a quick lunch with James and had a family shot taken.

Then it was off to the airport where there were a few tears when we said goodbye to Felicity. (It wasn't that long ago when we said goodbye to her there.). Off like a couple of overgrown school kids. It still hadn't really sank in that were we off for three whole months.

Got settled in the plane and just about ready to leave and felt the need to go to the toilet. (you know it's an age thing). No problems I thought, just wait until we get up there and then be first off the block. Good plan except it took ages and I was really really busting and didn't enjoy the take off one bit. That out of the way the flight to Singapore took ages but were were watching movies and eating so it wasn't too bad. Had an hour or so at Singapore airport and had a bit of a walk around. Very clean, so much so Annette wanted me to go and take a photo of the loo. Went into the gents and saw what she meant. First cubical had the hole in the floor job. Annette didn't tell me about that. Backed out pretty quick, the next one was more like home.

Off on the next plane to France, one of the new airbus. We were in the cattle class section upstairs at the rear. Two seats against the side so no climbing over a stranger. The seats were the same as the first plane but there was a good bit of space between the seat and the window which meant that you could sort of stretch out a bit more. It was a long flight. Let no-one tell you any different. If we go again we will be having a short stop in Singapore. More movies and eating then attempting to get 8 hours sleep before we landed. It was like, you wake up with a kink in the neck or the arm rest is sticking into your back or Annette has placed her legs over yours and now you can only feel one. You can't get back to sleep so you sneak a look at where the plane is (Shows you on your seat screen). You think you have to be dreaming cause it's hardly moved since you woke last time. This went on time and time again. I'm telling you, it was a long flight and sleeping on the ground in a tent is going to be easy compare to sleeping on that plane. (For a week anyway.)

Breakfast arrives and is consumed and we are about to land. Annette now informs me that she is not feeling very well. I said, what do you mean? She says, sick you know, thrown up anytime. Seat belt light is on and we are coming down. I say, its the pineapple you ate with breakfast. I left mine but I see it was gone when the trays were taken away. Pineapple, egg omelet, ham and orange juice. Yeah good choice girl. Well I suppose someone on the plane had to use those bags they supply and boy she did. Got off the plane white as a sheet and the escalators didn't help much either.

We got in the wrong lane for the passport control but give her credit she noticed something was wrong so we went back to the end of the right line. Got our packs ok which is always a worry and ventured outside to catch the bus into the city. I'd say it was just about as cold as it gets in Hamilton. Not a good start.

Do you want my first impressions of France? Probably not but here goes. The airport sucks. Most of the people who were not flying looked like they could get a part in a B grade movie and they would be carrying knives. A few of them were flying and customs were checking there bags when we walked on by. On the way in along the freeway there was a group of people living in make shift shacks on the side of the road. Like along the freeway to Melbourne airport. Between the high fence and the road. Not a good look. Neither is the amount of local youths who think they can spray paint. We got off the bus and maybe it's the area, maybe not, but every where you looked there was someone who was either homeless or looked as if he was. I'm sure it can only get better.

Found our apartment. Small, clean and functional. It will do nicely.

Damn, just lost another photo and a heap of text. Annette was still not feeling well and as you can see she was checking out the Paris sewage system. Before someone asks, no, she is not wearing a G string, it just looks that way. What a first day in Paris. Until tomorrow. Au revoir.

The beginning.

Graeme - Way back in 2008 I was talking to one of my younger female co-workers when the conversation somehow got round to Tasmania and the overland walk between Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair. You do talk about some silly things when working night shift, silly at my age anyway. I told her that I had always wanted to do the walk and to my surprise she said she did also. After a general discussion we left it at that. A short time later I was talking to another female co-worker (you can see a pattern here) when she expressed an interest to go. Well I thought, if I'm going to walk halfway across Tasmania in the middle of nowhere at my age this is the way to go, surrounded by females. Next step, to casually bring it up in conversation with the wife. It went something like this. Me: "I was talking to a couple of people at work the other day and we were discussing doing the overland walk." She: "Oh, right, that's interesting. Who were they?" Me: "Well, actually Annie and Kahlene." She: "Like bloody hell you are, I'm going with you." To be fair I never thought I'd get away without her as we have both been interested in that sort of thing, we just never gave it enough time.

So off to do some planning and it ended up with just the two of us going. Gear was purchased and tested in our local Grampians with many days and a few over night hikes.

*View from Mt Thackeray ,Grampians. *View across Victoria Valley, Grampians.

Come March 2009 and we were off, ready or not to Tasmania. We spent 8 days walking in sometimes atrocious weather whilst back packing all of our supplies

*Ist day and lovely weather. *Lake Ayr. *Rear of Kate and what a view, had to look carefully to make sure it wasn't Kahlene.

We slept in our little tent all but one night (basic huts are situated a days walk apart). Bathed in the coldest water, saw some extraordinary scenery and I still got to walk with a young pretty blond, Kate, who caught up to us on the first day and stayed with us. She was walking it by herself, pretty amazing really. Anyway, we finished it with only one sore knee and we were pretty proud of ourselves. We didn't take the boat ride on the last day, we walked the whole way, stupid actually but we had the most amazing camp site ever on the last day on the shore of Lake St Clair, all by ourselves. We could have been anywhere in the world.

*Finished - Lake St Clair.

Home and what to do next. Other people we met on the walk, Nicky and Tony, had told us about their walks in New Zealand and boy did that wet the appetite somewhat. Trev, another work mate had recently been to New Zealand with his family and had lots of photographs as well. (I think Trev's idea of walking is how you get to your car and back and most likely thinks we are just a little bit demented.) Lots of planning to go in early summer and then Annette is told by her work, no holidays available for that time of year, bummer.

What to do now? Yeah, I know, let's walk around the UK and if all goes to plan and we don't nearly kill ourselves in the process we'll do France the following year. How long? I dunno, after paying for the airfares we may as well make it worthwhile. How about 3 months? We can go in the winter when everything can look after itself. Deal. (Now you are probably saying to yourself and anyone near you "what are these two idiots thinking" and you would be right.)

That said, more camping and walking with the packs.

Lake Elizabeth in the Otways.

Now, along comes my sister and brother-in-law who say that they are having a holiday in France and will still be in Paris for the first fourteen days of our holidays. Fly into Paris and come and stay with us and then go to the UK. Well gents, I don't know about your wife but an invitation to go to Paris doesn't come along every day. More walking with the packs, tickets are booked, all is well, off on the 11th of May 2010. That was until a volcano decided to do it's thing and my sister cannot fly out and has to cancel her holiday and there goes our 14 days of accommodation in Paris. Great! Me:"Not to worry, we were planning on doing France next year. We'll just catch the train to the UK." She: "Not bloody likely (where have I heard that before). I'm not flying into Paris just to catch a train out." Again she is right and all will be well I'm sure, even though neither of us speak a word of French, that was to happen before next year.

More planing, not near enough training with the packs. Accommodation booked in Paris for 8 days then a leisurely walk down the Seine to the coast to catch a ferry across to the UK. Train ride up to Glasgow and off exploring Scotland. The West Highland Way is looking good. Me, I'm looking forward to listening to the accent of the Scottish lasses and sampling some of the whisky. Annette, she will have to keep her ginger locks low, she's part Campbell!

Nothing booked, we'll be playing it by ear, be free as a bird, probably cold as brass and wet as a shag but it will be interesting that's for sure. If you have read this far I hope you'll tune in from time to time. I'll attempt to keep you all informed of what we are getting up to.