Tasmania has redeemed itself! Today THERE WAS SUN. Not sun all the time, mind you, because there was intermittent rain and it was about 8°C, but it was an enormous improvement over yesterday and all the other days since we arrived in Tasmania a week ago. So we went to Port Arthur. On the way, I saw a sign: Blow hole: 4, Devil’s Kitchen: 4, Tasman’s Arch: 4. None of these were mentioned in our guide book but I told Relationnel that with names like those, we had to follow the sign.
AND THIS IS WHAT WE SAW. It was mind-blowing. The photos are only a reminder of the sensations we actually experienced.
And we nearly missed the next one. The sign says “Devil’s Kitchen Car park” but it should saw “Car park and viewing area”. Good thing Relationnel insisted.
And, at Port Arthur, which I’ll talk about in another post, we had a full rainbow!
Then, during the whole of our drive back to Hobart (1 1/2 hours), we were treated to a spectacular sunset.
Today, we went wine tasting and the owner of the Puddleduck Vineyard about a half an hour out of Hobart told us it is the second driest capital in Australia. Considering how much rain we’ve had since we arrived, it is difficult to believe. He had lots of other figures: Tasmania produces 0.4 % of Australia’s wine but 10% of its best wine. Which might account for the consistently high prices.
We enjoyed our tasting at Puddleduck’s. It’s the sort we particularly like where the wine grower is present and knowledgeable about his wine and enthusiastic about sharing what he knows. We also learnt from Darren that Tasmania is the second best-known producer of sparkling wine after France. We tasted their Bubbleduck first but found it too bubbly.
To my surprise, I liked their chardonnay, Darren’s fist white wine as Puddleduck “Wine Maker”, which was much closer to my taste than the ones we tried at the previous vineyard, Stefano Lubiana, which unfortunately only had four wines available for tasting (the other two were pinot noir). We bought their pinot griggio without trying it, so hope it’s good.
I also liked Puddleduck’s well-structured oaked pinot noir with its surprisingly spicy nose and finish. Not as keen on their Bazil Signature pinot noir, which, like the Lubiana pinot, was more reminiscent of the pinots from Alsace, which are rarely to my taste. At 34 dollars for the chardonnay and 42 for the pinot noir, they are not cheap by any standards.
It was a good way to pass a rainy afternoon in any case. In the morning, we just had time to visit Australia’s oldest bridge in Richmond and wander through the nearby cemetary with its old settler graves followed by a couple of tasty pies and an awful cappuccino at the Bakery before the rain set in. Judging from the large number of men and girls in kilts, some sort of Scottish event must have been on the programme later in the day.
Tomorrow we’re off the Port Arthur and are hoping that the weather will be more clement. I’m still hoping to take a decent photo of Hobart’s magnificent harbour yet!
Our Launceston home exchange hosts have a house in Coles Bay on the east coast of Tasmania where we are spending three nights. We have the most marvellous view of the Hazards (1590 feet)
Yesterday morning, we went for a one-hour walk along the beach to Freycinet Lodge and saw the famous red stones you see in all the photos of the area.
Today we went to Bicheno, about 35 K away, once the home of whalers and sealers and famous for its penguins but you only see them at dusk and have to go on a special tour. So we went to visit the Blow Hole instead.
After that, we went to the Gulch, which is a little fishing port, and bought some fresh deepsea fish whose name I unfortunately can’t remember!
We then decided to drive north a bit and came to East Coast Nature World. We debated whether or not to go in and didn’t regret our choice. I had never seen a Tasmanian devil and certainly not two curled up together in the sun after a big feast on dead possum!
There were also lots of very tame wallabies and kangaroos, including one with a cute little joey sticking out of her pouch.
Not to mention this stunning pheasant imported from Asia.
We then went back to Bicheno to have lunch at the Sea Life Centre and soak up its stunning views of the white sandy beaches and turquoise water. We had freshly caught white head (?) and a glass of sauvignon blanc from Springvale vineyards which was our next visit.
At Springvale, recommended by friends, we tasted their two pinot noirs, both pleasant, one oaked (2009) the other not (2012). Relationnel ordered one of each, not realising he waslooking at the 1/2 bottle prices. The full bottles cost 25 and 40 dollars. Gulp!
Here I’ve been, for the last six months, vaunting my 400-year old house in the Loire Valley and I arrive in Tasmania which has some of the oldest buildings in Australia. The trouble is, most of them look just like the buildings in the centre of Townsville where I grew up and the oldest date from the early 1800s. I must confess that it’s a bit hard to get excited about houses that are not even 200 years old.
On our way from Launceston to Coles Bay, we stopped to get some lunch at Campbell Town, in the heart of Tasmania, established by Governor Macquarie in 1821, (population 800). We went past a place selling R.M. Williams clothing. Last time we were in Australia, Relationnel bought a shirt of that brand and we love the quality, so we went in. The young man in the shop looked about 16. He didn’t seem to have any idea where the shirts were to be found and the sizes seemed to be all mixed up.
Most of the shirts were Stockyard, but he didn’t think to explain that it was the same brand. They were having a sale – 120 dollars for two Stockyard shirts. It took a lot of rooting around to find two Ms that we liked. What we loved was the changing room which looked like something out of a film. It seems the shop was once a grocery store.
As we left the shop we noticed a line of paving stones, with the names and details (crime, year, punishment) of the local convicts. We also passed an “Antiques and collectables” shop selling my mother’s old sewing chair for 12o dollars. I could make a fortune selling my Henri II furniture!
We crossed the road and I saw a church for sale. Now that’s an unusual piece of real estate! At the supermarket where we bought some coleslaw (we are pining for salad and vegetables in adequate amounts), I asked the lady at the check-out if there were any interesting villages to visit in the neighbourhood and she directed us to Ross (population 300) about 12 or 13 kilometers along the highway.
I consulted the Lonely Planet which was rather scathing I thought : “Another tidy (nay, immaculate) Midlands town … These days Ross’ elm-lined streets are almost gagging on colonial charm and history.” Not very encouraging , I thought. I was therefore very surprised to find a sleepy little town with hardly a soul in sight. Maybe the L.P. people don’t travel in early spring. We had our lunch at a picnic table near an old school which I initially thought was a church.
As it was starting to spit, we set off for the 3rd oldest bridge in Australia, which was a bit of a come-down (I was somehow expecting something bigger) but still very pretty with its intricate carvings sculpted by one of the two convict stone masons that built it in 1836. I was pleased to hear they were pardoned for their efforts.
We walked up to the Uniting Church on top of Church Street hill with its panoramnic view of the surrounding countryside (that’s were we should have had lunch!), then took the Heritage Walk down past the Ross Female Factory.
This was one of Tasmania’s two female prisons, operational between 1848 and 1854. I find it hard to imagine there were still convicts in those days. It was open for viewing so I lifted the latch and walked inside. Only two buildings remain, the assistant superintendant’s and overseer’s cottages.
The site was both a factory and hiring depot, as well as an overnight station for convicts travelling between settlements. Because of the fresh air, it was also a lying-in hospital and nursery. I reckon the mothers and babies must have been pretty cold. I certainly was. Posters on the wall trace the history of some of the inmates. We got back to the car justbefore the rain started in earnest.
The last time we went to Australia, we stayed in Hong Kong on the way there and the way back so we have already visited most of the sights. After touching down at about 7 am, we went to our hotel, Butterfly on Wellington, a so-called boutique hotel (I’ve yet to really understand what a boutique hotel is) highly recommended by Trip Advisor. Well, you have to start somewhere, don’t you? Book-in time is normally 2 pm, but we decided to take our chance.
The staff were very friendly and for an extra 30 euro, we took an excecutive suite we could use straight away. Considering that we’d hardly slept during the 11 hour flight, it seemed worth it. The room was spacious and attractive, with an expresso coffee machine and bathrobes as extras. After sleeping for a while, we ventured out for lunch about 1 pm. I love dim sum but I’d never seen these green ones which turned out to be spinach.
We then headed for Kowloon to do some shopping but as we neared the ferry, I saw signs for “outlying islands”which seemed far more attractive than the crowded streets of Kowloon. We studied up the guide book and decided to go to Lamma Island, about ½ hour by boat from Hong Kong Island and a favourite with ex-patriots because it’s cheaper than living in Hong Kong. We found the right pier and changed our notes to get 160 Hong Kong dollars each in coins to feed into the turnstile. You’d wonder why they can’t install a ticket system !
There are no cars on Lamma because there are no roads, just concrete paths and the occasional long very narrow vehicle full of workers. The eponymous main street has a little temple and lots of shops and restaurants catering to both Chinese and ex-pat customers. You see the occasional bike but not really that many. We followed a sign to an old village but there wasn’t much to see so we went in the other direction and did the « family walk » to Sok Kwu Wan – 1 hour 15 minutes on a concrete coastal path that wound up the hill and down again.
We saw lots of tropical trees, flowers and birds very reminiscent of North Queensland. After a while, I noticed that all the teenagers coming towards us appeared to have been swimming. We soon came across an attractive little beach with surprisingly few people. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our swimsuits with us because they even had showers and changing facilities further along. We had a freshly made watermelon juice at Hung Shing Ye instead, refreshed by a fine overhead mist that floated down on us from time to time.
When we set off at about 6 pm, we still had 50 minutes to go. We got to Sok just as the sun was setting. We’re so used to the long summer twilights in France that we could easily have been caught in the dark ! We walked along the main street which was really just a series of restaurants and chose the Rainbow. We had a delicious bug called squilla, some tasty little geoduck clams and a somewhat insipid fish called garoupa. After filling in our customer satisfaction form (they have them everywhere in Hong Kong), we discovered that our restaurant had its own “Rainbow ferry” whose price was included in the meal.
The most spectacular part of the day was the view of Hong Kong on the way back. Unfortunately, the boat moved a little too much to take photos that would do it justice. We were up on the upper deck and I was afraid that I was going to lose my iPhone, particularly when I had to keep changing sides. We walked back to the hotel via the extraordinary network of passenger walkways a couple of floors above street level, very pleased with our impromptu day in Hong Kong.
I’m in the train again, going back to Paris and my shuttered-up apartment. But on Fridays, the workmen go home early so I won’t have to put up with the pneumatic drill for too long. Then on Monday, we leave for Australia for five weeks. We haven’t been for three years. Australia is a long way away! We’re having a stopover in Hong Kong on the way there and back. I can no longer do the 20-hour journey in one stretch. When I first left, 37 years ago, it took over 30 hours, with a one-hour stop in an airport every three hours so they could fuel up. The airports all look the same; only the people behind the counters of the duty-free stores give any indication of the local population and customs. Now it’s a mere 20 hours.
But yesterday afternoon I was still in Blois so I went into the city for some last-minute shopping. It was a glorious day. The beautiful weather is holding up, just as we are about to go, of course. My first stop was a little souvenir shop in the street next to the castle recommended to me by my friend Françoise, who tells everyone she found me in the street – which is quite true, as you may remember from an earlier post. The woman behind the counter and another woman who seemed to be overseeing the shop in some way kept up a constant banter. It always amazes me to see how sales assistants ignore you completely. At least it gave me time to decide what to buy …
My next stop was quite a different experience – a family-owned tapestry shop called Langlois just a few doors on. I wandered in and could see no one about but a very pleasant and helpful man soon arrived and gave me information about the tapestries. What I thought to be a very modern collection of cushion covers is actually based on details from the beautiful mediaeval Apocalypse tapistry in Angers. Another series are long Art Deco panels, selling for about 500 euros. Some beautiful traditional panels go for around 1000 euros. There are also carpet bags, purses, jewellery and ornamental items of various shapes and sizes. I could have bought a lot of things in that shop had money not been a consideration!
My last visit was to « Les Forges du Château », a lunch/tea room/cellar/local speciality shop where my gîte guests, Sandy and Will, had had a very positive lunch experience the day before. Newly opened in June, it has a a small outside eating area and an upstairs area that ressembles a private living room and looks out onto the castle opposite, a shop with many original items and produce, a cellar in two parts – one that stocks local wines (free tasting on request) and a wonderful 15th century cellar downstairs with vintage bottles behind iron grids.
The restaurant/tea room, which is open until about 8 pm, offers an interesting selection of sandwiches, salads and hot dishes, at prices ranging from 5 to 15 euros, with desserts to follow. I will definitely be trying it out when we go back to Blois in October.
Langlois Tapestries, 1 rue de la Voûte du Château, 41000 BLOIS, + 33 (0)2 54 78 04 43, langlois-blois@waadoo.fr
Opening TimesMonday to Saturday 10am until noon
& 2.30 pm until 6pm
Sunday and public holidays – by appointmentLes Forges du Château
21 Place du Chateau
41000 Blois
When we were cycling in the Loire Valley last weekend, we stopped in the little town of Thenay, just in front of an unusual pigeonnier which is a place where you keep pigeons so the name varies in English according to the type of abode. It’s not really something I knew much about in the north of Australia where I was more familiar with parrots, parakeets and bower birds.
Pigeonnier is actually a more recent word in the French language and came into vogue in the 19th century. Before that, they were called colombiers although a colombe is really a dove but it comes from the Latin columbarium. It seems the Romans brought the tradition to France. Now why, you might ask, would anyone want to breed pigeons ? I naively thought they were all carrier pigeons but it’s really because they produce excellent fertilizer. When the crops were being sown, though, they had to be closed into the pigeon house to stop them eating all the seeds.
Inside, there were niches, one per couple. Now, isn’t that romantic? In some parts of France, such as Normandy and Brittany, only the nobles and clergy could have pigeon houses. But that was before the French revolution. After that, they became an important adjunct to any self-respecting farmhouse, signifying the end of feudal rights. Smooth walls and a row of varnished tiles were designed to stop rodents and other predators from getting in. When there were two stories, only the second floor was used for the pigeons.
Our first real experience of pigeonniers was in the south-west of France, near Gaillac, also home to an excellent wine. Once we had seen a couple of pigeon houses, we started “collecting” them and would walk for miles to visit a new one. That was in our pre-cycling days. As you can see from the photos, the variety is astounding. Some are stand-alone, often in the middle of a field, while others are part of the house. Some are in a state of decay while others have been beautifully restored.
There were a few safety rules to be followed. They had to be built away from large trees to keep birds of prey at bay and out of the prevailing winds. The largest could house over 2000 pigeons! We started our own little collection of miniatures but haven’t got very far.
The first time I heard someone use the word troglodyte in France, I was a little surprised. It conjured up cave dwellers for me. But apparently I was going to be shown their houses – cave dwellers have houses? However, it turns out that in French, it also means a house dug out of a cliff.
The Loire Valley is very old and in many places both the Loire and Cher rivers are flanked by tufa hills. If someone needed a house or a cellar, they simply dug into the tufa, which is a fairly soft stone. It was then relatively easy to add doors and windows. Ventilation is a problem of course but not insurmountable. I really was intrigued when I saw them. It reminded me of Peter Pan and Wendy and their underground house.
The photos here were taken as we rode from Montou along the Cher River to Montrichard. Don’t you just love the details? One even has a TV antenna. And the doors are so low. They weren’t very tall in those days of course.
Another area in the Loire Valley well-known for its troglodyte houses is Vouvray, the home of a very good natural sparkling wine made with a local grape called chenin blanc. It may not be champagne but it’s still very palatable – and much cheaper. Most of the cellars have been dug out of the tufa cliffs. We once visited the most extraordinary vouvray cellar with very, very old wines, that seemed to go on forever. The label on the bottle shows the door of their troglodyte cellar. Vouvray is also a very pleasant sweet wine made with the same grape.
After the visit, we went for lunch in a troglodyte restaurant, which is also a local speciality! Very atmospheric with its rough-finished walls and candles in their niches. Unfortunately, it was a few years ago, so I don’t remember the name …
Vouvray wine
Domaine Freslier Jean Pierre
90 – 92, rue de la Vallée Coquette – 37210 Vouvray 02.47.52.76.61
I have to confess that Vienna is not one of my favourite cities. I found it too clean and stark. But I still think it’s worth a visit. We went there in early June 2008 just when the World Football Cup was starting, without realising the date. The town hall was topped with a huge soccer ball and there were giant screens up everywhere. We had difficulty finding a good restaurant for our wedding anniversary and finally settled on an excellent Italian ristorante called Barbaro in Schauflergasse. We did enjoy having an aperitif at Zum Schwarzen Kameel with the rest of Vienna though.
I’ve already talked about the sunset in Paris but my very favourite spot is in the Tuileries Gardens. I don’t usually post this many photos at a time but I happened to be there recently when the sun and the sky were just perfect! They’re not of the sunset itself but of the changing light over the surrounding buildings and fountains. So come with me as I walk from the Concorde end of the gardens down to the Louvre and then we’ll have a drink at Café Marly!