Where to buy wine in Paris, a helpful traveller’s phone app and healthy eating the French way are the subjects featured in my Wednesday’s Other Blogs this week. Thank you to Like Home in Paris (vacation apartment rentals in Paris), Femmes Francophiles (fellow Australian blogger with an ongoing passion for France and the French language) and Mademoiselle Slimalicious (a young Sydney-based French blog writer who promotes healthy eating, fitness and exercise based on the principles of the French Paradox).
I know who I go to ask when I have a wine question or can’t decide which glass to take – Preston Mohr, that’s who. Our favorite drinking partner tells us about his favorite wine shops in Paris and believe me you’ll want to take note. Read more
Translation apps are a growing market. No longer do we need to fossick in back packs or handbags for our bilingual dictionary or phrasebook. No doubt there are now young international travellers who have never had to worry about the weight associated with carrying these books with their dog-eared pages. Read more
Cooking at home (rather than ordering take-away) enables you to be fully in control of what you eat by being aware of the nutritive value of your meals. In order to manage your weight efficiently (the way French women do), it is important to make cooking everyday one of your priority. Read more.
It’s easy to take a day trip to the little islands on the other side of the Venetian lagoon – Torcello, Burano and Murano. The most picturesque is Burano, which is actually a little achipelago of four islands, known for its brightly coloured homes and beautiful lacework. We succumbed to the charm of both. Even the dish antenna is painted pink in one of the photos!
The posts from other blogs that I’m featuring this Wednesday are by American blogger Mary Kay, from Out and About in Paris, who is a fund of useful and interesting information and will help you have a pickpocket-free holiday, fellow Australian and photographer Karina from Caramswho takes us to Siena in Tuscany and Doni Belau from Girls’ Guide to Pariswho recommends a visit to Burgundy as a day trip or weekend out of Paris. Thanks to them all!
Monday Morning Musings on Pickpockets on the Metro in Paris
After dodging holiday shoppers and having my foot run over by a renegade baby stroller while visiting the Christmas Market on the Champs-Elysées yesterday, Stéphane, Sara and I decided to take metro line 1 from George V to Tuileries to have some hot chocolate. As we always seem to arrive at Angelina’s just after it has closed for the night, I stood on the metro platform with my back to the wall to check their opening hours on my iPhone. Stéphane and Sara were facing me, we were speaking English and for all anyone knew we were tourists in Paris. Read more.
Up until last year when we found ourselves in the area, Siena had never been near the top of my travel list. Yet there we were one morning, driving winding roads through Tuscan valleys, following signs to the old city, named (according to legend) after Senius, son of Remus, of the Remus & Romulus duo. Read more
As much as all Parisians love Paris, they also adore a petit weekend—a getaway, either a day trip from Paris or an entire weekend. Recently, during autumn, I hightailed it out of the city for a wine-tasting trip to Burgundy. My friend Kelly and I headed for Beaune, which is perfectly situated to explore both côtes, Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune. Read more
Well, as I explained in Part 2, I left Milan furious as a result of our huge garage bill. I hate being had. We took the motorway straight to Ancona on the Adriatic Coast about 400 kilometers away and got there at about 4 pm. Impossible to find our B&B, Villa Fiore Conero. It was on one of those streets split in half and we couldn’t find the other end. The instructions given on the phone were not very helpful but we eventually got there.
Not a particularly warm welcome. Only 15°C and a steady downpour, hardly what we were expecting in Italy in July! We had chosen Ancona which is a big seaport so that we could cycle for a couple of days in nearby Conero National Park and wouldn’t have too far to go to take the ferry to Split. The room in the B&B was spacious and comfortable so we had a short rest before venturing into the town. The main attraction proved to be a hill with a church on top and a spectacular 360° view. Fortunately the rain had stopped by then and we could enjoy the view along with half the population of Ancona.
The centre of the town was so deserted that we decided to go to Sirolo which is in the middle of Conero Park and built on a promontory overlooking the sea. After visiting the town, which is very touristy, we found a wonderful place for an aperitivo right on the esplanade where we could watch the sunset over the Adriatic. Afterwards we had an excellent fish platter in a very friendly restaurant called La Cambusa on via Cialdini.
Next morning, we optimistically dressed for cycling but pouring rain during a very disappointing breakfast made us change our minds and go to Loreto instead which turned out to be the most popular religious destination in the area. The rain let up and we were able to wander around the town and visit the church which contains what is believed to be three walls of Mary’s house in Nazareth. We arrived during mass and visited the house in Indian file without having to queue. As soon as the mass was over though, there was suddenly an enormous line of people, many moving forward on their knees.
The sun suddenly appeared so we headed for Porto Rennati where we bought some picnic goodies and set off on our bikes along the seashore, witnessing, for the first time, Italy’s famous “private” beaches with their rows of matching deck chairs and umbrellas (all folded up because of the low temperature). We finally found a public beach for our picnic but stayed on the rocks because our feet didn’t like the strange, sharp sand.
On the return journey, we had an excellent (and cheap) cappuccino in a bar attached to one of the private beaches then made our way back to the car. In the evening we were able to walk up the hill to a restaurant near our B&B, Villa Romana on Via Montacuto, and have an excellent tagliata (not as good as our first experience in Tuscany, but still not bad). I had to speak Italian because it was too out of the way to attract tourists. We weren’t quite sure what we were ordering because my iPhone app didn’t have most of the things that were on the menu.
Early departure next morning to take the ferry to Split. Terrible organisation – we had to queue for ¾ hour just to get our tickets (we had already reserved and paid for them over the Internet with SNAV) and then had to drive for ages around the terminal before we got to the boat. Relationnel parked the car while I went to find a seat. The journey seemed to take forever and was an hour late.
But at last the Croatian Coast came into view. Everyone crowded onto the deck and it felt like summer at last – a blue sky and 25°C. Our holiday in Croatia was about to begin!
The idea of a home exchange first came to me when a French friend told me that her stepson and his Australian wife were going back to Melbourne to live. I consoled her by saying she and her husband could visit them for longer and at less expense if she did a home exchange. I even recommended a website I’d been told about: www.homeexchange.com. And it has an iPhone app as well. The next thing I knew she had organised a 6-week stay. I immediately set about persuading Relationnel to do the same thing despite his reluctance in the past.
We were planning our next holiday in Australia to include a family reunion in Armidale. During our absence, friends from Canberra were to stay in our apartment in the Palais Royal in Paris for part of the time. They recommended that we go to Tasmania so we organised a 12-day exchange in Launceston and Coles Bay including a car. Our exchangers will be using Paris and our new house in Blois as well as our second car while they are in the Loire Valley. We then started receiving other offers – Victoria, Hobart and Adelaide – so we set up some non-simultaneous exchanges as well, some of which won’t be redeemed until our next trip in 2014!
Palais Royal Gardens
With Blois and the Palais Royal combined, the possibilities seem endless. I thought that we might appreciate a break in sunny Spain before the final signature in Blois in mid-March. Miguel, who lives in Madrid, had written earlier on to see if we were interested in a swap over Christmas but we were having our bedroom ceiling repainted, so I contacted him again to see if there was a weekend in March that might suit us both. Bingo! We bought our airline tickets, arranging our flights so that he would arrive in Paris before we left and thus exchange instructions and keys.
The next question was how to get the apartment ready, especially for a short stay of four days. Should I empty the fridge or just leave a couple of shelves? What about sheets and towels? How about kitchen essentials? Our Adelaide exchanger, Kathy Stanford, a fellow blogger (Femmes Francophiles) is much more experienced (she uses www.homelink.org) and offered to share her “instruction manual”. It provided me with a good base that I could adapt to suit our particular situation (and country).
After a rather frenetic morning on the day we were going to Madrid, I now know that we need to have some spare room in our cupboards to be able to easily free up space for our guests. We had decided to buy extra sheets and towels so that there wouldn’t be the problem of changing our sheets before we left and finding enough clean sheets to make the bed when we got back. But just storing all this extra linen takes up space we don’t really have. Fortunately we will be able to transfer a lot of things to Blois which is much bigger. That should make things easier in the future.
Courtyard in Madrid
Next time, I will specifically leave a tray with kitchen essentials that don’t need replacing and indicate food in the fridge that our exchangers are welcome to use. For just a few days, it’s rather silly to have to buy oil and vinegar, tea, coffee, butter and sugar, for instance. Miguel left us a basket of fruit which I thought was a great idea. I regretted not having done the same. I put clean tablecloths and serviettes in our usual drawer in the living room but it would have been much more sensible to leave them on the table as he did. I also forgot to put the remote controls for the TV in an obvious place.
The other thing I think is essential is to have a blown-up map of the local area and indicate the closest supermarkets, grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, pharmacies, etc. We didn’t find the supermarket in Madrid until the day we were leaving! When you don’t know a country and language well, it’s not always easy to find such basic commodities. I’ll also take along some Earl Grey tea bags with me next time. I strongly believe in “When in Rome, do as the Romans”, but not for breakfast!
I’d love to have feedback on your home exchange experiences, particularly any advice you’d like to give a new home exchanger. Oh, and I nearly forgot to say that we found it a very positive experience and are looking forward to the next six we’ve already organised over the next year. Relationnel totally regrets his former reluctance!
www.homeexchange.com (which turns into www.trocmaison.com, www.intercambiocasas.com, www.scambiocasa.com, www.haustauschferien.com, etc. depending on your language!)
www.homelink.org (not always easy to follow, but you can sign up as a visitor to consult the listings without joining)
www.homeexchange50plus.com/ (a newcomer but promising because of its speciality)
http://www.lovehomeswap.com/
Apart from the Prado, Madrid’s main attraction to me are all the unusual things you keep coming across that I’ve never seen anywhere else. These are just some of them.
You can just see a building on the left that’s a squat and has signs up that seem to indicate the people have been evicted. During the day, all their clothes and furniture are gathered together in the middle of the square (Santa Cruz) and at night, they line up their mattresses under the nearby arches.
How to keep warm in a terrace café!
We saw a lot of cartoon characters in various places throughout Madrid posing for photos and asking for money.
Particularly in front of the Palacio Real, various invisible men were to be seen. This was my favourite.
The “living statue” is a well-known attraction everywhere in Europe but we were not convinced that this “escapee from Vesusius” was really alive. I think he might just set up his plaster cast and collect the money at the end of the day!
There are many shops with this type of fashion. Always very colourful. Lots of fabric shops as well which have virtually disappeared in Paris outside the Quartier Saint Pierre.
We came across seemingly hundreds of these queues and couldn’t work out what they were all about until we eventually came to a church that was bursting with people already.
Another indication of how alive religion still is in Spain is this stall on the Sunday flea market.
And on the same flea market, just look at this sofa!
On the same market, the dummies are obviously having a whale of a time.
I don’t know whether the emergency medical service is a colourful in the rest of Spain!
Our Plaza Mayor turned into a very busy and eclectic collectors’ market on Sunday.
Anyone for crisps?
And you can follow them up with sweets …
And last, but not least, we have Cervantes with his famous Don Quixote and Sancho Panza with a typical skyscraper from the Franco era (1950s).
There is a first for everything. A laptop in a plane. Probably nothing new for most of you(I can hear my drummer brother saying “2time for a Mac, sister”) but until I bought my Dell about a month ago, I had never found a laptop I was comfortable with. The seats in these planes are getting smaller and smalller. Before you used to have a place to put your book or bag. Well Iberia doesn’t have anything. Also you pay for your drinks these days. I’m using my Asia Miles. The flight turned out to be more expensive than if I’d booked directly! Do not use your miles on short flights!
So we ordered our Cavo del Penedés (a natural sparkling wine it says in English) , fuet tradicional (long thin dried sausage affairs with miniature bread sticks) and pringles in lieu of the gin tonic and peanuts we usually have in planes. So I’m feeling very Spanish. Our home exchangers arrived this afternoon in Paris and we exchanged keys and they told us all the great places to eat in Madrid. We babbled away in English and Spanish (not Relationnel who just stuck to French) and we think we know how to get into their apartment in Madrid.
We nearly didn’t make the plane. Well, with luggage anyway. The day Relationnel told me he was “give or take an hour” I changed my whole attitude to life. I used to be give or take 5 minutes. I still am with planes. Our flight was leaving at 6.25 pm. Relationnel initially said that since we were taking a taxi we could leave at 5. I insisted on 4.30. Still no news at 4.12 so I sent an SMS. No answer. I waited another 5 minutes and phoned. “Just closing up the office”. He arrived at 4.26 telliing me the taxi was on its way.
We live in the middle of Paris and were going to Orly. The traffic was unbelievable. They have these special bus and taxi traffic lanes but they were full of buses and taxis … I remained very calm but I was sure we weren’t going to make it. We had this young driver that managed to weave in and out of the traffic with frightening determination. We arrived at the desk after they had closed the baggage check-in. Fortunately we had reserved our seats and boarding passes on-line last night.
We were sent to another desk. Our flight hadn’t boarded but it was too late to check in our baggage. “Just one”, I said in French and she checked her computer again and said “OK”. This other guy, a Spaniard, was trying to get her attention, but it was too late. His flight was closed. She asked me how come we were late and I explained the awful traffic and she commisserated. Thank goodness. Of course, when we finally got to the waiting lounge, it wasn’t even boarding. I even had time to buy a book.
The moral of this is that you should leave plenty of time to get to the airport. Traffic in Paris is entirely unpredictable. Next, it’s better to take public transport! Madrid, here we come!
I keep reading all these interesting posts on other people’s blogs so I’ve decided that on Wednesdays, I’ll bring you some snippets so that you can enjoy them too and perhaps discover some blogs you didn’t know. Thank you to everyone I’ve quoted!
Fairfax media’s Ben Groundwater has published his Ten unwritten rules of travel. My personal favourite on his list is about not reclining your seat on planes during meals. His article started me thinking as to what are my rules for travel. In no particular order here is my list. Read more
A Just France apartment rental in the 7th Arrondissement.
Renting an apartment in Paris, particularly if you are going for a week or more, is always a good choice. You’ll enjoy more space than a hotel room, and you’ll save money. A lot of the apartments for rent are truly gorgeous, but there are always some things to watch out for, and it pays to ask a lot of questions and do your research. Read more
Want to know the places to get baguettes in Paris? Our hosts will guide you through the city in search of the best bread. Read more and see the wonderful video in English on how baguettes are made!
Sipping on Saturday – Favourite Paris Wine Shops
Phone Application: Google Translate
Creating a Healthy French Pantry
