The girls are back

Marg and Erika returned by taxi from Orly airport after their holiday and next day we were off to show Ek some life on the canals. We decided to go back up the Marne river and take a few days to get to Meaux and she would leave us and return to Australia.

The Marne, although a big river has nowhere near the commercial traffic of the Seine and travels through some beautiful parts of Paris and the nearby country. There are islands in the river which have houses on them but no vehicular access. These little outboard powered punts are used by the owners to get to and from ‘The Mainland”.

The area had many examples of  lovely French houses.

As we continued up the Marne, Erika confided that since her trip was planned, she had the dream of relaxing on board with a baguette, a glass of bubbles and her sketchbook, So, we did it:

Where is the sketch book, Erika?

We continued upstream headed for Meaux, stopped for an evening and met a family of swans – who insisted on being fed.

Enough of the swans. At one location on one canal we counted a procession of over 50 of them. In Europe they are almost a problem.

We found ourselves back at the small township of Esbly. There we met “Annie Oakley”! The village appears to be in the residential area for Euro Disney which is not far away. Sonna Warvell, being part of the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show has lived here for many years and is considered a local. She is quite a character.

Another interesting thing happened here, there had been an unwanted encampment of gypsies on public open land within the village. At about 10.00 pm they started to decamp. There must have been one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty caravans and mobile homes all recent models, all pristine, which drove past us in a convoy lasting almost two hours. The travellers were off – to descend en-mass on another unsuspecting community. A surprising sight that we in Australia know very little about.  

Back to our favourite pastime, relaxing.

Even driving Matilda

Erika left us at Meaux, catching a bus to Charles de Gaulle airport then back to reality in Geraldton.

We now commenced our journey to Belgium. That meant back through Paris, up the river Oise and beyond.

One comment from Peter. “I am not allowed to put any comments in print regarding the girls trip to Italy or the size of the new suitcase we had to buy for Erika’s trip home or the new boots that Marg has in the cupboard or any of that, so I won’t”.

There will be more, so stay in touch.

Peter - all by himself.

There was probably a time when Peter would have looked forward to being by himself in Paris but these days something seemed to be missing. There was no point in mooring in Paris so it was back to Villeneuve St Georges which we knew – easy to get to and close to Orly airport for the girls return.

Peter had plenty to occupy him on Matilda, mainly painting and the hand rails around the sides were the project of the moment. Galvanised pipe with years of paint flaking off.

Being under the flight path to Orly meant that there was a continuous stream of planes to be looked at and the challenge was to know brand and model. He knew the Boeing and Airbus types but a continuous stream of strange models and liveries was intriguing. Antinovs were common and of course the new breed of 100 seaters, Gulfstream, Fokker and Bombardier were plentiful.

Another game he played was to recognise the engines of the large planes – Boeing and Airbus. There is a distinct sound difference between Rolls Royce (British) and General Electric (American).

The birds were getting in the way.

Here is some trivia: We all know that the Rolls Royce Merlin aircraft motor powered the British Spitfire and Hurricane fighters in the second world war but few people know that the arch enemy of these two planes, the German Messerschmit ME109 was developed around 1935 using the Merlin motor in its prototypes and also that the last ME109s made used them as well! (these planes were made by a Spanish company, Hispano Aviaicon, after the war) and was actually the first and last production plane to use them.

The bridges of Paris have always been known for their beauty and grace as well as their innovative design.

This bridge carries a Metro line into Gare d’Austerlitz. The detail in the steelwork is beautiful.

 

This is a pedestrian bridge – a passerelle. Sort of suspension, sort of arch. Good fun for the engineers.

There are so many that it is difficult to see most of them by themselves.

 

There are many examples and the detail work is beautiful.

The Alexander bridge was an engineering masterpiece when it was built and still has more beauty and grace than any other.

In all there are thirty seven bridges within the peripherique. All of them have their own character

                      

This copy of the American's Statue of Liberty on an island in the Seine is one of two purported to be the working model used by designer Federic Bartholdi. The other is in the Jardin du Luxembourg – Paris.

Enough of Peter’s fascinations, the girls are returning and there will be more cruising. Till then, keep in touch.

Canals with a Difference

We said farewell to David and his colleagues, packed away one form of transport and headed to another.

Erika and I were off to visit some canals of a different kind. We left Orly Paris and flew to Marco Polo Venice on Monday morning.

We decided it was a long way to come to France and not visit another country.

This modern glass sculpture caught our eye on Murano. We also did the tourist thing and saw a glass blowing demonstration.

These chaps are so skilled however I have to say neither of us wanted to buy the chandelier

A high-light for us was a visit to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. This was housed in what was her home on the Grand Canal. She must have been some lady. A lot of the pieces were collected before the artists became famous and some done especially for her.

This bed head piece is still where it was when she lived here. No longer a bedroom of course.

An early Jackson Pollock

 These glass figurines we made from sketches by Picasso.
The Grand Canal is in the back ground.

It was such an eclectic collection, we could have stayed all day.

There was also a temporary exhibition which blew us away. This artist is relatively unknown, Charles Seliger. His range of works was also fascinating.

After a couple of days we said a fond farewell to Venice......

and caught a train to Florence.

We only had 24 hours here so we were limited to the odd church and the occasional shop!!!!!

This is not a market, it’s a church dedicated to the Madonna. Centuries ago, it was disguised to keep it safe. The interior was amazing.

We have no photos of the shops, only advice.

Girls….come to Florence with empty cases, don’t fly budget airlines (baggage restrictions) and.............. leave the men at home.