The travellers return

We're back. Actually, we've been back for two and a half weeks, but there's been plenty to keep me occupied and no time for blogging. I'm planning to share photos from the trip, but in the meantime here are some of the things we brought back.

I bought this necklace in Paris, from a little shop on Rue des Abbesses in Montmartre. We were stating up near the top of the hill, and walked past the shop many times during our two week stay, on the way to and from Abbesses metro station. The necklace was in the window, and caught my eye almost immediately - I bought on Day 2 of the trip, and later went back for matching earrings. The range of colours means it goes with just about everything :)

And this is how it looks on (with the earrings, and a new hair colour):

The next two photos are of one of my Venetian purchases. It was my birthday while we were in Venice, and I was given some money to buy something for myself (thanks everyone - you know who you are!). Nan McElroy, who I'd engaged to give us an introduction to Venice, suggested that I have a look at Attombri, next to the Rialto bridge. I did, and I met one of the two designers (brothers Stefano and Daniele Attombri - we met Stefano), who showed us some of their pieces. I couldn't choose between this one:

... and this one:

... so I came away with both :) The small glass beads in each one are from among thousands bought by the brothers when a Murano glass factory closed down - I was told they date from the 1920s. The larger beads are newer, and some are specially designed and made for Attombri, like the etched blue disk above.

And then to Rome, where we found Sancesario Bijoux on via dei Banchi Vecchi. Another artisan workshop, the family of designers only make a maximum of six copies of any one piece. The jewellery is all made by hand, using old techniques, and the glass in the earrings and bracelet I bought is Venetian.

Travel blogging

We''ve been in Paris for nearly two weeks, and tomorrow night we'll be on the train to Venice. We're blogging daily on http://travelpod.com/members/silsby and you're welcome to follow along.

Living on the river

Not everyone in Paris lives in an apartment. A few never forget that their city exists because of the river Seine  ...

Two weeks and four hours and, all going to plan, we will be in the air and heading out of Sydney :)

Three weeks

Three weeks until we leave Canberra. 23 days until we arrive in Paris.

This photo was taken in October 2010, from the square in front of the Hotel de Ville (town hall). Very Haussmann.

Travel books - part 2: Paris

I need to do more planning and less talking about it, now we're down to nearly three weeks until departure. So I'm just going to list some of the books I've read in preparation for this trip, and maybe they'll inspire someone else. It's by no means a comprehensive list, but just the books I've bought and referred to most often this time (and I may come back and add more if I think of them):

Frommer's Paris: Free & Dirt Cheap
France: Instructions for Use [Alison Culliford & Nan McElroy]
City Walks Paris: 50 Adventures on Foot [cards]
Paris to the Past: Traveling through French history by train [Ina Caro]
Parisians: An adventure history of Paris [Graham Robb]
The Sun King's Garden [Ian Thompson]
Walks through lost Paris [Leonard Pitt]
Eyewitness Travel: Paris
Everyman Mapguide: Paris

Travel books - part 1

I'm a bit (well, more than a bit) of a sucker for books. And when I'm planning a trip, my focus is on books about the places I'll be visiting, because I like to know stuff before I get there.

I still have my Eyewitness Travel guides to Paris and Rome on hand from the 2010 trip, but I've added the Venice and the Veneto guide from the same series this time.

They're great guides for planning, but pretty heavy to cart around, especially if you're going to more than one city, as I realised last time while dragging my bag up flights of stairs from the London Underground and up to our second storey apartment. So I'm using them a lot for planning, but don't intend to take any of them with me. With that thought in mind, I also bought the Eyewitness Travel Pocket Map and Guide for each city - a very condensed version of the larger guides, with a foldout map in the back of each book. They're only 154 x 74mm in size, and less than 10mm thick, so very portable. The writing is pretty tiny though - not too bad in good light, but I'm not getting any younger, so I kept looking to see if there was anything better.

I also have the laminated StreetSmart Paris map and CityFlash/Hallwag International Rome map from the 2010 trip. They're both good clear maps, although not all the smaller streets are named. You can write on them with an erasable marker - handy for planning routes - and just wipe them clean when you're done. The Paris map includes a metro map - very handy. I'll probably take these with me.

Then I found the Everyman Mapguides. These small (124 x 74mm) books divide the city into sections, with a foldout map and information (what to see, where to eat, etc.) for each area. While not all the small streets are named, the maps are very legible, and the format means you're not trying to deal with large folding maps in the wind. These ones will  be going with me.

Yes, that is a New York edition tacked on the end. Not for me - my parents are going to the US while we're in Europe, and I thought this might be handy for the couple of days they have in NYC.

Gallo-Roman Paris

No, not Notre-Dame - it's what's under the square in front of the cathedral that interests me today.

Just to the left and back a little from where I was standing in 2010 to take this photo is a set of steps heading down into the dark: the entrance to the Crypte Archeologique. Down there we'll find some of the oldest parts of Paris on display, including the remains of the quay of the ancient port of Lutetia, the Gallo-Roman bath house, the early IVth century city wall, and medieval remains.

In five weeks we'll be in Paris

I've started giving a bit more shape to our fortnight in Paris, and plan on exploring the city in chronological order. And to that effect, this is where it all started: a small tribal settlement on what is now the Ile de la Cite (on the right). There has been a bridge here at the narrowest point between the island and the Left Bank since the Romans, although the Petit Pont (in the centre of the image) has been rebuilt numerous times following floods, fires and accidents. The current bridge was opened in 1853.

Mmmm ... coffee!

I was browsing through the website 'A Guide to Rome' a few days ago, and came across a page on Caffè Greco in Rome. The author mentions that there are three 200+ year old coffee shops in the world: Le Procope (Paris, 1686), Florian's (Venice, 1720) and Caffè Greco (Rome, 1760).

Le Procope, which is now a restaurant - we may need to try it (they even have a children's menu if the boychild isn't feeling adventurous).

Caffè Florian in Venice, which over the years has attracted such notables as Goethe, Ugo Foscolo, Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust, Grabriele D'Annunzio and Eleonora Duse, Rousseau, Stravinsky, Modigliani, Antonio Canova, and Casanova.

 Caffè Greco, via Condotti, Rome, has its own list of famous patrons, including Liszt, Strauss, Mark Twain, Hans Christian Andersen, Baudelaire, Mendelssohn, Stendhal and Wagner. 

As we'll be travelling to all three cities on this next trip, I feel a need to check them all out ...

La Madeleine

Lamppost along the Place de la Madeleine, Paris. Photo taken in October 2010.

Today I ordered the boychild a small Pacsafe crossbody bag so he can carry a few things (like his camera) himself on the trip. Also ordered an RFID-shielded wallet, big enough to take the passports and credit cards. These days the pickpockets don't actually need to pick your pocket to get your details - a relatively inexpensive reader held in the vicinity of a passport, credit card or other ID with a radio-frequency identification chip embedded can read your information (credit card number, name, and other details) through your standard wallet/bag/pocket without even touching you. I withdraw cash from an ATM once every few days while we're away, so the rest of the time the cards and passports can be safely tucked away. Funnily enough, Miss Tizz's class at school had a visit from Constable Kenny Koala yesterday, and this was one of the topics mentioned. There is a DIY solution which involves wrapping your cards in aluminium foil - it doesn't completely shield them, but it means the reader has to be a lot closer (within an inch or so - not impossible in crowded areas).

Next I'll book our Paris to Venice train tickets, and then make some decisions about museum passes and other things we might like to book in advance.

Paris 2010

A few more images of Paris from our visit in October 2010 ...

 

Magician in the forecourt of the Pompidou Centre

The glass pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre

Hand-in-hand on the streets of Montmartre - Rue des Martyrs

Notre Dame, from the river

I need a to do list!

In four months we'll have arrived in and left Paris, and be halfway through our time in Venice! It's coming up so quickly now, and there's a lot to do before then.

Paris - the Trocadero Gardens with La Defense in the background,
taken from the Eiffel Tower in October 2010

• The X-man's birthday - next Wednesday
• Miss Tizz's birthday - three weeks later
• The Husband's birthday in July
• Several extended family birthdays in the next few weeks
• At least one high school open night to attend (high school! How did that happen?!)
• High school & Fast Track program applications to complete and submit
• Apply for the X-man's passport, so I can ...
• Purchase our overnight train tickets (Paris to Venice)
• Work on lists for Paris, Venice and Rome - what to see & do, where to eat, what to pack
• Work - the type that pays so we can go on this trip.

There's more, but that's plenty to get started on. And it's perfect weather for making lists and filling in forms - cold, blustery and wet.

Dear Diary, today I went for a walk ...

Just a short walk - 16km from home, down the hill, round the lake, and back up the hill to home. According to my Polar heart rate monitor (which I purchased when I started the 12WBT program, and which provides great motivation to keep going) I burnt 1531 calories. It took 3hr 20min of actual walking, with a break in the middle for a breakfast of poached eggs, spinach and one (just one!) slice of bacon, plus a much-needed espresso after an early start - the sun was still coming up when we started.

Many many thanks to my friend Sam who could easily power away much faster than me, but who walked with and encouraged me the whole way (especially that last painful bit uphill!).

In other news - I have booked two tickets for Europe in September! The X-man and I are jetting off to Paris, Venice and Rome for about 5.5 weeks. Yesterday was the point where I'd had enough of tracking fares, and just decided to book it and stop looking. Now there's just apartments, trains between Paris and Venice, and Venice and Rome, and a little matter of a passport for the boychild to sort out. Lots of fun over the next few months :)

Souvenirs

We didn't do any serious shopping in our 2010 trip, but one thing we did buy, and which I aim to make a tradition, was a small Christmas decoration from each place we stayed in.

From England, a royal crown from Hampton Court Palace:

From Paris, the Eiffel Tower in a gift basket:

From Rome, a tiny nativity scene in a jewellery box, bought from a stall near the Vatican:

planning for paris

Today I received a stroll offer from Paris Greeter-Parisien d'un jour. Actually, it was a second offer - I had to refuse the first because it was only 1.5 hours before our Eiffel Tower booking, and on the opposite side of the city - we just wouldn't have made it in time. Fortunately the volunteer was able to make it earlier in the day, so we are all set for a stroll around the 12th arrondissement one morning in Paris :) It's a district I probably wouldn't have visited on my first trip to Paris, apart from the train station as we left on our way to Rome, so this is a great opportunity to explore a little further.

Femme au jardin (Claude Monet, 1866)

I also found out, thanks to the wonderful people in the Slow Travel forums, about a Monet exhibition at the Grand Palais which opened this week. Huge crowds are expected, and it was strongly recommended that I pre-purchase tickets, which I've done. Well, one ticket - Miss Tizz is under 13 and therefore is entitled to free entry. It's supposed to be one of the biggest exhibitions of Claude Monet's work ever put together, and we're very much looking forward to it.

change of plans

Posting from the netbook, just to see how it goes. The keyboard's a little smaller than usual, but it's not bad at all. And as I type, Duran Duran's 'View to a kill' is on Rage, with some fabulous shots of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. Not long to go now!

My plan to use a Travel Money card while overseas didn't last too long. I found a better alternative with the ING Orange Everyday account, which comes with a VISA debit card. I can link it to a high interest savings account, and transfer money online, instantly, whenever I need to access it. I can use the VISA debit card at ATMs internationally to withdraw cash in the local currency, or use it for EFTPOS transactions, to pay bills via BPay, and transfer money with their 'Pay anyone' facility. Much simpler, the international ATM withdrawal fees are the same or lower than the other options I was considering, and it looks like a good everyday account for when I'm home too. And Billy Connolly does their ads ;)

sorting out the money

I've been trying to get my head around just how much money we're going to need while we're away. We've paid for the major travel expenses, most of our sightseeing in London and some for Paris and Rome, deposits on the three apartments (and the London one needs to be paid in full before we leave). So basically it's down to the balance of the accommodation, some entry fees and local transport, and food and basic supplies for the apartments.

We'll have a kitchen and a washing machine in each place, so we can live fairly cheaply (we like good food, but we're not really 'foodies'; we're not into serious shopping - no plans for French frocks or Italian boots; and we're not even going to attempt to see everything in one trip - we'd prefer to spend some time soaking in the local culture rather than paying to go into every museum and gallery and tourist attraction and historical site). We'd like some nice meals out over the five weeks, but we're not hunting Michelin-starred restaurants or the latest trendy and expensive bistro.

So what's it going to cost? How long is a piece of string?!

I joined the Slow Travel online community some time back, and there is a wealth of information, both on the main site and in the forums. At the risk of sounding daft, I asked this very question. I can look up exchange rates, but that doesn't tell me a lot about the cost of living in another place. One reply I received said that 20 euros per day should be fine in Rome if we're doing our own cooking, and that wouldn't be skimping on groceries - Italians would live on less that that most days, but we obviously won't be buying in bulk or from discount supermarkets out in the suburbs.

So what I've come up with is allowing 100 GBP per day in England, and 100 euro per day in France and Italy, pre-loaded onto a Travel Money card along with the apartment rent balances for Paris and Rome, accessible via ATMs and which can also be used like a credit card at point of sale (and which is NOT linked to a bank account). I'll take 100 GBP in cash to get us started. And I'll also have my normal ATM card and credit card as backup, although I'm hoping not to use them.

And I just have to hope I've got it roughly right!

sunset views

Another booking made, this time for a sunset visit to the Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower, Paris
Photo: Free On Line Photos

The Australian dollar is doing quite well against the pound and the euro at the moment - might be time to organise some cash and a travel money card.

27 days until departure!

it's in the details

I watched An American in Paris tonight - the 1951 movie with Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, lots of dance sequences and some fabulous Gershwin show tunes.

And the thing I noticed, apart from the occasional shot of the Eiffel Tower in the background, or the hilly streets of Montmartre? In Jerry's (Gene Kelly) tiny tiny studio apartment, with the little folding table and chairs in the cupboard which opens into a kitchenette, there is a bed that elevates to the ceiling when not in use (fortunately, because it blocks the door when it's down).

And that's just what we'll be sleeping in when we go to Paris - a bed that can be raised to the ceiling :) I'd never seen one before finding the apartment, and now I've seen it in a nearly 60 year old movie. 'S wonderful!

international guiding

Miss Tizz, my travel companion, is a Junior Guide, and thought it would be fun to visit Guide Units overseas during our trip. I contacted Guide HQ in Sydney, and today she received a letter containing a WAGGGS Introduction Card. WAGGGS is the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts - an association of member organisations from all over the world.

Tonight I have sent emails to the national organisations in the UK, France and Italy to see if we can organise a visit in each country. I received an email back from the PA to the International Commissioner, Girlguiding UK, within minutes of hitting 'send', and we've been put in touch with the region office for where we'll be staying in London.

I've also received a response from the Italian organisation, but an automated one - the office is closed until August 27 - apparently everyone in Italy goes on holidays in August!

So now we'll have to leave room in the bags for a Guide shirt and sash, make sure all Miss Tizz's badges are sewn on, and think about some small things we can take as gifts to the units we visit. The husband has suggested buying a roll of the commemorative Centenary of Guiding $1 coins from the Australian Mint. Any other ideas?