France

Our time in France is over, seems we only just got here. Haven't had time for tracking down wifi to update blog, but we're sitting in Orly Airport in Paris waiting for our flight to Rome so here's a bit of an update.

Our second day in Paris  was lovely. After a little bit of  a late start, we got to Quai de la Rapee at 9:45am, canal cruise left at 9:30! Next one at 2:30. So off to Cimeterie de Pere Lachaise (Pere Lachaise Cemetary). We wandered around there for a bit and tracked down the current residences of Jim Morrison, Champollion ("first" Egyptologist), Chopin, Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaff. Then  we had a quick lunch at McDonalds and back to Quai de la Rapee for Canauxrama Canal Cruise. A nice 2.5 hours cruise up the canal under the Bastille monument and through 4 double gate locks, 2 swinging bridges and 1 raising bridge to the border of Paris. Then while we were walking to the metro station, mum spotted sacre coeur which looked to be quite close. It was only 5pm so off we went to Montmatre and Sacre Coeur Basilica. What a gorgeous piece of work! Sat on the steps for a while and soaked up the view of Paris before heading back to our hotel and dinner.

Friday morning we left Paris in a rental car. What a city to be driving in, for the first time since I was in Japan 20 years ago, on the wrong side of the road. But we managed to get out and made our way to Giverny and looked at Monet's HOuse and Gardens. I'm officially jealous! We forgot all about the underground city at Naours and drove on to Villers-Bretonneux to have a look at the War Cemetary. What a sight, all those headstones! And only the tip of the iceberg. We made our way to Lille and got their at 8.30pm, very heavy traffic on the motorway on the approach to Lille.

Yesterday we went to Fromelles, only 10kms from our hotel. We stopped at the new War Cemetary that was only just opened in July and where they have interred the bodies of the Australians found in the mass grave and identified by family DNA. Only small, not imposing but non-the-less moving. We took a short walk to the nearby Pheasant Wood where the mass grave  was and then to VC Corner. We then made our way to Ypres in Belgium. What a very nice city, unfortunately pretty much razed in German bombing and consequently rebuilt. Looked around the Menin Gate and then went to Zonnebeke to see Polyygon Wood (NZ War Cemetary) and the memorial to 5th Australian Division across the road in the maiinly Bristish cemetary. We then went to Tyne Cot cemetary - 12 000 grave stones! And still only a small part of the iceberg. We went to the Hooge Crater Museum near Hill 60 and then back to Ypres for dinner alfresco in the town square, very nice.

Today back to Paris to returnn the car and catch our flight to Rome. Glad to be done with driving in this insane part of the world. I did all the driving but it has done both our heads in. We don't know our left from our right anymore!!

Next post sometime soon maybe....Hope you're all well. We'll be back in the land of sanity down under  in 5 weeks!!!

Cheers and beers

Maz and Dave