Venice (part 2)

Today we walked through the 2 courtyards of the home of Marco Polo, born around 1254. His nickname became Marco ll Milione (of the million lies) hence the name of the 2 little courtyards where the Polo family lived; Corte Prima del Milion and Corte Seconda del Milion. When he returned from aboard there was debate as to the authenticity of his travels.
We continued today to take in the atmosphere of this beautiful romantic city. The narrow alleyways,canals and lots of tourists like ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Venice

Arrived by water taxi, and began exploring. Our apartment is in Castello which is a very nice area. In the morning we caught another boat to the island of Murano and viewed the famous glass blowing master at work. The small water canals are picture perfect. The family marvelled at the lights of San Marco square.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paris

 We dined on good old New Zealand lamb for Christmas dinner and had a blessed time with the family (we hope our family and friends did too). Another adventure was going to the Catacombs. After descending 20 metres from street level, we walked through 2 kms of tunnels with a mind boggling amount of bones and skulls of millions of Parisians packed along each and every wall. During WW2 these unnels were used as headquarters by the resistance. They were created in 1810. We found many bible scriptures engraved on the walls.

 On our last day we soaked up the views from Cathedral de Notre Dame. In the evening we dined on snails for the entree and frogs legs for the main.
   This morning we parted company with Samuel and Hayley after an awesome week, they flew to Hong Kong for New Years and we headed to Venice.

 

 

A scripture on the wall in the Catacombs!

The seine river!

Ice Skating!

view from notre-dame!

 

The Louvre

The Louvre exceeded our expectations,could have spent a lot more time exploring the masterpieces .I found some of the paintings to be emotionally quite moving something I hadn't expected . A great day.

Eugene Delacroix 1798-1863!

Outside the Louvre!

Charles Le Brun 1619-1690! (Chancellor Seguier)

Herman Nauwincx 1623, Le bapteme de leunuque ethiopien!



Liberty leading the people!

Eustache Le Sueur  1616-1655!

 

 

Our Neighbourhood

Our first morning here we ventured out and immediately found the I Love You wall; A romantic meeting place for lovers from around the world. Next we discovered Rue Gabrielle! After, 350 steps up to Sacre-Coeur dome, the view was amazing. The day ended with an early Christmas present to Josiah from Sam and Hayley... tickets to the Paris vs Lille football game. The photos say it all. The crowd was 48,000 strong.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Sam and Hayley for amazing tickets to Psg vs Lille!

 

Paris

We started the day in Tours with Gabrielle opening her pressies (24 years today). Gift shopping in France proved easy for our wonderful daughter. We drove 3 hours to Charles de Gaulle and dropped off our Peugeot (euro lease). We opted for a taxi to Monmarte and met Isabelle our landlady (arranged through air bnb) and it proved to be an easy changeover. We were thrilled with our apartment for the next week. It is 3 stories up, very secure and cosy,  with a very large DVD collection perfect for those cold Parisian nights. Within the hour Samuel and Hayley arrived, and with much excitement about being reunited we caught a metro to the Eiffel Tower. We climbed to the second level, it was too windy to go up further. With all the Christmas lights and seasonal atmosphere it exceeded expectation. We finished a special day with a French style cake for the birthday lady.

 

 

 

Tours

This was our last stop before heading to Paris for Christmas and our rondevu with Samuel and Hayley (they were coming from Brugge Belgium). Tours was a lovely city with exquisite shops and electric trams running down the main street. The city was in Christmas mode and a highlight for the family was going on the Ferris wheel.

Main street Tours

 

Chinon, The Loire Valley

We visited a fortress in the town of Chinon. This place is famous because it is where Joan of Arc met the future king.The tower brought to mind proverbs 18v10 from the bible. The name of the Lord is a strong tower.

 



 

 

 

Chateauxroux

Liz and I had our senses blown out in this beautiful French restaurant .......life is for living after all. From the moment we walked through the door,greeted by a short waiter wearing a white apron, round glasses and a thick French accent, the stage was set.The French dine late it was seven thirty the only other guest was a black man eating soup and bread.The cuisine was divine we worked our way through all the courses , beautiful red wine  flowed finishing with a well brewed coffee served by the owner of the restaurant himself.Over the course of the evening all the tables were full,the diners arriving to eat after nine.The guests were intriguing, the table next to ours sat a man who was famous dressed in leather boots to his knees, a leather cap a weathered face  grey hair to his shoulders his wife equally eccentric there mother and son seated with them, they started their meal with a pot of tea. The French have beautiful skin even the elderly .Anyway the atmosphere in the place was as memorable as the food......when we left the owner chef and waiter lined up to bid us farewell at the door...The play we had just lived was over but the night had just began    Ooooh la la

The lot Valley

Thank you Samuel for giving us Frances amazing road trips,due to that book and Gabrielle doing the research we discovered St Cirq Lapopie. No cafés open due to it being winter.We ended our day in Figeac for the night.

 

St-Cirq-Lapopie

 

 

 

South of France

We have been so captivated by the small villages we are staying in, there hasnt been much time to post a blog. We left Andoain after a blessed week with the Wesney family (te queiro mucho los Wesnos). On the last morning Phil helped on the cake stall raising money for the Basque students at the Acdemy to come on a trip to New Zealand. We met our future billet and parents over tapas which was lovely.

    Our first stop was at the seaside village called St Jean de Luz. We could hear the waves crashing from our hotel room. On exploring the town we came across Basque bell ringers parading down the quaint streets, and a band playing in the plaza. Loads of atmosphere to breath in.

     The next day we traveled to a cobbled stone village at the base of the Pyrenees mountains, St Jean Pied De Port. We discovered places dating back to the 1500s. We ended up staying at a bed n breakfast which was owned by Tim, a retired hotelier from Essex. Over breakfast by a log fire he relayed some of the chequered history of his home stay. Firstly a brothel in the 1800s (when the walled city was a military base). Then it was taken over by Jesuites! This town is a picturesque stopover for La Camindo de la Santiago which is now a popular trek. Something we will add to our bucket list.

 

The fundraiser for New Zealand trip!

St Jean de Luz!

Dad at the beach

Basque Bell Ringers!

Mum outside the hotel

St Jean Pied de Port

Autumn

Day trip to Bilbao

Today we visited the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao.A stunning piece of architecture.We have also been into San Sebastián and Pamplona.It was lovely having Katie Wesney with us to be like a second GPS (such fun)!

View from a country cafe in Andoain 

 Josiah and Phil outside a church in San Sebastián 

                                                           Katie and Anna in Pamplona

In front of Guggenheim museum