Brittany continued...

Gday all,

we are at the stage of our trip where we are traveling faster than I can keep up with the Blog! Our time at Brittany passed all to quickly.After our trip to Mount St Michele we spent some time around the area of Brittany where we were based.The Brenton's were originally Clelts, and as such very close to the English, especially Cornwall. We noticed immediately the difference between the Franco's, even though they use French as their everyday language. Brenton is still spoken, and their is a move to re-establish it, in their schools and workplaces. As a PR exercise for example, Mc Donalds uses both languages on their signs. We visited the walled city of St Malo, which is connected to England via Ferries (high speed catamarans built in Tasmania!) and is a favorite holiday spot for the Poms. We walked around the city on the Ramparts enjoying the marvelous coastal and ocean views. Much of the city was bombed by the Allies during the wall, and was rebuilt, faithfully to the original. We especially fell in love with a river town called Dinan. This is a fortified Medieval town,built on the banks of the river Rance. We spent a wonderful day there, walking around the cobblestone streets.We also hired a boat, and did a little cruise. Like many of the rivers,it is connected to the canal system, and we could of gone anywhere in our little tinny! Later we visited the Abbey Beauforte, in a town called Piampol. This is a 800 year old Abbey, with a chequered past, but incredibly beautiful. It was pouring with rain and the girls were cold, so we could not spend as much time as I would have liked. You will see a photo of the girls warming their feet in the old Chapter House. Regretfully we had to leave our little house by the river and on Sunday 9th we packed the car for the 540k trip to Paris to take the Euro Star to London. We dropped our car at the return point.I was ratherproudof the factthat we had driven 5436 kilometres without a dentin the car! It was emotional moment for me when we left it behind!

Mont Saint Michel

On Tuesday we drove 45k to visit Mont Saint Michel. Founded around the year 600 after the local Bishop had a vison where the angel St Michel told him to build an Abbey on the island known then as Mt Toombe. The Abbey grew in importance both spiritually and politically. It became the most important pilgrimage site in Western Europe, and due to its location on the boarder between Normandy & Brittany, was prominent in almost every historical event right up to modern times. Somehow it survived all the various wars that it participated in, and remained a functioning Benedictine Abbey for 1400 years apart from the revolution years, when all church property was acquired by the state. When Henry I took over this part of France it remained unconquered, withstanding a number of sieges. At times during it history it functioned as a sort of independent state, with its own army and navy. It sent three ships with the French armada to Waterloo, presumably they didn't come back. It has the ability to dissipate the huge crowds that visit it daily so that, if you are patient you can get a sense of the atmosphere and mystery of the place. We spent the whole day there and left reluctantly at 9pm.

Brittany

Hello all, I am writing this from London. We arrived yesterday after a full day traveling from Brittany. We have not been able to update our blog for a while because we did not have access to a computer. We had two magical weeks with Naomie in Paris. Noamie is as an amazing person, and she and her son Kevin were happy to accommodate a family of four into their two bedroom apartment! I have learnt that space is the prerogative of the (very) wealthy in these large cities. Noami took a week of work and showed us around, then we pottered around the city ourselves the second week. We left on the 2nd taking advantage of the Sunday morning traffic to make a quick exit of the city. It worked well, and we were out of the city within half an hour. We stuck to the tollways and had a uneventful (for us) trip to St Malo where we met the folks who were looking after the house we were to stay at in a little village called Plour St Rance, on the banks of the Rance river, Brittany. The fist impression of Brittany is breathtaking. It is an staggeringly beautiful part of the world green, lush, picture postcard stuff, with medieval villages, walled cities, Abbeys green rolling pastures in every direction. Its climate is like Tassie. We were fortunate and only had one day of rain, but judging by the amount of green mould that grows on anything that is left unattended (including boats) for a while, it is very wet in the winter. Also like Tassie, it is a superb boating area with a long maritime history, so I was in seventh heaven, with an anchorage or marina around every corner of the road. The photos I have posted are of our little cottage and the surrounding area. Ill update more later, with highlights; especialy Mt St Michelle, probably the most incredible thing I have ever seen, but I must head off now to explore the sights of London.

Love to all at home...

Peter

OK. Paris.

So much to say and such little energy to write it all down!!

heres it all in short.

Seen/Been:

- Eiffel Tower

- Wall of Peace

- Notre Dame

- Oldest Bridge

- Oldest Tower in Paris

- Oldest Tree in Paris

- Basillica

- Arc de Triumph

- The Louvre

- Mona Lisa

- The most expensive street in Paris

- The most expensive restuarant in the world

- The canals, and tunnels under the streets of Paris

- A big ball- Geode 3d theatre

- U2 live... ok not really... but in 3D!

- The Finish of Tour de France

- Montmarte

- Moulin Rouge

- Galleries Lafayette

- The Tube

- The Tube

- The Tube

- The Tube

- The River Seine

- Ferraris, Bugattis, BMWs, Porsches

- Umbrella Dancing

- EuroDisney

- Mickey Mouse

- Military School

- The Opera house

- The Court of Justice

- Bastille

- Antique Markets
- and lots more that will stay in our memories but isnt coming out right now...

First Paris Days...

Allo allo

Yes the Imms's have finally made it to Paris! We arrived on monday night. It was a 7 hour drive from Pissos and then 1 hour to find a place to park the car!! Finally we gave up and called Noemie (our friend who we are staying with in Paris) and she came and found us and helped us find our way. We were VERY thankful.

From our very first day in Paris Noemie had everything planned out for us. We woke up, had breakfast and then straight out the door to catch the tube to the military school in the city - a very IMPRESSIVE old building in Paris... but then again... all the buildings here are BEAUTIFUL. This military school was top class and only French people whos parents had been members of the French military are alllowed to attend and the grades must be top of the ladder. Not an easy place to be i think.

When we had seen the military school we looked behind us and there it was... the EIFFEL TOWER. Trademark of France, the image we had dreamed of ever since we started planning this trip. but before that was the wall of peace which had peace written all over it in approx 400 different languages. A beautiful glass wall with concrete pillars scattered on either side, but all parts covered in writing, a beautiful symbol of something that we all long for. After finding the word in english we walked through and on to the Eiffel tower and the gardens that are before it.

The tower seemed to get bigger and bigger as we got closer and closer and felt smaller and smaller... It really is as beautiful as they say it is. But the closer you get the more people you see... the line was MASSIVE abouth half way through the line there was a sign saying "three hour wait from this point" just to climb the stairs to the first level!! Sorry everyone, but we DIDNT wait in the line. The way i see it, the whole idea of going to the eiffel tower is to SEE the actual tower, so really, seeing it was enough, and we wouldnt have seen anymore of it if we were on it.

I just realised that this blog is going to be rather long... we have done SO MUCH in the last two days!!!

After the tower we walked on and came to the Palais Trocadéro, the building dedicated to human rights. From there it was a gorgeous view of the tower and everything in between, there was a plaque stating that it was forbidden to sit on the grass and also to swim in the fountain, but i dont think anyone had read it because there were people doing both of those things, and ALOT of poeople too!

Not far away was the Cathedral de Notre Dame. WOW. So much lore beautiful than i had imagined and huge aswell. I think i have only ever seen it in the movie Hunchback of Notre Dame so i guess an animated film cant really give you any idea of what to expect... So on our first day, we saw the oldest church (Notre Dame), the oldest bridge, the oldest tower (not the eiffel tower), and the oldest tree!! So much information to digest in one day!!

SECOND DAY

Woke up, breakfast, ready to go.

First caught the bus to Montmatre, from where you can see almost all of Paris. VERY BEAUTIFUL. At the top we saw the Basilica Cathedral, also amazing. We werent allowed to take any photos inside though... Beyond the Cathedral is a small village, we walked through there and saw the art markets, artists painting in the square - all amazing. Apparantley, to be allowed to paint in that spot the artist needs to fill out a form and there are SO MANY artists wanting to paint there that the waiting list is 4 YEARS LONG!!! It was wonderful to walk through and see it all in action though.

We walked down from there to the high fashion end of Paris... wow wow wow... It was soooo hard for me to see all those beautiful things and then look at the price tag!! Chanel, Dolce & Gabana, Versace, Diesel, Giovanni, and SO MANY MORE!! Even the store itself was absolutely magnificent! the roof - domed, stained glass. Gorgeous tiers all the way up each holding a store. So beautiful... Mum bought her very first leather jacket. A twenty fifth anniversary present i think, very nice. A good find by me i might add... and haley spent a few euros on a dress, one a bit closer to her price range than most of the rest.

Outside we saw the Opera house, another AWEsome building, absolutely beautiful. Gold statues on the top shining in the sun glistening with french beauty, more statues further down depicting the great artsists whose music still lives on within the walls of that building- Beethoven and Mozart were the two i recognised, but there were sevral more, im just not very knowledgable in the history of great musicians... But even just the sight of that building inspires you to want to learn more about the men who earnt a place on such a beautiful structure

We continued down the road, past diamond jewellery worth hundreds of thousand, past red ferraris, past the ritz the most expensive hotel in france where all the celebreties stay, past many more beautiful scenes and sights and finally came to the Luvre, which is ABSOLUTELY HUGE!!! it was once a palace for a King, he decided that it wasnt big enough to show how powerful he was and so he expanded it enormously, it still wasnt finished when he died. The building its self is almost too much to take in, in front of it is two large glass pyramids and some triangular ponds, some with fountains. Haley and I were very gratefull for these water features as both our feet needed a good soaking in its nice cool refreshing water, it was a very much needed and welcomed rest for our poor tired feet. We decided not to tackle the Luvre right there and then so we are waiting for a whole day to spend there, so our feet can be spent only in one place perhaps...

Anyway! after that was home to a nap for me and then dinner and dessert, both BEAUTIFUL french dishes cooked by our lovely hostess Noemie, and then BLOGGING!!! woo hoo!!!

So now i am finished, and you are probably relieved... sorry... ha ha.

So until next time!

Farewell!!!!

Love to all,

Kirsty

xx

St Emilion, Bordeaux

St-Emilion is a medieval village that somehow has survived the passage of time unscathed,

to the extent it has been heritage listed by UNESCO as an international site. Originaly it was a pilgrimage

site for pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem. St Emilion was a Benidictine monk who was a sort of Robin Hood

character, lived in a little cave, which is one of the holy sites in the village, along with the largest

underground church in Europe. The geography is clay and sandstone perfect for vineyards so for

centuries it has been a wine growing area. There is said to be over 200 kilometers of tunnels and

caves underground in the area. We visited Chateàu Rossabelle and saw their underground cellars.

Kirsty and I picked up a bottle each of their 2004 vintage, which will be at its best in 10years, so

they tell us. Incidentaly, although the cost of living here is much dearer than home, wine is very cheap.

Most recent Bordeaux vintages sell for less than $10 aus in the supermarkets. We had lunch at an outdoor

cafè then took a tour of the holy sites, that are still sacred and tended to, by the local faithfull. The picture

above of the girls is taken at the entrance to the underground church. We were forbidden to take photos

within. St Emilion realy is magical, all the tiny shops tucked into unlikley nooks, and the cobble stone

streets are just the way you would imagine them to be; you have to keep reminding yourself

that this is the real thing, not a recreation for a movie set!

See ya.