Autumn in Paris

Paris in October was frigid when we last visited it in autumn.  Temperatures had steadily been dropping from early to late October as Max and I drove from the western to the central parts of France during a two month journey by car.   

I recall in those first few days as we pounded the Parisian pavements, four layers of clothing for us Aussies weren’t cutting it.  The dry coldness was so sharply biting that my nose, ears and face were threatening to break like shards of glass and fall off, or so it felt, as we gazed out at the radiating boulevards from the top of the Arc de Triomphe to survey elegant Paris stretched out before us.

Visually, Paris in autumn is a gorgeous time to visit when the light gives the city a soft palette complemented by the tones of autumn foliage.







Romantic Parisian bridge in the autumn sunshine


Visiting newly found friends, it was a pleasant stroll  from the metro through neighbourhood parklands in the 15th arrondisement to Edith’s and Paul’s lovely and light-filled apartment where we were invited for dinner.  Pizza, French champagne and wonderfully stimulating conversation turned out to be a great partnership before catching the bus back to our hotel in the centre of town.  Pizza and politics do seem to go hand in hand, don’t you think?  Max and I feel so blessed to have met and engaged with these two charming, intelligent and witty Parisians during our travels.  Edith and Paul certainly enriched our cultural tour of France back then, and Paul's passing since this visit has made this memory even more poignant and special.  

I’d already fulfilled my chocolate fantasy by visiting Paris' October chocolate expo.  The remainder of our time in Paris was spent revisiting some of our favourite landmarks and destinations and discovering new ones.

FAVOURITE LANDMARKS



Sexy combination - Ferrari & Eiffel Tower!

Outside my most favouritest museum, the Louvre







The stylish Art Nouveau Galeries Lafayette, my favourite department store

PERE LACHAISE CEMETERY


Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris' 20th arrondisement is a fascinating look into the who’s who of deceased celebrity.  This turned out to be a half-day excursion for us as it is so vast an area to cover.  There are beautiful gardens within where we noticed locals had come to sit, read, reflect or picnic.

 
Avenue in Pere Lachaise cemetery




A few of the many memorable tombs and plots visited were those of Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison (of The Doors fame), Oscar Wilde and the historical crypt of medieval lovers Heloise and Abelard.  Isadora Duncan and Maria Callas we found in the massive double-storey crematorium which is quite an imposing structure to visit in its own right.

The cemetery produces a detailed plan of notable grave sites so you can pick and choose to pay homage according to your interests whether they be philosophers, actors, scientists, musicians, writers, artists, poets, playwrights, intellectuals or aristocrats. 


LA DEFENSE

 

La Grande Arche




La Defense is the business district of Paris and La Grande Arche is its brash statement in bold architecture.  Here we marvelled at the futuristic landscape of skyscrapers and explored the area on foot as it lit up at night.



Sculptural art on water in La Defense

 

ST OUEN FLEA MARKETS


Weekend flea markets in Paris are great to visit for sheer curiosity value rather than to buy.  Catching the metro to Porte de Clingnancourt took us to a huge array of markets around the St Ouen area.  

The sidewalk flea market of Marche aux Puces de Saint Ouen (St Ouen flea market) where locals bargain over household odds & ends was a kaleidoscope of cultures.  Mostly male sellers, buyers and browsers were crowded around second-hand goods that were sprawled over scatter rugs on footpaths.  Across the way and not far from here, African traders operated from stalls of handbags, clothing, costume jewellery and footwear at another market location.



Flea market - anyone care to buy one left-footed black boot?

Further along are numerous other markets including its most well-known one on Rue de Rosiers which has vintage and antique pieces for sale.  Much as I'd have liked to have spent some moola, I prepared myself not to get emotionally hooked into buying.  There is the issue of luggage space and weight, I argued to myself.  

Very pricey on the hip pocket, there were tons of gorgeous items I saw.  They definitely would have needed logistics and careful planning to get them home, let alone carry on public transport back to our hotel, had I fallen in love with that must-have piece. Thankfully, head reasoned over heart by the time we left.




Love the red French beret in St Ouen!


Luckily for us, cloudy skies cleared for the remainder of our Parisian stay and the sun came out at just the right time of day to warm our faces and thaw our hands as we picnicked outdoors on baguettes around Paris' landmarks for lunch. Although chilly, much of the weather was calm and dry.

We’d reached the end of our grand tour of France after having bonjour-ed, merci-ed and au revoir-ed our way around the country for nearly two months.  However, as then, France still leaves me with a yearning for more - to explore and discover more, taste more, learn more and experience more. Forget Paris in spring rain or crowded humid summer.  Of all the seasons I've seen Paris in, autumn is definitely the best time to be here.


Paris By Chocolate - An Autumn Delight



Autumn is upon us here in the southern hemisphere and with it comes the refreshingly cooler mild weather.  Thoughts of rich velvety chocolate have now begun to pop into my head ......mmmmm.  However, my tastebuds have sunk to new lows. I am beginning to indulge in supermarket-purchased chocolate.  How woeful, especially when I think of all those varieties of refined artisan-made chocolates I’d sampled when last in Paris. 

Upon returning from the chocolate expo in the city of lights, love and indulgences in the northern hemisphere's autumn time, I’ve turned up my nose at the brand name chocolates and macarons available here in Perth.  My chocolate palate had changed.  After tasting some of the best of the best from around the world all under one Parisian roof, how can one eat the commoner’s stuff on offer in local stores back home?

SALON DU CHOCOLAT

The Salon du Chocolat is an annual cocoa extravaganza held in Paris each October.  When I discovered that our trip to Paris coincided with this event I was beside myself with delight.  My favourite food on tap in one vast Aladdin’s cave! 





"How do I love thee, let me count the ways.  I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach".             
The English poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning must surely have been referring to chocolate.


 

By metro, getting to the choc expo at Porte de Versailles in the 15th arrondissement was a good 30 minute commute.  It was a reprieve from the outside temperatures and, once inside, my heart rate went up the moment we paid for our entry tickets and stood gawping at the huge number of chocolate displays on offer.  

INSIDE THE TEMPLE OF COCOA

Stepping into the Salon du Chocolat was to worship at the Temple of Cocoa. Only the French can elevate the bitter cacao bean to such sweet divine status.  I’d reached heaven!  There were slabs of chocolate and nougat stacked up high on trestle tables, chocolate sculptures, chocolate fountains, pyramids of macarons, chocolate artisans at work, chocolate merchandise, video presentations, cultural song and dance acts, sugarless chocolate, chocolate goblets, chocolate sauces and all the various accompaniments that could possibly partner it. Chocolate couture was on display on mannequins.  These fashion pieces crafted from real chocolate were to be worn by models in the early evening catwalk parade.  


Chocolate couture


Madonna eat your heart out!

Countries represented were Switzerland (of course!), Belgium, Germany, Italy, Japan, Syria (pre-revolution days), Ivory Coast, Mexico, Madagascar, South American producers as well as local and regional French chocolatiers and patissiers.  

An amazing taste sensation was partnering foie gras with chocolate and onion jam - who would have thought!!!. Those French think of everythink!  But, my best chocolate discovery was the green tea-dusted Tokyo chocolate beans.  After the sweetness of all the other varieties, the slightly bitter and unusual flavour was refreshing.

After two or three hours of free sampling, Max and I reached saturation point and we still had a few hours to spare.  I was ready to regurgitate my addiction but our new French friend, Edith, who’d rented us her family townhouse in Monpazier just weeks before, was meeting us here after work.  By the afternoon we went through it all over again. Groan ..... I couldn’t stomach any more.  Hard as it is to believe I had to wave away further offers of free chocolate from vendors. 

Too much of a good thing is exactly that.  Looking back on it now, though, I wish I had crammed in just one more mouthful!

Halloween at Eurodisney




Leaving behind the serious adult world, we decided to let loose and indulge our "inner child" at Disneyland Paris for four days before returning our lease car to the Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris.  It's an easy drive to the Disneyland complex from Epernay in the Champagne region from where we were departing. From the resort it was then a 30-45 minute drive to reach the airport.  Simple with the help of a GPS! 

MONTEVRAIN IS AN EXCELLENT BASE 

We chose to stay at the Ibis Hotel in Montevrain, a great value and cheerful choice and close to the train station that links this small town to Eurodisney, rather than the more expensive option of staying within the resort.  One train stop away and two or three minutes later we were there - how easy!  Trains came and went between both destinations frequently.

A shopping centre with many eating options and a supermarket is walking distance from the hotel.  This is also where I got a much-needed great hair cut and colour, despite the young hairdressers in the salon speaking very limited English and my French limited to a few words and basic phrases.  A small designer outlet centre that resembles a little village is close by for those keen on splashing out on brands such as Armani, Burberry and the likes.

HALLOWEEN - DISNEY STYLE

Pumpkins were in abundance around the resort as a big nod towards the American celebration of Halloween.  The theme also tied in beautifully with the autumn palette of colours. Golden tones on foliage and in gardens visually gave the place much needed warmth as outdoor temperatures were on the brisk side of the thermometer.


Shades of orange light up Snow White's castle and performing stage


There were two weeks to go before our departure back home to Australia after being on the road for almost six months and Max had come down with a terrible cold.  Two weeks into our travels, almost six months prior, when we had begun our travels the same thing happened.  What can I say, the man's consistent!  Just like bookends.


Max's 'Cheshire Cat' impersonation in front of Disney-style Halloween gardens


FUN FOR ALL AGES

Despite the cringe-worthy factor for adults, it was kind of fun and playful experiencing the theme parks and its many stories and characters, if we overlooked the price tag associated with being there.  There was so much to see, do and cram in. Whilst chilly and overcast for most of the time, it did not deter the crowds who were a mix of French and international visitors.  British families seemed to be overrepresented - most likely due to school holidays.  

So, we'd been to Disneyland in Florida years before, and this was not quite on the same scale.  But in saying that, being big little kids at heart didn't deter us from enjoying the experience a la French-American style. Against a bilingual backdrop, everything from signs to announcements are given in both languages. There was Adventureland, Discoveryland, Frontierland and my favourite - Fantasyland which is towered over by Sleeping Beauty's castle.  Main Street USA is where you arrive after coming through the turnstiles and this area resembled a small 1800's Western-style town.  It is also where we viewed the colourful street parades with their gorgeous costumes and elaborate floats. When we wanted to relax and rest our feet we boarded the cute Disney steam train with its old-fashioned whistle which took us on a railroad journey around the whole complex, passing overhead at times.


Snow White mobbed for autographs



Walt Disney Studios and the famous man himself


By the time the four day mark neared of indulging in park tours and rides and feasting on expensive rubbish takeaway, visual overload and theme park weariness kicked in.  We were well and truly ready to re-emerge into the land of reality.


Letting the inner child loose with a sugar high!

On The Champagne Trail



If French is the language of love then French champagne is the magic drinking potion of love.  What could be more sensuous to drink than a frosted flute of golden liquid that tantalizes the palate and nose.  And those celebratory bubbles of joy are perfect for festivities.  It’s a sharing kind of drink that gives more pleasure when paired with good food and good company.

A recent trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in central Australia with a group of close girlfriends - all of us this year celebrating our milestone birthdays with bottles of bubbly – had me looking back from a distance of 8 months and thousands of kilometres away to our time in France travelling the Champagne route.

Champagne countryside



EPERNAY

The departement of Champagne is the French heart of sparkling wine countryside and Epernay is its epicentre.  While the average person would save champagne for celebrations and special events it appears that in Champagne the locals don’t need an occasion to drink it.  It’s on the lunch table and dinner table most days according to a local.  How lucky are they to be sipping this beverage of delight on a daily basis and none other than the highest of qualities.

We had arrived after a late harvest so the autumn vines were bare of fruit. The vast spreads of vineyards across these chalky hills and flat lands grow three varieties of grape that all go into making up champagne – pinot noir, pinot meuniere and chardonnay. 

We spent a night in Chalons-en-Champagne at an Ibis hotel, a 40-minute drive to Epernay, as moderately priced accommodation in town was full then moved to Epernay for 3 nights.  In France we often make use of the hotel chain Ibis as they have hotels in numerous locations and are affordable, comfortable, clean and usually well located.  Very formulaic but at least you know what to expect.
Avenue de Champagne, Epernay

Situated on the town’s main artery, Epernay’s classically elegant Avenue de Champagne, are some famous maisons de champagne such as Pol Roger, Moet et Chandon, Mercier, Perrier Jouet and many more.  There is an air of restrained affluence along this street.  We chose three cellar tours to do – Moet et Chandon, Mercier and de Castellane.  These were the ones in this small town that were most readily accessible to the public and also easily reached on foot from our hotel.   Mumm, Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot are located around Reims.  Mind you, after three lots of champagne tours and tastings (not all in the same day) we’d just about reached bubble fatigue.


Dom Perignon looks out at Moet et Chandon entrance above

M & C cellars below

MOET & CHANDON

Moet & Chandon, who are part of the swanky LVMH conglomerate (Louis Vuitton Moet and Hennessy) put on a classy but pricey tour with an introductory self-promoting film narrated by Scarlett Johanssen and then finished off with a glass of bubbly.  The limestone cellars were impressive and we learnt a lot about the methode champenoise and the history of the brand. 80% of its champagne is exported worldwide.  It was incredible to learn that the grapes are all hand-picked so as not to bruise the fruit.  Are you for real?!

MERCIER

Mercier, also part of the LVMH stable, has a very showy tour where we descended by lift to the cellars, put on audio headsets and taken by electric train through their massive underground network followed by a selection of champagne tastings.



Mercier champagne house




DE CASTELLANE

De Castellane is a champagne house probably not so well known in Australia – around 20% of it is exported but mainly to European countries.  “In France we keep the best champagne for ourselves” replied the guide. Oooo-kay, so what does that imply about the well-marketed, brand-conscious ones that fill the shelves of international grog shops?  This maison had the least showbiz factor about it but was the more realistic and interesting for two reasons – its Belle Epoque tower that stands as a landmark above Epernay and its real-life production plant.  In the factory we watched staff in action as bottles were being labelled and packed by modern machinery. Climbing the tall tower leads to panoramic views of Epernay and the surrounding Marne Valley. 

Maison de Castellane's Belle Epoque tower

de Castellane museum and
bottling plant


Some interesting facts - a bottle of champagne has anywhere between 43 to 250 million bubbles (depending on the size of the bubbles and which scientific study you believe) and has 3 times more pressure than a car tyre (whoa, a live bubble bomb!!).   We were shown how the indentation at the bottom of the bottle is important for distributing the pressure.  Initially, flat-bottomed bottles would explode in cellars.  The best vintage year in the last decade was 2002.  Not every year is a good vintage year for champagne. You can tell the quality of a champagne by the size of the bubbles – a high quality product has very small (fine) bubbles so we were told.
Considering that Epernay sits atop miles of musty underground limestone tunnels and cellars it is a wonder that the place doesn’t cave in on itself.
Driving along one of the many Champagne routes we passed through peaceful villages in bloom and past rows and rows of vineyards.  Some places such as Bouzy and Dizy seem aptly-named for the locality – after a few glasses you too could be feeling like this.  There are hundreds of small, family-run champagne producers in the region that sell to the local market.   

DOM PERIGNON

At the tiny village of Hautvillers, we visited the resting place of the father of champagne, the Benedictine monk Dom Perignon.  He lies in front of the altar at the Hautvillers abbey church.  

Across the road from his abbey is the champagne producer Gobillard et Fils (Gobillard & sons).   As we entered, the place was heaving with families sitting down to tastings around wooden tables and Parisian daytrippers loading up their cars with not bottles but boxes of champagne. 


Hautvillers abbey church, Dom Perignon's resting place


 

VERZY FOREST

A change of scenery from champagne tasting was a daytrip east for some hiking through the Verzy Forest to see a pocket of distorted beech trees, the Faux de Verzy (meaning fake or false), that have been growing bizarrely for centuries.  Some have developed canopy or umbrella shapes, others reach out gnarled limbs.  The dark outlines of branches remind me of black ink that has been blown with a straw across paper.  Botanists have been mystified as to their twisted and exceedingly slow growth pattern.  Whilst walking along a trail we were stunned out of our reverie by loud rustlings of leaves and pounding of hooves as a pack of wild boar tore out from the woods in single file metres away from us.  Whoa, adrenaline rush!  It was exciting to see real wildlife in its natural surrounds.   

Twisted beeches, Verzy Forest


Close by, along a quiet leafy trail, we reached the edge of Mt Sinai (no idea about the name) on foot which has a World War II bunker and a great lookout to the plains below.

Max by this stage was coming down with a cold.  He’s ending the trip the way we started. Two weeks into our travels he caught a cold and two weeks away from the end of our wonderful adventures he’d caught another one. What can I say, he's consistent.

Memorial church, Dormans in the Champagne region

Medieval Troyes and Ceremonial Reims




Our October sojourn in the French Valley of the Kings had drawn to a close for us.  It was time to leave the land of forested estates.  Where the rich, the elite and the aristocratic can be seen gathered on Sundays in hunting parties dressed in period costumes atop their horses, accompanied by a traditional horn blower and packs of hounds.  Where gateau-like chateaux adorn the landscape.  Where fairytales, fantasies and follies come to life.

So we left Fantasia Land (ie, the Loire Valley) to head towards another well-known area of France – Champagne, the Land of Bubbly. Eastward bound we travelled deeper into colder weather and greyer skies.  After weeks of gorgeous sunshiny high 20’s it was now downright gothic and wintry.

TROYES

First stop – Troyes – for several days. Two reasons drew us here. It was the ancient and original capital of Champagne filled with half-timbered medieval houses ….and……. strangely, factory outlet shopping districts, according to our Lonely Planet guidebook.  Whoa, we’d held back on consumerist pleasures such as retail therapy for most part of this long-haul trip and now, nearing the end of it, we were in the mood to let those euros shake loose from pockets and purses.

Troyes after rain

What did we discover apart from heaps of affordable international brand name labels and it being the home of Lacoste?  This town is the origin for the name “troy weight” - the unit of measure for gold.  

In the heart of the city whose layout resembles the outline of a champagne cork, Troyes is a delightful-to-explore-by-foot place (even in pouring rain) that has beautifully preserved its medieval small town charm.  Narrow cobblestoned streets and town squares are bordered by pretty half-timbered buildings, some of which slant more precariously than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Some streets and laneways have great names such as the dark and narrow Ruelle des Chats (Cats Alley).
After a few champagnes you could be forgiven for thinking
that you weren't seeing straight

We picked up a Troyes City Pass that gave us discounts to outlet shops and museums, free champagne tastings, chocolate samples and an audio-guide of the historic centre. We came across many wrought-iron framed wells, numerous stone churches crammed with beautiful statuary and art, an old Jewish quarter and, of course, a large range of cafes, wine bars and restaurants squeezed into any conceivable space. 


Ruelle des Chats

Detail of Sts Crispin and Crispinian, patron saints of shoemakers
in Eglise St Pantaleon, Troyes

TOOL MUSEUM - SERIOUSLY GOOD 

A fascinating stop was at the Maison de l’Outil, Troyes’ tool museum – it was seriously good.  Housed in a historic multi-storeyed creaky 16th century building was a vast collection of around 10,000 tools from bygone trades and eras.  Carvers, coopers, milliners, butchers, carpenters, stone masons, upholsterers, glovemakers, you name it, all crafts were represented. This place is a shrine to the art of manual labour.

Max stands in courtyard of Troyes' Tool Museum, above
and
in front of one of its many collections

REIMS

A memorable daytrip from Troyes was to Reims, the coronation capital of many of France’s kings. To pronounce it is something like “Rance” but rolling the ‘rrrrrrr’ and saying it as if you have a blocked nose.  Here we were entertained by buskers and acts around the town’s café-lined squares and visited the fascinating and massive statue-encrusted Reims’ Notre Dame Cathedrale where Joan of Arc stood by Charles VII at his coronation.   

We ate a bison sausage hot dog and bison hamburger for lunch at an outdoor Canadian promotional event (rather tasty) and stood sombrely in Eisenhower’s and the Allied’s map room in the Surrender Museum (Musee de la Reddition) where the Nazi Germans surrendered to the Allies, effectively ending WWII.  There’s so much more to explore in Reims, including Roman ruins as well as the champagne houses of Taittinger (a little out of town) and Mumm – however, we were saving the champagne tasting for Epernay.  A daytrip certainly cannot do justice to such a richly historic town, but at least we tried.

Horsemounted Joan of Arc faces the Reims Notre Dame Cathedral
A few examples of over 2000 statues
at the Reims Cathedral

Surrender Museum, Reims

This was the one day we decided not to drive and instead caught the train to Reims – 22 easy minutes there, 3 long weary hours on the return due to a power failure on the train tracks.  We sat patiently in the train-to-nowhere with other passengers for over 1 ½ hours whilst railway authorities decided what to do, then shepherded like a sheep flock to a bus stop where we stood outside shivering in the cold for a further half an hour waiting for a bus that never arrived and finally ushered back again onto the railway platform to catch a slow train to Troyes. 

Two fabulous Champagne cities explored. Onwards next to other places within the Champagne province loaded down with our many clothing purchases (more Max’s than mine!) squeezed into a brand new mini-suitcase which is crammed alongside our swollen backpacks in the small car boot.