On to Avignon

Our  next stop in the car is Avignon, which is further south, in the Provence region of France. On our way we stopped at some little villages on the way, such as Pont St Esprit. Provence is known for lavender and we passed some lavender fields on the way. I love the scent of lavender! We also did a side trip to the Ardeche Gorges, which is a very scenic national park. We only saw a tiny part of it as we were pressed for time, but we managed to get in a swim, which was lovely considering the temperature is in the thirties.
Arriving at Avignon late afternoon, we decided to see if we could make it to the Palace of the Popes , which had a last entry at 6pm. It was a 20 minute walk from our hotel and we made it with a minute to spare! Quite an interesting place - apparently there was a period when the Popes made Avignon their home. We then walked around old Avignon, which has a lovely park, cobblestone streets (which are murder on blistered feet, by the way!) and the ruins of a Roman bridge, Pont d'Avignon.
We did a day trip to Arles and Pont du Gard. Arles is where Vincent Van Gogh spent the last years of his life and was greatly inspired by the scenery. It's a very beautiful village and it's easy to see how he was able to create hist masterpieces. Alos in Arles are some Roman ruins - ozne that we looked at was an amphitheatre, similar to the Colosseum in Rome but not quite as big (this area of France has many Roman ruins). Pont du Gard was another place we went to and is a Roman aquaduct which was fascinating to see close up.
The last photo here is outside our hotel window this evening.

I love Lyon

So we picked up a hire car which we'll be driving around the countryside of France for 2 weeks. It's not too bad driving on the other side of the road and they seem to have upgraded us to a car with a gps! (And she has an Aussie accent!). The tolls on the motorways are pretty harsh - we paid €30 something (about A $45) to go from Paris to Lyon  (about 4 hours drive) but save a lot of time. We thought we were in trouble at the entry point,  I had to lean right out the window to get a ticket and our push-button car, which turns off the engine whenever you stop at lights etc, decided not to start again! We finally started it again, but it was a nervous start.
When we got to Lyon, we went to the Lumiere museum.  The Lumiere brothers were inventors and their main claim to fame was inventing motion pictures. It was very interesting. Another museum we went to was a miniatures and movie props museum - who knew Lyon was a movie-making scene!
There are these great tunnels called traboules whicb connect some streets. Apparently they were created so that the textile merchants could move their fabric without it getting damaged from the weather.
I like Lyon because it's much more relaxed than Paris, still has a great metro system (which includes a funicular up a mountain to see a beautiful cathedral and Roman ruins), as well as two rivers which look wonderful at night.

Farewell Paris

So our last few days in Paris were jam-packed (as was the whole week!) and my feet have the blisters to prove it. Some of the places we've seen and things we've done include:
The Eiffel Tower: we went up at night and it was magnificent! It was lit up and we also saw it twinkle, which it does once per hour.
Going to a show at the Moulin Rouge: this may seem like a cliché touristy thing to do but it was amazing. It was 2 hours of glitz and glamour, singing, dancing, near-nude women and not so nude men - I don't think they cater to the women in the audience nearly as much as the men! In between the dancers/singers were some other acts, such as a roller-skating daredevil couple who twirled and spun on a tiny circular stage, a comedy trio of acrobats and a hilarious ventriloquist with crazy puppets and audience participants. We weren't allowed to gake any photos of the show but I took some of the incredible interiors. Our tickets included a full bottle of champagne between Kate and I and as I'm not a big drinker, Kate ended up drinking most of the bottle! It was actually quite nice.
Visiting Versailles Palace: the only disappointment so far. It was so crowded and I thought the Louvre and Musee D'Orsay interiors were much better. The gardens however were beautiful.
A night cruise along the River Seine: so relaxing, beautiful scenery at near sunset.
The shopping: we went to the Galeries Lafayette, a magnificant department store, with a whole level devoted to shoes, the fabric area of Paris with about 10 fabric stores in a block (I only bought one piece but I'm satisfied for the moment) and the Clignancourt markets, new stuff as well as antiques. I had to avoid looking at the antique furniture as it would just make me sad as I couldn't bring any home! I did find a beautiful insect brooch, although new, it's made using an antique stone.
The Metro: very fast trains that run every 2-5 minutes, even late at night. We bought a weekly ticket and certainly got our money's worth. Entertainment included orchestral music in the metro tunnels, including a 10 piece orchestra at one station.
General things we saw: policemen on roller blades, ripped knees in jeans is a definite trend (you may think you've seen it before, but this is both knees sliced open).

The artwork of Paris

So we've been to many museums and art galleries while we've been in Paris. We started with the Orangerie whose claim to fame is Monet's waterlilies, which are displayed in two circular rooms (showing different times of the day). Monet wanted people to experience them as close to real life as possible and they are beautiful.
The Louvre is enormous and we visited it over two days and just skimmed it. People say the Mona Lisa is tiny but I thought it was a pretty average size, something you might hang in your lounge room (not that I'd hang the Mona Lisa, there were much more interesting paintings). As well as some impressive Greek sculpture including the Venus de Milo, Michelangelo's The Dying Slave and the Winged Victory of Samothrace (can I just say, I've seen enough marble penises to last a lifetime!), there were many beautiful paintings by Vermeer and Van Gogh. On top of that, the buildings themselves were incredible.
The Pompidou Centre building was an artwork in itself, with usually invisible structures on the outside of the building as a feature. They specialised in more modern painters and included artists like Kandinsky, who has found a new fan in Kate.
I think the Musee D'Orsay was my favourite. Many amazing works by impressionists and others such as Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Seurat etc. They also had a special exhibition by Le Douanier Rousseau (not allowed to take photos in there but you can look up the name) which I loved and wanted to take home with me. I came close by buying a fold-up shoppong bag with one of the artworks on it!