Paris 8 - 14 April

From Germany to Paris

Wow my Monday saw me re organising my pack saying good bye to the Bayer family and traveling to Paris.  My train from Bad Mergentheim was late ( I know in Germany is this possible?!!) and I missed my very much on time 2:40pm transfer at Wurzburg which arrived into Frankfurt at 4:00pm. The Paris connection departed at 4:50pm  but due to me being out in the wop wop's and not departing Wurzburg until 3:45 on a regional train I missed my booked TGV to Paris.

A new ticket was sorted in Frankfurt at no extra charge which had me arriving into Paris at 11:30pm and did not cost me anything other than a little time. In future I will stick with my gut feeling as when I went to book the ticket I was a little apprehensive about it and would have preferred to go a different route, but thought I was being silly.  Funny huh that intuition is a crazy thing!!


Arrival Paris at 11:30pm Gare de l'est was uneventful and I easily found my way onto the metro and figured out the 30 minute trip to the hotel my parents had arranged for the week very central and luxurious.

The week has been pretty cool,  it has been neat to catch up with my parents and spend some time with them. Its been pretty busy none of us have been to Paris before so all major tourist attractions have been visited (some of them twice)

Tuesday

River Seine - Quai De La Rapee

First outing breakfast - mmm  happy Gabrielle - just forgot that we are now in France not Germany so the kind waiter (of a restaurant that had excellent English) opened the door and asked couple of questions which I may have answered in German so this may have meant we had all our menus delivered in German....  But was great I don't mid the coffee not as good as home but still good especially with cheese, jam and croissant. Walked the River Siene from our hotel to Notre Dame some brilliant architecture and glass windows then across to Hotel de Ville where they had a exhibition on about the French Resistance and although all in French we could make abit out which was good and I even found Tintin!

You will never guess what my Dad the farmer (who loves his moleskins) wanted to do - SHOP  -  I know right a male in Paris and he wants to go clothes shopping?!  Mum was a little in shock....  Fashion well femininity is big here (well is part of the culture) compared to home we definitely notice it.  The ladies always have their face made up very tidy clothing and their shoes (did I mention I quite like their shoes! must not buy cant fit into pack...) We walked back via the Bastille to the Hotel  (the map is deceiving its a lot further than it looks)  I think roughly total Km's walked today was around 10 km so not to bad.

Wednesday
Metro day today,  Dad's knees are playing up with all the walking yesterday but this means we can break the day up abit more and travel abit further!  also my grandfather worked in the railways so a little bit of curiosity, novelty and enjoyment there for us. We travelled out to the Arc de Triomphe the traffic very crazy we counted at least 11 or 12 streets coming into the roundabout. Then over to the Eiffel Tower, Very  large - for you people out there wanting some info it was erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France it is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. From here we walked through Parcu du Champ de Mars up to the Ecole Militaire and across to the Latin Quarter.  You get a feeling of how lucky we are in NZ when you see the amount of homeless people living on the streets actively begging.

Thursday

Basilica Sacre Coeur

Montmartere today,  although very touristy, busy, and slummy it is a place I want to go check out. They have the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur (Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus) which yes does have nuns (Tracy I do hope that mine has made it's way out of your hand bag...) The basilica is situated on top of a hill with excellent views across the city and has a lot of artist and street artists very cool.  So far I have kept to the only take pictures and leave footsteps.  From there we popped along to the only windmill in Paris - Moulin Rouge wouldn't rave but we were in the vicinity and the price to check out the show just a mere 100 euro even the 'beautiful' show girls cant lure me in.... Nipped across to Palasis de Challot and walked down the river seine to check out the Grand and Petite Palaces (which had international show jumping on)  and then onto Pl. de la Concorde before heading back to mass at the Basilica which yes was in French and Latin.


Friday

Today it is raining - so Lourve!!!!   that place is massive you could spend days in there and I was surprised to learn that they had closed it on Wednesday due to pickpockets!  But I did enjoy,  nothing on NZ a little on Easter island and French Polynesia. Of course the big draw cards - the Mona Lisa,  Venus de Milo and Michelangelo. Went in at 10am and was out at 4pm  its a very busy place.  To view the Mona Lisa there was a stack of people taking photograph 6 deep (crazy so I thought I would join them for your pleasure)  a lot of school children as its holidays..... tour busses and of course art classes.  It wasn't uncommon to be wandering around and stumble upon a class or someone with a easel up and painting a painting.

Saturday
is abit of a down day before my parents leave on the sunday it has been very cool to spend this week with them and I have been incredibly spoilt.  and yes I have promised to do a run with them and help out with suitcases.

The week has also had a surprise with my next helpx - William on the river barge. He has been quite coy and one moment its all cool and it is all go and the next not so sure if its happening at all.  Finally get to meet the guy Saturday/sunday depending on when he gets into the city but I guess all will be revealed on the day if I have a placement or not! a little scary as I like to be more organised than that but hey rolling with the punches. Will see what happens.

Hope you are all well spring has arrived here saw my first daffodil today

Gabrielle  xx



Episode 45  - 8 September 1949
On display at the French Resistance Museum Exhibition

                                                                                                                                                                                 

The Louvre Pyramid

 



on the side of the Arc de Triomphe

 

Arc de Triomphe
 

Notre Dame - South Rose Window with 12 apostles

Greg  - I found this!!!



Arrival

So by now some of you maybe missing me so I thought I had better start writing where I'm hanging out and what I'm up to.


Getting out of the country proved to be no mean feat.  I arrived all bright eyed bushy tailed at CHCH airport at 4am after a night out with the family to discover that my flight from CHCH to Brisbane had been cancelled.  A good omen?  Anywhom two hours later at 6am all is sorted and I have been upgraded to business class for the first part of my flight.  The remainder of the flights were relatively easy and none longer than 8 hours which was pretty cool and yes I did have a couple of whisky's courtesy Etihad with a "lovely" guy from Milan......

Arrival at Frankfurt Airport .  Barb you were right in saying that perhaps someone should have warned them I was coming  but it seems no one headed your advice - Border Patrol was very easy I was through in under a minute and  I'm not sure if they have ever heard of a thing called customs.
Temperature at time of arrival a balmy -4 degrees.

Frankfurt airport to the city?  Easy - I caught the train. 

I spent two days here just cruising and jetting over my jet lag.  Short run down on the city.  It is Germany's banking capital and  with a population of  700,000 this makes it the fifth largest city they also have  a honorary cathedral St. Bartholomew's Cathedral where the roman emperors were crowned.  My accommodation is a 5 minute walk from the local train station and in the middle of the red light district. Which yes is open at 10am on a Wednesday morning.

Thursday saw me off on my first adventure and placement with HelpX.

2:30pm I caught the train from Fankfurt Main Hauptbahnhof (Central Train station) and had a train change on my way to Bad Mergentheim where I was being picked up.  This wasn't a bad thing but at the time having 5 minutes to change from platform 6 to platform 2 and not sure quite what I was doing  a little bit stressful.  But success as it was the correct train and I was travelling in the right direction. My ride was on time and a bonus they spoke English! 

I have settled for the next week and abit with a lovely family in a area called Niederstetten population 6,000.  The Bayer family have been nothing but warm and very open.  They live a traditional life running the family dairy farm. (did I mention it is quite large?  50 cows through a 4 aside herringbone)  As I understand it has been in the family since the late 1800's.  Mr and Mrs Bayer are in their early 60's. Mr Bayers mother Oma (grandmother who is 92) and son Martin live with them. 

Breakfast is 7am - this usually consists of german rye bread, jam and lots of coffee!!

Martin spends most of his day on the tractor up at the fields, organising the feed for the stock and learning the business from his father.  Prior to shifting back home he worked as a butcher in a near by town.

Mr Bayer - Helmut milks, does the calves, checks and feeds stock.  He also does any maintenance work that maybe required and I'm sure none of you want me to mention paper work......

Mrs Bayer - Ilse milks and then comes inside to carry out further house hold work.  She used to be a cook at a local church kitchen ( if I understand correctly) and yesterday had me making bread!

Oma - is 92 and she makes a hot meal for lunch (which is the main meal of the day)  for the family.

Milking doesn't start until 8am of course this means that they finish late at the other end of the day with the evening milking starting at 6pm.

As part of helpx the general idea is to help out and assist where the family asks. So I have been given charge of 10 calves (very different to the 700 I used to manage when I lived at home)  all bucket fed and all in stalls. All stock is currently inside due to weather conditions.  After helping in with the stock I pop back inside and help Oma I in the kitchen which I am quite enjoying picking up some new skills.

I must admire Helmut, Ilse and especially Oma as none of us speaks the others language we make ourselves understood via hand signals and lots of German.  This usually equates to Gabriella - point at object das is ...  or Gabriella -  and a spoon is given to me or my hand is grabbed and put some where with a explanation in deutsch with a odd English word. It may take a little longer but we have some fun along the way! I think you get the picture. Sometimes when we are stuck i.e discussing farming or we feel like treating ourselves we resort to google translate.

Its cool,  although I find the women to be very busy I am enjoying myself (trying to persuade Oma that I do not need to taste everything we cook or bake). To those of you out there that think I could learn about this bringing slippers business I am not saddened to say this still has not changed my resolve although this baking and cooking thing could catch on if there are others there to share it with.

Easter was very neat with extended family visiting for the day. A couple of the younger cousins came so they got to practice their English and I failed miserably at keeping up with the quick speaking adult conversations.  Minus the one about eggs (eier)  they tell me it has been so cold they do not need to put the eier (eggs) in the fridge for 15 days as it is so cold they will keep fresh and after this then you should put them in the fridge. 

I am enjoying my stay and feel very welcome and part of the family. Hope that you are all well in the tropical delights in New Zealand

-Gabrielle



 

View from my bedroom

 

 

Looking at Farm buildings and house

 

 

Front of house