17. France - Bonjour Paris

After nearly six tiring weeks on the road in Italy, we are finally in Paris.

Calm, clean, organised, handsome, glowingly beautiful Paris.  The first thing we noticed was the calm.  No screeching motor cycles, no horns, no jostling .... cars even stop at red lights and use their indicators when changing lanes; people say 'pardon' if they bump into you, young men help older people with their shopping bags on the Metro.  So different to Italy.

It was warm and sunny with skidding dark clouds and a cool wind when we arrived.

We have been here ten days now, in the same apartment we had in 2015, across the road from the one we had in 2013 and around the corner from that of 2011.  Les Halles, near the river in the 1st arrondissement is a great location and the huge, new Forum Les Halles, incorporating Paris' biggest rail hub, is right underneath us.  It is impossible to be more central, or better connected in Paris.

That's our building. We are on the fourth floor with six windows on the curve, four shuttered and two open in this picture.

Here's the link if you are interested.  22 rue des Halles, Paris  Our host is Rocco, a charming, generous and genuine young man who manages the apartment on behalf of his aunt, an Italian antique dealer.  Bookings are from 2 or 3 nights to many, many weeks, like us.

One of the six new entrances to the Forum Les Halles, and below it the Metro and RER stations.  It is now fully operational after four years of construction.  All that remains is the double lift (at the rear), the paving and final landscaping.

The paving is underway.  The road downwards leads to two carparks, one for the Forum, the other for the Novatel Hotel which you can see at the rear.

These steep escalators go from street level to the shopping Forum.  The second set, equally steep go the Metro and RER stations.

There are device charging points all through the Forum.  You can also plug in at any bus stop.

On a Metro train.  The RER trains which take you to the airport, EuroDisney and the outer suburbs, are double decker.

Lat Sunday we went to a round of the Formula-e; electric open-wheelers racing around a street circuit at Invalides.

It was free access to the non viewing areas with a huge screen.  Australian Mitch Evans was driving for Jaguar.

We revisited Saint-Germain-en-Laye (at the end of one of the RER lines) because I am reading a novel set in the court of Henri II.
Henri II was born here in 1519 and in 1552, rebuilt the original sections after a fatal fire and added new wings.

Henri II's wife, queen Catherine de Medicis and royal mistress, Diane de Poiters both danced in this splendid ballroom. And yes, at the same time but not with each other.

During the French Revolution, the castle was used as a detention prison; under Napoleon I, barracks and under Louise-Philippe a military prison.

In 1862, Napoleon III listed it an historical monument and extensively restored it for use as the National Museum of Archeology.
For over one hundred years it has accumulated a vast and rich archeological collection depicting the lives and inventions of mankind in France up to the 5th century AD.

In 1230 Louis IX (Saint Louis) had this chapel built.  Miraculously it has survived fire and war for 800 years.

And in 1559, at the end of the extensive terraces facing the Seine, Henri II built this, the Chateau Neuf.  It was originally quite extensive, terraced all the way to the Seine.  Many years later in 1638, Louis XIV The Sun King was born here.

We followed the former chef of Pirouette to his new restaurant Tomy & Co on the left bank and walked home along the river quay.  All traffic has been removed from the river verges - pedestrians, cyclists and skaters only.

Pont Alexandre III looking magnificent.

From the Passerelle Leopold-Sedar-Senghor with Musee d'Orsay on the right and one of the towers of the Louvre on the left.

Looking back at the pedestrian bridge and the Orsay, only to find the Eiffel tower all lit up and showing off.

On the banks of the Seine, west of Paris, we visited the island of Seguin.
It was the home of the Renault automotive industry for many years.  The site has been entirely redeveloped for music and named the new Cité Musicale.
It is an immense musical space, with a surface area of 38,000 square meters both inside and out.

And it is powered by .... you guessed it  .... the sun.  A huge array of solar panels facing south, mounted on a track which moves with the sun from morning in the east until night in the west.

And like all new Paris buildings it has a green roof.  In this case a very large area with  a variety of plantings from ankle high to substantial trees.  Plus bird boxes.

16. Italy - Pompeii and Naples

From the clear blue skies and sea of the Costiera Amalfitana, we ventured into the chaos and grot that is Naples.  Found a car park right at one of the five gates to the historic archeological site of Pompeii.

"Pompeii was an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD."

“Researchers believe that the town was founded in the seventh or sixth century BC by the Osci. It came under the domination of Rome in 80 BC after it joined an unsuccessful rebellion against the Roman Republic".

"By the time of its destruction, 160 years later, its population was estimated at 11,000 people, and the city had a complex water system, an amphitheatre, gymnasium, and a port.” Thanks to Vesuvius, it is no longer on the sea but quite a way inland and is part of suburban Naples.

The amphitheatre could hold 20,000 people.

The gymnasium had a large swimming pool in the centre and was surrounded on all four sides by colonnades and shaded by plane trees. It must have been quite a sight.

"The eruption destroyed the city, killing its inhabitants and burying it under tons of ash. Evidence for the destruction originally came from a surviving letter by Pliny the Younger, who saw the eruption from a distance and described the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, an admiral of the Roman fleet, who tried to rescue citizens. The site was lost for about 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748."

"The objects that lay beneath the city have been preserved for more than a millennium because of the long lack of air and moisture. These artifacts provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana."

Beautiful household vessels without even a chip, crack or scratch.

Human size, marble statues from houses.

"During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed archaeologists to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died."

"Pompeii has been a tourist destination for over 250 years. Today it has UNESCO World Heritage Site status and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with approximately 2.5 million visitors every year."

A hot food shop.

In mosaics, a 'Beware of the dog' sign at the entrance to a house.

Lockers in the changing room at the men's baths.  There were eight public baths in Pompeii.

Lockers for the women.

This is the decoration, colour and statutory in the men's baths.

And the magnificent roof.

The House of the Fawn.

Some houses were very large, having many rooms as well as internal and rear gardens.  Pardon my head!  I was too busy keeping upright on the uneven terrain to take photos. All photos in this post are courtesy of Paul.

A magnificent impluvium.  Most houses had an impluvium in the "first main area" after the entry, to catch rain water and fill underground cisterns.

The old rain heads (in a new roof, of course) feeding water to the impluvium.

A house with a water garden. This property grew a good deal of fruit. The experts know that by analysing pollen spores - amazing!

And finally to the largest public area and highest point in Pompeii - the Forum.  And to think that everything in these photos has been uncovered by the removal of between 4 and 6 metres of fine ash that set like concrete two thousand years ago.

Vesuvius with its top blown off, still brooding over Naples.


Next - Paris.

15. Italy - Amalfi Coast

Paul was keen to re-visit the Pompeii Archaeological Site on route for Naples airport and Paris.  From our cave in Matera, the route north went right past the the Costiera Amalfitana, so why not spend our two spare days there.



It was extremely difficult to find something affordable on such short notice, but we found a less than memorable apartment with water views, about 2km from Amalfi.

"The Costiera Amalfitana or the Amalfi Coast is a stretch of coastline  between the Gulf of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno in southern Italy.  In 1997, the Amalfi Coast was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a cultural landscape.  It is located on the relatively steep southern shore of the Sorrentine Peninsula, leaving little room for rural and agricultural activities."

"The only land route to the Amalfi Coast is the infamous 40 kilometres long Strada Statale 163 which runs along the coastline from the town of Vietri sul Mare in the east to Positano in the west. Thirteen towns are located on the Amalfi Coast, many of them centered on tourism."

Can you see the building perched right on the tip of the rock on the left? That was the closest bar to our apartment. To get there, we  had to walk either 100 steps down our rock to the lower road, and then about 1km along the lower road; or about 200 steps up our cliff face to the upper road and 750 m along the upper road.  We only went once!

Even Paul found it hard going from our car space up the steps to the right with the suitcases.

Our apartment was somewhere up there amongst the lemon terraces.

"The Amalfi Coast is known for its production of limoncello liqueur as the area is a known cultivator of lemons,  which are grown in terraced gardens along the entire coast between February and October. Amalfi is also a known maker of a hand-made thick paper which is called bambagina."

The township of Amalfi, the largest on the coast, is lovely.  Although it is very busy - it's the bus terminal for buses along the narrow, winding coastal road - it is not as glitzy as Positano.

Positano is the jewel in the crown, but it doesn't come cheap.  The tiny hotel we stayed in on our honeymoon in 1998 is on that hill.  Paul remembers 541 steps from our deck to the beach - and of course, 541 steps back again.

Much infrastructure has been added since then.  This area was just rocks over which you scrambled to get on a little boat to go from pebbly beach to rocky beach and back again. Now it is a proper paved wharf for the many hundreds of people getting on and off boats every day.  In summer you would not be able to move here.

More facilities being built on, above and between the rocks. It makes the water more accessible for swimming - but at a very high price as this would have originally been a public access area.  Now it is pay or keep out.

This is the main pedestrian street. It's just gorgeous, covered with bougainvillea, wending its way up the hill.

Goodbye, Positano. Lovely as you are, I don't think we'll be back.

Other towns on the coast -Amalfi, Minori and Maori - are lovely, calmer and much more Italian.

Morning coffee at Maori on our way to access the autostrada for the 60km to Pompeii.