To London - Again

29th April - Monday

Today we decided to spend some time on the hop on hop off tour buses and only managed two of the four routes, allowing only for a short hop off lunch break. One would definitely need at least two or three days to complete the four different routes and stop to look at attractions.


The day started out very clear but did cloud over late in the morning. Sitting on top of an open bus did prove to be a bit chilly and it didn’t take long for the hats, scarves and gloves to appear. Fortunately, we were supplied with ear buds so were able to follow the commentary in English. Sights to be seen included the Opera, Madeleine Church (which doesn’t have any windows but great acoustics evidently), the Louvre, Notre Dame, the River Seine, Musee D’Orsay, Place de Concorde, the Eiffel Tower, Napoleon’s Tomb and the Militaire Ecole, the Champ Elysees and Arc de Triomph, Moulin Rouge and all the sex shops (again!) plus lots of other very interesting buildings.

After only have a typical French breakfast of croissants and a bread roll (giving the milo cereal a miss once again), a lunch break was definitely on the menu. We were in the centre of the main upmarket shopping district and the first food place we saw was called Fauchon – WOW! A gourmet patisserie, delicatessen and purveyor of fine foods – Cat insisted we buy a pastry, which was served up on gold plates (cardboard) on a fancy tray with genuine plastic gold cutlery. We then discovered their chocolate and fine food shop next door – definitely not an average Kmart shopper in sight!

After returning to the hotel to collect our cases, we decided to walk to Gare de Nord and not bother with another Paris taxi. Not the best of neighbourhoods to be dragging suitcases but we arrived safely and negotiated check-in and border securities without any hassle. The trip back to London by Eurostar went quickly and smoothly. We bit the bullet and climbed into a London cab at St Pancras and the driver actually refused to accept a tip! We are staying tonight at the Thistle Euston Hotel, which is very nice and has very nice staff – we were upgraded on arrival.

Tomorrow a proper breakfast and the start of our touring.

Drama in Paris

28th April, Sunday

Do not disturb

 Outside the Opera House

 Grand Staircase

 Looking down on the main hall

 Happy little Vegemite after a phone call!

 Wow!!!

 Not a bad looking fire place

 Place de la Opera

 On the balcony

Rehearsal happening on stage

 Chandeleir and dome

 Madame's private box

 Paper lanterns

Outside Best West Grand Opera Boulevard Hotel - definitely not the Grand Opera

The day started well, and quickly went downhill! Coffee at breakfast was left over from last Sunday, I think – it was so thick and bitter that it would have dissolved the teaspoon. Lack of caffeine two days in a row is not good.


The receptionist ordered us a taxi to take us to the bus depot for the trip to Versailles. We should have got straight out of the taxi when we noticed the meter already had 7.60 on it! We travelled a number of back streets until we arrived at the Opera House and were told to pay 12.90 and get out. We had no idea where we were supposed to be and Les complained bitterly about the charge and handed over 12 euro to have another euro demanded. He did this, got out and slammed the door as the taxi took off flat out. Six steps down the street he realised NO WALLET!!! Feeling sick does not quite describe our emotions. We immediately flagged down another taxi, with a lovely driver, and returned to our hotel. The wonderful receptionist immediately telephoned the taxi company who attempted to contact the driver. Strangely, he had just finished his shift and was not responding, so they left a message for him to contact the company asap. The sick feelings continued as we were given another room pass and then spent half an hour on the phone to the ANZ Bank cancelling Les’ banking cards. Fortunately, we always travel with separate bank accounts and separate cards, so at least one of us has access to money. I know that Himself will never be far away now!

Having gone off Paris somewhat (and missing out on our trip to Versailles), we decided it would be nice if we could return to London on an earlier train. Walked to Gare de Nord (which wasn’t very far, actually) and discovered it would cost 250 euro each – decided to leave the booking for tomorrow night.  Cat refused to leave the hotel again, took two Bex, had a cup of tea and went to bed for a good lie down - with a cake of chocolate, just in case!

We walked back to the Opera House, probably a half hour stroll through half deserted streets (nothing opens on Sunday in Paris) and decided to do a self-guided tour of the Opera House. We were so glad we did as it is the most magnificent building inside, with huge galleries, lots of marble and gilt. We didn’t notice the “no photos allowed” in the auditorium until after we came out – such a pity! While we were in the main entrance hall admiring the artwork, my telephone rang. It was then a mad scramble to untie my jacket from around my bag, unclip all the security devices (to deter pickpockets), get the bag open and find the phone. It was the lovely receptionist to tell us the driver had returned the wallet. Relief all round, we just hoped that the driver’s licence was still in it.

On returning to the hotel, we discovered that the driver had been very aggressive and threatening to the receptionist, who fortunately had some back-up with her and had grabbed the wallet as soon as the driver entered and immediately locked it in the safe. The driver said we had not paid him and he wanted the wallet back. Needless to say, when Les looked in the wallet, all the euros had miraculously disappeared!!! At least all the cards were still there, even though the banking cards had been cancelled. The receptionist reported the driver to his company – she was not amused!

I don’t think either of us will be sorry to leave Paris.

To Paris

27th April - Saturday

 Amiens Canal

A red jumper day

A red windmill

 One mighty department store!

Sacre Couer in the distance

Yesterday evening was our final night on tour and we all walked the short distance to a range of restaurants alongside the canal. Whilst crossing the footbridge, we noticed that the young man standing in the middle of the water had changed his jumper from the previous day’s blue; it didn’t seem to worry the water bird nesting at his feet. The dinner was surprisingly good (tour dinners tend to be a bit ordinary at times), with scallops for entrée, pork or chicken for mains and a lovely strawberry macaron for dessert.

Breakfast this morning was a bit of a disaster – plenty of milo cereal but the “café machine est kaput!!!” Not good news for the caffeine addicts. We loaded the bus for the fairly quiet journey back to Paris, calling at Charles de Gaulle Airport first, then the Mercure Montmarte (with a quick glimpse of the Moulin Rouge) before disembarking at Gare du Nord and braving the taxi queue again. No problems this time and we were at the Best Western Opera Grand Boulevards fairly quickly. As we were a bit early for our room, we placed our luggage in storage and made a tour booking for Versaille tomorrow.

Armed with a street map, we set out for the Opera, which was supposedly very close! We walked and walked through some quite uncomfortable feeling streets before coming across a much better area with brasseries, sandwich bars, shops and people. We had a sandwich (actually turned out to be a baguette about 30 cms long) each for lunch, sitting on the pavement but behind glass, which is nearly the real thing. The walking continued until we rounded the corner and discovered Gallerie Lafayette in front of us. This is the most amazing shop – don’t worry about the actual shopping, the building is just superb. And we didn’t even get into the men’s shop, it was such a battle getting past the cosmetics counters!

We returned to our hotel via a different route, with lots of shops, people and eating establishments, even Hagen Dasz Ice cream to make the walk more enjoyable. Fortunately our room was now ready, but unfortunately the lift was not working and our room is on the second floor. We took our cabin bags and the large suitcases were brought up later, once the lift was functioning again.

It has been another cold day – coats definitely needed outside – but the forecast rain hasn’t eventuated.

Adelaide Cemetery

26th April - Friday

We didn’t need any rocking to sleep last night! Unfortunately, the warm 26 degrees of the last couple of days disappeared overnight and we woke to cold (well, very cold) damp fog which developed into rain during the afternoon – the temperature even dropped lower. It was definitely a day for down jackets, hats, scarves, gloves and longens!


Our first call this morning – after our breakfast of croissants, bread, pain au chocolate (not bad, actually), milo cereal or cornflakes – was at the Adelaide Cemetery on the outskirts of Villers-Bretonneux. This is the cemetery containing the remains of Les’ uncle and we quickly located his grave and laid some poppies in remembrance.

Our next stop was a revisit to the Australian War Memorial, the scene of yesterday’s service. When we arrived, our guide thought it would be nice to have a group photo and offered to do the photography; he ended up with 19 cameras and 2 iPads on the ground in front of him and we smiled and smiled and smiled! It was nice just to be able to wander at leisure, look at the memorial and flowers – our little bunch was quite at home among the larger arrangements! The entire party seemed to enjoy this visit as a moment of quiet reflection.

The memorials continued with a visit to the scene of Monash’s victory at Le Hamel before the tour guide and coach driver had further discussions about possible routes to our morning tea stop! Then it was a quick visit to another statue – a very impressive and “strong” statue – before the discussions continued on the way to our lunch stop. (These two have obviously never been teamed together before!!!)

Our final stop for the day was back in Villers-Bretonneux at the school and French-Australian Museum. We commenced the visit in the school assembly hall (school children attend between 8.00 am and 1.00 pm daily) which was lined with blackwood and had numerous carvings of Australian flora and fauna. It was decided to have another group photo in the school yard – all the cameras were lined up once again! We then spent an hour in the actual museum the school children had put together over the years, with countless contributions from people and organisations in Australia. There was even a copy of the weeping angel postcard! We could have spent more time here, quite easily.

As this is our final night on tour, we will walk, through the rain, for about 20 minutes to a restaurant on the banks of the canal – and then have to walk back. Fortunately, dress is casual casual.

ANZAC Day

25th April - Thursday

The seats are cold and wet, but we're okay!

Sunrose behind the Australian Memorial on the Somme

 Gendarme traffic control

 Familiar local in Villers-Brettaneux

 Just who is that pretending to be part of the march?

 Memorial at Villers-Brettaneux

Some Frank McDonald Award winners

 It's a BIG hole!

 Brisith Memorial

 Ulster Memorial

 Not good play things!

 Newfoundland Memorial

 Trenches

 The front line and no man's land

Amien Cathedral

The Weeping Angel

ANZAC Day – Reveille was at 0255 hours! Breakfast of croissants, bread, cornflakes and milo cereal at 0330 and on the bus by 0350 for the trip to the Australian War Memorial near Villers-Brettoneux for the Dawn Service. We were lucky in that our coach was able to take us virtually to the site and didn’t have to walk in the dark. The weather was very kind to us, cold (but not extremely bitterly cod), no rain but some fog did develop as the sun rose and the temperature plummeted.

What can I say about the atmosphere of a Dawn Service on the Somme? It was such a moving experience, with quite a few ex-servicemen wearing their medals – and young service men and women as well. The Australian Ambassador to France and Bob Carr were the keynote speakers but didn’t speak for too long. At the end of the service, members of the public were given the opportunity to lay wreaths or floral tributes and relations of men killed on the Somme were the first to be called. We had bought some flowers the previous day and were very proud to walk up the centre aisle in honour of Oswald Connell.

As the sun rose over the horizon the temperature dropped dramatically for our walk back to the bus boarding area – along with the other 8,000 people. We then had to stand and wait until the official guests, military, singers, bands, etc etc had some coffee and croissants before leaving and our buses could start arriving. Only three buses at a time were allowed into the area and guess where our bus was in the line? Right! About second last!!! We had to wait for over an hour and a half to board our coach for the three minute ride to Villers-Brettoneux (we could have walked there!). However, we were in time for the village ceremony and a ring-in digger was spotted training along behind the official party as it made its way to the village memorial. Following the short ceremony, we were fortunate to meet the Frank McDonald winners and spent some time talking to Dean Mainwaring from Ulverstone and a young lady from Penguin. (We know Dean’s grandparents from our time in Ulverstone.)

Back on the bus to visit more war cemeteries and memorials – we stopped at the British Memorial, which was massive, and had a light lunch at the Ulster Memorial, which looked like a little Irish castle. We continued on to the Newfoundland Memorial, which is situated on the actual front line with the trenches still remaining. The majority of the trench area has been roped off (with electric fencing) as the ground has still not been cleared of unexploded devices. We also had a stop at a huge crater, caused by a mine/s explosion – it was just enormous!

We finally returned to the hotel for a quick pit stop before setting out on foot for a quick look at Amiens Cathedral, which is only a very short distance away. Once again, there are very strong Australian links with the Australian flag on display in a small chapel and a large plaque honouring Australia’s contribution to the area. We were also shown the “Weeping Angel,” which was a very popular postcard theme for servicemen to send home to family and loved ones – often the last communication families received.

A very long and moving day.