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Oct 31

Back to the farm ...

We last saw our intrepid travellers turning their noses away from the sea, and pointing them back towards Peter’s farm. This was not to be rushed however … there were a couple of places to check out along the way.

First stop was Aix-en-Provence - a university town in (wait for it) Provence. We had bypassed it on the way to Cote d’Azur, but had been told it was worth a look … which it was. We stopped about 25 minutes walk out of the old town, and found (after the 25 min walk) that there was a very large fountain in the middle of the old town, and a lot of people. We spent a fair bit of time walking through a ton of little streets, finding cute little shops with local stuff, and a surprising number of boutique clothing stores - more expensive than I would have expected to be supported by a student population! We decided to hit up a take-away Asian for dinner (surprisingly good), and a supermarket for other esssentials (i.e. wine) and headed back to the hotel to eat.

The next day we selected a fairly random spot to stay - all we knew was that it was about the right distance on the map - but St Etienne turned out to be very interesting, with a theme of art and design. There was a modern art museum (that we walked to in the rain, leaving little puddles wherever we stopped to look at an exhibit) that had a space-themed exhibition, featuring photos of the moon from the 19th century to the NASA moon shots. There was a bunch of other stuff too, some of which we may have been under-appreciative of :). There was also an industrial design workshop/exposition attached to a design school in the middle of town that we stopped and had a look at. By this time it had been at least hours since our last drink, so we find a bar in the centre of town, which started fairly quiet, but started getting noisy when they turned on the soccer match - the local team was playing away in the French Premier league, so the fans came to the bar to watch. We left when it became clear that St Etienne was going to lose, and we didn’t want to see the effect that it might have in the bar … and walked a block to a cheap’n’cheerful kebab shop for dinner.

Now, while all this seemed to be slightly aimless, we DID actually have a plan - to see Bourges, which had been recommended as a great place for tourists, with a lot to see but relatively unknown to most - maybe not good for them, but good for us! Here we got really lucky with the hotel, too … marked as a two-star, but just extensively renovated, and I suspect will soon be a three-star - the bathroom was brilliant, and there were (count them) 8 wifi access points for three floors!

Bourges lived up to its recommendation - a great cathedral (St Etienne, world heritage listed and not to be confused with the town above), a palace, and a bunch of other museums, including one for an artist (who I’d never heard of) called Maurice Esteve who impressed me no end. This was a great place to visit …

From Bourges it was back to the farm for a washing spree, and dinner with Peter’s neighbours Jacques and Helene, who were enormous fun … dinner went for a long time and many bottles.

After the one night back at the farm, it was time to think about catching a plane in Paris … but although our time in France was running out, there was still time for a couple more places …

Oct 24

Cote d'Azur

After driving through Apt for the second time, we set a course for Grasse (which really means that we drew a straight line between where we were and where we wanted to be), and let Garmin the crackhead satnav work out the best (?) way to get there. In her defense, I knew for one section there was clearly no direct route between two of the towns, so I was expecting something less than freeway-style driving. What I wasn’t expecting was to take goat tracks over the Haut-Provence, coupled with dizzying, windy roads up and down mountains … we did see a couple of nice towns, and a lot of pretty scenery, but after a few hours of this we asked the satnav to take us straight to Juan les Pins via the motorway. This was not without its share of fun - getting off the motorway and into the coastal streets was a little dicey too. However, we did find the hotel reasonably easily, and even got a free park in the street outside! The hotel (like most we booked into) was older and somewhat quaint, but everything seemed to work, and we dumped our gear and went to have a look around.

Juan les Pins seemed a little less tourist-driven than I expected, but there were still a lot of restaurants, clubs, bars and shops to be found, especially as you got closer to the water. I had made contact a couple of days earlierwith a guy I’ve been corresponding with for three or four years now, who lives in Juan les Pins, and he and his wife invited us for dinner that night (he had invited us to stay with them, but we thought that might be a bit more than they bargained for - we were starting to get a bit ragged around the edges!). It was a great evening, and we got a couple of tips for seeing some of the rest of the Cote d’Azur when we set out the next day.

We left the car right where it was, started the day walking to Antibes’ Old Port and the new(er) harbour - they had some seriously big motor yachts moored there, most of which seemed to be registered in some tax haven in the Caymans! After marvelling at the amount of money these boats represented, we checked out the local produce markets - much more realistic! Following that, we got on the train to Monaco via Nice. Again, these were nicer than I expected them to be - while there were certainly high-rises around, there were plenty more beautiful buildings (and shops, restaurants, clubs, bars … :) ), and after our Italian coastal experience,we were pleasantly surprised to find that close to 80% of the beach is public, rather than private. We did the really-touristy-thing in Nice, and jumped on the little tourist train to have a look at the place. One key benefit of this was that it got us to the top of the hill that overlooks the town and the beach which was otherwise a long walk and steep climb. That was a pretty splendid view over some of the most expensive beaches in the world …

In Monaco we spent a bit of time walking to the “older” part of tow, where the Grimaldi’s palace, oceanographic museum and cathedral are situated. We did the palace (most of the rooms open to the public are still used regularly for state functions) and the cathedral (Rainier and Grace Kelly were married there on the same date Cheryl and I were - April 19th), but were too late for the museum. We walked round the harbour and through the tunnel (following part of the Formula 1 track … they were actually setting up for a round of the European go-kart championship that weekend, using part of the GP track), ending up at the Cafe de Paris, drinking a very expensive beer, checking out the Ferraris and Porsches pulling up at the casino, and admiring the casino itself. After a roundabout walk (which mysteriously wended its way past a lot of classy shops) back to the station, it was back to the hotel for the night.

The next morning I spent some more time with the local friend, leaving Nigel and Cheryl to their own devices. This may have been a mistake, as they appeared to spend most of the time shopping (and buying!) … they even forced me to accompany them to one shop and buy things myself … can you believe that?

A very pleasant lunch on the beachfront, and then we were on the road again … back through Provence, taking our time to get back to the farm. More to come …

Oct 19

Avignon

We were headed to Provence, so decided to put ourselves right in the thick of it, in Avignon - city of the Popes (for a while in the 13th century the papacy had to shift from Rome for about a hundred years, and landed there for the duration). We took a slightly roundabout route: via a fishing town called Sete which had been recommended by the girl in Carcassonne’s tourism office. Fishing town indeed - there was a large fleet of serious fishing trawlers parked in the harbour and up the canal. Not a lot of pleasure craft - it was obviously a working town … with (unsurprisingly) a large number of seafood restaurants. Unable to resist the advertising, we stopped for lunch here, before continuing to Avignon. Over the previous few days we had been in touch with a friend from Adelaide (Meryl) who was staying in Avignon (or more correctly, Villeneuve les Avignons across the river) and we had been invited for drinks and nibbles at the apartment she was staying in - some expat Australians who have been living in France for a few years. Essentially the apartment was the “attic” of an old palace built some centuries ago, with a view back across the Rhone to the Pope’s palace. We had a great evening, and picked up a number of ideas for sightseeing (and were loaned a book of day trips/tours in the area to help us). We then walked down the hill with Meryl to a local pizzeria/bar for some dinner about 10pm. This turned into a pretty big night … a few carafes of wine and a couple of pizzas, and a lot of talking (and yes - as the designated driver I stopped drinking. The waitress even gave me a free coffee to help out)! Then when we tried to get out of the suburb, the crackhead in the satnav wanted to send us the wrong way down one-way streets and right instead of left … but we finally got home! The next day we caught the bus just outside the hotel into the old town, and did the whole tourist thing … checked out the papal palace, the Pont D’Avignon (an old arched bridge that started out with 23 arches, and only has four left - most knocked over by the Rhone flooding), the Cathedral, a park nearby and various other buildings throughout the old town. They were all very impressive (you may even see some photos one day!), but what we’ll possibly remember best is the other thing Avignon is famous for - violent winds. It was actually a very nice, sunny day - except for the howling gale barreling down the Rhone valley and threatening to blow us off the bridge, or the hill, or just our feet. This was apparently the famous Mistral … like frozen razorblades in winter, and a blast furnace in summer. However, it really didn’t prevent us from having a good time, and it certainly didn’t prevent us from doing some reasonably serious shopping late in the day! The next day was a driving day - we had worked out a couple of things we wanted to see, and with the help of our borrowed guide book, we set out to explore. First it was a few kms northwest of Avignon to the Pont du Gard, a Roman bridge which carried part of the aqueduct from the mountains to Nimes when the Romans were around. For a pile of rocks 1300 years old, the engineering was pretty spectacular, and it was a very elegant piece of work - especially when you consider the effort involved in its construction. From there it was back past Avignon to a number of little towns that represent Provence very well (if you’ve read Peter Mayle’s ‘A Year in Provence’, most of them are mentioned). There was L’isle sur la Sorgue, a little town on an island in the middle of the river Sorgue, which specialises in antiques - there were some very cute (and very expensive) shops. Then on to Fontaine de Vaucluse, famous for the spring which in winter spews vast amounts of water down through the town - they even have an Olympic kayaking course set up on it, probably for training. While it is much quieter in summer, it was still a beautiful walk up the river to the source. Then to Gordes - perched on the top of a hill and looking like all the buildings have grown out of the rock they sit on - this was the highlight of the day, and we spent a fair bit of time walking up and down the cobbled streets … every building (even the relatively new hospital) was made of the rock that the hill consisted of, which gave them all much the same character, look and feel - very impressed. By this stage we were running out of daytime, but we squeezed in Roussilon, where they mine ochre … and all the buildings are painted in various ochre shades, which looked pretty good at sunset! We drove onto Apt, but it was now dark so we didn’t spend a lot of time there, but decided that we would have to do some of the rest of the planned day trip the next day, on the way to the next stop. We were pretty hungry by the time we got back to Avignon, so hunted up a kebab shop we remembered seeing in the old town. Getting in was fine, because most of the one-way streets went our way. Coming back out - different story. Garmin the crackhead satnav again struggled with the job, and was sending us down wrong-way streets and dead-ends - I was starting to dread the ominous “recalculating …” that emanated from the beast when you didn’t follow her orders (having said that (and there’s more satnav fun to come) we would have been thoroughly screwed without her). Some of the streets were so narrow we had to fold in both rearview mirrors to fit. In the end we found somebody to follow and got out with them! I was glad to get to bed that night … The next day we left Avignon, and took a route that covered much of the ground we had missed the day before - notably the little village of Menerbes, another hilltop town which seemed to confuse Garmin the crackhead … there were some interesting little tracks we covered getting in and out of that place. We again drove through Apt, and then beyond - headed toward the Cote d’Azur …. but that’s a story for another day!

Oct 17

Carcassone

Catching up ….

Having picked up the car, we immediately took off for what was a more Australian drive than European - 650kms in a single hit from Nantes to Carcassone. First issue was getting used to being on the wrong side of the road …. I discovered that you orient everything relative to where your head is - which puts you too far to the right in Europe! Over a couple of curbs, scared the sh*t out of Cheryl getting too close to the edge of the road (or too close to the semi-trailers I was overtaking … ) - it took me a couple of days driving to get it kind of sorted out.

Carcassone has a walled medieval town as its main attraction - parts of it go back to Roman times, and it was substantially restored in the middle of the 19th century. This is a substantial attraction - we were only able to book one night (a Friday) because most places were full for the weekend - with nothing special on, and well out of season. It’s obviously a big attraction - as we drove in we saw three Ryanair planes land … and we did manage to get another hotel for the Saturday night.

It was a 20 minute walk from the more “modern” town to the old city up the hill, and there were a couple of photo opportunities from the bridge (both the new and old bridges) which I took (yes, they’re coming …). There was a kind of settlement outside the walls, clinging to the fortified part like a limpet, and then it was through the gates, around the ramparts and into the castle - which was a fort within the fort. We spent most of the day there, and it was a very impressive place …. it is still difficult to come to terms with the sheer quantity of history just scattered on the ground in Europe … it is such a contrast to Australia, where we think 200 years is a long time!

After the medieval town, we changed pace and caught a boat on the Canal du Midi - a canal built from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic to reduce the time in transporting stuff around through the Straits of Gibraltar …. it was a quiet cruise along a plane tree-lined waterway spoiled only by a little rain (and an idiot who decided he would poke the awning …. sending a torrent of cold water down my back!).

That night we were in a hotel with paper thin walls, so we heard every other guest taking a slash in the middle of the night, every kid waking up with nightmares and every car going past …. but it was cheap and clean. The hotel for the previous night was actually a bit flash … we seemed out of place in such a high-quality establishment!

The next day we were off again - this time to Avignon …

On the farm

Sorry!!!! We haven’t forgotten you, really …

From Paris the TGV went southwest for three hours, through Le Mans and Nantes directly to La Roche sur Yon. From the train we saw lots of countryside, some gypsies, and the River Loire. At La Roche, our friend Peter was waiting for us with his motor home, to take us back to his farm (called Le Petit Breuil). On the way, he took the scenic route so we could see a couple of the local villages.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), we had missed the grape picking and winemaking by a week - so we were spared the work of picking, but missed the joy of watching the grapes being pressed and poured into the barrels (with a fair swag of sugar apparently!). Not to worry - we got to taste some of last year’s brew! We had a bit of a look around at the 20 acres - vines, apple and pear trees, paddocks on which the neighbouring farmer ran his cattle, and a lot of fairly wild growth where blackberries and other undergrowth had been allowed to run rampant by the previous owner. Peter had purchased a tractor (a wonderful toy!) and had cleared part of the scrub, but there is still plenty to go. We actually spent a day helping clear up some trees that had fallen over in a recent storm (and a couple of others that the neighbour had zealously pushed over with his bulldozer!).

As you might expect, the pace slowed a little, and we enjoyed a couple of sleep-ins and caught up on a pile of washing (everything got pulled out of the backpacks and put through the machine). We were also introduced to England’s answer to Jerry Springer, Jeremy Kyle, and some of the lower strata of English society …

During the few days we spent on the farm, we did some day trips to some of the (relatively) nearby towns: Saintes, La Rochelle, and Les Sables d’Olonne. Saintes was a town with some significant remnants of Roman habitation, including the ruins of a circus of a similar shape and purpose as Rome’s Colosseum, but on a somewhat smaller scale and not as well-preserved - interesting none the less.

La Rochelle may be familiar to those of you who remember reading the Three Musketeers - it was a seaside fortress which harboured Huguenots (Protestants) who were persecuted by the Catholics during the reign of Louis XIII - whose Prime Minister Cardinal Richelieu besieged the town for 15 months, ultimately resulting in the death of 75% of the town’s populace through starvation. It’s a much friendlier place these days, and the remaining fortifications look great when the lights come on (there will be pictures soon, promise!) There was a nice little bar in the town square too …

Les Sables d’Olonne is a beachside town, with a nice little harbour, and a very nice beach (even by Australian standards) - long wide beach of white sand, with nobody in the water - I think the Atlantic was a bit colder than the Mediterranean. We had lunch here - the local speciality is mussels, so we gorged ourselves on big pans of them, with some fries on the side, and a couple of carafes of local wine in the sunshine … tough life, hey?

Rather than wear out our welcome with Peter, we decided to hire a car and head towards the south of France, with the thought that we might make it as far as Monaco, which is almost all the way back to Italy. I wasn’t thinking too clearly, and booked the car in Nantes, when there were a couple of places closer that would have been easier to get to … but it all worked thanks to Peter! … so we were into a car, and off on our own!

Paris

<apologies for taking so long with updates … but I’m having fun!>

From Reims to Paris was a relatively short trip (by train, needless to say) … about an hour or so including getting to and from stations. Having arrived at Gare de l’Est, we were introduced to the Paris Metro, with which we would become quite familiar over the next few days. From the Metro, it was only a short walk to the hotel, very hopefully called Hotel Charma … and it was a noticeable improvement over the Reims accommodation. We had arrived early, so left the luggage there and did the customary “orientation” walk around Paris. This consisted of a Metro ride first, into the centre of Paris - actually just south of the Notre Dame into an old area which had become restaurant city.

After some lunch there, we walked to Notre Dame (another Gothic cathedral), which seems to have become way too touristy, but before entering we discovered Point Zero - a brass plaque in the Notre Dame courtyard that is the point from which they measure all distances from Paris. From Notre Dame we walked across Ile de la Cite (the island on the Seine on which ND stands) and along its northern side to Pont Neuf, across the river again and along to the Louvre (look it all up on Google Earth!). We went in via the glass pyramid, and at this point we separated from the rest of the group, who went on towards the Arc de Triomphe, and decided to use our pre-purchased tickets to the Louvre then, since it was open late that night.

Well ….. that place is something else again - yet another ornate large building packed to the rafters with priceless art (paintings and statues) - I’m starting to think that Europe is full of this stuff! We hit the high spots (Mona and Venus, and a gazillion other bits and pieces), but after about four and a half hours we were pretty much cultured out, and staggered out feeling slightly light-headed.

Working on a tip from the tour leader, and it being dark, we took the Metro to a place called Trocadero, which is on a hill looking towards the Eiffel Tower, so that our first view of the tower was with the lights on. Our timing was pretty good - just a few minutes before eight - as on the hour it twinkles as well, for five minutes … very pretty, and worth being there for. After watching for some time (and fending off the hawkers in their dozens trying to sell us cheap souvenirs) we tried some of the local cuisine - a Nutella crepe from a roadside stall. We had been hungry, but one of these babies between us was enough for the night, so back onto the Metro and the hotel.

To balance out the cultural overload, the next day was all Disneyland (a close second to Champagne for Cheryl) … we got up at the crack of dawn, caught the wrong train, recovered brilliantly, raced up to the gates …. to find we were an hour early; the rides didn’t start until 10am. However, we were rewarded by a very sparse crowd, so didn’t have to line up for much at all. We had originally bought tickets for just the theme park, having been told it would probably take us all day, but with the lack of waiting for rides we had smashed out the park by about 2pm … so upgraded the tickets to include the “studios” park! Same situation here - not much waiting (only one that we had to wait 15 mins for, most were walk-on) so by the time we had to leave (see below) we had done everything worth doing, and some of it twice - an altogether satisfying day.

The reason for leaving Disneyland a bit early was that Intrepid Travel had organised a deal for a dinner/cabaret show at a place called Paradis Latin in St Germein du Pres - a Moulin Rouge style show. As one of the guys said when the show started (and the flesh was on display from minute one!) - he’d had his money’s worth in the first five minutes! Perhaps the funniest thing though was the “greeter” who wandered around the tables before and during dinner - a beautiful boy with brilliant eye shadow and a great smile who was as funny as .. and who professed his true love for the young (married) guy with us! When he found out where we were from, he was effusive about how much he wanted to visit Australia … until he discovered how much flying time it was.

The show was pretty good (above and beyond the tits’n’ass) - there was a juggler, a trapeze artist, and the dancing as very good (really!). At the end of the evening, the tour leader had organised an invitation to join some of the staff at a nearby bar, and then a jazz club … but for us, this was when the big day at Disneyland started to take its toll, and we had to pike. Probably just as well - those who went didn’t get home until 5am (chauffeured home through the streets of Paris at a great rate of knots in a Porsche Carrera!, before a 7am start for one of them).

This dinner and show marked the end of the Intrepid tour, so we said goodbye to most of our travelling partners (we saw some the next morning, but not many) and resumed travel on our own.

We had decided that we would get back on the culture train, so for us it was off to Versailles the next day (after switching hotels) … a former hunting lodge that Louis XIV turned into a massive monument to his own ego over the course of his reign. The palace itself is big enough, and the museum holds a number of furnished apartments - the king’s, the queen’s and the Dauphin’s (the French equivalent of the Prince of Wales - heir to the throne), as well as the usual panoply of artwork (in the form of statues, paintings, frescoes and furniture) scattered about like confetti. All incredibly ornate and opulent, and quite overbearing in its impact.

Then you get the gardens ….

If you ever go to Versailles, and you venture out into the gardens (which is an absolute must), don’t look at the golf carts with scorn, and think you’ll walk around the gardens … if you don’t use one of the carts there is no way you’ll be able to get around and see most of it …. it is freaking huge!! There are a couple of smaller palaces set in the park, and it took us half an hour to walk straight to them - bypassing all the little grottoes and avenues and nooks and crannies we could have looked at, and would have if we had any legs left. As it was, we caught the little train from one of the lesser palaces (Grand Trianon) to the other (Little Trianon), and ultimately back to the main chateau. The smaller of these two was gifted to Marie Antoinette by her husband Louis XVI, and she decided she needed a little hamlet, complete with river, lake, cottages and a working farm so that she wouldn’t feel so homesick … apparently she was a bit of a ditz with too much money - her generation’s Paris Hilton, I guess. The hamlet is still there, and the farm still works, and while it IS cute, there’s little wonder she was seen as a prime example of aristocratic extravagance by the revolutionaries, and partly explains why ultimately her head and body lost contact with each other.

We got back to the big house on the hill, and waited for sunset to light up some of the windows, and make some reflections in the ponds (and discovered a couple of smaller gardens that had somehow escaped our notice earlier!) before making our way back to the city. We had to change trains near the Eiffel Tower, so we took the opportunity to have another (closer) look at it at night - we walked around and under it before returning to the Metro and back to the hotel.

That was Friday the second - the next day we investigated how we would get Nigel (Cheryl’s brother) from the airport into the city and onto a TGV train with us out of Paris on the Sunday morning. We worked out where he needed to get to and how to get to the required train station by rehearsing it, and buying the tickets while we were there. That out of the way, we did the walk we missed out on the first day when we stayed at the Louvre. This was from the Louvre, through the Tuileries gardens, across Concorde, up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe - which takes quite a while, especially when you check out most of the shops on the Champs Elysees …

From the Arc we walked through a very high-rent residential area (we checked out some of the prices in a real estate agent’s window … ouch!) and past a demonstration of some sort to the Eiffel Tower (again) - this time we queued up to climb it. We finished up spending three and a half hours on the Tower - went all the way to the top, took lots of pictures, (met up with a couple of people from the tour group), checked out the history, the cinema, the gift shop … and then it was sunset, so we did it some more!

When we finally got down, we went back across to Trocadero (actually the forecourt of the Palais de Chaillot, now housing a couple of museums) and watched the twinkling lights on the Tower again (and having another Nutella crepe again … this time with the added benefit of banana!) and checking out a couple of firedancers busking at the top of the steps.

It was an early start on Sunday morning, so it was into bed fairly early. We were up early, breakfasted and packed before we made contact with Nigel and gave him instructions about trains to catch and the station to get out at. Then it was out of the hotel, McDonalds for a coffee and into the bowels of the Metro again. Saturday’s rehearsal paid off - we met Nigel with no problem, and found the right Metro for the Gare Montparnasse, and made the train with minutes to spare … out of Paris towards the west coast and a little place called La Roche sur Yon.

Next - the farm ….

Reims

We left the home of mustard (yes Dijon DID have an entire store dedicated to mustard!) and headed to Reims, in the heart of the Champagne region (and Cheryl’s idea of heaven). We lobbed in the evening, and walked through part of the eating and drinking part of the city to our hotel.

This was far and away the grottiest of our trip so far … smelt like a mouse plague had been through recently, and was altogether dark and dingy … but what the heck, we can handle it! We immediately left the room and found a local bar/cafe that brewed its own beer, and made things that looked like a cross between a crepe and pizza called flammekeuche (which sounded more German/Flemish than French, but tasted OK).

The next day was possibly Cheryl’s favourite - after a walk to check out another church (!!!)
we moved on to the premises of Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin … for a champagne tour and tasting - heaven
in a flute right there!

Having finally dragged Cher out of the champagne cellars, we walked back to the centre of the town and
visited Reims Cathedral, which is also called Notre Dame … a fairly common name for cathedrals in
France, apparently. This one looked like it had been badly neglected for some time - it was
quite black in spots (and is really white in spots they have just worked on!) - and has copped a fair bit of
damage from pollution. However, they are putting quite an effort into repairing the damage, and replacing
missing bits - it’s a very important cathedral historically - French kings were crowned there for nearly 1400 years.

From the cathedral, Cher and I went to the place next door, which used to be the local Archbishop’s reidence, but is now a museum made up mostly of bits that fallen off the cathedral (or been broken/worn off). Some of the exhibits are stonework and statues that were so badly worn that they have been replaced by newly-crafted replica pieces.

By this time we had taken in as much culture as we needed in one day, so we took a walk across town and found GH Mumm, another champagne house, and had ourselves another tour and tasting! This whetted our appetite so well, that we stopped by the supermarket on the way back to the hotel to buy a bottle of champagne … which we drank while attempting to get an internet connection - the drinking was the successful effort.

This signalled the beginning of a bit of a session - we rejoined some others from the group at the same brewery/cafe, and I had a litre of the dark ale while Cher had some wine … and then it was off to the local karoake bar … which is better left undiscussed!

The next day still dawned, thankfully, and we were off to Paris …

Bern and Dijon

From Lauterbrunnen, we were heading to Dijon, with a five hour stopover in Bern, which is the Swiss capital. We had no idea what to expect from Bern, so it was a very pleasant surprise - again there is an “old” town which is where we spent our time.

This was a particularly pretty spot - the River Aare bends its way through Bern, effectively separating the old and new parts. We walked through the old town - lots of Gothic architecture, including clock towers, a cathedral and Parliament House … and more fountains than I could count! What struck us most about Bern (the main street is lined by old buildings with an enclosed verandah rather than just a footpath, and these were filled with shops) was the beautiful jewellery designed and made there - there were dozens of goldsmiths and jewellers designing and making some gorgeous, unique (and expensive!) pieces.

We had some coffee (Switzerland does lots of things brilliantly, but we didn’t find many good coffees in their cafes) and found an up-market supermarket for some food for the train ride to Dijon …

We changed trains at Lausanne, from where we caught the French TGV (Very Fast Train), which then proceeded to Dijon at about 60km/h - a bit disappointing, we thought! We got to Dijon about 9:30 at night, caught a bus to the hotel, and discovered there was no booking for us … apparently, the tour operator had changed our hotel and neglected to inform us. A ten-minute walk took us to the correct spot, and after dumping our bags and checking the rooms, we took a little walk around some of the town. Again, we were in some of the oldest parts of Dijon - some of the buildings dating back to the 1200s. Some of it looked a little dingy at night, but we found a mechanical music festival going on, so saw lots of music machines in town squares and other public spaces … like huge pianolas on the back of trucks, complete with moving parts and figurines playing instruments … easier to explain with the photos.

When we got back to the hotel, we discovered that there was a party just getting started in the bar next door (I guess it happens on a Saturday night) … but despite our worst fears, they weren’t too noisy (but being just under our window, they did disturb us a little).

Despite that, sleep was OK, as was breakfast - despite a very rude guy giving the waitress/receptionist a hard time. Today’s activity was a train ride (we’re getting to know the rail system now) to Beaune, heart of the Burgundy wine region, for some wine tasting … of course.

We visited the Patriarche family cellars, housed in a former convent, with 4 million bottles of wine and kilometres of wine ‘caves’ which ran under the streets and houses around the area. We tried chardonnay and pinot noir from different vineyards, and despite their proximity, they were significantly different to each other. We only bought a corkscrew, because the wine was affordable but the postage, handling and Australian excise wasn’t.

We found a restaurant for lunch, and I had some snails (much to Cheryl’s disgust) and she had a local boeuf bourgignone … and we finished with pears poached in blackcurrant liqueur - all specialities of the region.

We did the tourist stuff - visited a local museum in an old hospice (a hospital founded for the poor in the 1600s) that had an amazing roof covered with ceramic tiles in different colours and patterns; then jumped on the little “train” that took us around the town and up to the vineyards (with all the locals pointng and laughing, I’m sure).

We got back to Dijon to find some more mechanical musical wonders, and find some internet … which brings us up to date with the commentary, but still about a week behind with the photos (but I have got some more up tonight - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhayman) ….

Thinking of you all, and starting to miss you too (believe it or not!!!!) …

Jungfrau

Dear all

Yay - a connection!

From Lucerne (our last update) we trained it to the Alps - to Lauterbrunnen in the Jungfrau region. I have to say straight up that this part of Switzerland is a living, breathing cliche - anything you’ve ever heard/seen/imagined about the Swiss Alps is not even one tenth of the reality … it is completely astonishing the enormity of the lumps of rock they have there. I can say quite categorically that I had never really seen mountains before … Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau - they’re mountains!

Lauterbrunnen is a fairly small village at the bottom of a glacial valley with huge cliffs on both sides. The River Weisslutschine runs through the valley, which is fed by the galcier melt via the Trummelbach falls - which we walked up to just after we arrived.

We were in one of the camping grounds - fortunately there was a van waiting at the train station for our bags, because there was a particularly nasty hill to get down (and of course, back up later). This was the most basic accommodation so far - cabins with shared bathroom facilities. We were at least separated by a locked door from the large tour group from Top Deck that was arriving the next day. We had been warned that they would be noisy at night, and try to get into our bathroom.

The walk to the Trummelbach Falls took about 40 minutes, plus a stop at the cafe close to them for a very nice raspberry flan and coffee. The falls were pretty cool - for most of the “fall” they go through the mountain, having cut a huge gap in the mountain over who knows how long. There’s some interesting photographs from that.

That night we had dinner at one of the local hotels, which served a strangely unique dish - a choice of meat/fish in the middle, surrounded by fresh fruit pieces and a collection of sauces and condiments, and preceded by a salad. It sounded weird, didn’t look so bad, and tasted great. The local dark beer tasted OK too, as did the local red.

The next day dawned bright and clear, and we took off up the mountain to Jungfraujoch, the location of a spot called the Sphinx - an observatory (and restaurant/souvenir shop/bar/ice castle …) near the top between Monch and Jungrau mountains. Apparently we were very lucky with the weather - most days the place is shrouded in cloud and the view is not so good … but we got a great day - bright sun, clear skies … however good the photos look, we will be disappointed in them. We went out on the snow and had a bit of a toboggan on a plastic disk, which resulted in wet, cold arses! We then had a look at the ice sculptures, and moseyed around the souvenir shop (we got a couple of postcards). We had taken food up with us, and ate it on the outside terrace … ironically,we had to move back in because it got way too hot! We had to come down after about 2.5 hours because of the altitude - one of the group felt a bit unwell, but all of us were getting a bit spaced out ….

After that organised trip, the group split up a bit - four of us took the train part of the way back down to Wengen, caught a cable car back up to another spot over 2000 metres high (Mannlichen), and walked back to the original train line at Kleine Scheidegg. Thanks to some good advice from the tour leader, we did it in the right direction - mainly downhill, and facing the three mountains the whole way. From the walk (through what wre obviously winter ski runs) we could see right down into the next valley over to a town called Grindelwald, which looked so pretty we decided to have a look at it the next day. At the end of the walk, we caught the original train back down to Lauterbrunnen.

We got back just in time to grab some food stuff from the supermarket and local bakery, thinking we would find a nice spot in the camping ground with table and seats for a picnic dinner … to find that they don;t know too much about that sort of dining in Switzerland! Must be something about the weather … in the end we sat on some steps out the back of our cabins - the whole tour group gathered to eat and drink - our leader was so impressed she had to take a photo to show people how these crazy Aussies eat …

The next day we had planned a train/cog train/cable car/walking trip that we thought was going to end up costing us the proverbial arm and leg, but a few minutes with a very friendly ticket seller very reminiscent of one of the Von Trapp family (we immediately named him Freidrich) who ended up saving us at least one arm. So it was a train ride to Grindelwald (which is so obviously a ski village that it hurt) and a meander down the main street to the cable car, which took us up to a ski stop about 2000 metres up called First (yes - that IS its name!). This was a very cool cable car ride …. seemed to go forever, and we climbed through clouds as we went. From First, we took a reasonably comfortable 50 minute hike to a little lake called Bachalpsee, which was very picturesque, and a worthwhile walk. While walking back the clouds lifted, so from First we took the Flieger (Flyer) down to the first cable cable car station … this was an 800 metre flying fox … very cool! At the end of that, back on the cable car down to Grindelwald.

We had some lunch, did a bit of shopping, and Cheryl and I found a terrace bar with a view of the mountains and had a couple of drinks, watching the helicopter fly by …

We grabbed some food in Grindelwald, and that night we repeated dinner on the steps. We were a little worried about the Top Deck tour group who had arrived during the day, but there were only about 6 of them, and they partied in town anyway. We had to laugh, because all the time we were there the camp managers were very disobliging to us, because they were expecting Top Deck to pay off better for them … in the end we spent more in the bar there!

The next morning, the bags went into the van, and we walked up to the train, bound for Bern …

Luzern

From Stresa we headed to Lucerne, in Switzerland. This required three changes of train - two of them very quick! Running through busy railway stations with backpacks on is an interesting pastime - not sure how many people I knocked over but we made the changes!

We crossed the border not far from Stresa, and you could pick the differences in style of houses immediately. After the first change (onto a Swiss train) you could pick the difference in attention to maintenance and cleanliness of the infrastructure as well! Italy was casual and laid-back, which often translated to late trains and untidy public spaces. The Swiss have made their reputation differently - the train (although not new, and well-used) was clean, neat and quiet … and on time, which was why we had to be sure we made the train changes - we couldn’t depend on them being there waiting for us! I now understand the expression “runs like a Swiss watch” much better.

Our hotel was about a twenty minute walk from the Luzern Bahnhof (train station), not far from the old part of town (they have preserved part of the original town wall). We checked out the river (the Reuss) which runs into Lake Lucerne near the station - there are a couple of old wooden covered bridges over the river, one of which is the oldest remaining bridge in Europe (erected in the 1400s). It replaced the other of the two as the oldest when that one was substantially burnt down by a careless boatie who set fire to his boat (accidentally, I presume!) right underneath it … I guess 600 year-old timber burns well. Both bridges now have very prominent “No Smoking” signs …

We lunched at the Rathaus Brauerie, and I sampled their dark ale - very refreshing! We spent the rest of the day walking around checking the old town out, including an hour sitting on the banks of the lake with our feet in the water … the feet were very thankful! Dinner that night was at Pinocchio Restaurant, eating local dishes and drinking local beer (well, I drank the beer … Cheryl is still not a fan).

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a free day (i.e. no planned activities) so the group went in several directions. We decided not to go up the mountain (saving that for Lauterbrunnen and Jungfrau) but grabbed a day pass for the steamers that ply Lake Lucerne and cruised most of the lake, stopping off at some of the other little places in the area. It was a pretty easy day, not much walking or climbing, but it was breathtakingly beautiful - there were a couple of fairy-tale villages we had a look at that were a bit “Hansel and Gretel”. I suspect we’re heading towards even more of that around Lauterbrunnen.

On the way around, we found a supermarket and bought afternoon tea, and a bottle of red wine. Back to the hotel, stopping to pick up a kebab at a Greasy Spoon around the corner from the hotel, and up to our balcony for dinner. Despite the relatively easy day, we tried for an early night … which was spoiled slightly by an unsuccessful effort to upload some more photos to Flickr (reminder: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhayman). I am now woefully behind with them … might try at Lauterbrunnen, but apparently the access is very expensive there.

This morning it was up and off further up the mountains …. I’m writing this on the train, and there are more postcards and fairy-tale views out of the window ….

Impressions of Lucerne: clean, precise and fairy tales.

Will try and catch up, I promise … I’m a few days behind!!

Stresa and Milan

Glad I sent off that last email when I did …. haven’t had a connection since! I Still don’t - I’m just composing it offline, and will send when I can.

Milan is a big city with lots of beautiful people and beautiful things. It was the largest place we had visited since we left Rome, and it was full of tourists as well. As for beautiful things … we started with the statue of Da Vinci, went through the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele (which has to be the classiest spot for a McDonalds I’ve ever seen), and into the Piazza Duomo to see the wedding cake cathedral. This is an extremely elaborate structure, and the engineering that not only supports a stone roof, but hundreds of tourists clambering all over it, is nothing short of amazing. We also climbed up to the roof and checked out the detail of the sculptures and architecture.

We then climbed down to check the interior and discovered that there were a thousand or so schoolkids there for a children’s mass, which had just finished as we approached. It took considerable time and effort to work our way against the tide of noisy kids and parents to get in … and there were more! Inside the noise was unusually loud, because all the quiet conversations (and some not so quiet!) were being amplified by the acoustics - it actually sounded like a severe hailstorm on the roof.

We walked down Via Dante (a pedestrian mall) to the Castello, a huge red brick fortified palace which is now museums and galleries. While we were there the internal courtyard was being used for a production of Madame Butterfly, and the gardens were hosting the Milan Film Festival. We went from here to the church where the Last Supper lives (we had no tickets, and there was no way we would have got in).

After that dose of culture we found the shopping precinct, around Via Montenapoleone. There were beautiful people everywhere here, and all the brand shops up the wazoo … it was an amusing walk. Personally, I liked the plastic Fiat 500s they used as planter boxes for the trees, and some of the cars parked along the way.

Impressions of Milan: busy, lots of contrasting culture and commerce, and twenty dollars for a couple of coffees!

Back onto the train, and up into the mountains to Stresa, on Lake Maggiore. This is a summer and winter playground for the rich and famous (and autumn haunt of Aussie tourists!). We were in a cheaper hotel, but there were some very flash old palace-style hotels on the lake-front, and some glorious old villas (I’m guessing some were for seasonal hire). Much of the property apparently still belongs to the Borromeo family, whose rise to fortune began in the 1500s when they became the representatives of the Medicis in Northern Italy. There are three small islands on the lake, on two of which (Isola Bella and Isola Madre) the Borromeos built palaces and gardens, which are now open to the public. These were incredible places (unfortunately we couldn’t take photos inside the palaces), and although many of the garden’s plants were out of season, there was still plenty to look at. There is a water-bus service between the islands and a few of the towns around the lake, so we spent the day cruising the sights. These included a cable car and chairlift up the mountain, from the peak of which you could see most of Italy’s northern lakes. We had a glorious day weather-wise, so we saw it all at its best.

The two nights we were there, we ate at Pappagallo, a great little restaurant in a back street in the older part of town - good food and great waiters (expensive, but everything seems to be here). They did give us a free round of limoncellos (served ice-cold … fantastic) on the last night. If you ever get there, the dessert trolley is to die for - all made that day on the premises.

Impressions of Stresa: kept expecting to bump into George Clooney, great lake and mountain views, washing that just wouldn’t dry.

Cinque Terre

Train ride from Lucca to Levanto, via Pisa was uneventful. In Levanto
we were met by the hotel owner, who took our luggage for us, which was
extremely welcome, given it was quite a walk. The Hotel Europa is a
cute old pensione, and the room keys were gigantic, with a large cast
iron tag … they recommended you leave them at the desk when you went
out, a request that was easy to comply with.

First stop was the beach - here was the first time we witnessed the
“private beach” phenomenon … fortunately there was a small patch of
public beach, so we didn’t have to go all un-Australian and pay for a
swim! After half a day in the train, hitting the water was a great
feeling. The old part of Levanto is pretty small, so it didn’t take
long to explore. Just around the corner from the hotel we found a tiny
bar …

That evening, we had a pesto-making lesson at a pesto “laboratory”
(pesto is apparently a speciality of the Ligurian region) - that was a
bit of fun - all mortar and pestle work; no MixMasters here! The
lesson included wine and limoncello, obviously important ingredients
in pesto-making (but not in the pesto).

We had bought a couple of bottles of wine to drink on the roof
terrace, but that plan was hijacked, and we ended up at a local
birreria drinking Negronis … the barman loved AC/DC, and played it
loud … it ended up a big night.

At what seemed like the crack of dawn the next morning (but was really
only 8:30) we were back on the train to Riomaggiore, the traditional
starting point for the Cinque Terre walk. The town gets its name from
being built on the main local river - now literally. The river used to
go through the town, but now has a road built over it - so the main
street follows the river’s path. Like all the towns along the Cinque
Terre, it was a steep walk up the hill to have a look, then back down
to the harbour, where the walk starts.

The first section (Riomaggiore to Manarola) is pretty flat and easy -
about 20 minutes along what is called the Lovers Walk. Along the way
there are a couple of places you can leave a padlock and throw the key
into the sea to profess your undying love for each other (there were a
few combination locks … I’m not sure that they signify quite the
same commitment!). There is also a “kissing chair”, where the tour
leader took our photo.

The second section of the walk (Manarola to Corniglia) was also
relatively simple - mainly flat. The only tough part is getting to the
actual town of Corniglia, which is at the top of the hill. There is a
zigzag flight of stairs up the hill (about 1000 steps from memory)
…. or a bus from the station! We walked DOWN the steps later, but
caught the bus up :) . Had some lunch here before the next stage.

These first two stages were very scenic, with good views of the towns
and very close to the water. The next stage (Corniglia to Vernazza)
was both harder and less scenic - part of it was further inland, and
most of it was through scrub. The path itself also deteriorates, often
reduced to 0.5metre in width, and quite rocky. Despite that, it was
worth doing - it was very interesting checking out very steep
vineyards, and there were still plenty of views to catch. There was a
steep climb up for the first half, which gave some good views looking
down on Corniglia. There was a nudist beach down at the bottom of the
cliff - we were tempted until we thought about the climb back up! Last
week there had been a bushfire through the hills here, and we walked
through a few patches of freshly-burnt scrub - the smell of burning
was still quite strong, and the blackened trees and ground reminded us
of home.

It was warm (high twenties) and very humid, so we were drenched in
sweat … we drank nearly four litres of water on this stretch.
Everybody else we encountered was in pretty much the same condition.
There were quite a few puddles from the last few days rain, which made
for some slippery patches, and after getting to the top of the climb,
we discovered that the rest of this stage consisted of an even steeper
descent, with lots of large rock steps on the way down - which was a
bit hard on the knees! On this descent you stumble across a bar …
these folk will put a drinking spot anywhere!

We staggered gingerly into Vernazza to find it perhaps the prettiest
of the five towns. First stop was a gelato shop, then we went down and
had a look at the harbour. There were a few rocks which allowed easy
access to the water, so I was in for a swim … cold but oh so
refreshing! We spent a little while resting, then contemplated the
next section of the walk (Vernazza to Monterosso al Mare). This was
shorter than the previous section, but was going to take at least as
much time, indicating that it was even tougher going … so we thought
about doing the walk as we stepped onto the boat! This decision was
validated by the rain that started as we stepped off the boat at
Monterosso - a wet and slippery walk up and down a rocky path would
almost certainly have wiped us out (it would probably have been a bit
late finishing too, in hindsight).

Monterosso was a bit bigger than the other four, and seemed more
“touristified”, but was still very pretty. We checked out a few of the
local shops, and found a restaurant for dinner. We were actually a
little early for “dinner” - they don’t like serving real meals until
about 7pm, but most of us (we had met up with a few others in the
group in Vernazza) were happy enough with pizza or similar, and they
relented enough to cook up some spaghetti and tomato sauce for a
couple of us.

Back on the train to Levanto, and an early night for a 5:30 wake up
this morning, to catch an early train to Milan.

<update> this is a couple of days later, but I’ll send this off before
I write up the last couple of days … see you soon!

Installment four

Howdy folks

Thanks for keeping us up to date with what’s happening at home, and for all the best wishes.

Well, a thunderstorm hit Lucca Monday and it rained all day, so we didn’t do the bike ride that was planned, and went to Pisa instead. The tour arrangement is quite good - the tour leader arranges the transport (normally a train), gives us a short “orientation” walk to point out things of interest, tells us which train(s) to catch back, gives us the return tickets and then leaves us to it … which suits us down to the ground!

So we did Pisa - the site is more than just the Leaning Tower - there’s a cathedral, a baptistery and a cemetery - and we did them all! The tower is funny - while you’re climbing the steps you can really feel the effect of the “lean” - on one side of the tower it feels like you’re going downhill even though you’re climbing. The view is brilliant from the top - it was still quite cloudy but you could still see the mountains, and all around Pisa. After the tower, Cheryl and I had a wander through parts of the old town, and while we didn’t really get lost, there were a few moments we were a little unsure of our whereabouts … when we finally asked someone the way back to the tower, we were literally just around the corner!

Similar arrangement today, but to Florence (Firenze). We checked out the produce market and a PILE of shops full of very expensive gold jewellery and leather - Cheryl was never more upset about only having backpacks! We had bought tickets to the Uffizi gallery before we left - the place was pretty amazing, chock-full of paintings from the Medici collection … I blush to confess, however, that there was more culture on display than we could take in all at the same time!

There were vast numbers of statues as well, both in the gallery and around the town squares - mainly naked, and generally anatomically correct! Seeing all the male statues balls and all, I don’t feel in the slightest bit inadequate!

We seem to have visited a lot of churches, and Firenze was no different - two reasons, I think: through the Middle Ages churches were the major display of wealth and power, so were a common expression of the architecture and art of the time; plus they are often the only buildings remaining intact after centuries of war … this is by way of a warning that we have a lot of photos of churches! (And most of the churches won’t let you in with bare knees and shoulders - so no shorts and tank tops, despite all the nudity in the paintings inside!!)

After the Uffizi we were completely cultured-out and hungry, so jumped into the first reasonable-looking “osteria” (casual restaurant) … and lucked into some great food and (accidentally, since we didn’t know what we were ordering other than a half-litre of house white) some bubbly for Cheryl. I drank a 660ml Peroni that cost less than the 330ml bottles I was drinking at the Tivoli just a couple of weeks ago! We chatted to an American couple at the next table for a while - it’s funny when you realise that someone else around you is speaking English.

Train back to Lucca, and we’re currently sitting in bed putting this together - weather willing we’ll do that bike ride in the morning. My apologies for the photos being a bit behind … the connections have been a bit slow (especially on the upload) and the problem with a 12MP camera is that each photo is about 5MB in size - so they take a long time! I’ll keep plugging away though …

Installment three

Folks

First - thanks for the replies and news from home - we caught up with the Crows disaster via text unfortunately :(

Been a couple of days since we could find a connection, so this will be a cumulative update …

Caught the train from Venice to Rome with no drama - one of the new fast trains (EuroStar) - electric and quiet! The countryside looked very similar to parts of Australia, except that all the houses are multi-storey … obviously they don’t like to waste too much land on housing when there’s not so much to go around.

Thanks to Google, we found our way to the hotel from the station easily enough - about 15 minutes walk. Pleasantly surprised at the state of the room - lots of the comments on Expedia gave us some low expectations!

After checking in, we decided to walk to the Colosseum to check it out - ended up with a guided tour in English, which was OK apart from the fact that the guide’s English was worse than my Italian. Still - it’s a very impressive pile of stones!

Friday morning we went to the Metro, bought a 3-day pass, and started out for the day - first stop Fontana de Trevi, which was quieter than expected. We then walked to the Spanish Steps, and up past the Villa Medici onto Pincio Hill, which has extensive views over old Rome. Down to the Piazza de Popolo, and by then we were close enough to keep walking to the Vatican, which we had tickets for already.

Went through the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel and into St Peter’s Basilica … by which time we had been thoroughly Vatican’ed. There is not a lot I can say about the Vatican to do it justice … it was incredible to behold, and it is staggering to think of the time and effort put into the art, sculpture and antiquities on show … and while I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, it’s difficult to see the Vatican and not contemplate how far it is from the simple life of Christ.

That wasn’t enough for the day - we decided to go back to the Fontana de Trevi to check it out when the lights came on - an idea shared with thousands of others! It was much busier than earlier in the day … but there’s a couple of good photos in it.

Today (Saturday) we found our way to Villa Borghese - a public park donated to Rome, and containing the Villa Borghese, which houses the personal art collection of Napoleon’s sister - apparently quite a lot, too. Unfortunately, it’s a place you have to plan to visit, and we couldn’t just walk in. However, the public park was beautiful, the weather was great, and we had a very pleasant walk, marred only by the news that the Crows had lost to Collingwood by five points!

We’ve now joined up with the tour group, and last night was the “welcome” dinner …

We had a little bit more time in Rome today so we did a walk from the Colosseum to the Pantheon, around the Tiber, and back to the Colosseum …. and it still hurts! We jumped on the train through Pisa and onto Lucca (tha capital of Tuscany), where tonight we have found our apartment, had dinner in a little trattoria in the Piazza de Amfiteatro, and walked around the town a little. We are staying in the old walled town of Lucca, which is a beautiful little village. Today and tomorrow is a festival, and there are candles festooned over all the buildings - check the photos!

Got back to the room and fired up the laptop to put today’s photos on the hard drive and found some wifi …. so managed to catch all your mails!

Yes we are having a great time, and we feel your pain!!!

Cheers

Second installment

Folks

Have a connection, so I’ll chuck this at you …

Spent today mainly on Murano and Burano islands (bought piles of glass stuff … I am completely glassed out!), then went back to check out St Mark’s Basilica and the Palazzo Ducale later in the day to miss the day-tripper crowds we ran into yesterday. We didn’t spend a lot of time in the Basilica, but gave the palace the full circuit - that place was staggering! We even did the prisons (so we got to cross the Bridge of Sighs).

We bought some stuff at a supermarket to try and cut the food bill, which is just as bad as we were warned (although the exchange rate is pretty good at the moment, which blunts the pain a little) - Cheryl didn’t even finish dinner before she had to have a quiet nap!

Catching the train to Rome tomorrow morning (Thursday) - and I’ve even figured out where the hotel is from the station (about 15 - 20 mins walk)! Catch you again soon - I need a shower and sleep …

Some of you noticed that I didn’t get any photos uploaded yet …. there’s a few now!

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