Exploring Île-de-France (and a bit more Paris)

We bought a book that describes some walks around the region surrounding Paris, the so-called Île-de-France.  (A "region", or as we would call it in Canada a "province".)  Île-de-France has an extensive metro and you can get just about anywhere by train.  (We're actually staying just outside of Paris, in Nogent-sur-Marne, in the Île-de-France.)

Saturday - Champs-sur-Marne.

Champs-sur-Marne (on the Marne river) is one of the closest walks in our little book.

(Or course first thing in the morning we have to visit the local market in our own little neighbourhood - Nogent-sur-Marne (same Marne).  Here is the downtown shopping district:

And here is Sonya eyeing the market:

Champs-sur-Marne is only a couple of stops on the metro, and one of the highlights is an old chocolate factory.  It was built in the 1800's and produced chocolate until the 1960's, when it was bought out by Nestle France.  It maintained production until the 1990's when it was shut down.  Now it sits empty behind a wire fence and patrolled by security with guard dogs (we actually saw them).

The factory is split between the "mainland" and a small island (that you can walk on) - the bridge in the picture below transports cocoa from one building to another.

This building is called "The Cathedral".

Another view.  Other than the fence the buildings are surrounded by a large hedge so it's hard to get a good view.  The brickwork in some of the buildings is amazing!

An overview of chocolate production:

We were thinking it would be a great idea to buy the property and develop it into a market, with parks and condos, and sure enough we found a sign describing what Nestle is intending to do with the property.  No timeline but I'd like to visit again in the future!

After the chocolaterie we visited the local "chateau" - this one was originally built in the 1700's (I think) and then bought and refurbished buy a financier in the early 1900's before being donated to the state.  (It's expensive to maintain these old buildings.)

This one, unlike some, is fully restored and furnished as it would have looked "back in the day" (not sure exactly which day).  There was also an audio tour which Sonya enjoyed.

A large garden of course - this is the view from the dining room.

Overall one of the best days!  An old chocolaterie (combined with a river walk) and a fully restored chateau!  We're happy with our Île-de-France walking tours!

Sunday - Créteil and Ile du Martin-Pêcheur.

These are also close by on our metro line, so we could combine two walks in one day.  First a quiet river walk through nice residential neighbourhoods ...

Victor Hugo lived here briefly!  Back in the day when it was a rooming house.  Then it became a restaurant, and sometime in the 1990's the restaurant closed and now it is just a regular residence.  (The resident actually arrived home when we were lurking around.  "Are you visitors?"  "Yes, we are reading that Victor Hugo used to live here."  "Oh yes (no big deal.)"

The lovely neighbourhood - this is on an island with restricted car access, a lovely walk!

Another park, another bunch of flower pictures showing up in my icloud!  I'm not saying that Sonya is obsessed, but ...

We visited Ile du Martin-Pêcheur, which I expected would be an island with a nice walk, and a bar on the island, but the whole island is the bar!  It was all dolled up for halloween, and in the evenings apparently a big party spot but during the day mostly families.

G&T "au cucombre".

Monday - Luzarches and Seugy.

Luzarches is north or Paris, at the very end of the metro line.  (It took about ah hour and 20 minutes by train.  Actually 2 hours and 20 minutes because we didn't check the schedule ahead of time and just missed the hourly train from Paris downtown to Luzarches.)

The library and the obligatory old church.  (Unfortunately the library, like most things, was closed Mondays.)

Some ruins of an old fort with the church bell tower in the background.  (On the other side of the wall - sheep grazing.  The old historical towers of the old fort have been converted to sheep pens.)

The old church.  Parts date back to the 1400's.  This church is a collage of styles.

The streets of Luzarches.  At the end of the street is the old city gate - what is left of the ols ramparts - which is now just a private residence.

We walked from Luzarches to Seugy (the next train station down the line) which was a nice walk and part of the GR 1 trail.

Tuesday - Paris - Musee d'Orsey and the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Today we booked a guided tour to the Musee d'Orsey, which specializes in Impressionist art (so you'll see lots of photos, I'm not going to appologize).  Part of our tour was a "skip the line" which by itself was worth the price!  We didn't realize that Tuesday is the busiest day because this is the day the Louvre is closed.

The ground floor is "pre-impressionist", all about the old Art Academy and how they tried to suppress modern art.  An interesting display - the "kid" in the photo below is actually an installation!

Musee d'Orsey was originally a train station!  The clock at the end is original.

Monet's poppies:

We're watching "The Art of Crime" (French TV series) and two of the works that feature prominently in the show are right next to each other!  Monet's child:

And "Crazy Mary".  (We checked and the ribbon was in her hair.  People who've watched the show will understand.)

More Monet.  Interesting that we could bookend our trip with Monet's garden and Monet's art.

Pissarro (with detail) - one of my favourite non-Monet paintings.

Monet's church series.  (Sonya asked if this was inspiration for my own church paintings and yes it is, although I still have aways to go.  I love how the paint is just layered on like plaster.  One of my painting teachers says "Paint is power".)

Afterwards (and after lunch and some shopping) we visited the Jardin du Luxembourg (which is our old stomping grounds from our visit last year).  We visited the Statue of Liberty in the garden (which was actually our second Statue of Liberty of the day because they also have a copy in the Musee d'Orsey.)

The obligatory flower pics.

We had dinner out and this is our bottle of wine.  (Some folks have asked for more food pics.  We usually tuck into our food before we remember to take a pic and this is the only picture we got from what was probably the best meal of the vacation.)

Wednesday - Sceux and the Paris Opera!

Back to the Île-de-France!  Sceux is south of Paris (not at the end of the metro line but close to it) and the main attraction was a chateau (this one is converted to a museum, we skipped the chateau visit) and a very large park.

This is facing west (I think) - as far as the eye can see.

This is facing south - again as far as the eye can see.  The series of waterfalls is "The Cascades" and is a very impressive "feat of hydro engineering" according to our guide.

Sculptures (the faces spouting water) by Rodin.

Another view of The Cascades.

Another view southward,  The "Grand Canal" is over a kilometre long.

In the evening we went to the opera - "La Fille du Regiment" - at the Opera Bastille (not the other opera house, which was playing "Madame Butterfly" but it was sold out).  No photos sorry, the building was very modern and the opera was very nice!

Thursday we have a cleaning day and then head up to our last night in France, at a hotel right next door to the airport

St Malo to Chartres to Paris to Reims and back to Paris

A lot to catch up!  About a week's worth of France travels ...

Thursday was our last full day in St Malo.  We did a few errands (last visit to our favourite boulangerie) and then walked to the Jacques Cartier museum for a visit.  Of course Jacques Cartier "discovered" Canada, and made three trips there from St Malo (exploring the St Lawrence up to what is now Montreal) but of course without help from the native population would never have survived the winter.  His home in St Malo was bought by a couple of Canadians awhile ago and converted into a museum.  The visit was very informative and gave a good impression of how people lived back then.

Here is a model of his ship (he made the journey each time with 3 ships, although after the last trip where they had to spend the winter they only returned with two).

Here is the kitchen/dining area.  People had to share a cup/mug between two people but everyone had their own spoon!  The heating was from the fireplace and the light from burning whale or cod oil (which stank apparently, wealthy people used candles).

Other than this room there was a living room and a bedroom.  (There were actually more rooms in the museum, but the building had been expanded after Cartier's time.)

Friday we drove to Chartres (3.5 hours).  (We split the St Malo-to-Paris drive into two days.)

Of course the highlight in Chartres was the big church.  Every church/cathedral we visit in France we swear is the largest and we'll never see another larger and the Notre Dame de Chartres was no exception, the largest and most impressive yet.  Interesting was the difference between the two steeples, one of which was destroyed at some point and then rebuilt.

Also was the impressive stone carving inside, completely encircling the choir, hundreds of feet long.

We stopped for a glass of wine and a charcuterie board at the local wine bar.  We had to leave by 8pm at the proprietor was getting ready for a wedding reception with 100 people!

Some ancient ruins of the old Roman gate.  Most of France was occupied during Roman times (except of course for the one Gaulish village who managed hold out) and Chartres was no exception.

Here's an artsy picture of us (our shadows anyways) in the main square with Notre-Dame in the background.

The public library, more impressive on the outside than inside.

We drove to Paris Saturday (actually Nogent-sur-Marne, which is just outside Paris, although just inside the "clean air" zone where you need to register your car and can only drive (during certain hours) if your car meets certain emissions levels).

You can *just* make out the Eiffel Tower from our flat, can you see it?  Just poking up to the right of the building on the far left.

Saturday and Sunday we just lay low, and wandered about our neighbourhood (which includes the gigantic park which actually includes about 6 parks and stretches about halfway from our apartment to the Eiffel Tower - the park is 6km across the we are 13km from the Eiffel Tower).  Here we are exploring the Parc Floral, which is a small part of the overall park.

Rhubarb big enough for a dinosaur to eat.

Nothing special just some flowers I liked.

Sonya admiring one of three (!) large dahlia gardens.

Another famous (in my own mind) vertical panorama - just outside the Parc Floral, with the Chateau de Vincennes in the background (yes the park has its own castle - Sonya figures the whole park was the private hunting grounds for the king back in the day).

Monday - Exploring Paris - we took a walk on the Paris "High Line" (actually known as the Promenade Plantee, and actually pre-dates the NYC High Line, who knew).

Paris is getting setup for Haloween and in typically French fashion this include Madame Guillatine.

The Paris Notre Dame, still not open!  Last year when we were here they were promising to have it open for the olympics, and last I read the plan is to open it in December, although from the looks of the work still ongoing I have my doubts.

The highlight of the whole trip so far, we met up with some of my swim buddies who just happened to be visiting Paris at the exact same time as us.

While we still had a rental car, we decided to visit Reims (not to be confused with Rennes) in the Champagne region.  We spent 2 nights at an AirBnb in Reims, and did a tour of the region, including visits to a couple of champagneries and tastings!

Of course the highlight in Reims was the big church.  Every church/cathedral we visit in France we swear is the largest and we'll never see another larger and the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Reims was no exception, the largest and most impressive yet.  Of course Reims is also known as "Coronation City", as this is where all the French kings are coronated, so they had to make this church the largest and most impressive yet.  (I think until Notre Dame de Paris is re-opened this is going to be the winner.)

"Ho hum another big church."

Lots of impressive stained glass (in Reims as in Chartres you really need to bring binoculars to appreciate everything!) including a set by Marc Chagall (we saw some of his stained glass last year in Zurich unless my memory is starting to fail me).

Wednesday we went on a tour in Champagne country!  First stop is the old church (dating from about 700AD) where Dom Perignon is buried.  (The father of bubbly wine from the region.  The first fizzy wine was actually an accident, and then they decided that people liked it.  I don't remember all the details :-P)

Visiting the Champagne vineyards.  There are 35,000 acres (or hectares, I forget) owned by 16,000 individuals (and/or companies).  The grapes are all sold to a smaller number of producers who squeeze out the juice, and then on to the Champagne houses who make the champagne.  Some houses own their own vineyards and/or presses and some just buy their product, it's all very confusing (and very very heavily regulated by the Champagne gestappo).

"Strike a pose!"  (Sonya's retirement project is to become an influencer.)

Champagne aging in the cellar.  Most bottles age for at least 2 or 3 years before the sediment is "popped out" and they are officially corked and sold.

A tasting!!!

Back in Reims, we did a self-guided "art deco" walking tour.  Most buildings were (I thought) kind of boring, but we liked this old theatre (now turned into shops and apartments).

Another library!  Sadly is wasn't open during our visit :-(

Back in Paris, we decided to return the rental car Thursday evening.  Our drop-off point was the Gare Nord train station right in the heart of Paris!  (I clearly wasn't thinking when I booked the car.)  We figured the traffic would be lighter Thursday evening than Friday morning (rush hour!) so we left our place around 8pm to do the drop-off (about 50 minutes drive, including a stop for gas).  Lots of adventures!  Including having to make a second gas stop (the first station only had diesel)  and almost running over a pedestrian and cyclist (also figuring out the giant Paris roundabouts with their built-in traffic lights - I only knew when to go when people started honking at me) but eventually we ditched the car and could relax.

Friday we booked into the Surrealist Exhibition and the Centre Pompidou (which is a really cool building, however I didn't take any pictures because I took a bunch of pictures last year when I visited).

One of my favourites from the exhibition:

Afterwards we wandered around Paris some more, we're into our final week and just taking it easy.

The Bastille with the Paris Opera in the background.

The Paris Opera (we have tickets for a show next Wednesday).

For our final week we're planning to visit around the Ile de France (the area around Paris) anywhere we can easily get to by train.  And visit out local markets of course!