Villers-Bretonneax

Tuesday 4th October, 2011

Kim had bought some bags with her for each of us that take the air out and compact all the clothes down so we spent a couple of hours trying to sort all that out and get all the odds and ends into our cases. We finally managed most of it but still had some extra carry bags!! God knows what we’ll do when it is time to come home cause we have Paris and London yet. We thought we’d pack up most of the summer stuff cause we had seen the weather forecast and it is going to be a lot cooler from herein apparently. We have been so lucky though because we didn’t expect to get what we have had and by all accounts all the locals have said how unusually warm the weather has been wherever we go.

As we’d had a big lunch we did what we usually do in that instance and bought a couple of treats at the patisserie on our way home so after getting the packing done we treated ourselves to that and a cuppa. Dinner done. Not sure if I’d mentioned it but we can’t believe how a lot of these things in the patisserie’s usually cost less than a cup of coffee and it looks like a lot of work goes into some of them.

Left this hotel, where the staff were fantastic, and Reims by about 8:45am to visit the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. We arrived there at about 10:30am, we stopped in the middle of the road to ask this old man if he speaks English, he started to speak in French and continue to speak in French. Clearly we couldn’t understand him nor I imagine could he understand us but he did seem to get ‘Australian Memorial’ and by his hand gestures of what direction, left and right, etc. we got there. Just goes to show that you don’t necessarily need to know the other person’s language to be able to communicate.

We were both very impressed with the memorial as it is a very important part of our history and is situated on top of a hill overlooking the fields and a couple of little villages. It is also very well tended to and although the weather finally turned nasty on us we were both glad we made the trip. As we got further and further away from Reims it got greyer and greyer and by the time we got to the memorial it was quite chilly with a bit of drizzle. We stopped down in one of the little towns that the memorial overlooked which was Fouilloy and had a cup of coffee. You go into the ‘bars’ for coffee and they obviously sell alcohol as well and when we went to this one where they didn’t speak English we managed to get what we wanted but there was a lot of laughing and we got the impression it was at us. Probably cause we were clearly underdressed for the weather being that we were in shorts. It was also before midday and the alcohol was already being served which happens a lot here. I think they must live by the ‘one before eleven or eleven before one’ rule!!

We headed off to the Charles de Gaulle airport to drop Cindy our trusty Citroen off. As much as she’s been amazing and we’ve had no problems whatsoever there was no way we were going to be driving in Paris. Some people both here and at home thought we were mad driving at all, and there was a few times we thought it ourselves but we are very happy we did and were quite pleased with how we have done under some of the conditions we have had to deal with. Anyway as with when we picked the car up we had a hell of a time trying to find the damned drop off point. When we pulled over and asked someone another car stopped as he was looking for the same place so it wasn’t as if we were idiots, it was their directions. We eventually found it, the other car going off in another direction to us but funnily enough when we did get there he was pulling in just in front of us. So sadly we dropped her off and have packed Ruby away for a rest cause god knows we tested her at times, I think she was sick of saying ‘turn around where possible’!!

They grabbed a taxi for us to get into Paris who was a very pleasant black man that opened the doors for us and lifted our now very, very heavy cases into the boot. He said he didn’t speak English much the same as our Melbourne cab drivers but he understood enough to be able to find the hotel and when he got going he put the radio on which came up with a few English songs. We started singing along which he acknowledged with a smile. When I asked him about a stadium we saw he told us what it was and from then on became our tour guide, pointing out various points of interest. Kim got very excited when the Eiffel Tower came into view which he found amusing. As it turns out our hotels position is quite good, we are in the Saint-Germain area and close to the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, etc. We arrived at the hotel at about 3.30pm to which the cabbie also unloaded all our bags and took them into the hotel so we took them upstairs and by 3:45 we were back out on the streets wandering around to familiarise ourselves a little. We did this for about an hour when we had seen some people in a café/restaurant eating and thought well that means we can too and as we hadn’t eaten anything all day took the opportunity to do so. This is rare cause by the time we usually feel like or get around to eating with all the sightseeing and stuff nobody is open for food, only coffees and drinks. Maybe here, because there are always people around, tourists, etc. they open at any time for eating, not sure but it suited us. We then made it back to our room to plan for the next few days here in Paris. This afternoon the clouds started to break up and the sun started shining again so hopefully the weather won’t be too bad. The receptionist said it should be much the same tomorrow maybe a little warmer and today was about 23 so here’s hoping our luck continues.

Australian Memorial - Villers-Bretonneax