Copenhagen

I have to say that Copenhagen is growing on me. There was sun today, and although it is still not warm, it was a very nice day. I have just walked home from the conference dinner at 10:30pm in the dusk - at 11:30pm it is more-or-less dark.
Copenhagen is a beautiful city with a blend of old and new architecture. New buildings are definately new - super modern architecture, with a great feeling of light about them. Below is a hotel that is not far from the university. While it stands out as being super funky, there are lots of other funky building around about.

Conference finishes tomorrow and I am off to Aaborg in the afternoon. I am staying there with a kiwi woman who works at Aaborb Universiy.

Copenhagen!

Arrived in Copenhagen mid-afternoon yesterday. The airport, to hotel train, map reading etc went smoothly .... accept the handle strap broke on my nice new (admired) bag. The weather was grey, drizzly and cool, but I went for a wander up the streets to get my bearings and see if I could spot a cheap bag shop. No luck with the bag, and after a while the shops began to shut so I wandered back to the hotel and had a nap.
The days are longgggg here. I think it is only dark from about 11pm to 4am. I woke several times in the night and could tell it was somewhat light, but couldn't be bothered looking at my watch. All seemed quiet and I figured I would hear the traffic when it was 7-8am. I woke properly at 9am, perhaps I better set an alarm for tomorrow!
It was grey and drizzly again. After several work phone conversations, I saw blue sky and thought, right, I am outa here. Of course by time I had myself and a bike organized it was drizzling again. After some lunch, I set off again, ignoring the rather heavy shower. I biked the 'walking tour' circuit. Past the palace (where Aussie Mary lives no doubt), the little mermaid and various churches, to the summer palace, Rosenborg, which has been a museum for a few hundred years. I did a tour of this, it is rather a contrast to the French stuff, being a lot older and smaller - but very cool. It included the royal treasury, which was bit of a treat with lots of lovely extremely intricate ivory and jewels, crowns etc.
I then headed off the tourist path for a little foray into the burbs. Very dark clouds persuaded me it was time to turn around. I was a bit late, so got damp again on the way back to the hotel.
After the tourist insanity of Paris, Copenhagen is rather nice. The people are friendly, everyone speaks English and the city is of a more manageable size. There are lots of tourists, but the place isn't overrun like Paris was, where one had to queue to get into anything. And they have public toilets - seriously, we were forever searching for loos in Paris. Here, at most of the major points on the walking tour there was a public loo - one notices these things when one has had to search or sneak into cafes!
Conferencing for the next few days. Having not achieved my goal of finding a cheap bag, for once I am interested in what the conference bag is like :0

Au revoir Paris

Today was our last day in Paris. Tomorrow morning Grant heads home and I am off to Copenhagen.
We made a great choice for how to spend today. We went to the centre Pompidou - the modern art museum. It was stunning. The outside of the building is amazing. The inside is well organized spaces with a sequential journey of art from 1905 to 2012. A large number of Picasso's and lots of other contemporary work, organized in rooms with enough commentary so that even ignoramus like us could understand. Then some very, very new work including computer interactive and 3d printing.
We left there at about 6pm. The streets were buzzing with locals and sun! We wandered our way back to our apt - about 2-3kms with a cafe stop and late dinner. While at dinner some fire engines went past. When we walked home they were at a building just opposite ours, with a ladder up to the 5th floor and smoke coming out the window - all is quiet now.
Now it is time to pack and find some warmer clothes. High predicted for tomorrow in Copenhagen 14 burrrrrr

Another day in Paris

Busy day today - but we are learning to pace ourselves.
After a late start we wandered our way up to Montmartre, just a walk from where we are staying. We climbed up the dome and got accosted by the street Nigerians on the way down the steps. I objected to one trying to grab my wrist and told him to F off. They didn't like that - I didn't apologize!
We brought filled baguettes for lunch (yummm) which we had at home. After a nap while the thunder and lightening passed, we headed for Orsay, the art gallery with the impressionist collection. It is advertised to close at 9 on Thursday, but was closing at 6 today because of some music thing. It was a bit of a quick wiz around Monet, Renoir and the rest.

Then a rather nice dinner at a restaurant up the road from where we are staying. Followed by a wander of the streets listening to street bands. There seems to be one per block, playing everything from jazz to rock to a drum group of about 30. Finally we got back in time to see the light show on the Eiffel tower from our window.

Gay Parie

Yesterday we were busy little tourists. We caught the metro to Notre Dame and wandered through it - amazing stained glass! Then across to the Latin quarter where we had Greek lunch We then did a 3 hour walking tour, which was both entertaining and informative. It ended a couple of metro stations from the eiffel tower, so I just had to keep going. The q for the elevators was 2 hours! There was no q for walking up. Grant thought better of it, I trotted up the 700+ steps to the second level (no need for a run today). We then metroed home for a short while before heading out again for tea. We sat and watched a couple of stars arrive at the picture theatre opposite for the premier of spider man 3d.

Today we were dragging our tired feet. We went out to Versailles in the most inefficient, hopeless tourist way possible. However we did get there, walk the gardens - about 5 kms, tour the palaces, and wonder at the craziness of it all. Now home with our feet up and dinner cooking on our 1 element.

In Paris

An uneventful trip to Paris today. Dropped our rental off and caught the metro to our rooftop apartment. Small, but functional. Once installed we wander down the road a ways - through the garment district by the looks of it. Then back a different road, first it was 'clubs' with 'girls' (old bags) plying there trade. Then we crossed a road and we were in a Turkish section. Shopped for tea and breakfast, now enjoying champers before we cook.

Update from Le Mans

It has been a couple of days since I have posted anything - I have been busy.
Thursday was a travel day. We set off from our chateau at 9:30am with maps and a plan. According to google maps it was 4 1/2 hours to get to our destination (just north of Le Mans)... The plan went out the window in about 30 mins! When we got to the motorway on ramp for the high speed motorway that was supposed to take us 250kms there was a diversion sign. We travelled about 20 kms to the left and then 20 to the right back to the motorway... another on ramp with a diversion sign. Another 40kms to the right and I decided they were probably diverting us to the next motorway over. We kept going that direction and got on to the next main highway, but it was only bits of motorway and bits of slower road. Our plan for lunch in Orleans slipped by. We stopped in a town called Gien, which is on the Loire river. We had a nice lunch by the river and a very impressive bridge (below). There was just one more incident of note before we finally made our destination. We were traveling along a very, very flat, straight road and this old guy in an old car was tootling along in front. Grant passed him and out popped a couple of Gendarmes on motorbikes, as if from thin air. Apparently it was a no passing zone - 90E instant fine. The guy we passed pulled into the house where we had been pulled over and one of the Gendarmes had a good old natter to him. Were we set up? I guess we will never know, but it was all awfully suspicious. Anyways about 7 hours later we got to our destination, tired and I, at least, a bit over the whole driving thing.
Friday morning was an early start to head to our next accommodation and the bus pick up for 'open day' at Le Mans. The tour guys had offered to drop me in Le Mans town and I could join up with them there in the afternoon as they go into the town for the parade. However they had a spare general entry ticket and offered it to me, so I (shock, horror) went to the track too. We wandered around the manufactures' stands - there is a lot of marketing at these things, pits and general public areas. The where no cars racing, but all the main race cars were in the pits. Pit row takes about 55 cars and the guys were about 5-6 deep the whole length, all drooling. I swear if you look closely at the picture below you can see the drool dripping of their chins.
The time flew by and at 3:30 it was off in the bus to the town to watch the parade. What a dreary affair, even Grant thought so. It was supposed to start at 5:30, and (naturally) that was when the rain started. Motorbikes and old cars with drivers in the back dribbled through at about 1 every 15 mins. At about 7 we gave up and went and got some food, as much as anything to get out of the rain. When we finished at 8, the parade was just winding up. We did a quick hike around the old town and then back to the bus for the trip home.

Today Grant headed off to the track at about 9am and I sat down to work. A part from a jog into the centre of the town (Le Ferte-Bernard) I have been working all day! The weather is still cool, but at least not raining for now. I am expecting Grant home at about mid-night for a quick nap then he is off again in the morning.

Good to see that Margarita is making good progress.

Yesterday we drove from Burgundy across country to just out of Vichy. The Romans have a lot to answer for with their road layout. All main roads lead to Paris, like wheel spokes. And other towns have roads radiating out from them too. So if you want to go cross country you end up with jagged saw track!
Mostly we went through rolling hills that are farmed or cropped. It rain (again).
Our accommodation is most spectacular - we are in the Maulmount Chateau. It started life as a crusades fort in about 1200. In the 18th century this was a favoured hunting area for the kings. A princess built the current building (or some version of it) as a hunting lodge. Our bedroom is the top of the left tower. Which is awesome, except for the stairs - they are a narrow, steep spiral.

Vichy is a spa town, it has natural mineral waters and there is a fountain building where one can get a taste. I filled my empty coke bottle (shock, horror) - it tastes like sodaery mineral water. We also past a roundabout with some steaming vents in the middle (a la Rotorua). Vichy has the trappings of a royals playground - an opera house, gardens. All look about the same era, late 18th century, ie pre-revolution. There is farming on the flat land and a lot of mixed forest on the hills, perfect hunting country in days of yaw no doubt.

Yesterday was a wander around the slightly wider surounds of where we are staying. We first went over the hill to the river Ouche - a very pretty little valley with villages about every 5k. They only farm the bottom of the valley, all the hills, which are not steep, are wooded. It was Monday, so most of the cafes were closed. Eventually we found a rather nice little one and had the menu de jour - salad and duck. And a cool grape tree(below). The range of meats offered is so much wider than we ever see. So far I have had, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, rabbit and escargot (does the last count as meat?). Every menu will have rabbit, or duck or such.
The Ouche valley took us backwards towards Dijon - we then went East from the vine area and wandered around the plains a bit. These are cropped, wheat, barley, maize, oates, rape and or mustard (they look about the same), sugar beet and something else that we have yet to identify, the plants look a bit like eggplant, but we dont think they crop that.
Today we move on to a chateau for a couple of days - think turrets, gardens etc, etc. But below are a few pictures from yesterday and one of the drawing room of where we are presently. The family of the woman who runs this have lived here for 200 years and built this part of the maison.

Now in nuits-saint-georges

We picked up a rental Friday morning and drove down, down, down through beautiful scenery and some amazing roading - serious engineering feats! Unfortunately it was raining so the views were not so good and we didn't stop.

Over 3-4 hours it went from mountain to steep hills to rolling hills, with intensification of the farming following.
We stopped for lunch in a village but couldn't find anything - it looked really poor and semi-deserted. Then had a fairly random lunch in the next village - then (of course) saw much better places a bit later. We hoped off and on the 'payway', the first section cost us 8E and the second about 3E. Eventually we made our way to Nuits-Saint-Georges, our home village for the next few days. It is in the middle of the burgandy district and there are vinyards all around and 'caves' where they store the wine in every second building.
Saturday we went to Dijon and wandered around - it is a rather nice town, but nothing that makes it particularly standout from any other European town I am rubbing an owl, on the side of the cathederal, which supposedly gives one good luck.

Lunch was at a local cafe, afternoon tea was a pinguinne cake - soooo cute and it tasted quite nice too.

The we did a bit of wine tasting on the way back to Nuits-S-G

Today we went south to to Beaune, we wandered around the town, did more eating and more wine tasting. This cellar is a wine merchants - there are about 3 million bottles of wine in it!

Au revoir Annecy

No photos today as they are on Grant's camera and he is busy working and will grump if I disturb him ;-)
But if you could see photos it would be us on bikes alongside the lake looking a bit sunburnt. Yesterday was a super day and we made the best of it! Biking from about 10 - 2, including a picnic lunch by the lake. Then a rest by the pool. Last a wander round the medieval town, slightly newer main shopping area and back to the old town for dinner.

This morning it is raining (again) - but we are in the mountains. We are going to go pick up a rental and are heading for Nuits-Saint-George - a small village close to Dijon. I guess when we get down there, there will be less rain. It does tend to be showers here, so hopefully it stops soon or it will be a puddle, rather than a walk to Hertz (about 20 mins walk away).

Bye for now

So who knew I owned a chain of shoe shops in France?

No. Me neither - but here's the evidence www.chaussure-beryl.com. Looks like I have about a hundred stores
As for other things
-- the conference is over.
-- Grant should arrive here in an hour or so.
-- and I have got a local data chip in my ipad so we have a navigation system and connection to the world.
That is another story. I couldn't make head-nor-toe of the French telecom sites so I asked one of the student volunteers for some help. He located the best deal and where the store was - I just wandered in, pulled out my ipad with the right page of their site showing and pointed to what I wanted. He didn't get it quite right, but near enough for the girl and I to get it sorted 18E (about $30) and I have a chip and data for 30 days.

Here is the photo

Another day in Annecy

I am playing hookie from the conference this afternoon. It is a beautiful day here, I am tired and there is a dinner tonight.
We had a really great keynote this morning, a chap called Colin Ware, I have read his book on visual perception so it was great to hear his talk. After morning tea was my talk, which, while less impressive, was well received. Then another couple of talks before lunch.
After lunch I caught the bus from the university to town and then walked the kilometer or so to my hotel. There are a few other people hanging around the pool and I was insanely pleased that a French woman complimented me on my (new) handbag! The French are just so elegant!
Grant said I should add something of his travels - he is still in Japan - sounds like he is enjoying touristing, the auto loos and food. More than that and he will have to write it himself when he gets here. This is a photo of the scene from the pool today - just to make you jealous :-). Or perhaps not - the upload doesn't work from my iPad. I will post this and then see if there is a blogger app that will do it.

In Annecy

My bags and I made it to Geneva an hour late - the taxi man was still waiting for me. He was a chatty young chap who filled me in on the local history as he whisked me down the motorways to Annecy - all pay roads by the look of it. Arriving at the hotel about 6pm,

I forced myself out for a walk to the lake - doesn't the chap on the left look just so, so French - little mo and all!

This morning I felt pretty jetlagged, but decided I best go get some daylight before the rain came. Its market day on Sunday morning in Annecy in the medieval town and it is just everything a French market should be. Lots of fruit and veg, smelly cheese, butchers with rabbit, bread and pastries.Having brough bread and bananas, I wandered up the hill to the castle, around and down to the lake and back to the hotel. It was pretty warm and humid; I took myself down to the pool and it started to rain --- fortunately they have an indoor area with a sunroom. It's midnight NZ time and my body is screaming sleep, sleep - I think I will have a little nap! Conference starts tomorrow.

London -dreary and wet!

So far so good. uneventful flights to here. Saw several hours of dessert out of LA, then as it got more interesting it got cloudy. Dame Kiri was across th isle from me on the LA London leg. According to her tomorrow's barge flotilla is going to be wet and cold - she will be on a barge! My plane for Geneva is a bit delayed. Oh well, such is life!