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| Postcard - Les Bourgeois de Calais by Auguste Rodin |
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| Postcard - Cap Blanc-Nez near Calais |
We stayed in the Calais camping ground overnight.
We decided to travel to Paris (why not?) and after walking kilometres we eventually caught a bus to Les Attaques and camped overnight on the side of the road. We’d pitch our tiny tent among the haystacks hoping to remain unseen.The next day we got two short lifts with truck driver, but had to catch a bus again to Arras where we stayed in a youth hostel. It took us a whole day to get there.
In the morning wandered around our Arras, absorbing the French ambiance. The French seem to have the idea of luxury in food. Good eating places and shops selling delicacies abound.
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| Danielle and bear |
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| Anne Grimdalen and bear |
Every picture tells a story, or not, but the photo of Danielle with the stone bear sculpture remained a mystery until we discovered that I took the photo in Bois de Bologne.
The sculpture is by the Norwegian sculptor Anne Grimdalen (1899-1961) who was known for her animal representations, very clean style and often sculpted in granite. At the northern end of the park, a 20-hectare section of the park was given to the Societé Imperiale zoologique d'Acclimatation which among other things, housed bears.
We walked around Paris, Champs Elysee, Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower which we intended to visit tomorrow.
We went to see an animated film Tarzoon, which was very funny and sexy - all in French though.The next day it was cold and misty, but we went to the top of the Eiffel tower anyway. Because of the weather, the view was not that great, but we thought that it was definitely worth the 12F entrance fee.
Later we visited an exhibition of Metro art which was fantastic. Speaking of the Metro, one day while entering a station we ran into John Jeffery, a friend from Sydney who we didn't even know had left Australia. Actually he was hard to miss,, being over 6ft tall and with a shock of frizzy red hair.
Meanwhile, we were really getting into the French food: bread, salami, olives and cheese with beer for lunch. Very French and very cheap (for France anyway).Being the 70s, we sent letters and postcards to relatives and friends who hadn't heard from us for months - no phones, no internet. We went to an employment office to seek grape-picking work, but there was not much hope of a job as there were too many applicants and too few jobs, so we decided to head to Reims in the Champagne district to try our luck anyway.
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| C.Andreotto Exhibition |
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| Postcard - Paris |
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| Postcard - Paris |
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| Postcard - Paris |
On Thursday 25 September we left Paris. We caught the Metro to the end of the line, then caught a bus then walked, walked, walked, then caught another bus, then walked, walked.
We ended up in the middle of nowhere where we put up our tent in the rain and hoped not to get rained out. We didn't get rained out, but were nearly blown away.
