Thursday 17 July 2008

Leg 1: The Highlights

We're now back in Blighty after a wonderful three-and-a-half months on our European tour and in the tradition of the media when looking back on something, here's our review in simple list form:

Our favourite places:
FRANCE: Toulouse and my Mum's place
SPAIN: Salamanca and Patty's Paradise
PORTUGAL: Porto
ITALY: Siena and Lake Lugano
SWITZERLAND: Baden

Top sights:
Fr: Pont de Gard Sp: The Mezquita P: The Ferreira Port tour I: The Siena Duomo and The Roman Forum SW: The scenery

Fave Campsights:
Theo's: the Dutch campsite at Roses in Spain
Kate's: Camping Darma on the shores of Lake Lugano in Italy

Funniest Moments:
-Stoners on the bus in Zurich
-Polly's finger up the bum
-The Irish for "Two beers, please"
-Poor Chris, "dying alone"
-Patty: "Just run him over, I've got loads more dogs"

Beastly goings on:
-the French supermarket sparrows
-the Italian squabbling chaffinches
-Tripod, the insane Spanish moggy
-Lika, the car-chasing dog in Spain
-Cocky, the car-chasing dog in France
-Bunny, the light-chasing cat in France
-The pool-sipping swallows of Bologna
-The coitus interruptus bat of France

Best beaches:
Xereca, Valencia...Barcelona...Chiaveri, Liguria, Italy

The Biggest Nights:
-Rocket Festival, especially the Sunday
-Bianca Notte, Florence
-On the town in Salamanca
-Flamenco in Seville
-Euro 2008 final in Zurich

Biggest surprises:
-The "fete" at Octon
-The reappearance of Andy and Tracie in Granada

Fave Meal Out:
-Passage de Pondicherry, Paris

Biggest Let-Downs:
-the RAC's continental autoglass partners
-inside the Florence duomo
-San Gimignano (pretty, but too touristy)
-the beach at Cecina del Mare (too many pay-for sections...and as for the riccio...)

The Catastrophes:
-the rear windscreen disaster in Spain
-tummy bugs at the beginning
-Theo's sea-urchin
-Theo's dodgy Austrian pizza

The New People We Befriended:
-Gina and Damien, Nantes
-Miguel and Beatriz, Bilbao
-Andy and Tracie, Spain
-Guillermo and Cecilia, Porto
-Nora and David, Seville
-Pete and Fran, Ayesha, Diego, Manuel and others - Rocket Festival
-Andy and Kerine - Rocket Festival, Estepona
-Patty, Rosie, Raffa, Steve - Estepona
-our chatty French hitchhiker
-Chris and the boys, Rome
-Hannah and Damon, Florence
-Lucia, Zurich
-Bettina and Peter, Baden

Our favourite country overall:
SPAIN: scruffy, beautiful, exuberant, hot, cheap and fun

Tuesday 15 July 2008

the big send off


It was very nice of the French to arrange not one, but two, huge firework displays to mark our departure from the continent. So sweet of them! The first, at Courseilles-sur-Mer, was on the Sunday night and was preceded by some psycopathic amateur attempts by local teenagers on the beach - throwing bangers, firing mortars and rockets at odd angles, often narrowly missing each other. Seeing as the beach in question was Juno beach, stormed successfully by Canadian troops during World War II's D-Day landings there was a strange echo to such antics. Then, at about 11, the municipal offerings kicked in, firing off from the town pier over the water for a good ten minutes. It was impressive, not least because we'd only decided to come here the day before, seeking some sun after overcast Paris skies, so they didn't have much time to put the show together! Indeed, we nearly missed it ourselves, catching it only after electing to take an evening stroll along the beach after a day of lazing about reading, playing games, swimming and sun bathing.

We took the scenic route to Cherbourg and followed the coast past the other D-Day beaches of Gold, Omaha and Utah and various memorials and cemeteries. Seeing these long stretches of sand that would have provided the allied forces with no cover at all from enemy fire as they disembarked from their pontoons was a sobering moment for us both.



However, after a beer in the fishing port of Barfleur and a crepe in Cherbourg, we were more than ready to appreciate Cherbourg's firework display before we made our way to the Ferry car park to await our passage home. Our ferry back to England from Cherbourg was early on the 15th and had been booked for some time, so the port town had had plenty of warning to plan their cordite reception for us and the send-off fireworks didn't disappoint. We have grown very fond of France, and it would seem France has grown fond of us - unless we're missing something.

Vive La France!


(Note: July 14th is Bastille Day and is celebrated across France with public firework displays. Mere coincidence, of course.)

Sunday 13 July 2008

Buskers

Am I imagining it, or does Paris have a reputation for buskers? Whatever, if it doesn't, it should do. Buskers had been something of a rarity on our trip - we came across a few in Italy, including a 12 year old drummer in the Metro who was making such a huge noise on one drum we assumed it was a whole samba band, but it was only in Paris where they came out in such force and variety.

This old couple playing gypsy jazz numbers in Montmartre ranked among our favourites, but we also saw Michael Jackson impersonators, football jugglers, bad covers artists, bluesmen and those hideous Metro performers who jump on the trains armed with accordions and bad backing tracks. We hate backing tracks; we'd given some money to a pair of teenage girls in Verona solely on the strength that they weren't using a backing track and appeared to be playing their own material. There was one exception to this rule, though and it was also the most inventive bit of busking we'd seen: a Puppet Theatre on the Metro which did require backing music. It was the speed with which the stage was set up and the simplicity of the nonetheless amusing performance with very detailed home made puppets that won us over. Originally, engaging and funny. We had to applaud.

Saturday 12 July 2008

Paris day two

Our second day in Paris saw us attempting a philosophical discussion in a left bank cafe near the Hotel Les Invalides (the place where the rioters of 1789 seized the arms that allowed them to successfully storm the Bastille). But our topic, "What Is Love?" was quickly abandoned in favour of a few games of backgammon, which drew the conclusion that love is not getting too infuriated when your husband beats you all the time.

A short bus ride saw us in the well-to-do shopping district of St Germain, where we salivated in various specialist chocolate shops while picking up a few gifts for friends and family back in Blighty.

We strolled back over the Seine and checked out the Stravinsky Fountain, whose various attractions inspired by the composer are now badly in need of retouching and repair. The Michael Jackson impersonator was deservedly drawing more attention than the no doubt once splendid water features.

We took ourselves past the Pompidou Centre and found a cheapish bar (by Parisian standards, anyway) for an apero or two, then took the Metro to find a vegetarian restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. The friendly dykes having a smoke outside the lesbian pub next door informed us it had been closed for some time.

Nothing daunted, we got back on the metro and aimed for the Indian quarter just off the Strasbourg Boulevard. We had a very tasty and well-priced three-courser (complete with free glasses of kir) in the Passage de Pondicherry, which kind of reminded us of eating in St Nicholas Market in Bristol. It's a covered arcade and is buzzing with shops and restaurants from India, Pakistan and Bangladsh, not to mention a colourful and cosmopolitan stream of passers-by.

Our next plan, to see the Trocadero Gardens illuminated by night was thwarted by them being closed, but it did afford an excellent view of the Tour Eiffel and the giant stage being set up in its shadow ready for the Celine Dion concert taking place to mark the glorious quatorze in a few days time.

Our trip back on the metro was marked by a lively puppet show by some in-carriage buskers, a welcome change from the backing-track accordianists, bad guitarists and worse singers we'd thus far endured. We chucked them a few cents by way of thanks.

Friday 11 July 2008

One day in Paris....

Despite having a long lie in and not leaving the campsite until 12pm we managed to cram a fair bit into our first day in Paris. Buying a travel card at Porte Malliot we hopped on the metro and then wandered past the Tuillery gardens and the Louvre to the Isle de la Cite. Crossing Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge, we made it to the very centre of Paris, an island in the Seine where this great city began in 300 BC.


Paris is full of parks so we stopped off in one to eat our lunch and watch the river traffic go by, before heading on towards Notre Dame, with its twin towers, three ornate doors and massive organ (which was in the process of being cleaned as we entered - the result sounded like the intro to a song by Crippled Black Phoenix).

After wandering through the Latin Quarter - clearly the place for cheap eats and outrageous view taxes on the drinks - we made it to the Luxembourg gardens, admiring first the exhibition of Le Figaro photos (that's photos from the magazine Le Figaro) on the railings outside. All beautiful, many moving and compelling. Inside the gardens the activity of choice was clearly playing with toy sailing boats in one of the fountains; it seemed like fantastic fun. Somebody had got really ambitious and had built a huge, stately, but slow, marine creation out of rubbish - the result was somewhere between a galleon and a junk that was quickly colonised by ducks while all the little ships whizzed about in the breeze.


A metro trip later and we were in Pigalle, the red light district, before mounting the hill to Montmatre to admire the view, watch the buskers, have a drink, play some backgammon (which never fails to attract curious comments) and check the menus. We eventually plumped for a Tibetan restaurant - partly out of curiosity, partly because, as usual, veggie options were thin on the ground. It was very nice and very filling.

Finally we ended up at Champ des Mars to see the most famous Parisian landmark of all, La Tour Eiffel. It was quite beautiful, all bathed in blue light, and quite staggeringly huge. Even though I'd seen it before not all that long ago, I was still taken aback by how massive it is. There's something about the thin top and the squat frame that makes it seem so out of perspective and yet so very THERE.


It had got quite late by now, so we headed back to bed.

Wednesday 9 July 2008

The coeur de Nancy

Being with someone almost every minute of every day is pretty intense, even when they're your much beloved husband. We're learning more about each other all the time, including what presses our buttons and how best to deal with the odd moment of irritation when it arises. I'm happy to report that we're as mutually besotted as ever and navigating the odd little choppy patch has been relatively easy.

But it's great to socialise with other people and step outside that little knot of dual intimacy now and again, especially while travelling. Thus, I think the highlights of our European tour so far have tended to be when we've had the chance to hang out with a few mates, whether we're meeting up with old friends or making new ones.


Which is why we had such a great time in the French Lorraine town of Nancy. It has a charming old quarter and a magnificent, newly-restored central plaza, Place Stanislas, which is decked out in white and gold. During the summer, the town also puts on a nightly son-et-lumiere in Place Stanislas, making beautiful and colourful use of the elegant frontage of the Hotel de Ville, which was transformed with clever, creative and thought-provoking projections as we watched in the square.

But what made it really special for us was seeing our old friends from the band, Crevecoeur, who all live in Nancy. Fanny and Roman have a flat right beside the Place Stanislas and with generous use of their internet facilities and a playful cat for added entertainment, we felt right at home. Best of all was the chance to catch up on what everyone was up to (CC have a new album coming out later this year, have recently completed a second successful UK tour and are planning a European tour in the Autumn) and to simply enjoy their company.

We stayed for two nights, on the first Fanny cooked us a lovely vegetarian version of the local classic, Quiche Lorraine and on the second we made them a lentil casserole with mash, for which we were joined by the other member of Creve Coeur, Luc and his girlfriend Stephanie. It was all highly convivial and we were sorry to leave them. We were also sorry to leave Roman's superb record collection, which shows a broad and excellent taste in music, we were both quite envious. Still, at least we have the new Creve Coeur album to add to our on-the-road CD collection, something to remember an excellent sojourn in Eastern France. Next stop, Paris.


Tuesday 8 July 2008

Les Eurockeennes

Another country, another festival...French, this time. It was the twentieth anniversary of Les Eurockeennes, which is held on the shores of the Lake Malsaucy near the town of Belfort in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France. It was originally set up by the local council to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French revolution, but has proved to be such an economic and publicity winner for the area, they've kept it going ever since.

You couldn't fault the location - very pretty indeed, with the Alsace Ballons framing the tree-fringed lake. The organisation was all but impeccable and although the campsite was a good twenty minutes walk (or free shuttle-bus ride) from the festival site, it had its own food and drink outlets, freely available internet access, showers, plenty of water and regularly cleaned loos.

The weather could have been better - rainy for the Thursday early arrivals and rainy all day on Sunday - but Friday and Saturday had enough sunshine to prevent a washout. Mind you, Theo and I were still pleased we had our wellies with us, although what mud we did encounter was a mere smear compared with the quagmire conditions we'd experienced at Glastonbury or WOMAD.

Ordinarily, I find press access a useful thing, aside from my radio needs, for the generally better toilets and shorter bar queues. Otherwise, I prefer to be in the festival site proper where the atmosphere is less cynical and more lively. On this occasion, there were some extra cool things about the press wristbands, including use of a shuttle boat across the lake and occasionally free glasses of wine and Champagne. And for once, I really needed somewhere to escape from the crowds.

The main problem with Eurockeennes is it doesn't have enough space on its site for the numbers. It often felt rammed and the French way of dealing with this seemed to be to form long trains and simply barge through(often smiling sweetly). By the end of Day One, I'd had enough of being buffetted by drunk twenty-somethings and was seriously considering calling it a day. However, we HAD managed to finally see Massive Attack live, something both Theo and I had shamefully never managed while in Bristol. And we met up with their current singer, Yolanda, with whom we're acquainted through her own band, Phantom Limb. She was fun and Massive Attack were excellent (apart from the lass who sang Teardrops and managed to forget the words...). What we caught of The Gossip was good, too - until the moshing got too much.



The next day was the reason we'd been attracted to Les Eurockeennes in the first place - Camille was playing. We both love her album Le Fil and were very keen to see her live. She didn't disappoint, either. We were right at the front (to avoid buffeting and thankfully, Camille's brand of chansons doesn't tend to attract the moshers) and got a commanding view of a tremendously lively performance with the only conventional instrument a grand piano and the rest of the music provided by beatboxers, harmony singers, body percussion and an all-round use of the human voice. Virtuoso stuff. They got three encores and it still didn't feel like enough.



Afterwards, I interviewed Camille and she was charming - we both sat on a little wooden jetty by the lake and did girly things like complimenting each other on our clothes, as well as the serious business of recording some soundbites.


The last day was rainy, but as we were prepared with wellies, waterproofs and buckets, we didn't mind. We both enjoyed Seasick Steve doing his doghouse blues AND rather unexpectedly, The Offspring, whom we were watching for the lack of anything else on the other stages. We caught a bit of Battles doing their post rock clever-clever thing (not really my cup of tea, but I did appreciate the musicianship involved) then headed back.

Overall, we had a fun time. Lots of people we'd never met before were willing to chat with us in a mixture of French and English and the audiences were refreshingly enthusiastic, compared with some of the more jaded crowds you find at UK shows. The music wasn't as high quality overall as at Primavera and the ambience wasn't a patch on the Rocket, but I'm glad we went. And because we were able to smuggle in our own beer, cook our own food in the van and take advantage of the free tickets with camping included, it turned out to be an exceedingly cheap weekend. You can't argue with that.

(Theo's review, by the way, is HERE)

Friday 4 July 2008

The first rain for weeks....

... and naturally it's on the day we arrive at a festival - Les Eurockeénes!

We were the first ones on the campsite and all.

Still, we've got our awning up, we've both got wellies (mine bought en route, Kate's at Glasto last year) and we're feeling pretty smug abiout having Sheena to live in and none of this messing about with tents malarky to worry about.

Tomorrow, Massive Attack.

Wednesday 2 July 2008

famously friendly

Switzerland is famous for many things. We tried to list them to keep us amused as we sat in what was rather amazingly our first serious traffic jam on our now 3 month long trip as we queued to go through the San Gotthard Tunnel: cheese, yodelling, William Tell, chocolate, raclette, clocks, army knives, neutrality, banks, mountains, winter sports, the Matterhorn, fondue, lakes, Heidi and so on.

What really should be added to this list is friendliness. We were quite unprepared for just how friendly and welcoming the Swiss people are. From the couple who offered us the use of their stove on the Luzern campsite to the couple of Swiss lads who challenged us to game of tablefußball on the streets of Zurich. One lovely lady, Lucia, not only helped us solve the puzzle of the Swiss bus ticket system, but explained about the little lake boats we were entitled to use with our travel cards, how we could watch a free live broadcast of Carmen from the Opera House and where we could hear some Persian pop music. And this was all before we got to Bettina's flat!
I first met Bettina in a campsite in Liechtenstein 8 years ago when I was inter-railing around Europe. We got drunk on Schnapps and she had to help me get back to my tent! Now Kate and I have called in on her and her German boyfriend Peter in their gorgeous apartment (flat wouldn't do it justice) in the pretty Swiss spa town of Baden. Their hospitality has been overwhelming: raclette and wine, a comfortable double bed, laundry services and the best guided tour of a town we've had since Seville. It was the least we could do to buy them lunch. After which, we dropped in on Bettina's lovely mum for coffee and kuchen and she completed our good impressions of Swiss hospitality by presenting us with Swiss souvenir candles and serviettes to take with us in the van. Truly delightful people.