Europe 2018 – Page 3 – Beauperi Investments

Posted on October 25, 2018 by beauperi

Let Them Eat Cake

Sunday, 21 October, 2018 – Nice, low 20s

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Today we are going to visit the Palace of Versailles. Julie has booked us a tour.

20181021_075617 — But first I go down early to get a photo of another great breakfast spread

The Kids had come home late last night as there were Track works that closed the rail from our neighbourhood. They eventually took a bus home only to have one of the society girls throw up on the bus.

The intention this morning was to take an Uber to the Palace. I was the conservative one this time and suggested an earlier start than was proven to be necessary.

20181021_083409 — Julie out the front of the Chateau waiting for the Uber

20181021_090741 — A statue outside the Palace

We did not follow instructions and went into the Palace. When we finally did read them, we had to walk a long ways down to the Booking Office over yukky cobblestones.

Ryan guides us to the booking office and Julie gets the official tickets. We are assigned a guide and then have another 30 minutes to wait which we do by settling into a McDonalds.

Our guide, Danielle, eventually shows up and we take the long walk back over the cobblestones. Our guide has an arrangement with the Palace Staff to get us to the front and into the Palace area which takes around 10 minutes.

20181021_090840 — Our guys and the rest of the group waiting to go through security.

This time security requires Ryan and the Asian guy to check their backpacks because they have Tripods in them.

20181021_090958 — Our Tour Leader, Danielle, in the red jacket at the far right skipping around the queues

20181021_103957 — Our group entering one of the long rooms

20181021_104417 — Our group in the Courtyard with Julie

The Black girl and her partner were interesting people. We were supposed to catch up with them afterwards but lost track of them along the way.

Our guide, Danielle, who was very knowledgeable, explained to us why the Palace and grounds were built. It was designed by Louis XIV and built in such grandeur to attract the 1,400 nobles to live there. The reason was so that Louis XIV could spy on them all.

In another room Danielle described the French Revolution of 1783 including the murders of Louis the XVI, Marie Antoinette, hence the title of this Post, and most of the nobility that were in the Palace. Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables or the plays . movies about it give a good fictionalised story around this time. This includes the fanatical pursuit of the hero Jean Valjean by Inspector Javert and his eventual suicide by jumping into the Seine because of being saved by his pursued. Sorry, I diverge from the real stories of today.

20181021_105827 — A scale model layout of the palace and the gardens

I didn’t take many photos inside for the usual reasons, that ain’t food and wine! We do pay extra to go into the gardens and so here is a shot from there.

20181021_124415 — The large grandeur of the gardens

By this stage my back and my legs are totally frozen from the slow walking and standing. I had made it but at what cost. I slump down on the stairs behind a statue.

The guys are in a queue to buy tickets for a “green puffing billy” train around the gardens. I am sitting down a ways away and can’t get up because there is nothing to hold onto. The guy selling tickets won’t sell them until all four of us are over there. An American woman in the line apparently raises a big stink. Finally Ryan comes over and gives me a hand. I walk through the queue and then trip over one of the poles, falling to the ground, bruising my knee and badly bruising my hand, This turns the trick for the ticket seller who was going to call a Doctor but Julie talked him out of it. He gave us a special car on the train.

We take the train about half way around and stop near a restaurant St Augustine. It turns out that it is a cafeteria, not a restaurant. Ryan and Tanika organise food and drink.

20181021_134021 — A brioche with fish for Julie and a sweet thing for Tanika

20181021_134027 — Quiche for Ryan, Ham roll for me

We took a train around the gardens just like we did in Luxembourg. Photos did not come out. We have to walk a long ways to get out of the garden and then out of the Palace area. Ryan guides us to an Uber pick up area and we eventually end up back at the Castle. After our less than sterling lunch, a bit of a snack is necessary.

20181021_182524 — Brioche with sausage from Julie for my late evening snack

20181021_182222 — Some sort of cheese or quiche for Julie

Posted on October 24, 2018October 25, 2018 by beauperi · 1 Comment

Venturing Out with Julie

Saturday, 20 October, 2018 – Nice, low 20s

But first a couple of shots from Julie’s visit to Paris yesterday.

20181019_135010 — Impressive, whatever it is

20181019_135254 — Lois tells me that this is in fact the Opera House

In case you are in the Versailles area and are interested in this hot food service:

I should say something at this stage about the quality of refurbishments done to make this a really good Hotel inside. Tradesmen did the work under the guidance of Emma’s Husband and Son. Really high class.

I should also comment about how quiet it was out here. Compared to the constant noise of Luxembourg, it was a very pleasant relief.

In the morning there was a strong smell of cooking from the main kitchen. The gates were opened and people started coming in obviously for a family and friends lunch.

I was supposed to go out to look at wine / food with Julie at 1:00 PM. But she did not turn up. Instead she spent the afternoon in St. Germaine. These are her many photos from there.

20181020_100042 — Brewery Van in St. Germaine

20181020_110506 — Lots and lots of sweets

20181020_123427 — Variety of ready to go foods

20181020_124517 — Interesting Presentation

20181020_143535 — Real Confit Duck including fat

20181020_162438 — Hot Ham, rabbit and duck

Finally, around 5:00 PM Julie arrives. She says we should go out then. OK, I have misgivings but head out with her.

20181020_170857 — One stand market set-up in the bus carpark

As we head further along, we are going down hill more and more. I can see that it is going to be very difficult for me to walk back up that hill especially since it appears to be a further long way down hill from here. So I turn back. Julie says just go straight and I can’t miss our place. WRONG! I can miss anything. I go walking right by the entrance and end up past the Church and totally lost. Fortunately, I was able to find my way back to the bus stop where I waited and waited and waited, getting colder all the time.

Finally Julie comes up the hill having spent an enormous amount of time in a hairdresser shop. She has brought food for us.

Julie brought me an Asian dish of fried rice with marinated beef and some chicken wontons, it was quite appreciated as were the few drops of wine.

We meet Emma’s husband and Son with his partner.

Posted on October 23, 2018 by beauperi

In the Chateau

Friday, 19 October, 2018 – Nice, low 20s

This chateau is a bed and breakfast place so we go down at 8:00 for the breakfast. There is a Korean couple there ahead of us. They are nice people.

20181019_080156 — A small shot of the variety of foods on display, immaculate presentation

20181019_080201 — The breakfast was varied and very good

The kids came in from Paris late last night. They indicate that they want to be on the road early tomorrow to go back to Paris. Julie is ready to go by around 8:15, they all eventually don’t get away until after 10:30.

I had a chicken roll left over from the first night. There was tons of chicken still left.

Emma drove off in her car for the day leaving me alone with the maid who was cleaning the room vacated by the Korean couple. The maid tried to talk with me but she knew no English and I knew very little French. She did clean up after my lunch and chicken deboning. When she finished and departed I was all alone in the Chateau.

20181019_185021 — The Chateau from the front

20181019_185039 — Looking the other direction

20181019_185052 — Looking to the absolute front of the castle from the courtyard

Over time, suburbia had moved into the area overwhelming the castle. Parts of the castle were taken by the neighbours.

20181019_185118 — The Gable from the Kids room

We had ordered food from a relatively new cook and delivery service which Emma had been closely aligned with. The idea is that your order the food online, they cook it and bring it hot to your place in a short time. Emma had helped me order since my PC was acting up. Delivery was to be 7:00 PM.

Julie arrived back around 6:30. The delivery guy showed up about 5 past 7:00, which was OK. Finally, shortly after the delivery guy had left, Emma returned home

20181019_191048 — Julie ordered an extra large salad

20181019_191100 — Hot Leek and Potato Soup with ravioli

20181019_191246 — The ravioli and chunks of leek and potato in the soup

20181019_192103 — Julie heated up the rest of the chicken to end up with a chicken salad

20181019_192109 — Hot veal with a pearl barley risotto

I had ordered way too much food and could only eat about half of the veal. We also ordered a spicy tapenade of air dried tomatoes and a bottle of French wine which we got into once we finished the other French one we had opened earlier.

Posted on October 23, 2018 by beauperi · 1 Comment

France

Thursday, 18 October, 2018 – Drizzling but who cares, we are leaving

Julie is up early and again goes to the local shop and buys important supplies: Bread rolls, Coffee for her, fresh squeezed Orange Juice, water.

20181018_081150 — Once again Cold Duck for Breakfast

20181018_081156 — Julie has a smoked salmon and apple roll, just for a change

20181018_092839 — The Seats we were in next to the strip Club last night

I had forgotten to comment upon the airplane traffic as we are relatively close to Charles De Gaulle (CDG) airport. On the first few days, it sounded like there were fighter jets going straight over the top of us as well as the normal CDG takeoffs and landing. Then after the celebrations were over there were no more fighter jets and the wind had changed directions so it was not anywhere near as airplane noisy as before.

We walk to the train station with the Kids pushing suitcases. As usual, we have left way too early. It is drizzling but not heavily wet. We are able to board the train early and settle in, our first class carriage is about half full. I move across the aisle to spread out for more room.

It is around a 2.5 hour ride to Paris. There are two stops along the way to pick up passengers and at the last stop the carriage fills up so I am thrown out of my seat.

We arrive at Paris Gare de le Est 3 minutes late, what’s the matter with you guys? Then there is a real shemozzle finding our taxi. We had been told by our Hostess to go straight out to the front of the station to meet our van there because he could not park. We did that. Julie saw a van off to the right, that wasn’t it either. Instead a replacement driver has parked off to the left and went looking for us. Finally he finds me and then we have to drag the cases all the way back through the station to the parked van.

The trip out through traffic et al was long but uneventful. The weather is good and we arrive at our destination an old Castle called

An old castle called Mareil-marly

No photos from me today but there are good pictures in the link above.

Thus commences a magical 4 days outside of Versailles. We meet Emma (Emmanuel) and she is an absolute delight. She show us to our rooms, our is on the second floor, the Kids up another flight of stairs. Ryan carries all the suitcases up, taking a while obviously.

Emma tell us there is no restaurant available in the town, the one is closed for the Winter. The Kids get on a train back to Paris. Julie goes prancing and eventually brings back a Chicken and a baguette plus other supplies as it has been a while since we last ate.

There two dogs and a black cat. The other dog, when he smelled the chicken, was all over us, scavenging anything that dropped on the ground, trying to eat little bits of my lap etc.

Julie made a chicken salad, I had a chicken roll. It was quite good. Julie took some stuff in and was gone for quite a while. When she came back she said that she was cleaning up because another couple were staying in the third room. By then it was getting quite cool so we went in and drank some more wine / Whiskey (Julie). The world is good.

Posted on October 21, 2018 by beauperi

Market in Luxembourg

Wednesday, 17 October, 2018 – Very good, low 20s

Julie is up early and again goes to the local shop and buys important supplies: Bread rolls, Coffee for her, fresh squeezed Orange Juice, water. Today I have Ham that Julie bought for me with the bread roll for breakfast and Julie has a roll with Smoked Salmon and apple.

I manage to get my PC working in the room by tethering it to the phone so I can work in the room for most of the day. Hence, a lot of the photos come from Julie.

20181017_123824 — Bread with Lots of Seeds

20181017_125529 — Various Condiments from the car boot

20181017_130055 — Look at all of those Tubers

20181017_142914 — Interesting artwork statues

Eventually I was ejected from the room by the cleaner who was a very nice young girl who could speak English well. I moved downstairs to the attached café and settled in for a while. Our friend is just leaving for the day.

The Kids have decided to join us for dinner at the Asian place at the end of the street. We go up there at 5:30 but it does not open until 6:00. So we wander down the street and the girls disappear into various shops, arghh. Ryan and I settle into a (not so) high class place, part of a strip joint but we are sitting out on the street with a red wine each. When Julie eventually joins us the waitress assumes that she is another hooker on the street until we say she is OK. There was a fight on the street across the way and the volunteer Police show up to quell it and drag one guy away. The wine we had was not that good.

20181017_173419 — Selfie outside the high class night club i.e. strip joint

Finally, Ryan and I finish our (not so) great wine and go up to the Asian place target for the night. Who knows where the girls were. Eventually they join us.