A nice flight home – we both managed a little sleep and were met at the airport by Andrew and Sarah and Lynne and Ray. A glorious warm sunny day welcomed us back – everything is so green, lush and beautiful – the rhododendrons, clematis and bulbs in our garden are a mass of flowers. The house and garden have been very well looked after by Chris, Rach, Andrew, and Sarah – it is good to be home after 7 weeks of fantastic experiences and living out of suitcases.
A Drive around LA (Saturday 11th)
This afternoon we drove around LA in a Lincoln Town Car – a bit smart! Toured a few of the spots via Santa Ana and Santa Monica Freeways, Rodeo Drive, Wilshire Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Sunset Strip, Hollywood Boulevard, some of the tree-lined residential streets of Hollywood and Beverley Hills, Pacific Coast Highway, Marina Del Ray and Santa Monica Pier. LA is extremely spread out and driving certainly allows you to appreciate this.
Mark on the Europe experience
General: It has been great to experience a little of many parts of Europe. A continent where we were able to visit and see evidence and reminders of earlier civilisations, great engineering, architecture and art. Churches centuries old and still in use that are grand and lavish in the extreme – difficult to comprehend without the explanation that people saw the Pope and the church as God’s representative on earth and the church architecture and decoration reflected this. Castles and palaces and sites of World War 1 and 11 battles and events evidenced the centuries of conflict which have shaped this continent. Amazing now to consider the European Union (covers all Europe except independent Switzerland) with a single currency and mostly no border controls. On the surface a very unified situation given the past. Will be interesting to see what the future holds as opinion/comment in local newspapers over the handling of the current financial crisis to the effect that the EU is a sham and each country is just approaching things from their own nationalistic point of view!?
Under the Weather
We had an interesting wander around Balboa Village on our first afternoon in LA – the village is on a peninsula/island off Newport Beach – very expensive eclectic mix of houses – prim and proper with beautiful gardens – many decorated along with the house for Halloween. Most fronting onto marinas with jetties and boats of all shapes and sizes but predominantly grand. We enjoyed a nice dinner back over the bridge.
London to LA
Now comfortably installed at Fairmont Hotel Newport Beach, LA, after the usual waiting around and long flight. We got to LA about 7.30pm and shuttled to hotel – zoomed along freeway at 70-80 miles/hr and fell into bed. Had excellent views of expansive snowy peaks and plateaus of Greenland and Canada as we flew across and then impressive view also of Las Vegas and the Strip as we approached towards LA.
Last day in France
Left St Remy, the birthplace of Nostradamus, after a quick look at the area over the road from our hotel – the clinic where Van Gogh spent time after he mutilated his ear! It is now a tourist area (of course) with highlighted areas around the grounds that may have inspired his various paintings. Also nearby is the Triumphal Arch, built by Caesar to celebrate his defeat of the Greeks and Gauls in 10BC. Such history abounds!
Locks and tolls
We left Toulouse this am after a good time catching up with the Deverell Family and headed back towards Provence via Carcassonne, mostly on the motorway past Narbonne, Beziers and Montpellier. We were entertained for some time at the Canal near Villemoustaussou watching the canal boats navigate the locks. The actual cruising part along the peaceful tree-lined canals looked very inviting – the locks once mastered would be ok too. We watched a smooth operating crew and another who just managed largely by bumping into other vessels!!
Family in Toulouse
We are currently enjoying time in Toulouse with Mark’s cousin Ian, his wife Christine and their sons Jeremie, Stephen, Samuel, Faitala, and Peter. We drove here yesterday stopping to pick up Samuel from Bedarieux where he works at a guitar factory (producing high quality and expensive instruments).
It is nice to be in the city again after all the medieval villages and we are enjoying the musical entertainment as the boys play their instruments together regularly. Jeremie and Stephan have a band called Lady Distortion see www.myspace.com/ladydistortion
More history
Visit to the Pont du Gard today, located between Avignon and Nimes. This structure is the most outstanding part of the remains of an old roman aqueduct built about 19BC to take 20 million litres of spring water daily to the city of Nimes via ditches, tunnels, siphons and bridges. The aqueduct itself, spanning the Gardon River, is made of huge limestone rocks, 3 tiers and 48 metres in height. Water went along the top and the lower 2 levels were for people and traffic at various stages. It fell into disrepair during the middle ages and also some blocks were used for other structures. Again a very impressive structure and engineering feat way before modern times.
The Flamingos (with thoughts of our flamingos Brownie and Nick!)
A highlight at the end of our day yesterday exploring the Camargue area of Provence yesterday, was a visit to the Parc Ornithologique where we saw up close 100’s of flamingos – graceful and beautiful. They made a lot of noise “chattering” and gurgling as they pushed their bills through the water when feeding. Easy to sit and admire. Gorgeous colours as they open their wings and about 5 different breeds and colour variations. We saw a few flying – very streamlined and often in formation. Other birds in the Parc included ducks, egrets, herons, falcon and owl. Of interest too were a kind of beaver (my French was challenged here reading the explanation boards to discover exactly what it was!).