Chateau de Fontainebleau and Thornfield Hall

The cold snap in Europe is big news here. The cold in Paris obviously isn't on a par with Estonia and Poland, where the temperature has been down in the minus thirties.

Yesterday we took a train to Fontainebleau and visited the famous chateau. It had been snowing - just enough to cover everything beautifully.




The chateau houses a great museum featuring (amongst other things) Napoleon's uniforms, regalia and personal objets. He obviously wasn't as short as legend has it, but he had very slim feet if his slippers are anything to go by!

Outside, Martin drew his little self-caricature in the snow




and we had a quick walk to look at the gardens, much of which seem to be closed off in winter.








This morning, we woke up to a snowy Paris. It was just soft, pretty snow - not blizzard stuff. We walked to the Luxembourg Gardens - again, more pretty snowy scenery.




I'm not sure how the grass stayed green - the French are very good at making sure things look beautiful!

We then went off to see the 1944 version of Jane Eyre, starring Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles.




I've always loved this novel, as well as several of the film/TV adaptations, but I've never seen this version before. Although it takes great liberties with the original story, I really enjoyed this as a movie. Orson Welles is a fabulous Mr Rochester, and the gothic look of the cinematography is brilliant.

We paid another visit to Crepes a GoGo, and then walked down to Shakespeare and Company, which is still going strong. George Whitman's daughter does seem to have slowly re-organised the shop, but it's still wonderfully higgledy-piggledy. And I hope it always stays that way.

Brrrrrr!

It's really cold here. It's so cold that Martin actually agreed to let me buy him a beanie. It's been below zero for days now, and snow is predicted for Sunday. I just LOVE it!

This morning we once again headed off to the Musee l'Orangerie. The reflection ponds in front of the Louvre were all iced over.




There are some truly grand museums in Paris, but the French aren't too pompous about them. This guy was hanging from one of the wings of the Louvre.




The Orangerie was wonderful - it has eight huge murals of Monet's waterlilies, plus Renoirs, Cezannes, Picassos...I loved the paintings by Marie Laurencin, who I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of before. I liked her portrait of Coco Chanel.




I've also been to Li'l Weasel, a lovely little yarn shop in the Passage du Grand Cerf, one of Paris' beautifully restored covered passageways (which apparently are the precursor to today's shopping malls.) While I was fondling yarn, Martin was in the passageway over the road in Goodies' Records, having trouble choosing which Dino records to buy.

Tomorrow we're heading out of Paris on a day trip to Fontainebleau Castle. Looking forward to the snow...

Still hearting Paris

We've done a lot of walking and climbing of stairs in the last few days. We've been up and down the 70 steps to our apartment numerous times, and then there's the extra 15 steps up to the bed/bathroom. Not to mention all the steps in and out of Metro stations. We shall be very fit by the time we leave.

Yesterday, we set off to go to the Musee l'Orangerie, only to find that it's shut on Tuesdays. I sense a pattern developing here. Unperturbed, we walked up to the Champs Elysees for some shopping and a restoring drink. We then walked all the way back to our apartment - a 45 minute walk, but pleasantly bracing in the chilly weather.








This morning, we revisited the Aligre fleamarket, and the went to Merci shop in the Marais district. This is possibly the best shop I've ever been to. Great building, beautiful stuff to buy, a really nice cafe, plus they give their profits to charity!




A lot of the stuff is way too expensive for me, but I may have to go back.

We spent the afternoon seeing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or Les hommes qui n'aiment pas les femmes, as it's called here. I loved the books and the three Swedish movies, so was a bit put off by an English-language remake. I will grudgingly admit that it was great! I especially loved all the snowy, wintery scenery.

It's really cold here in Paris. Today the maximum didn't even get to zero, and tomorrow it's only supposed to get to minus 5. So far no snow, but it's looking good!

Paree!

Martin & I are now esconced in our very petite apartment on the Rue Mouffetard. It's up four flights of stairs, and then there's a spiral staircase leading up to the bed/bath. It's very cute though, and this is what you can see from the window above our bed.




There's the Pantheon on the right and a rather famous metal structure in the distance.

Today we've just wandered around - we walked up to the Seine, and then along to Shakespeare & Company. It's closed until February 1, possibly because of the death of its famous owner George Whitman (at the age of 98) in December. We had lunch at one of our favourites - Crepes a GoGo.

We've also visited Les Arenes de Lutece, a Roman amphitheatre dating back to the first century AD.




There was a statue of a woman reading which I rather liked.





We've been playing Count the Smartcars - they're very popular here. You can park them just about anywhere!

Library lions and Burke's Law

On our last day in New York City, we visited the wonderful New York Public Library. It's fabulous as a piece of architecture, and has some amazing items in its collections, including a draft of the Declaration of Independence and the walking stick Virginia Woolf left on the riverbank when she drowned herself. The library turned 100 last year, and still lives up to its founding goal - to make information freely available to everyone. Somewhere yesterday, I saw a quote by a NYPL librarian which said (I'm paraphrasing) that all you need to have to be a member of the NYPL is a sense of curiosity.




The section of East 41st Street leading to the Library is called Library Way, and has quotes from famous writers on brass plaques set into the pavement. How can you not love a city that venerates libraries?

Afterwards, Kati went off for one last bout of shopping, while Martin and I took ourselves to the Museum of Television and Radio. You get to sit and watch all sorts of shows from TV's history. I saw the opening sequences to Burke's Law and The Saint (I could have watched the full episodes but we were limited for time), revisited Love on a Rooftop and That's Life (whatever happened to E.J. Peaker?), and watched an episode of Moonlighting. Ah, Bruce! Martin of course lost himself in the Dean Martin show.




Sadly, it was then time to make our way to JFK. This time we took an official yellow cab, and were charged the correct amount.

We left New York, determined to go back again. It's truly a wonderful place - just about everything I can think of to say about it sounds trite and cliched. But I will say that it's just like in the movies, only better! And New Yorkers are great people - really friendly, and very polite and helpful.




Martin and I are back in London again and Kati is on her way home to her Jesse. We just wandered over to the Borough Markets and bought some delicious things for our dinner. After five days walking around New York plus another flight, we're taking it easy tonight!

The Met, Soho and the Highline

This morning we set off again to go to the Met. This time it was open. We each set off to enjoy the exhibits. There's a great collection of 19th century European art, most of which I completely missed somehow. I did see some great stuff - Goyas, El Grecos, Vermeers, and some wonderful John Singer Sargent paintings in the new American wing. The Met is a bit like the Louvre - too much to take in, so museum fatigue sets in. I would love to come back and see more.




After the obligatory trip to the gift shop, we left and took the subway down to Soho. We had lunch at Lombardi's, which apparently was NYC's first pizzeria. The pizza was really, really good. Revived, we did a little shopping nearby at Kate's Paperie and Purl Soho. Kati had clearly found her shopping rhythm and decided to continue, so Martin and I found our way to the Highline. Formerly a disused railway track, this is now an elevated park which winds its way above the city on the west side of Manhattan. It's wonderful - you can walk almost 20 blocks without having to stop for traffic lights. It's also remarkably quiet up there above the traffic. The plantings aren't much to look at in January, but I can imagine they would look really beautiful in the springtime.




We finished the day with dinner at the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station. This is a New York institution, so it was a fitting choice for our last night in the city. The food (like every other meal I've had here) was terrific.

I really wish we could stay here longer - there is so much in this city, and we haven't really even scratched the surface.

The green lady on the island and King Kong

This morning we took the Staten Island ferry to Staten Island - and straight back again. This must be one of the best free trips anywhere in the world. You get to sail on New York Harbour right past the Statue of Liberty - there are also great views of the Manhattan skyline.





When we got back to Manhattan, we walked up Broadway through the financial district (passing the Occupy Wall Street protesters along the way) to the Ground Zero site. I had hoped to see the memorial, but it seemed to be all closed off and requiring a pass to visit it, so we went over the road to Century 21 (a department store which sells discounted designer goods.) The irony of luxury consumer goods produced by the capitalist system being flogged for cheap right in the very heart of capitalism .....well, maybe it isn't so ironical after all.

Later on, we wandered up to look at the Brooklyn Bridge




and then ended up at the Empire State Building. The view from the 86th floor observatory is truly unforgettable. No King Kong sitings though.




I don't know where New Yorkers get their reputation for being pushy and rude. Everyone we've dealt with has been very friendly, and unfailingly polite. For such a huge busy city, people (and drivers) actually seem to be patient and quite relaxed.

Today was also a day for running into other Aussies - there were several on the ferry, and then more again at the Empire State Building. The accent is instantly recognisable - we heard someone asking "is this a quarta, mate?" I took this photo the day we arrived - I swear I didn't write this message, but I share the sentiment!