One of my greatest pleasures in teaching at the university in France was meeting young people from English-speaking countries across the world and learning about their hopes and aspirations. My French Life, the global community of French and francophiles connecting like-minded people in English & French, has just published my interview with Inge Laino, who is both tour guide and translator and manager of Paris Muse which gives private guided tours of Paris art museums. Enjoy!
Why Inge Came to France
“I can say that I have accomplished most of what I set out to do: join the Peace Corps, go to Africa, live in France and master a foreign language.” I don’t think many people of Inge’s age could say the same thing!
A New Yorker from Queens; Italian on her father’s side and Flemish on her mother’s, Inge went with her parents and four older siblings on holiday to Belgium every year. “I HATED it… I didn’t speak Flemish and I hated being in linguistic exile. Read more
Three very different posts in this Wednesday’s Bloggers Round-Up: Yetunde from Like Home in Paris takes us on a guided tour through an unexpected venue: Paris’ oldest hospital, Jo Karnaghan, in her usual practical way, gives excellent tips on how to plan an itinerary (part 3, so don’t miss the others) while Stephanie, the Llamalady from Blog in France, has found a wonderful French site connecting up geographical locations and famous French writers. Enjoy!
Hôtel Dieu: The unexpected inside Paris’ oldest hospital
by Yetunde from Feels Like a Home in Paris, local Paris holiday rental specialists, who blog on tips, happenings & lots of food & drink from the city they love.
Visiting Notre Dame on Ile Saint Louis in Paris, you can’t help but notice the rather large Hôtel Dieu hospital close by. It has maybe even shown up on a few of your photos but have you ever been inside?
It would never strike me as a normal part of my day to enter into a hospital unless I really have to. I have only ever visited two emergency rooms in Paris and needless to say that I hope to never have to do it again. But when you consider a hospital that was built between the 7th and 17th century you have to take pause and notice it. Read on
Itinerary planning 101: Part 3 – the finishing touches to your travel plan
by Frugal First Class Travel, an Australian who loves to travel – especially in Europe – and who has gradually learned how to have a First Class trip on an economy budget, without missing out on anything!
How are you going with your plans for your latest itinerary? Have you got a good outline of where you are going, your budget and how you are planning on getting about? In the final installment of this short series we fill in the blanks with all the special moments that will make your trip one to really remember……
1. List all the things you want to do in each of your destinations
Taking into account the length of time you have in each destination, make a list of all the things you want to do for each of your destinations and prioritise them. Read on
Map of Literary French History
by Stephanie, the Llamalady, from Blog in France, an Irish llama and alpaca breeder living in the centre of France, who also runs a carp fishery and a holiday gite
Here’s something rather interesting – it’s a crowdsourced interactive map of France that allows you to discover quotations or descriptions about various destinations in the country by famous French writers.
Zoom in to the area of France that you’re interested in on the Google map in and you’ll see little blue flags. The quotations are linked to these. I was of course interested to see what’s been written about my local area. As I suspected, George Sand had a lot to say about the place. Here’s her (George Sand was the pen name of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin) view of Boussac. Read more
I loved Casa Batlló as soon as I saw it. All those lovely mauves and blues and pinks on the façade. I’m a romantic at heart and my favourite painters are the impressionists and art deco artists such as Mucha and the Nancy school. The inside has soft curves and beautifully coloured ceramics. This is Gaudi without being gaudy. To get a really good idea of the façade, click on the official website.
One of the beautiful staircases
I loved the lovely wooden doors with their curved shapes and lead lights.
Top of double doors
Like Guell Palace, Casa Batlló also has a gallery overlooking the street below.
Front gallery overlooking the street
This wood stove and benches must have been a favourite sitting area.
The lovely wood stove in its alcove
The Battló’s had five children and I’m sure they all loved the appartment, particularly the cobalt-blue tiled inside stairwell which can be seen from the different rooms built around it.
Batllo family
Gaudi extended the inner courtyard to add more light and ventilate the rooms. It is big enough to take a lift. The azulejos tiling consists of 5 different shades that get darker as you go up the stairs to achieve a uniform colour. The darker tiles, which are closer to the roof, reflect less light, while the white tiles reflect more.
The stairwell looking up to the skylight
Stairwell wall
The elevated terrace at the back, with its ceramics and mosaics, is much more attractive than that of Guell Palace. I love the details up the top.
Back façade seen from terrace
The house is no longer furnished but this wash basin looks extremely modern, doesn’t it?
Don’t you love the wavy walls?
When you keep going up the stairs, of course, you get to the roof with its wonderful chimneys that I described in a previous post.
When we arrived in Barcelona on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, we had no idea it was the start of carnival. Our first inkling was when we saw lots of school children in costumes near our appartment, but we dismissed it as some sort of very local festivity. However, when we went to the main food market next day – Santa Caterina – and saw geishas and cowboys selling fruit and vegetables, we realised it must be something bigger! On Saturday, we ran into Freddy Flintstone and Superman pushing strollers with diminutive Princes and Zorros. On Sunday, we happened to run into the parade as it left Santa Caterina.
A bumble bee in Santa Catarina marketMy fishmongers in Paris would never dress like this!This group was singing country & western songs with great gustoBut these were my very favourite of all!Each float had a colour themeA woman and masked driver lead each “colour”The carriage was usually followed by a group carrying balloons of the same colourBut sometimes they were completely disparateSky blue this timeMore followersInbetween the carriages were various bands and flags
I didn’t realise when I started looking for a home exchange in Barcelona that Paris might not be a peak time from people used to a warmer climate – particularly since our main motivation for going to Spain in February was to get away from the grey skies and cold of Paris! Home exchanges can be either simultaneous or non-simultaneous, depending on various factors. Considering the other home exchanges we were planning this year, a non-simultaneous exchange didn’t seem possible. However, I shall take this factor into account in the future.
I received several refusals but Pep, who lives outside Barcelona and has a one-bedroom flat near Sant Pau Hospital and the Sagrada Familia, fortunately agreed to the swap, although he wasn’t sure until the last minute that he would be able to come to Paris and then, it was only for 2 nights as opposed to our 6 nights. Having a second home definitely makes it easier to juggle with dates.
When Pep saw our listing, he immediately said that his flat was “modesto”. It’s true that we usually try to find equivalent accommodation, but the most important thing is that it is comfortable and clean and has an internet connection. That was certainly the case and we felt very welcome. We weren’t intending to do any cooking so not having a dish washer was not a problem, for example. When we stayed with my brother, sister-in-law, 3 kids and my son in a home exchange on the Gold Coast in Australia, it was a necessity!
Back of Sant Pau, well worth a visit
When we arrived, Pep was waiting for us with a French-speaking friend in case we had difficulties communicating. But Pep’s French is more than adequate. He told us his favourite places to wander around and where to have pintxos. He also said that the neighbourhood eating places weren’t very interesting although we had a very “local” experience one evening in the bar opposite when we didn’t feel like going into the centre. It’s true that the food wasn’t anything special, but it was certainly authentic and the staff were extremely friendly and helpful. The ambiance more than made up for the quality.
The only drawback was the distance from the centre but, as I mentioned in previous post, Jean Michel worked out the buses and we probably got to see more of the city than we would have otherwise. Since we had 6 nights, it was not really a problem but for a shorter period it would have been less convenient.
Pep reached our appartment in Paris without mishap and was able to take the key from our code box next to the front door. These boxes are common pratice in Australia, but little known in Europe, although you can buy them in France without difficulty. It’s absolutely impossible to open the box without the code. Even if you managed to pull the box off the wall you still wouldn’t be able to get into the box. We find it’s a perfect solution.
When we were preparing for our holiday, I tweeted about off-the-beaten track places to visit in Barcelona and received an answer from Roser who lives in Barcelona and works for www.intercambiocasas.com, the Spanish version of the www.homeexchange.com website I use, inviting us to meet up for a coffee. I was delighted!
Roser, Jean Michel, Isabel
The very dynamic Roser came along with her blogger friend Isabel (http://www.diariodeabordoblog.com), about to embark of her first home exchange. We were able to ask all the questions that had been building up about Catalan and Barcelona over the previous few days and since Roser speaks excellent English and French, Jean Michel was able to launch a very interesting discussion about Catalan independence. Roser also has a blog (http://www.sempreviaggiando.com).
Roser and Isabel gave us lots of suggestions for places to eat but we ran out of days before we could use them all! Roser is also very interested in improving the website and service of homeexchange.com so would love to have feedback. In particular, she would like to know what is the most important thing when looking for a home exchange – location, size of the home, nearby attractions, etc.
Gaudi’s lamppost in Plaça Reial
The day before we left Barcelona, we were sitting outside at a terrace café in Plaça Reial admiring Gaudi’s lampposts when I received a message from Pep who had just got back from Paris, suggesting we have a coffee. We were soon able to exchange our impressions of Barcelona and Paris and talk about what we’d be doing in our respective cities. Pep had enjoyed being right in the centre of Paris even though he found it a little cold!
Now we’re busy organising our next set of home exchanges – one in France in May then a series in Germany, Austria and Hungary for June/July as we’re going to cycle along the Danube. It’s proving a little difficult to find people outside large cities who are interested in coming to Paris, where we can only provide accommodation for two people. So if anyone has a two-person swap in Ulm and Linz, let me know!
As soon as you walk into the double vestibule designed to make it easier for carriages to go in and out, you are struck by the juxtaposition and opulence of the different materials: stone pillars, steel beams with visible rivets, wooden ceilings with intricate caissons and incrustations, massive doors with beautiful wrought iron work, coloured leadlight windows and embossed leather chairs.
Lead lights and embossed door
A horse ramp takes you down into the basement with its stunning vaulted ceilings that once housed the stables. You walk up the stairs and find yourself in an antechamber from which you can see the central room with its parabolic dome and real organ! Gaudi had ten children, who were all very musical and he himself was a great lover of music. His daughter, Isabel, was a well-known composer and musicians often played in the palace.
Central room
Natural and artifical light penetrates the room through circular openings in the dome. While we were there, the organ suddenly burst into life, taking visitors by surprise. It was a magical experience.
Guell’s private organ
On one side of the central room is the lobby in the centre of the gallery overhanging the street, with its parabolic windows.
Lobby with its oblong arches and caisson ceiling
There’s a chapel on one side that could be closed off to form an oratory or opened up for services. The walls are covered in sheet brass and the doors are decorated with slivers of bone and turtleshell.
The oratory
All the furniture in the dining room with its beautiful polychrome leather backed chairs is original. The décor was designed by Camil Oliveras, who worked with Gaudi.
Dining room
Upstairs are the bedrooms. Count Guell and his wife Isabel each had their own bedroom with an en-suite bathroom, most unusual for the time. Apparently they didn’t often live in the palace because Isabel didn’t like it very much. I can understand why. Even though the architecture is very avant-garde, it seems more like a showpiece than a home. I personally wouldn’t have liked to sleep in her bedroom.
Oriel window from terrace
There is a back terrace with a rather unattractive oriel window with louvres to protect the inside from the sun. There are several other small rooms that I haven’t mentioned, including the younger Isabel’s bedroom which is surprisingly on the main floor behind the oratory.
Main bedroom
The other rooms are not open to the public and I described the chimneys on the roof in a previous post. Guell’s oldest daughter Mercé inherited the house but eventually turned it over to the State because she couldn’t afford the upkeep. It was declared a National Monument in 1969 and added to the World Heritage list in 1985, the first modern building to receive that distinction.
A break from Barcelona for this week’s bloggers’ round-up, starting with Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris, who ferreted out the most original Valentine’s Day chocolate in Paris. Abby from Paris Weekender tells us how to go about getting a driver’s licence in France. Don’t forget to read Part 2 as well! Andrea from Rearview Mirror takes us to Marseilles, one of the European capitals of culture for 2013. Enjoy!
The most original Valentine’s Day chocolate in Paris!
by Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris, an American by birth, Swiss by marriage, resident of Paris with a Navigo Pass for the metro that she feels compelled to use
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been pounding the pavement and scouring the city for the most original Valentine’s Day chocolate. Peering through store window after store window, all the while trying to keep my cravings at bay, I’ve seen chocolate hearts, shoes, dresses, cigars, wafers with “I Love You” written in multiple languages, hearts appearing to be on fire, Eiffel Towers, birds with heart-shaped nests, and, did I mention, hearts?
Just when I was about to throw in the towel and give up on finding anything truly innovative, I paused in front of A la Mère de Famille on rue de la Pompe to look at what I thought would be more chocolate hearts. Studying the window, I noticed some chicken wire festooned with red roses, white hearts, and …. what’s that? Read more
Getting a French Driver’s License – Part 1
by Abby from Paris Weekender, an American living in New York and Paris who offers suggestions for Paris weekends, either staying put or getting out of town
If you have been residing in France for more than 1 year, you are required to get a French driver’s license. There are two ways of doing this. The first and easiest option is to trade your current driver’s license in for a French one – but this route is only available for EU license-holders, license-holders of select other countries and holders of licenses from a handful of the 50 United States. (When I last checked, the list included: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.) The second way is to re-do driver’s ed. Read more
European Capital of Culture 2013
by Andrea from Rear View Mirror (formerly Destination Europe), a fellow Australian who, after 6 years of living in France, has given up herParis apartment to live a nomadic life slowing travelling around Europe, experiencing each destination like a local.
It used to be that there was one European Capital of Culture per year until 2000 when they went a little crazy and made 9 different cities the ‘capital’. In recent years there have been two or three per year and last year was the first time I got to visit one of the capitals when I went to Guimarães in northern Portugal. The title of European Capital of Culture 2013 is held by both Marseille, France and Kosice, Slovakia.
European Capital of Culture 2013: Marseille-Provence
It’s not just the city of Marseille which is the Capital of Culture but also the surrounding area including Aix-en-Provence, Arles, La Ciotat, Martigues and Aubagne. Read more
I hope you’re not sick of Gaudi yet because I still want to tell you about Guell Palace, Casa Batlló and Casa Mila, also known as La Pedrera, all three of which are on the Unesco World Heritage list. You’ve already seen the chimneys which I think are probably the most exciting part, but there are lots of other very interesting features as well. We visited the houses in the order in which they were built, as I thought it would be interesting to see the progression.
Front entrance to Guell Palace
Personally, if I didn’t have time to see all the houses, I would give perference to Casa Batlló, then Guell Palace but I have friends who liked La Pedrera best. The entrance fees range from 12 euro per person including a very good audioguide for Guell Palace, 20.35 euro each with a good audioguide for Casa Batlló and 16.50 euro each with a terrible audioguide for La Pedrera.
I thought I’d start with a comparison of the façades and describes the interiors in a subsquent post. Guell palace was built between 1885 and 1890. When construction began, Eusebi Guell, a rich textile manufacturer with a solid background in economics, law, science and the humanities, was 39 and Gaudi was only 34 and keen to break with tradition, with the unmitigated support of Guell. You may remember that Gaudi took on the Sagrada Familia in 1883 at the age of 31.
Tribune at Guell Palace
The façade is quite austere compared with the other houses. It has unusal parabolic arches with intricate wrought-iron work in the middle topped by a Venetian style tribune with leadlight windows. The rest of the façade is made of stone.
Close-up of Battlo façade
Nothing could be more different than the façade of Casa Batlló. It is located on Passeig de Gracia, a favourite promenade with the local bourgeois families. The house was 20 years old when Josep Battló bought it in 1903. He thought it looked somewhat dull next to its neighbour, Amatller, so he decided to call in Gaudi who, at 52, was at the height of his popularity, having started work on Guell Park in 1900.
Amatller and Casa Batllo
Gaudi kept the original structure and added two additional levels; the façade was a complete remake and is covered in the most wonderful mosaic work, along with other highly original details such as wavy walls, mask-shaped balconies, bone-like pillars, giving it the nickname of “Casa dels ossos” or the “House of Bones” and enlarged windows, for which it was dubbed “Casa Dels badall”s or the” House of Yawns”. The roof is shaped like the back of a dragon.
Side façade of La Pedrera
In 1905, Père Milà and Roser Segimon, a rich widow, decided to invest her fortune in a large piece of land further down the same street and commissioned Gaudi to build a six-storey apartment building of which they would occupy the 1,300 sq.m. main floor. There was a lot of friction between the architect and the promoters who didn’t appreciate having to pay out more and more money for bold decorative effects and construction principles that were strongly criticised by the press.
Wrought-iron balcony at Pedrera from inside
Its nickname of La Pedrera, which means “quarry” in Catalan, is due to its three cream-coloured stone façades which change colour as the light waxes and wanes. With their wavy lines, extravagant wrought-iron balconies and 150 windows, the overall effect is like billowing waves.
Guell Palace: open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 8 pm in summer (April 1st to October 31st), 10 am to 5.40 pm in winter (November 1st to March 31st). Free on the first Sunday of every month, April 23, May 18th and September 24th. There are limited free tickets so check the website. Closed Mondays, except holidays, 25th and 26th December, 1st January and 6th to 13th January.
Casa Battlo: open Monday to Sunday, 9 am to 9 pm, all year round.
La Pedrera: open Monday to Sunday, 9 am to 8 pm in Summer (1st March to 4th November), 9 am to 6.30 pm in winter (5th November to 28th February), 11 am to 6.30 pm on 1st January. Closed 25th December and 7th to 13th January.
One of the things I love about the Mediterranean countries are the shady squares where you can relax and have a coffee or an aperitif. Early February in Barcelona wasn’t quite as warm (or sunny) as we hoped, so we didn’t spend as much time sitting outdoors as we would have liked but we did walk a lot. In Catalan, which is the language spoken by a large majority of the people in Barcelona, the term is plaça which becomes places in the plural.
After taking the metro once, we decided we’d rather use the bus, particularly since there were no direct metro lines between Sant Pau where we were staying and most of the places we wanted to go. Jean Michel took charge and, after six days, knew his way about better than our home exchange host who has never taken the bus in Barcelona. We took the metro once on the last day and got out at the wrong station.
You can use the 10-ticket metro card on the bus (just under 10 euro) and keep using it for 1 hour 15 minutes, which was handy when had to change bus lines. It was rare not to get a seat and most of the time the bus was half empty, but I guess there are a lot more people in the summer. The big advantage is that you can see where you’re going and it gave me a lot of opportunities to examine the architecture.
The city of Barcelona is laid out on a grid plan, except for the Barri Gotic, the historical quarter, which has lots of little streets arranged more haphazardly. The other streets are very wide and the intersections all form a hexagon. At most bus stops, there are luminous signs indicating when the bus is coming but they are most unreliable. They say “imminent” when the bus has already left and will just from 4 mins to 6 mins and back to 2 mins waiting time for no apparent reason.
One time, the sign said there was a 25 minute wait bus, so we decided to walk down to the next stop that had a better selection of lines. After a couple of minutes, we say the bus go whizzing past. Usually though, the most you have to wait for a bus is about 10 minutes.
Inside the bus, there is a sign indicating the next stop and often a recorded voice to go with it. It took me a while to realise that “Prospera parada” was not actually a stop but means “next stop” in Catalan.
I’m not sure what time the buses start running, but they go until about 10.30 pm. If we went home later than that we would take a taxi, which cost from 8 to 11 euro depending on where we were. There are positively zillions of taxis and you only have to stand on the pavement looking expectantly for one to appear.
When we come out of Cinc Sentitis at midnight on the last evening, a cab immediately pulled up. However, when we reached the flat, I suddenly realised that I no longer had my iphone. I rang the restaurant but they hadn’t found it. Next morning, I rang the central lost & found number for taxis (902101564) and was still hopeful the taxi driver might have found it and handed it in (I’m pretty sure it slipped out of my pants pocket when I sat down – no points for stupidity here).
However, by the time we left Barcelona at 3.30 pm, it still hadn’t turned up. In the meantime, I went to the big Apple store next to Plaça Cataluyna where a very friendly Australian helped me log into my account and declare it as lost. But since International Roaming was switched off (I had been using wifi), there was no way of tracking it. At least none of my photos are lost because I downloaded them all just before we went out for dinner and I synchronised recently.
The Australian sent us to the police station on the Plaça but it would have taken more than an hour to make a declaration and we obviously didn’t want to miss our flight. There were three other lots of tourists declaring missing items, but theirs were all cases of pickpocketing. By the way, all the taxis are identical – black and yellow – regardless of the company. You need to memorise the number each time as you get in or ask for a receipt. Neither of which I did, obviously.
I can see that tomorrow’s going to be a long day organising a replacement with my phone insurance.
“I can say that I have accomplished most of what I set out to do: join the Peace Corps, go to Africa, live in France and master a foreign language.” I don’t think many people of Inge’s age could say the same thing!
