Adieu Paris, adieu France

Thank heavens for official bilingualism in Canada or I would never have managed speaking French half as well as I did. How else, with such a otherwise limited vocabulary, would I have managed to buy soap for "mon peau sensible" or to be able to describe my first ride on the Métro "Je suis bien agiter". Still can't understand why the shop keeper looked so confused when I asked for "de frommage 'old-fort'"... so much to learn I guess.

Anyway, here are some long awaited pictures from Périgord and Paris.

This first is Bergerac, I somehow missed taking a picture of either of the statues dedicated to Cyrano. Unlike Perigueux and Sarlat, Bergerac is a little gritty even in its gentrified old town. I like that, because it gives me a true sense of the age of the place. By the way, the people of this region are extremely polite and think someone from Canada is very exotic indeed.

Here's the lovely country inn I stayed in Sarlat. The menacing tree that caused me so much grief is just to the right of the photo. It too is scarred for life. I guess I should mention that I returned the car to the Toulouse train station at 1 minute to 8 (my deadline), so no questions were asked about its well-being. Je suppose que je recevrai une lettre d'un avocat français.

Here is the now famous restaurant where I had the best lunch of my life. It's at the foot of a cliff that has a vertical town that crawls (give me some poetic licence here) up the cliff to a medieval castle on top. The view from the restaurant looks out to the Dordogne valley and river with kayakers and flat bottomed boats. On the other side of the valley, an opposing castle could be seen. I was at the better castle of the two I'm sure.

The view from the castle is even more spectacular. Here is the castle from the top. Sorry, I have forgotten the name of this castle, but it's in Beynac for anyone interested with good googling skills.

Now to Paris, a few of my favourite photos:

Of course I had to visit the Paris Opera (really called Opéra Garnier, because there's a local need to distinguish it from the Opéra de la Bastille and the Opéra Peletier (which burned down in the 1873 causing a need for a new opera house)). Note the graffiti on the van to the left. I think graffiti is for modern cities what the plague was in the old days. It's spreading everywhere.

Here's the interior of the Opéra Garnier with the Chaggall frieze on the ceiling. Despite it being relatively modern, it completely works in the opera house. Chaggall matched the colours and captured the spirit of the building itself without being beholden to the style of a different age.

Isle de la Cité looking toward Pont Neuf (just beyond the bridge picture I think), the Tuileries, and the Louvre. Oh ya, the Eiffel Tower too. Paris has really good sunsets all the time. It's like Le Petit Prince - if you need to cheer yourself up, just go find a sunset to watch. Hence all the painters attracted here.


The best photos would have been from the Arc de Triomph, mais malheureusement, my camera died. So it's a bit ironic that I was on top of one of the best viewing places in one of the most viewed cities in the world unable to take photos. All I could do was enjoy the view. Things are so simple sometimes, aren't they?