Wednesday 17th October

Having somewhat arrogantly formed the view that we had seen all that Paris had to offer the Prop and his wife elected to stay “at home” with the McRent Reisemobil and attend to a bit of personal administration.

Walked over the Pont de Suresnes to the Office de Tourisme and spent an engaging 15 or 20 minutes with a lovely French lady who loaded the Prop up with all sorts of pamphlets and gave him all sorts of what he supposes must have been valuable information – all of it in French. The Prop even gave her his best “Je n’ai pas trop bus” (see “The Prologue”) but even this did not dampen her ardour!

The Prop left more than a little confused and wondering how it was that a tourism office came to be staffed by someone who was quite unable to communicate with tourists who don’t speak French!

However, one of the aforementioned pamphlets did catch the prop’s eye – an evening dinner cruise on the Seine starting at €135 (A$215) per person and going up to €600 per person including chauffeur-driven limousine transport to and from the Seine. The Prop thought that this latter deal might seem a bit pretentious – getting picked up by limousine from the front gate of Camping de Bois du Boulogne! Besides, the Prop’s wife had washed her only evening gown earlier that day!

In the end, the prop tracked down a very nice €45 dinner cruise on the “Belle Sur Seine”. The cruise itself was delightful. So too the dinner which included three courses and wine! It would however be remiss of the Prop not to record that the cuisine on offer was Chinese, not French. That is not to denigrate the quality of the food – which was very good. It's just that there seems to be something a bit perverse about going on a dinner cruise in Paris and eating Chinese food!

Tuesday 16th October

Having mastered the Metro with the aid of a pocket PC programme called (appropriately enough) “Metro” the Prop and his wife navigated their way with ease to the cathedral church of Notre Dame. It’s a big place with lots of gargoyles. A touch overdone for the Prop’s simple tastes but impressive nonetheless. One gets the impression that mediaeval Frenchmen can’t have had much spare time having spent most of it building enormous chateaux, abbeys, cathedrals and basilicas and then waging war with each other about who was to own them! The resources which must have been devoted to the construction of religious buildings in those times is truly astounding but one wonders whether they were built for the greater glory of God or the feudal Lords who commissioned them! There is a real sense that there was a bit of a “mine is bigger than yours” competition going on between these jokers.

Left Notre Dame and took a walk through the Marais district famous (apparently) for its bohemian residents and outdoor markets. No bohemians spotted, no outdoor markets on Tuesdays and only an overflowing out of order public toilet for our trouble! (According to a little tourist pamphlet that the Prop’s wife picked up, the Parisiennes boast that they have no fewer than 36 public toilets in Paris. Subtracting those which are out of order or unusable (for reasons which delicacy does not permit me to elaborate) the Prop reckons that there may be as many as three public toilets in Paris. The situation is so bad that at Starbucks they give you a code on your receipt which will allow access to their toilets – this presumably to avoid freeloaders from soiling their facilities. McDonalds on the other hand are much more laissez-faire. It would be misleading to say that they have an “open door” policy so far as toilets are concerned. However, the Prop is aware that a central part of McDonalds sales strategy in Europe is to appeal to American tourists by providing food which tastes exactly the same as they can get at home AND clean toilets. (Whether the toilets taste the same as the ones at home, the Prop is unable to say for want of having conducted the necessary research.))

From the Marais we effortlessly made our way by metro to Montmatre in the north of the city. Crowned by the Basilica Sacre Coeur the butte of Montmatre affords a commanding view of the Paris smog - and we were there on a clear day! No shortage of open air markets or (strangely) Irish Pubs here! Didn’t see any public toilets though. What was once the home of Paris’ artistic community has now become rather commercialised and a little gaudy.

Repaired to the McRent Reismobil by Metro and train to Suresnes Longchamps as dictated by “Metro” (the pocket PC application mentioned above).

Monday 15th October

Le ciel ete gris et les nuages tombè! (Cold cloudy day).

Took the Metro to L’Arc de Triomphe then walked down the Champs Elysèes to the Louvre for a look. Failed to check out all 16 kilometres of corridors and exhibition spaces in the time available but did manage a glimpse of the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Rameses III. The Prop is no Robert Hughes, but believes that he has seen better-looking copies of the Mona Lisa than the original. In fact, the most interesting aspect of the Mona Lisa is watching everyone straining to take photographs of her - presumably to prove that they were there! (Incidentally there are numerous very big signs making it clear that photography is strictly forbidden in the gallery in which the Mona Lisa (“La Giaconda” to the aficionados) is on display. However, with a “fine disregard” (so reminiscent of William Webb Ellis) neither the public nor the Louvre staff seem to take the slightest bit of notice of this prohibition.) I guess that since L. da Vinci painted her over 500 years ago she must be well and truly out of copyright by now.

CHAMBORD TO PARIS

Saturday 13 October 2007

Having travelled from Chambord to Paris just in time to hit the peak hour traffic(!!) the McRent Resemobil arrived at “Camping du Bois De Boulogne situated on the right bank of the Seine just above the Pont du Suresnes and about 12 kilometres from the centre of the city. By the time we arrived, the place (which has over 500 camping sites or “pitches”) was overrun with English, South African, New Zealand and Australian rugby supporters. In some respects the “camping” looked like a rehab centre for depressed Australasians. By contrast, and for obvious reasons, the Poms and the Yappies were in high spirits. We spent the early part of the day walking around Suresnes trying to but a 5 day pass for the Metro/RER/SNCF. I suppose that we should have anticipated that the local Tourist office, which sells the passes, would be closed on a Saturday! Set off about 6.00pm for Stade de France. After taking the bus from the camping to the Metro station at Porte Maillot we discovered that the ticket machine at the station was broken! A hastily handwritten note directed us to walk to the next Metro station in order to buy a ticket so that we could walk back to the first station to take the line to Stade de France. Did that! (In fact managed to buy a 5 day pass). By the time we finally got on the Metro the cars were as full as a fat girl’s sock and the Prop and his wife got in some much needed scrummaging practice fending off some very large South Africans who had no apparent ability to recognise that our carriage had reached its maximum capacity about three stops before they crow-barred their way on! However, this was only to be the beginning of an evening of sublime disorganisation. Upon arrival at Stade de France we discovered that there was no discernible system in place for the orderly movement of pedestrian and/or vehicular traffic. We had arrived at the North end of the stadium and were seated at the southern end. Whether by accident or design (the Prop suspects the latter) it seemed that everyone with tickets at the northern end of the ground had arrived at the southern end. As a result, it took about 40 minutes of jostling and the odd well-formed maul for us to make our way to our seats. Managed to sit down about 10 minutes before kick-off having spent three hours making the 12 kilometre journey. The Prop is convinced that chaos on this scale does not just happen – it must take months of careful planning by the French authorities. The less said about the match between England and France the better! Apart from the closeness of the scores throughout, it was a dull affair in which the Poms scored an opportunistic (though well taken) try in the fist minute before settling down to their usual dour 10-man game. Unaccountably, the French (like the Australians a week before them) evidently tried to take England on at their own game rather than playing to their strengths in the backs. “Les Bleus” showed promise and flair in patches and threatened to score the winning try in the dying moments but failed to do so much to the chagrin of their wildly enthusiastic supporters (who included anyone who was not an Englishman). The Prop has not had time to check the statistics, but is pretty sure that they will reveal that there have been less tries scored at the World Cup than at any before it. This, it may be supposed, is the result of teams like Australia & New Zealand (and to a lesser extent, France) not playing to win but rather, playing not to lose. The irony is of course that in abandoning their more accustomed enterprising style of play in favour of a “safe” game, they have achieved the very opposite of what was intended! Getting out of Stade de France was even more difficult than getting in!!! Again we had to force our way back to the northern end of the ground to get to the Metro. We had anticipated a similar sort if “sardine debacle” on the way back but, astonishingly, some idiot had posted men at the Metro to allocate passengers to carriages in an orderly fashion AND had put on extra trains so that the journey back to Porte Maillot was uneventful, if a little depressing with carriages full of dejected Frenchmen.

Sunday 14 October

Almost as if to mock the misfortune of the French the previous night, the day dawned with a cloudless blue sky. The Prop and his wife decided to go and have a look at the Eiffel Tower. It wasn’t as though we didn’t know what it looked like, but is was a lovely day and, we thought, people will laugh at us if we say we went to Paris and didn’t see the Eiffel Tower. It turns out that we weren’t the only two people in France who had much the same idea that day! On a whim we decided to take a cruise up the Seine from near the Eiffel Tower. It was sensational! The clear warm autumn afternoon light set the stunning architecture along the riverbank aglow. So too the thousands of Parisiennes (some clothed, some not) who hemmed the left bank to take advantage of what was probably the last warm Sunday afternoon before winter. Somehow even paying €28 (about A$40.00) for two pretty ordinary ham and cheese rolls and two cups of coffee didn’t seem to matter in the least! Repaired to the McRent Reisemobil at about 7.00pm to watch the second semi-final between South Africa and Argentina. It was always going to be a tall order for the Argentinians to overcome the ‘Boks (although Fiji had come pretty close the week before) and so it was. Argentina stayed in the match until about the final 10 minutes before South Africa (again) scored a couple of late tries to make the victory appear much more comfortable than it really was. So now the finalists are decided – England and South Africa! This is unlikely to be a sparkling or memorable encounter.

Tuesday 9 October

Continued northwards over the Massif Centrale through some more outstanding scenery. Almost without exception the days here dawn with a chilly fog and heavy cloud covering that does not begin to lift until about midday. Consequently, the landscape was obscured in an eerie shroud for the first part of the journey. Nonetheless, this did not seem to detract from the beauty of the countryside. A word about French road signs and tourist facilities is now necessary. For some reason the French are given to erecting very large official roadside signs with very attractive graphics saying things like “Chateau Such-and –Such”. However, strangely, neither that sign, nor any other, gives any indication of where the said Chateau (or other point of interest) is to be found! Even more disturbing to the Prop is the fact that either the French do not see the beauty of their own country or (which is more likely) do not want anyone to photograph it, because there almost never any parking anywhere near the most scenic lookout spots. After a long day in the cockpit of the McRent Reisemobil, the Prop and his wife made for the quaintly named “Camping Municipal Robinson” in Bourges on the edge of the Loire Valley.

Wednesday 10 October

Having spent most of the preceding day on the motorway (we note that the French do not call them “freeways” for a very good reason – they are not free. Au contraire, the tolls or “péage” which are extracted from the motoring public are exorbitant.) we again decided to travel on a few back roads. It was in this way (and because the Prop has difficulty in differentiating between a left hand turn and a right hand turn, that we ended up - quite by accident – in the mediaeval town of Loches. After taking lunch in a traditional Lebanese Kebab House, we discovered the old city more or less accidentally. Within are to be found “the old keep” built in the 11^th century and the later (16^th century) Royal Lodge, the latter having been built as a kind of weekender by the Dauphin (later Charles VII of France) not long before being reassured in the living room thereof by Joan of Arc that he was the true heir to the French crown. So persuasive was young Joan that the Dauphin marched up the road to Orleans, defeated the Poms with whom the French had been at war for 100 years (actually a bit less than that but “the Hundred Years War” sounds a lot better that the “Seventy-Three Years War”) and then went to Reims to be crowned King. No doubt the people of France are hoping that “Les Bleus” will emulate the Dauphin’s glorious victory over the English at Stade de France this coming Saturday! Having spent nearly all day in Loches, the Prop and his wife were obliged to make camp at the nearby “Camping La Citadelle” which is handily located not more than a trebuchet’s throw from the Royal Lodge at Loches.

Thursday 11 October

The grand tour of the Châteaux of the Loire valley continued. From Loches we travelled to Chinon to inspect the castle/chateau. Chinon too claims to be the location at which Joan d’Arc persuaded the Dauphin to make his takeover bid for the whole of France! In fact it turns out that Joan met the Dauphin first at Chinon and then (perhaps because he thought what she had told him was too good to be true) had to have a second crack at him at Loches before he finally believed her! The Chateau at Chinon was also the place at which the last of the leaders of the Knights Templar, Jaques de Molay, was imprisoned before his execution in the 14^th century. From Chinon to Azay-Le-Rideau for a glimpse of its very impressive chateau and then further on following the Loire to Amboise whose chateau rises majestically from the banks of the Loire surrounded by the old and then the new city. Bathed in the late autumn sun, it had the appearance of a set from a Walt Disney fairy tale. Bivouacked (?) at “Le Jardin Botanique” at Lumeray – the most appealing feature of which was its name. Its least appealing quality was its near proximity to the TGV (very fast train) rail line and the astonishing frequency of that service.

Friday 12 October

From Lumeray the McRent Reisemobil (and her crew) continued along the banks of the Loire veering inland only long enough to allow us to visit the truly remarkable Chateau Chambord! Built over a period of about 200 years commencing in the 15^th century this amazing example of neo-gothic renaissance architecture defies further description! Now a national monument, the prop could not help thinking that it would have made ideal clubrooms for the now defunct Associates Rugby Club!

Narbonne to Marseilles

Wednesday 3 October 2007

Continued west from Narbonne intending to stay the night at a “camping” at Le Grau De Roi on the Mediterranean coast a little southeast of Montpellier. Although the “camping” was open everything else (except McDonalds) was closed “for the winter”. The Prop, incensed by the insensitivity of the locals to the needs of the travelling Rugby public determined to move on. Much to the delight of the Prop’s wife, we travelled through the Camargue – an extensive delta lying between the petit Garonne and the Garonne rivers and made legendary to the Prop’s wife by her Swiss born former high school French teacher. Noted for its flocks of flamingos, small white ponies and bulls all but the latter were on open display. Eventually stopped the McRent Reisemobil at “Camping de la Crau” at Saint Martin de Crau (and just a few kilometres from a town called La Dynamite! No idea what they make there or why it’s called by that name. The Prop briefly toyed with the thought of including La Dynamite as a stop in the “Dangerous Tour of Europe” but eventually thought better of it and decided to give the place a wide berth.

Thursday 4 October 2007

Having established that there were no “campings” within a bull’s roar of Marseille, the McRent Reisemobil set a course for “Camping Les Cigales” in Cassis – about 20 km southeast of Marseille. With no particular expectations, the Prop and his wife were delighted to discover that Cassis is beautiful seaside resort town nestled among “les Calanques” (a series of precipitous rocky inlets). Spent the afternoon wandering around the waterfront as increasing numbers of Australians (many familiar from previous encounters), Englishmen and South Africans descended upon the town. Spent the evening and some part of the early hours of the next day at the bar in the “camping” discussing the finer points of rugby union with sundry Australians including a particularly enthusiastic couple who turned out to be the parents of Wallaby winger Drew Mitchell! Also finally managed to have a drink with Allan Fong and Suzy Fiddaman (see 12 September) who had been over to Cannes for the day and arranged a luncheon appointment with them in Marseille for the following day. It has to be said that the Prop stayed rather longer at the bar and discussed one or two too many finer points than a prudent man might have done. Considering what can only be described as the intimate sleeping accommodation available in the McRent Reisemobil, this later proved to be the cause of some friction between the Prop and his wife!!

Friday 5 October 2007

The Prop awoke to a fairly chilly atmosphere inside the McRent Reisemobil but was pleasantly surprised to find that the outside temperature was somewhat warmer. We decided to do a practice run on the bus from Cassis into Marseille in preparation for the journeys that will have to be made on Saturday and Sunday to get to the quarter final matches. The bus ride into Marseille is quite spectacular (and unnerving) in places. Apart from the port area around the old city, which is very picturesque, Marseille does not, at first blush, appear to have much to recommend it. It has a reputation (like many sea ports) as a haven for cloak and dagger merchants and, generally speaking, its appearance matches that reputation. An unpleasant odour (apparently emanating from the outdated sewerage system) pervades the air. Had a pleasant lunch with Fongy and Suzy (although Fongy’s lunch arrived about an hour after everyone else’s) and had a bit of a sniff (no pun intended) around the city. Caught the bus back to Cassis only to be involved in some sort of bus hi-jacking incident. It appears some fellow boarded the bus after it already had the maximum number of passengers. He refused to alight. The driver refused to drive the bus, turned off the engine (and the air conditioning) and began making numerous mobile telephone calls. Meanwhile, the supernumary passenger had become the focus of a good deal of gesticulation and apparently hostile badinage. He, for his part, responded in kind. After perhaps 10 minutes or so, one of the other passengers voluntarily alighted from the bus. This appeared to satisfy the driver who then resumed the journey! All very, very French!

Saturday 6 October 2007

Game day! Australia v England!! The sun dawned brightly over Cassis giving no indication of the dark clouds gathering on the near horizon. Set off by bus (no incidents this time, but lots of Pommy rugby fans on board) for the Stade Velodrome in Marseilles. By kickoff (3.00pm) the sun was high in the sky. Although Marseilles is well to the east of France, the whole country shares the same time zone. As a consequence sunrise is relatively late and at 3.00pm the sun is not much past the zenith. Apart from the heat, conditions were more or less ideal for a fast open game. There was a fresh breeze from the south which favoured Australia in the first half. However, unaccountably the Wallabies, instead of trying to play fast open rugby, apparently by design, attempted to take England on at their own style of game – 10 man rugby where the ball is kicked as much as possible to gain territory and to put the goalkicker within range to kick drop goals or, in the event of an opposition indiscretion, penalty goals. In the event, Australia were out-muscled up front by the English forwards and got much less than their fair share of possession. What ball the forwards did win was too often turned over in the rucks and mauls. In what was a lacklustre game all round (All of England’s points came from penalties kicked by the (almost) infallible Johnny Wilkinson) England escaped with a win 12 points to 10 with Australia scoring the only try of the match. Australia might have snatched a late victory with a last gasp penalty goal from what was an improbable position on the field because of the headwind but it was not to be. So for only the second time, Australia went out of the World Cup at the quarter final stage. But, as it happened, this was not to be the greatest surprise of the day. Four hours later in Cardiff, Wales, the red-hot favourites in the tournament, the All Blacks, took on the so far unimpressive French XV. France had lost their opening pool match to Argentina and had not otherwise impressed. New Zealand on the other hand had had enjoyed easy victories in all of their pool matches against generally weak opposition. (The only likely test for new Zealand in their pool matches could come from Scotland. But the Scots, having calculated that they would not defeat New Zealand, had fielded a “B” team against the All Blacks in order to rest a number of key players for their subsequent do or die pool match against Italy. So, with France looking a little out of sorts and the All Blacks appearing invincible – if a little short of recent hard match experience – the battle was joined. It would be unnecessarily cruel to say that New Zealand choked yet again. But the fact is, they never really got their rhythm going despite not looking like they would lose the match. However, in the second half the French, playing their predictably unpredictable style of rugby which seems to incorporate elements of ballet, bluff and all-in wrestling managed to overpower the All Blacks. The new Zealanders will complain for years to come that Michalak’s pass that set up the winning try was forward, but that will not alter the result or soothe the national tragedy for New Zealand! The unbackable All Blacks for the first time ever were bundled out (as they say in tennis circles) of the World Cup in the quarter finals! All in all, not a red letter day for the southern hemisphere.

Sunday 7 October 2007

The Prop awoke wondering if he had had a bad dream and if it was still Saturday after all! However a quick look around “Camping Les Cigales” at the dejected faces of the Aussies and (in only a minority of cases it must be said) the somewhat smug superiority of the English supporters, confirmed the worst. Very early on in the meticulous planning process which lay behind the Odyssey, the Prop had factored in the possibility that the Wallabies might lose their second pool match against Wales. If that had occurred, Australia would have played in the third quarter final and not the first. According (and not without some sense of betrayal) the Prop had cunningly obtained tickets to both the first and third quarter finals. As things turned out Fiji had beaten Wales and so had qualified for the third quarter final against South Africa. After Fiji’s relatively poor showing against Australia (see 23 September) their defeat of Wales (see 29 September) was thought to be something of an aberration and no-one seriously entertained the thought that Fiji might defeat the Springboks – even in the light of the many unexpected, not to say improbable results to that time. In the end though, Fiji fell short of their impossible dream by only a matter of millimetres. Having scored two consecutive tries in the space of two minutes in the second half to draw level while one man down, Fiji went just failed to ground the ball over the Springbok line for a third unanswered try which would have given them the lead with 15 minutes to play and very possibly the momentum to hold the Boks out. As it was, when the try was disallowed one sensed that the Fijians had (as Paul Keating once said) fired the last shot in the locker. Their heads (and their bundles dropped) and South Africa scored two late tries to run out unconvincing winners. Later that night Argentina surprised no-one by defeating Scotland to take the last semi-final spot. Perhaps the only surprise of the game was that Scotland managed to look like they had a chance of winning even as late as the 79^th minute of the match.

Monday 8 October 2007

The Prop and his wife are now at a bit of a loose end. We have tickets to the first semi-final (England v France at Stade de France in Paris on Saturday 13 October) which we had hoped – nay, expected - would feature Australia. We could, no doubt, sell the tickets – probably for a handsome premium – to some surprised England supporter. On the other hand the prospect of a solid encounter in Paris involving the French at home (and who, the prop is bold enough to predict, will run rings around England) is too good to miss. So, with mixed emotions we farewelled Cassis and the many forlorn Aussies we had befriended there and programmed the McRent Reisemobil (which had lain more or less idle at Cassis for four days) to head north for Paris. The Prop insisted on an indirect rout route via Millau to see (and cross) the magnificent Viaduc de Millau – the longest and highest suspension bridge in the world. Having achieved that ambition we made for Camping Les Calquières at Sévérac-le-Château, a little north of Millau.

More soon!!