France - Day 6

France - Day 6, We headed off to Paris once again, this time well prepared with the parking all sorted out, following lessons learned on Monday! The trip into the city centre was a breeze compared to our last attempt and the day was one of being awestruck by the grandioseness of Paris and being enthralled by the sights and sounds from majestic buildings to frenetic traffic roundabouts and nutty drivers, they sure do a lot of honking here!

Clément Ader's Avion III

The morning was taken up with visiting some of the iconic landmarks of Paris, the l'arc de Triomphe, wandering down the Champs-Élysées and battling the throngs to get a view of the Notre Dame. Following the visit to the Notre Dame we walked to the  the Musée des Arts et Métiers, founded in 1794 as a store of new and useful inventions, it is a museum of technological innovation. The Musée des Arts et Métiers exhibits over 2,400 inventions. There was just so much to look at from Blaise Pascal's first mechanical calculator, to the first Cray super computer, from the original version of the Foucault pendulum, (the pendulum brought back memories of the children's efforts to make one from the top of our stairwell at home!) to some of the first planes Clément Ader's Avion III

 

The l'arc de Triomphe, The l'arc de Triomphe dates back to 1806, when Napoleon commissioned Chalgrin to build an arch to the glory of the French Army. We struggled to figure out what was more impressive, the l'arc de Triomphe or the crazy traffic roundabout that surrounds it.  Both were fascinating to watch!

Wandering down the Champs-Élysées, with its many high-end stores including Renault's Formula One show room. 

The Notre Dame cathedral, impressive both on the outside and with in.

Just some impressive buildings on our walk to the Musée des Arts et Métiers, we have never seen so many unbelievably ornate buildings, and it will be one of our lasting memories of Paris.

Interactive displays - this one on generating electricity

Blaise Pascal's first mechanical calculator, beautifully made.

Original Cray Computer

Just a handful of amazing inventions on display. You would need a week to really get the most out of this amazing collection

Working models of real machines on display

Lots of mechanical clocks and musical instruments, the intricacy and detail was just mind blowing.

The original model of the Statue of Liberty

Who said you can't have fun in a museum!!

France - Day 5

France Day 5, After a somewhat hectic day yesterday, today was a sleep in day and a bit more relaxed all around. We drove to the Champagne region (the home of Champagne :-) and drove through wonderfully cute villages, and past numerous war memorials and cemeteries, most commemorating the first world war, countries represented were Britain, America, France, Germany, Italy and New Zealand. We stopped off at an American cemetery and a New Zealand cemetery.  It was a good opportunity to talk to the children and read up about what transpired during the first world war and how devastating this was for all involved.

The American War cemetery

The village of Pourcy where we had an enjoyable wander through the town and surrounding vineyards - this was actually a mapped out walk which we expected to take us through 'bush' but it was vineyards instead!

 A cemetery dedicated to New Zealand Soldiers, some as young as 18, sad and sobering.

And yes there's still plenty of time to relax, although 'relaxing' card games are a bit of a rarity!! 

Some games get quite raucous. 😉

France - Day 4

France - Day 4,Well a day to remember for some good things :-) and some not so good :-(  The day started on a ominous note with our dear friends the navigation aids namely Mr Tomtom and Mrs Google, who couldn't decide which streets were closed due to repairs or parked cranes, which were one-way, which were too narrow and streets with authorized access only. The plan was to drive and park at a Metro station and then take the metro into the center of Paris. The plan was, we thought, a good one, the implementation ended up not so good. Finally 2 hours later than expected we found an underground car-park that our van could fit into, thankfully right beside a metro station. Dad was frustrated to the point that a return trip back to the holiday home a definite possibility, thankfully the rest persevered and the trip into the city and sight seeing went well

The highlights of the day were visiting the Eiffel tower, the military museum and Napoleon's tomb.

Paris itself is amazing, very grand with big wide promenades and open green spaces.

The drive home was somewhat long as dear Dad decided typing the wrong location into the navigation aid might liven things up a bit by adding an hour to the trip much to the delight of the rest of the family - not!! What's more we had torrential rain to cope with but the bonus was an amazing lightning storm!

The wide open spaces and boulevards that exemplify the heart of Paris

The Eiffel tower, there were hawkers everywhere selling miniature towers and yes we did succumb - well they were cheap, eh Mum?!

Next visit was the military museum, with some amazing displays from the middle ages through to World war 2. We spent 3 hours there but we could have easily spent a whole day.

More displays of Medieval Armour and an amazing array of cannons, 
Photo to the left - need we explain more?!

World War 1 weaponry and displays.

World War 2 was extensively covered with displays of a vast array of military equipment, interesting to see it from the French perspective this time.  What was super cool was this fold up motorbike that could be parachuted down in its own metal container.

We came to the conclusion that old Napoleon had quite a high opinion of himself, one that the French people have embraced, everything was over the top and ostentatious to the max. Check out his tomb, you could fit his whole family (and half the french population into the building.) 

An effigy of the man himself

McDonalds for tea, Mum and Dad were too shattered to cook, and fast food for the children is a real treat!!

Spectacular lightning diving home, just continuous lightning the whole way.