Saturday 25 October - Calais - Home

 We called in at Calais Wine Superstore, and stocked up to our allowance, mostly with a selection of reds. The staff were very knowledgeable and helpful, especially with setting up the tax reclaim for us as non EU residents. We're not actually sure we can get the 12.5% back though, owing to technology failures with the French customs system. Oh well!

We travelled back via Le Shuttle - which was a very smooth process - and then drove home, arriving back late afternoon. 

Nice to have a warm house and some space again!

2600 miles, and the objective of seeing Venice again well and truly achieved.

Friday 24 October - Paris to Calais

 The weather forecast was pretty awful, with Storm Austen incoming, and Paris was getting ready for a weekend of protest. We were planning to visit another art exhibition at the Grand Palais, Art Basel, which was set to run for three days over the weekend, however we learned that the exhibition was closing early - Friday being the only day it was going to run. We figured it would be impossibly crowded, and reluctantly decided to leave it.

https://www.artbasel.com/paris?lang=en

So we packed up, serviced the motorhome and headed north. There was pretty extreme wind all day with frequent spells of rain, so unpleasant driving conditions, especially as the wind was from the West and our general direction was North - a crosswind most of the way. We witnessed the aftermath of a couple of accidents and there was a very near miss in front of us at one point.

We got to Calais about 6 pm and tucked in for a very windy and rainy night at the Aire de Camping Car Park. 

Thursday 22 October - Paris - Versailles

 Travelled by train again, not stopping in Paris but continuing on to Versailles.

It was very crowded and we shuffled around the interior including the hall of mirrors at the prevailing speed. Totally over the top expression of wealth at the time, no wonder there was a revolution.

We left there and caught a train back in to Paris to visit the Musee d'Arte Moderne again. This didn't go terribly well as they were closing the permanent collection early to allow for the award of the Marcel Duchamps prize for art at 7 in the evening. We didn't get to see the exhibitions of works by the four nominees therefore and have no idea  who won, but we did get into the exhibition of work by Simone Fattal, a Lebanese artist who has lived in Paris and the USA. Chunky sculpture referencing Babylonian legends and abstract painitings.

Clouds

Wednesday 21 October - Paris

 We caught the train in to Paris again and got off at Musee d'Orsay. We toured the top floor first, which seemed to be the most popular. Van Gough, Renoir, Monet, Degas sculptures.

There is a fantastic collection of Art Nouveau furniture in the museum, and a challenging work by Jenny Holzer, who chops up text into scrolling displays and uses redacted official docs to make political points.

On the ground floor was an exhibition of works by Mary Cassat. an artist working in France and the USA who was an early supporter of the suffragette movement.

We had some lunch in a nearby cafe and then headed to the Musee d'Arte Moderne de Paris. 

We toured to exhibition of paintings and works by Kerry James Marshall, a Black Chicago based artist. Brilliant works on racism and Black experience in the USA.

We didn't have time to see any of the other exhibitions in the Md'AM.

The venue next door is the Palais de Tokyo, which has free exhibitions running by a number of artists

Valerie John

Valerie John

Sonia Gomes

Photographic exhibition by Paul Kodjo - Photoromance

And more ..

Retired home very late and very tired.

Tuesday 20 October - Paris

 We had a slightly longer journey in then expected, with some trains not running. It was warmer this morning.

We travelled to Invalides bu two trains and spent time in the Grande Palais at and exhibition Cezanne and painters inspired by him.

We walked the short distance to the Petit Palace - the other side of Avenue Winston Churchill - to an exhibition of paintings by Eva Gonzalez, a less well known painter from the second half of the ninettenth century.

We managed to get home before dark.

Liverpool 4 - Villareal 3 on Prime

Monday 19 October - Paris

 It was very cold in the night, down to about 7 degrees.

We found our way to the local station and with help from a wonderful rail employee purchased two 7 day unlimited travel passes, which we intend to use to the full.

We made our way via two trains and a walk to the Fondation Louis Vuitton which is in the northern corner of the Bois de Boulogne forest. It's a Frank Gehry design, which looks as if it has sails over the outside.

We went to a small exhibition by a Saudi Arabian artist, Mohammad with video material in a decorated space with an ecological theme - heartwarming. One of the videos was projected into the bottom of a cooking pot you had to peer into.

The main exhibition was vast and covered works collected by a painter and carpet maker called Gustave Fayet. The collection covered the period from about 1880 to 1925. Here's a selection.

After this we used trains and metro to reach the Pinault Collection - a photographic exhibition housed in the Bourse de Commerce - another amazing building.

Explanations and better photos may or may not follow.

Sunday 18 October Auxonne to Paris

After a bit of discussion we decided to leave Dijon behind and head for Paris. It was another  long drive - 211 miles - but empty roads quite a lot of the way and intermittent rain.

We booked ahead to Camping Beau Village at Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois (48.654623 2.303273 for you Roger) which has easy access to a railway line in to the centre of Paris. We have booked 4 nights here and Shraddhabha has researched and booked access to a number of galleries.

There is a little bit of trepidation about our trip as parts of Paris saw serious rioting following demonstrations about the cost of living and under investment in education, but we'll see.

We shopped and cooked.

No photos today

Saturday 17 October - Auxonne, Jura region, France

We packed up and moved on down the hill and through Switzerland, and then left to France by another pass, this time only about 1000m in the Jura Alps.

We were intending to visit Dijon, but the Aire which would give access to the City was full, so instead we overnighted at Auxonne, a small town on the River Saone. It had rained most of the drive - long, 211 miles - but was dry when we had parked up. We went for a walk around town, spotting some large rat like animals on the way. We later identified these as coypu, which apparently live wild in parts of France. 

Friday 16 October - over the Alps to France

 We left the camp site and headed north after a morning swim.

We did some shopping on the way in Gravellona and then headed up and over the Simplon Pass - just over 2000m altitude. The motorhome used a lot more diesel getting up the hill so we had an urgent trip into Brig on the Swiss side for more fuel, before heading to Stellplatz Panorama for the night at 1066m

There was a fantastic sunset and the sound of bells on sheep was audible through the night. A paraglider pilot came down into the valley as the sun was setting.