La Havre - Versailles, Paris, France
Le Havre to Versailes, France
La Havre, the landing point to France started easy, but finished a little different. As soon as we got off the ferry with our bikes, we went right into cycling paths that were plentiful in town. After England, it was refreshing. We followed directions to get on the other side of the harbor, but eventually ran out of the cycling route, and motorways were our only option. We decided to stay away from them with our bikes, and went north. We ended up going up... and up... and up... and up... the hills, through small French villages, but it took us further... and further... and further... from where we needed to be. All the signs were pointing out to the motorways, which we tried to avoid with our bicycles for safety reasons. People did not mind helping, but...they could not speak a word in English. We offered to speak Spanish, Russian, German or English, but it didn't help then. So, after five hours of cycling in circles up in the French hills, and to make up some time (to make sure we would not be late for our visit to a local French family in Versailles), we decided to put our bikes on a local train and get off in Roun - the place of Joan of Arc. We got to Roun in the early evening. The town was very pretty, but the traffic was plentiful, and it was challenging to navigate our touring bikes loaded with camping equipment among busy streets. I must say that the French drivers were very patient. Not a single time they beeped at us, and instead they were patiently waiting for us to pass, or take the bikes over the curb. Nevertheless, the long day took a toll on me, and after the 30th time of taking my bike over the curb and the 30th bruise/chain scratch on my legs, I suddenly felt overwhelmed. So, there I was bursting into tears in the middle of the street with patient French drivers parked behind me waiting for me to take my bike over the curb yet another time. That was my first time on the trip wondering what the heck I was doing thinking that I could conquer Europe on a bike? Rob rushed to comfort me and we stood there a good half an hour until I felt I was ready to move on. It was getting late, and we still had to find the camping somewhere up those French hills. We started cycling up the hill, and spotted a couple of people entering the house. We did not have a hope they would speak English, but we still decided to attempt to ask for directions to a camping. It turned out that a guy spoke great English, he told us to wait for a moment while he rushed to the house to check camping options on the internet. His wife could not converse in English as fluently, but through gestures she invited us, absolute strangers, to their home where she treated us to cold juice and local treats. We found out that they were originally from Romania and moved to France a few years ago as practicing physicians. They asked us if we could stay for a little longer - they wanted to know about our trip which they referred as "extreme sport". We ended up staying for several hours talking about our lives in the US, our dreams, goals, problems, politics, and the life of the French people. That evening healed all my pain and tears from before. And, at that moment I remembered why I decided to undertake my cycling adventure, I knew I would have to deal with more challenges, but I also knew that it was all worthwhile, and I was ready to do that. We cycled off that evening knowing that we were not alone, and that sometimes meeting an absolute stranger could turn even the most challenging French hills into pleasant memories.
The next morning we began paddling towards Versailles. We had a long way to go, several days to get there, more hills to conquer and more memories to create. I will never forget the moment when after climbing a long hill I finally made it to the other side, and all of the sudden the forest stopped and we ended up in a French village as if taken directly from a fairly tale. If you read French fairytales as a child by Jean-Jack Perrot, you know what I am describing. Cute chateaus with towers and elaborate decorations, rose gardens, and somewhere up in the hills, on the cliffs, the silhouette of a fortress - this one was the Chateau Gallard, that used to belong to the infamous cardinal de Bourbon. Remember the book Three Musketeers, and a reference to the cardinal de Bourbon? That's the one! Our camping site was in a valley, right under the fortress. Every time we would come out of the tent, it would be right in front of us. I had so many memories pouring in my head from all the French books and novels I read long time ago. I did not want to leave this beautiful spot, but we had a lot more ahead of us. We found out from an English couple who were also camping about a place called Giverney. That was a town where a great impressionist Monet lived, died, and created his art. We cycled to Giverney and visited Monet's grave, gardens and a medieval church. I lit a candle there in a memory of my mom and grandma. And then we took off...
We passed through so many villages, valleys, it is so beautiful here, and my heart feels so free... I now understand why impressionism started here in France. The colors are so vivid and so intense, sometimes they almost look surreal. There could be no other way to portrait this beauty than by using brush strokes as the impressionists did. Sometimes I feel as if I myself were a little dot on an impressionist canvas. I am developing a strong appreciation of the French country side beauty, and peace that surrounds it.
The great impressionist route
The village of Claude Monet
Biking break
The place of Claude Monet
Streets of Giverny
Grand Palace of Versailles
Rob's photoshoot
Grand Palace, Hall of Mirrors
Versailles' Park
Fountains of Versailles
Self explanatory
Place of solitude of Marie-Antoinette
Domain of Marie-Antoinette
Conflans, suburb of Versailles
Conflans, home town of our friends
Beautiful Paris
Notre Dame
View from Louvre window
Triumphal Arch
Pantheon
The magnificent Louvre
from Classical
to Modernism
The Moulin Rouge
In Luxemburg Gardens
Park in front of Eifel Tower
Eifel Tower, the symbol of Paris
La Havre, the landing point to France started easy, but finished a little different. As soon as we got off the ferry with our bikes, we went right into cycling paths that were plentiful in town. After England, it was refreshing. We followed directions to get on the other side of the harbor, but eventually ran out of the cycling route, and motorways were our only option. We decided to stay away from them with our bikes, and went north. We ended up going up... and up... and up... and up... the hills, through small French villages, but it took us further... and further... and further... from where we needed to be. All the signs were pointing out to the motorways, which we tried to avoid with our bicycles for safety reasons. People did not mind helping, but...they could not speak a word in English. We offered to speak Spanish, Russian, German or English, but it didn't help then. So, after five hours of cycling in circles up in the French hills, and to make up some time (to make sure we would not be late for our visit to a local French family in Versailles), we decided to put our bikes on a local train and get off in Roun - the place of Joan of Arc. We got to Roun in the early evening. The town was very pretty, but the traffic was plentiful, and it was challenging to navigate our touring bikes loaded with camping equipment among busy streets. I must say that the French drivers were very patient. Not a single time they beeped at us, and instead they were patiently waiting for us to pass, or take the bikes over the curb. Nevertheless, the long day took a toll on me, and after the 30th time of taking my bike over the curb and the 30th bruise/chain scratch on my legs, I suddenly felt overwhelmed. So, there I was bursting into tears in the middle of the street with patient French drivers parked behind me waiting for me to take my bike over the curb yet another time. That was my first time on the trip wondering what the heck I was doing thinking that I could conquer Europe on a bike? Rob rushed to comfort me and we stood there a good half an hour until I felt I was ready to move on. It was getting late, and we still had to find the camping somewhere up those French hills. We started cycling up the hill, and spotted a couple of people entering the house. We did not have a hope they would speak English, but we still decided to attempt to ask for directions to a camping. It turned out that a guy spoke great English, he told us to wait for a moment while he rushed to the house to check camping options on the internet. His wife could not converse in English as fluently, but through gestures she invited us, absolute strangers, to their home where she treated us to cold juice and local treats. We found out that they were originally from Romania and moved to France a few years ago as practicing physicians. They asked us if we could stay for a little longer - they wanted to know about our trip which they referred as "extreme sport". We ended up staying for several hours talking about our lives in the US, our dreams, goals, problems, politics, and the life of the French people. That evening healed all my pain and tears from before. And, at that moment I remembered why I decided to undertake my cycling adventure, I knew I would have to deal with more challenges, but I also knew that it was all worthwhile, and I was ready to do that. We cycled off that evening knowing that we were not alone, and that sometimes meeting an absolute stranger could turn even the most challenging French hills into pleasant memories.
The next morning we began paddling towards Versailles. We had a long way to go, several days to get there, more hills to conquer and more memories to create. I will never forget the moment when after climbing a long hill I finally made it to the other side, and all of the sudden the forest stopped and we ended up in a French village as if taken directly from a fairly tale. If you read French fairytales as a child by Jean-Jack Perrot, you know what I am describing. Cute chateaus with towers and elaborate decorations, rose gardens, and somewhere up in the hills, on the cliffs, the silhouette of a fortress - this one was the Chateau Gallard, that used to belong to the infamous cardinal de Bourbon. Remember the book Three Musketeers, and a reference to the cardinal de Bourbon? That's the one! Our camping site was in a valley, right under the fortress. Every time we would come out of the tent, it would be right in front of us. I had so many memories pouring in my head from all the French books and novels I read long time ago. I did not want to leave this beautiful spot, but we had a lot more ahead of us. We found out from an English couple who were also camping about a place called Giverney. That was a town where a great impressionist Monet lived, died, and created his art. We cycled to Giverney and visited Monet's grave, gardens and a medieval church. I lit a candle there in a memory of my mom and grandma. And then we took off...
We passed through so many villages, valleys, it is so beautiful here, and my heart feels so free... I now understand why impressionism started here in France. The colors are so vivid and so intense, sometimes they almost look surreal. There could be no other way to portrait this beauty than by using brush strokes as the impressionists did. Sometimes I feel as if I myself were a little dot on an impressionist canvas. I am developing a strong appreciation of the French country side beauty, and peace that surrounds it.
The great impressionist route 
The village of Claude Monet
Biking break
The place of Claude Monet
Streets of Giverny
Versailles, France
Anna's entry:
Versailles, 21 km southwest from Paris, is home to France's grandest and most famous chateau. It was the kingdom's political capital and royal court for more than a century, from 1682 to 1789 - the year Revolutionary mobs massacred the palace guard and dragged Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinnette to Paris where they eventually had their heads lopped off...
Being from St. Petersburg, Russia I was very curious to visit Versailles. The reasonbeing is because our tsar Peter the Great sent his architects to Versailles in the 18th century with a goal to build the second Versailles for his residence, he called it Peterhoff. Indeed, I noticed alsmost identical plans and designs between Peterhoff and Versailles. In my opinion the castle in Versailles is grander than the one in Peterhoff, however, the gardens and fountains in Peterhoff are definitely more impressive. An interesting parallel between both Louis XVI and Peter the Great is that the wives of each also built their own residences next to their spouses' castles to have their own privacy and get away from their spouses and all that royal pretentious nonsense.
We spent the whole day in Versailles - walked several hours around the Chateau de Versailles (Grand Palace), Grand and Petit Trianon (the residence of Marie-Antoinnette), and of course the royal gardens.
I enjoyed Versailles, but what will stay in my memory forever is our stay with a wonderful local French family Annie-Claude and her spouse Jean-Loius in Conflans. They made us feel as their own family, and took care of us as if we have known each other for years. We spent hours talking about pretty much everything - our lives, families, politics, environment, government, war and peace; we drank wine, sampled all kind of cheeses, and learnt that the ''aperetive" (a drink before dinner and a good talk) is the sacred hour of the day. :)
Annie-Claude and Jean-Louis - if you are reading this blog, please know that you touched our hearts forever, you are the reason we will remember the Versailles, and we look forward to seeing you some day again!
Versailles, France
Anna's entry:
Versailles, 21 km southwest from Paris, is home to France's grandest and most famous chateau. It was the kingdom's political capital and royal court for more than a century, from 1682 to 1789 - the year Revolutionary mobs massacred the palace guard and dragged Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinnette to Paris where they eventually had their heads lopped off...
Being from St. Petersburg, Russia I was very curious to visit Versailles. The reasonbeing is because our tsar Peter the Great sent his architects to Versailles in the 18th century with a goal to build the second Versailles for his residence, he called it Peterhoff. Indeed, I noticed alsmost identical plans and designs between Peterhoff and Versailles. In my opinion the castle in Versailles is grander than the one in Peterhoff, however, the gardens and fountains in Peterhoff are definitely more impressive. An interesting parallel between both Louis XVI and Peter the Great is that the wives of each also built their own residences next to their spouses' castles to have their own privacy and get away from their spouses and all that royal pretentious nonsense.
We spent the whole day in Versailles - walked several hours around the Chateau de Versailles (Grand Palace), Grand and Petit Trianon (the residence of Marie-Antoinnette), and of course the royal gardens.
I enjoyed Versailles, but what will stay in my memory forever is our stay with a wonderful local French family Annie-Claude and her spouse Jean-Loius in Conflans. They made us feel as their own family, and took care of us as if we have known each other for years. We spent hours talking about pretty much everything - our lives, families, politics, environment, government, war and peace; we drank wine, sampled all kind of cheeses, and learnt that the ''aperetive" (a drink before dinner and a good talk) is the sacred hour of the day. :)
Annie-Claude and Jean-Louis - if you are reading this blog, please know that you touched our hearts forever, you are the reason we will remember the Versailles, and we look forward to seeing you some day again!
Versailles, France
Grand Palace of Versailles
Rob's photoshoot
Grand Palace, Hall of Mirrors
Versailles' Park
Fountains of Versailles
Self explanatory
Place of solitude of Marie-Antoinette
Domain of Marie-Antoinette
Conflans, suburb of Versailles
Conflans, home town of our friends
Paris, France
Anna's entry:
I must admit I am in love...with Paris, the city - not the celebrity. Before arrival somehow I had a misconception that Parisians are arrogant and even snotty. None of it turned out to be true. I felt very comfortable in Paris, people were polite and helpful, nobody expected me to speak French (except one person maybe), and more often we would get apologies from Parisians that they could not speak English. Paris definitely felt a lot more comfortable for me than London, I think the main reason is its people and their laid-back attitude. My impression of Paris it is one of the most beautiful and sophisticated cities I have ever visited, and I have a feeling I would be returning there again.
There is something to do here for everyone, you could just walk around the city for hours without a map, and you will always be amazed with the city's beauty and history. There is so much to see here! I spent the entire day in the Louvre - being critical about museums, I must say this is THE museum to dream about. The mischievous Mona Lisa of course is here, however, for me other works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, Delacroix, and my favorite - glorious collection of Greek and Roman sculpture.
Of course, walking all over the city, we went to the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe & Champs-Elysees, Cathedrale de Notre Dame, Luxembourg Gardens, Jardin de Tuileries (Unesco site), bohemian Monmarte, Moulin Rouge, Basilique du Sacre Coeur (the highest point to see the panorama of the city), the list is endless. For me, a very special visit was to the Cemetery du Pere Lachaise, where a lot of great people were buried. One of them is Oscar Wilde - most favorite writer whose quotes I kept for a long time in my personal books, that I referred to in the hard moments of my life. Unfortunately, his grave is apparently "loved too much", because there were lots of traces of lipstick kisses all over his memorial. I am not sure if this is who Oscar Wilde would have wanted to be honored, so on my end it was just a small bouquet of pink flowers put on his memorial pedestal. We also visited the graves of Edith Piaf, Chopin, and Jim Morrison.
In addition, my fond memories about Paris were formed by our stay with several French families. We loved staying with Danielle, the most caring and positive person I've ever visited; Marie-Odille and her daughter Lucille, whose company we truly enjoyed; and Coralie, who spent her entire evening preparing and treating us to the traditional French delicacy - the rabbit in a wine sauce. We were very fortunate to stay our entire time in Paris with local families, and this is probably the main reason why I absolutely adored Paris.
After Paris we headed out back to Conflans/Versailles to our favourite family of Annie-Claude and Jean-Loius (who I fondly wrote about in the Versailles entry), where we spent another great evening with a family, and then the next morning we cycled off to the North off France.
Anna's entry:
I must admit I am in love...with Paris, the city - not the celebrity. Before arrival somehow I had a misconception that Parisians are arrogant and even snotty. None of it turned out to be true. I felt very comfortable in Paris, people were polite and helpful, nobody expected me to speak French (except one person maybe), and more often we would get apologies from Parisians that they could not speak English. Paris definitely felt a lot more comfortable for me than London, I think the main reason is its people and their laid-back attitude. My impression of Paris it is one of the most beautiful and sophisticated cities I have ever visited, and I have a feeling I would be returning there again.
There is something to do here for everyone, you could just walk around the city for hours without a map, and you will always be amazed with the city's beauty and history. There is so much to see here! I spent the entire day in the Louvre - being critical about museums, I must say this is THE museum to dream about. The mischievous Mona Lisa of course is here, however, for me other works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, Delacroix, and my favorite - glorious collection of Greek and Roman sculpture.
Of course, walking all over the city, we went to the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe & Champs-Elysees, Cathedrale de Notre Dame, Luxembourg Gardens, Jardin de Tuileries (Unesco site), bohemian Monmarte, Moulin Rouge, Basilique du Sacre Coeur (the highest point to see the panorama of the city), the list is endless. For me, a very special visit was to the Cemetery du Pere Lachaise, where a lot of great people were buried. One of them is Oscar Wilde - most favorite writer whose quotes I kept for a long time in my personal books, that I referred to in the hard moments of my life. Unfortunately, his grave is apparently "loved too much", because there were lots of traces of lipstick kisses all over his memorial. I am not sure if this is who Oscar Wilde would have wanted to be honored, so on my end it was just a small bouquet of pink flowers put on his memorial pedestal. We also visited the graves of Edith Piaf, Chopin, and Jim Morrison.
In addition, my fond memories about Paris were formed by our stay with several French families. We loved staying with Danielle, the most caring and positive person I've ever visited; Marie-Odille and her daughter Lucille, whose company we truly enjoyed; and Coralie, who spent her entire evening preparing and treating us to the traditional French delicacy - the rabbit in a wine sauce. We were very fortunate to stay our entire time in Paris with local families, and this is probably the main reason why I absolutely adored Paris.
After Paris we headed out back to Conflans/Versailles to our favourite family of Annie-Claude and Jean-Loius (who I fondly wrote about in the Versailles entry), where we spent another great evening with a family, and then the next morning we cycled off to the North off France.
Beautiful Paris
Notre Dame
View from Louvre window
Triumphal Arch
The magnificent Louvre
from Classical
to Modernism
The Moulin Rouge
In Luxemburg Gardens
Park in front of Eifel Tower
Eifel Tower, the symbol of Paris
posted by Rob and Anna @ 7:32 AM
4 Comments:
Good morning Rob and Anna, My wife and I enjoyed your blogger. I do have a quick questions about transportantion?
We are coming from Cruise ship that arrived on June 18 at LA Havre Port around 7:00am. We have only 10 hours to visit Paris. Do you have any suggestions?
1) Rail system...Can I take a rail train from LA Havre to Paris? is so, what station? - mainly to visit Eiffel Tower and have lunch.
2) we are thinking about visiting some of your suggestion on the blogger.
Unfortunately our best suggestion isn't practical for you- find a way to spend at least several days in Paris rather than 10 hours. That said, I'd get a copy of Lonely Planet, either Western Europe, France, or idealy a city guide for Paris and plan out what is of interest to you. They should cover what Metro stop to take, a map, how to get in/out of Paris, etc. Basically all the practical things. You could also contact the France tourist authority/board for a tourism packet (should be free), get some travel books from the library, etc.
1) Rail system...Can I take a rail train from LA Havre to Paris? is so, what station? - mainly to visit Eiffel Tower and have lunch.
I think there is a train from La Havre to Paris (we were mostly cycling), probably running every hour or half-hour, but you'll have to confirm this. Don't remember the Metro stop in Paris for the ET, but any good guide book or some on-line research should tell you. I remember finding a Paris Metro map on-line. It (ET) is fairly centrally located however.
2) we are thinking about visiting some of your suggestion on the blogger.
Thanks for looking!
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surely if you had a map you would have seen the quiet lanes that run parallel to the motorways one is called the Route Industrielle and the other the D982 out of the port and either take theroute via Rouen or go south via Everueux I think the fault is yours for not planning as Versailles should have taken maximum 10 hours ride
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