Chalons-en-Champagne

Returning to Luxembourg from Paris, we had had enough of the high speed toll roads, so we took the back roads through the Champagne Ardennes and Lorraine regions. Most of this area is expansive undulating unfenced cropped fields with long straight roly poly roads.

We stopped off for lunch in Chalons-en-Champagne at possibly the worst café in town. Notwithstanding, we had a pleasant, if chilly, wander around the old town with its interesting 17^th and 18^th century mansions contrasting with the restored timber framed houses.

We had wished to visit the St Etienne Cathedral which is famous for its stained glass windows. Unfortunately, it was closed. We were compensated with a visit to the Notre-Dame-en-Vaux church with its magnificently empty, unrestored Gothic interior.

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Caen Memorial

On our way back to Paris from Mont St Michel, we visited the Caen Normandy Memorial, Centre for History and Peace. This is a truly impressive and expansive exhibition graphically covering the 2nd World War and Normandy landings. Interestingly, it also covers the history leading to and following this period. As often happens, the experience was quite sobering and absorbing, hence I only took photos of some peripheral machinery.

Hawker Typhoon Replica

Sherman Grizzly Tank

Russian Cold War MIG-21

US Cold War Thermonuclear Bomb

Paris New Year

We caught up with Sophie and Craig who were staying in Deb’s apartment in Garches, a lovely village-like suburb about 10 kms west of the centre of Paris. As usual, we had a fun evening with them. We started with aperitifs at the local chinese bar and then dined at the local Indian restaurant.

After seeing our friends off at the Gare Montparnasse, we wandered into the Left Bank area to visit Le Bonne Marche, Paris’ first department store housed in an amazing building, part of the structure of which was designed by Gustav Eiffel. I wandered around gawking at the amazing glass ceilings, oblivious to the store’s primary function.

  

I then dragged Ingrid across Paris to the Museum of Architecture in the Palais de Chaillot at Trocadero. Part of the permanent exhibition featured some amazing full size plaster models of famous medieval cathedral portals, statues and important architectural features. There is also an impressive exhibition of medieval wall paintings and stained glass. My favourite part was the French and international architecture from 1850 to the present. It featured a complete Le Corbusier 1950’s apartment from Marseille’s Cite Radieuse as well as architectural drawings and models, including my favourite building, the Crystal Palace.

On our way back to Garches, we scouted out a spot at the St Cloud railway station where we could have a view of the fireworks spectacle on the Eiffel Tower. We went back to Deb’s apartment for a picnic dinner in the lounge of fresh bread and cheeses and a bottle of Sancerre. By about 11 pm, it was pouring rain and bitterly cold. We didn’t get to see the fireworks.

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Maastricht

As a sort of celebration of our tenth wedding anniversary, we had a lovely weekend in Maastricht in Holland.  It is only a two hour drive north of Luxembourg, but we still enjoyed the novelty of passing through three countries to get there.

We highly recommend the Cafe D’Artagnan on the Graan Markt. Although described to us as “just a pub” it was clearly more than this – excellent food, good prosecco and red wine by the glass and very accommodating staff. To start, I had a real French onion soup with very fresh bread and Ingrid had a trio of mini-soups. This was followed by a local specialty of a sweet and sour stewed beef. Very tasty.

After a lazy start to Saturday morning (our room had tea making facilities) we wandered into the old part of town looking for a coffee. It was minus six degrees with a biting breeze blowing off the river, so our wandering was rather purposeful. I was curious to visit the Selexyz bookshop which is housed in a deconsecrated thirteenth century Dominican church. It also had a coffee shop in the ex-chancel, hence the shape of the table. The conversion has its critics, but I was intrigued by the idea of the ultra-modern steel structure sited independently within the existing frescoed Gothic interior.

We successfully traversed the very icy Vrijthof square. Some cyclists didn’t. We tried to visit St John's church and climb its 70 m high distinctive red tower for its much touted view over town. It was closed. We then visited the Romanesque St Servaas Basilica and its treasury, as did Pope John Paul in 1985. At least it was warm inside.

  

Following the theme of our pilgrimages to the Schlosses of Bavaria and inspired by Chartres Cathedral, we are now on a bit of a quest to find labyrinths. To her delight, Ingrid discerned that the pattern of the tiles on the floor of the Royal Entrance to the basilica was in fact a labyrinth. Amazing.

  

After a light lunch in the (warm) Restaurant La Bonne Femme on the Graanmarkt, we traversed the Maas/Meuse River on the futuristic Hoge Bridge to the Ceramique district. This is a modern development of a whole suburb on the site of a vast defunct ceramics factory. The Bonnenfantenmuseum is an Aldo Rossi designed complex including a Jules Verne spaceship-like extension. A lot has been written about this design, but in the end, it is a modern building housing the city’s impressive collection of 16 to 18 th century paintings as well as several galleries of modern work.

On Sunday morning I had the great idea of having a coffee at one of the trendy cafes in the old warehouses around the former port, t’Bassin. Small problem, they were all closed. A snowfall overnight muffled what little noise there was in town as we found a café on the Markt square. As with elsewhere in Maastricht, this square was lined with those intriguing super-skinny houses seemingly huddled together for warmth.

We did a tour of the underground marl limestone quarries of St Pietersberg Hill. These were originally started in Roman times and supplied building stone until the 2nd World War. The result is a 200 km labyrinth of 20,000 galleries which extend under the Belgium border. It was very interesting, if a little  claustrophobic.

We heard them before we saw them, but it was still a bit of a shock – a resounding brass and drum band marching down a side street. It seemed particularly ironic to come across a highland band in a country which is situated mostly below sea level. As there appeared to be little worn under the kilts, one could almost hear the snare drums being accompanied by the knocking of knees.

  

Even hindered by the bitter cold, we found Maastricht to be delightful. We both look forward to returning in the springtime as there promises to be much rewarding exploring to be done.

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10 Years

This Morning

Whilst it was apparently the hottest night on record back home, this morning we woke to these views from the lounge window and down the street.

Chartres Cathedral

On our way to Mont St Michel we stopped off in Chartres to have lunch and a quick look at the famous cathedral. It is deservedly famous.  Apart from anything else, its 13th century stained glass windows are extraordinary, all 172 of them.

The interior is undergoing restoration, rendering the soaring Gothic arches and vaults even more impressive. Unfortunately, “rendering” is the operative word, as the stonework is not being restored as such, but rendered over and painted to represent the pristine original. I suspect that I am one of the few painful nitpickers who is alarmed by this. I would have to admit that the overall effect is still quite stunning.

There was an intriguing pattern in the flagstones of the floor of the nave. It formed a spiral labyrinth whose actual function is a mystery and is much debated. One suggestion is that it could be walked as the culmination of a pilgrimage to the cathedral or otherwise, penitents could shuffle along the 260 m path on their knees. 

 

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