Metro Genius

 
 
The Paris Metro is incredibly efficient - trains run every two or three minutes, so if you miss one, there's hardly even time to draw breath before the next train arrives. The lines criss-cross the city, so most destinations require two or three line changes, which you plan from a detailed map. Lou is our undisputed metro genius. I just tag along behind as we magically transfer from line to line. Somehow, it works every time. (The guy in the other photo is a different kind of metro genius - brilliant busking on the clarinet accompanied our ride home from the night viewing of the tower.)

Eiffel Tower at Night

 
The Eiffel Tower at night is sensational. We sat nearby as the sun set and the moon rose, then joined hundreds of other snappers trying to capture the perfect photo. The lights came on at 9pm, and a spectacular sparkling cascade of fairy lights appeared for a few minutes at 10pm. Cheap tourist trick - but Phil, who is attracted to shiny things, loved it. Then it was home to "The Village" by metro.

Paris in the Springtime

 
Less frenetic day today - Metro ride to Hotel Invalides via Latin Quarter and the Sorbonne University, with such illustrious alumni as reformation hero John Calvin. This flowery view is taken from the garden beside Napoleon's tomb.

Going up, Looking Down

 
 

Icon overload

 
 
 
 
What a day! After four hours walking around the Louvre, we set off on the long walk through the Jardin des Tuileries, then continued down the even more famous Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomph. From there it was a quick metro ride to the Notre Dame, a bite to eat, and another quick train ride to the high point of the day - the Eiffel Tower. We rode the lift to the top and looked down on the whole of the city of Paris.

More Louvre Highlights

 
The King of Moab celebrates a victory over Omri, King of Israel. (Victory inscription Stelle in the Louvre)

Louvre Highlights

 
 
 
 

Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa...

 
Why all the fuss over La Giacondo? Hard to say, but it was a real buzz to stand in front of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Nice of the Louvre to allow photos, too, though hard to get a good shot with the painting under glass.

Everybody smokes here...

 Just a reminder of how much things have changed in Australia in the last 20 years.

Dawn Service, Villers Britonneux

 
We finally made it! A 3.30am start and a 20km free busride from Amiens took us to the Australian war memorial on the hill outside the village of Villers Britenneux, where in 1918 the Australians drove back the German push to the French coastline. Both our grandfathers did time here, and both of us lost a grand uncle... as did a surprising number of other people I know. (It's not that surprising that Grand uncles show up in statistics like this - a whole generation lost at least one family member in the first world war.) The service was very well done, and Foreign Affairs minister Steve Smith was impressive. Notably, as in most instances of civic religion, Jesus didn't rate a mention... and the lyrics of Amazing Grace were changed from the heavenly oriented "When we've been THERE ten thousand years bright shining as the sun" to the rather too optimistic "When we've been HERE ten thousand years..."
It was, though, a great event. My guess is that the crowd numbered three or four thousand. Sharing a predawn moment of silence with that many Aussies in a strange land was deeply moving. And cold.

Making an Impact...

 
Ten years or so back, I downloaded a program that let me redesign the letter shapes of fonts. It seemed like a good idea at the time to poke some holes in Microsoft's standard "Impact" font and make it look messy and 'grungy.' I relabelled it "Impacted" and covertly set it free on the internet in the shadowy land of remixed typefaces. Here it is on a sign in the mall at Amiens, France. Fonter and font reunited. It was a happy moment. Louise walked on, unimpressed.

They're flying again

 

On to Amiens

 
 
After a quick morning of Paris sightseeing, it was on the train again for the short trip to Amiens (120 km to the north) ready for Sunday morning's Anzac Day celebrations at the nearby village of Villers Britonneux. Both our grandfathers fought here in World War I, though they arrived a year after the blood curdling Battle of the Somme, where over a million men were killed... 600,000 allied troops, and 400,000 Germans.

Sacre Bleu, it's the Sacre Couer

 
 
... and another Paris landmark, hazily, from a distance.

Swiss banks, Swiss Watches and Swiss Chocolate

 
Side by side in one street, and all good. We only had a two hour stop over in Geneva, but it was long enough for Lou to sample the chocolate.

Geneva in Bloom

 
 
 

Geneva is well known in Christian circles as the home of the 'continental reformation.' At least, I think that's what they called it in my Reformation Church History class. I sure wish I'd been to Rome and Geneva before I did the class, because it all crystalises when you walk the streets and stand in the cathedrals and see the springtime flowers they saw. Medieval catholicism was an appalling mix of excessive opulence, huge buildings designed to make ordinary people feel small, meaningless ritual and rank superstition. It continues today. Reformers like Calvin in Geneva reacted with a stern austerity that's really no fun at all. But the plain style of Geneva's buidlings, and unadorned style of dress made the contrast with Roman Catholic excess plain for all to see, which can only be a good thing. And you can't hide the beauty of the spring blooms.

Build a better teabag...

 
 
Jo and Maddie Campbell have secretly been designing a better teabag for years now - one with a post-it note sticky tab that stops it falling in your cup. Sadly, the better teabag has already been invented on the other side of the world.

To Geneva - part 3