Belgique

The weekend before last, we took an extremely quick trip to Belgium and managed to simply 'touch' Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp.

I think that in absence of a car, we have been missing taking in rural scenes and towns that live between cities. Am so glad we were able to take day trains to Antwerp and Bruges. The home structures is very different from any I have seen so far, as is the architecture. I must say, the architecture and building design in Belgium used to be quite unique. Now, ofcourse, there is a more generic steel and glass design everywhere.

Brussels is the seat of the European Commission and there was a certain seriousness to the part of the citywhere the offices are. We saw a portion of the Belgium Wall outside the offices. Couldn't take a picture as it passed by too quickly and we were in a bus.

Bruges is a gorgeous town, and it so turned out that it was sunny the day we visited it. Loads of colourful homes decorate the side of roads. And it was very Venice-like, except that the canals didn't stink!

I think we had very little time in Antwerpen , but still managed to walk around a bit, go see the main square, and say hello to the port. Antwerp is the second largest port in Europe. It was rainy, cold and windy!

I think we didn't do justice to Belgium in terms of museums, urban exploring, etc. But we definitely got a feel of it. It's famous for its french fries (!!) and waffles (and ochocolates, and Antwerp for its diamonds!!)

This coming weekend will see us in Paris one last time before we formally announce the French sojourn over! :)

Bruges

Bruges

Bruges 

Bruges

Bruges

Antwerp

Antwerp

Antwerp

Antwerp

Antwerp

Antwerp

Racing against time

Dhaval's tenure here in France gets over when his work permit expires in March. We booked tickets to fly back home on the 28th of Feb. Two freaking, wonderful years of the adventure in France are coming to an end.

I have been trying to think of ways to make this last month the liveliest. I had told myself I will head out everyday, rain or shine. But I am not a fan of fighting cold rains and gusty winds. I'll think up of something.

I have no idea how to start the process of wind-up. I am calling people and setting dates to see them one last time over tea or coffee.

I remember the day we arrived and even before that...I remember the post I wrote when we were packing up THAT house in B'lore to come here. All I know is you leave bit and pieces of yourself wherever you go.

Happy New Year's Eve

I have managed to ignore the blog lately. For the coming year, I hope for a consistency in the things I do!

I saw the sun go down and managed to get a blind spot that lasted a while.

Hope you have a glorious 2015.

It's October already!

I love this month! Not only is it the month of birth of all 3 of us siblings, which really isn't the only reason behind my fondness for it. But the change in weather is beautiful. In France, apart from temperatures dropping and going up, other seasonal changes are also so visible. People on the streets, the colour of their clothes, the vegetables in the market, the skies. I am pretty sure that even if I were born during one of those hot summer months, I would have loved October.

I have let a couple of months pass by without blogging about it. July was different this year. The summer wasn't as intense as last year. And I feel these past few months have really flown by. I remember vignettes, but feel like it all occurred ages ago.

In August, my sister and her little family visited. I went to Paris to look after my niece so that my sister and her husband can roam around the beautiful city on their own time. It was a lovely and different experience, looking at Paris through a toddler's eyes. Short trips to Barcelona and Madrid followed. Barcelona is a very lively city, very youthful and colourful. Madrid is a sophisticated, charming city. My sister and I had the best experience one day in Madrid, when we treated ourselves to an evening of Flamenco. It is such a rustic yet classic style, with live music and singing. The style of singing reminded me of Raï.

A couple of friends we made last year moved to another city. In September, I had the pleasure of having them over for dinner. They are from Romania and their former flat mate, who attends drum class with me, is from Latvia. I cannot begin to tell you the amount and openness of our political conversations. For some reason, they are well aware of India’s continued issues of control with her many neighbours. And we draw similarities from across the world, especially from across Europe.

Yesterday, at Claudio's place for Hindi class, we had just finished reading an extremely formal letter of application asking for leave of absence. I told him nobody speaks so formally like that anymore. Perhaps, they still write like that in the government where you have to sound like you will remain forever obliged to your superior if they grant you leave!

This led us to talk about 'monsieur' and 'madame', which literally is 'my-sir' and 'my-dame'. He said in the great old times, the royalty used to address their queens and kings like this. So, you are 'my-sir' or 'my-dame'. And that continued as it is.

THAT led us to talk about the origin of the word ‘ciao’. In Italy it is ‘hello’. In France, it is ‘bye’, although I feel it is more an outside influence than an original term in French. It turns out the Latin for ‘I am your slave’ (used during the Roman Empire) lends itself to ‘schiavo’, which is Italian for ‘slave’. ‘Ciao’ is a version of that.

Imagine!

4th time and counting

D and I just got back from a visit to Paris, this time accompanying D's parents who are visiting. Paris doesn't leave your system.You fall hard for it every time you visit, till a point arrives where it becomes unattainable. You cannot break through that invisible wall of je ne sais qoui. You are not a Parisien. You are only a tourist. And you cannot come to terms with the city until you live in it. You can only remain in awe.

On Day 1, we took the train to Giverny in Vernon, where the Monet Foundation is situated. Except for the fact that it was chilly and raining, the day was great and we got to see the region of Normandy pass us by.

Since we'd already been to the tick-mark places in our past 3 visits and the mood this time was really not to spend a lot of money, we walked. The day after we visited Giverny was a bright, sunny day. Perfect for my in-laws to go up the tower. We waited in line in their place till the ticket windows opened and saw them in. We had about 3 hours to kill. And we ended up walking about 5 kms from the tower to Alexandre and Rene Parodi Square. Took the bus back, which took us along the periphery. This was a more open area of Paris, less congested, equally beautiful.

The next day, after helping parents take the train to Louvre and going to deposit our bags at the cloak room at Gare de Lyon, we took the metro back to Cite, where we had French onion soup by the Notre Dame and I bought a book from Shakespeare and Co. And we walked aimlessly in the Latin Quarter district, along some academic institutes to Jussieu. It was a beautiful, gloomy day. Not a lot of crowd because it was Saturday.

This visit afforded us the time to really walk around and take in the sights and sounds of the city. Ever so grateful...

Under the iron lattice, you could hear a dozen languages and a million dreams coming true.

May Day Tradition

I don't remember seeing little flowers last year, but this year on May Day, people were seen selling little sprigs of flowers on streets. Buses and trains weren't working, offices were closed, but streets were full of tourists and restaurants were making good business. In the midst of it all, I'd see people holding these little flowers. I was wondering what tradition it was to give flowers on Labour Day.

This morning, I went to the regular guy to buy some vegetables. At check out, the lady at the counter gave me this familiar looking sprig with little white flowers. Aah! I asked her what it was and she said it's a May Day tradition.

Still not satisfied, I came home and looked up the internet and found some interesting story behind this lovely tradition.

"SHOPS are shut, buses are not running, and unions are marching for workers’ rights, as France marks the Fête du Travail today. 

But, as well as work and workers, May 1 - which became a public holiday in France in 1947 - is associated with an older tradition. It is the Fête du Muguet, when thousands of roadside stalls selling lily of the valley spring up. The flower only became associated with workers’ rights in the 20th century. 

Last year the French forked out €31.8m to buy a sprig of lily of the valley (“muguet”) as a token of affection for family and loved ones. 

The tradition of giving lily of the valley flowers on May 1 is said to have begun in 1560, when knight Louis Girard presented King Charles IX with a bunch of lily-of-the-valley flowers as a token of luck and prosperity for the coming year. 

It is said that he took a shine to the idea and began the custom of presenting lily-of-the-valley flowers to the ladies of his court each year on the same day. 

Growers, particularly in the Loire-Atlantique, where 80% of cultivated plants will come from this year, have said that the recent mild conditions mean a bumper crop."

The Parisian Affair

(Part 1 and 2 are here and here.)

(This trip officially got over roughly a month and a half ago. That I am writing about it only now shows how lazy I have been about it. Bear with me! When I forget something, I look at pictures, close my eyes, or turn around and ask my husband. It helps that I do not have any major responsibilities bogging me down!)

As we bid goodbye to Germany and drove towards Paris, I felt a little melancholic. We were leaving behind the green mountains, which will soon be barren and ready for the white blanket of snow.

Big city Paris awaited us and I was really looking forward to visiting the city a second time. But it was a long way to go and just as we entered France from Germany, we decided to head to Strasbourg. It was on the way, no detour was required, and it doesn't hurt to spend some time in a new city. Strasbourg is just across the border, a big French city, heavily influenced by German architecture.

We parked near the city centre, walked towards the centre and came across a beautiful music shop selling excellent music. I bought a Brazilian capoeira music CD and my SIL got a classic...I think Bach. I could be wrong.

A walk around town brought us to a cathedral with Gothic architecture and beautiful colored glasses inside. Some pictures of Strasbourg.

I was really excited to see Paris again and see it through a fresh pair of eyes and also see it through my own memory. We left Strasbourg at around 1 that afternoon and estimated the arrival time at Paris around 5 hours later. It took us longer than that. We underestimated driving into the city, through the city. Not only were we met with traffic as we entered the city, but we also had to find our way through the city to our hotel. Small lanes, sometimes uphill, made navigation difficult. Eventually, we reached the hotel reception centre where the receptionist was practically waiting for us at the door. We quickly went through the formalities. We were told the studio used to be Picasso's studio while he lived in this district! My SIL and I decided to walk to the apartment and the guys followed reluctantly by car.

It was late by the time we settled in and we still had to go and deliver the car. We were tired after 2 hours of driving rather aimlessly in city traffic and must have broken a few traffic rules as well. It was absolute horror because we were racing across the city to deliver the car before 11 that night or face being charged for another day and we couldn't find a gas station. We managed fine with a few gentle souls to help us along the way.

I cannot begin to describe the excitement of living in the SAME apartment where Picasso lived! And we had direct, clear view of the Eiffel tower! For the next 4 days, we had unrestricted access to Paris as never before. We were not confined by schedules and maps. My brother and his wife were! But D and I were visiting for the second time and we just walked around, planned around their plans, and soaked in the very unique atmosphere of the city.

One particular moment stands out. D and I were at Sacré-Cœur Basilica in the Montmartre district of Paris. It was around noon. The sun was shining bright and we joined the other tourists and sat at the stairs. Our backs faced the basilica and we had a direct view of the city from the hilltop. There was a artist playing the harp and just as we sat, he started to play the Canon D. Now this tune is so close to my heart and I was in this marvelous city...the moment caught up on me and it was pure magic! I literally teared up behind my glasses!

Over the next few days, we ate pastries, cooked at the studio, stared at the tower from our windows till after midnight, visited Les Invalides and the Catacombs. The fees at the former were a little steep and we stood in line to enter the Catacombs but they stopped entry just when it was our turn. N and S were able to visit it the next day, though. We walked to the Panthéon and we were able to attend the mass service one fine Sunday morning at the Notre Dame Cathedral!

I played guide where I could, we ate ice cream and ate the lovely, hot French-onion soup, listened to artists and stopped to applaud and drop a few coins everywhere we saw them, at metro stations, under bridges, on the roadside. We repeated the bicycle tour we took the first time, in which we cycled around the city for 3 hours as night set upon us and then took a cruise along the Seine. D and I took walk tours and walked around the city with locals showing us the unknown nooks and corners of the city.

If it were possible, I'd be the one getting caught red-handed having a passionate affair with the city. Nothing I say and nothing you read and watch on TV can come close to describing the feeling of being IN the city. Would I live there? Perhaps a younger and careless self would have loved it. But the current self is just happy it got to visit the city a 3rd time, only for a weekend, to watch a dance recital! I planned my weekend in such a way that I allowed only 12 hours under the roof of a friend. The entire time I was out and about, walking along the Seine, sitting by the Eiffel and visiting the Musée d'Orsay.

Anyways, I had to get back to Marseille to commence dance lessons so D and I got back in the morning train and the other two followed at night. We were upon our last leg of this marvelous tour! Like always, when I end a travel post, I realise how lucky I have been to be able to see the places I have and experience these different cultures. An open heart and a smile on the face can get you some very good education. 

Too much on my plate is a good thing.

I have yet to write the 3rd and final part of our September trip. It is will be about Paris, the city I have been to once more since the trip, and the French Riviera. I will write about it all soon.

I have been caught up with some stuff. As you might know, my mum and sister run a dance school in Ahmedabad. Rasadhwani is celebrating 25 years and we are planning to celebrate in style. I maintain a blog for Rasadhwani. The idea is to invite people from different backgrounds to talk about art. If you or anyone you know is interested, please send an e-mail to rasadhwani.info@gmail.com.

I started a travel blog about 6 months ago. But it hasn't seen much activity, not for lack of action on the travel front but for the lack of time to maintain 3 blogs. I think I am going to delete it.

Since the beginning of October, I have started teaching Hindi once a week to a 55 year-old Argentinean who is a high-school Spanish teacher, knows 12 different languages including Greek, Hebrew and Yiddish and has written a book on tango. He already knows quite a bit of Hindi. I think I help him revise and get comfortable with the language. He lives in a small apartment , sort of like a loft. All four walls, from ceiling to floor are filled with racks of books. He must easily have close to 2000 books in different languages. It reminds me of Sean Connery's apartment in Finding Forrester. I say I go to teach but one can safely say I come back learning more!

I also take a private dance lesson once a week for an Indian lady. And, D and I go learn afro-brazilian percussion! This has been such a great find!! We absolutely love going there. There are about 5 different types of percussion and we picked the one we liked in the first class and continue to learn on that. It's like playing in a band. If you want to see what I mean, go see this video.

It's cold and windy as I speak. Because of the time of the year, combined with the end of day lights saving, it gets dark earlier. I have been told to watch out for Jan and Feb when it gets really bad. We'll have to wait and see!

Reality bites

Someone hit me, and hit me fast! Tomorrow is Monday and I need to get back to reality. For, after 18 days of travelling and pinching myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, only a punch in the face can bring me back to the ground.

On our latest trip we had company that we were most grateful for. When we first announced our impending move to France, my brother and his wife were the first to announce and confirm that they'll be visiting us before the year was up. And visit they did! After a few months of deciding which places to visit while they were here (which was some what influenced by travel shows on TV and pictures posted by other people on FB), we picked Switzerland, Black Forest in Germany, Paris and of course Marseille and the French Riviera. It was the first time around in Europe for all of us and we were as excited as we can be!

Except for when they flew in to Zurich, we were on land to get from point to point. We used the Swiss Pass in Switzerland, rented a car to get to Germany and drive around Baden-Baden and onto Paris where we used the lovely metro system, reserved ourselves some seats in the TGV to get back home to Marseille and rented a car again to drive along the southern coast of France.

We reached Switzerland via Geneva on the 13th and met them in Interlaken to begin this memorable adventure. The first few days, they were without fresh clothes since their bags hadn't reached them. But we had loads of extra warm clothing and this little hiccup didn't seem to matter at all.

The first 8 days of our trip looked like the map below. We looked online for cheap, clean places to stay in Interlaken, Lucerne, Baden-Baden and Paris for this leg of the tour. I can say from the bottom of my heart that a little room in a warm, wooden cottage in a village offers more pleasure and adds lovely vignettes to your memories than a standard sized room in a hotel in the middle of a city.

After we spent 5 days in Paris and got back home, we drove to lake Sainte-Croix and the region around it (which the two of us visited some time back and I wrote about it here.) It was very different at this time of the year and we were able to stop at a vineyard to taste some wine and buy a bottle or two! The two-day drive along the coast that we ventured out on looked like the map below. We took the scenic route when we started and took the freeway to get home faster.

I am tired and a little sad because the house is back to its silent self after they left this afternoon. But I have a prayer in my heart for the safe trip we had, for the places we saw and the people we met along the way, for the ability and the means we are given to see these beautiful foreign lands, for the times we spent together, for making our dreams come true. I do not take it for granted one bit. Yes, travel is much more common today than before. Yes, people rattle off names of countries they've visited like they do the months of a year. But that is not for me and I am ever so thankful.

I'll post some pictures soon and try and talk about how each place was different from the other.

Hello...

It's like someone turned on a switch which made the crowds disappear, the heat more bearable, evenings shorter and the nights chillier. The music, which earlier sounded of cheerful beats and choruses is now mournful, accompanied by a trumpet and a rasta crooning songs of longing. In the past one week itself we heard of a couple of shootings around town. Seems like they too were waiting for the happy summer to pass. Everyone is now back to business!

For tomorrow, the city is preparing for a parade of the sail boats big and small. We will go watch this from the Pharo, a fort with an advantage of height and a direct view of the bay. Sunday brings in the VIVACITE, when I am putting up a performance. (Do watch out for yours truly in the video provided in the link!) I finally got my residency card and am much relieved that I'll be able to travel outside France without any worry. The end of next week brings my brother and his wife to Europe. I look forward to it. If it were left to me, I would load all my favourite people in a van and drive them across the world to my place here. And I would house them with me and I would cook for them delicious food that encourages heady conversations around dining tables.

A couple of weeks ago, we went hiking along a trail just outside Marseille. We were more keen on seeing a calanque. So after about 1/2 an hour of walking when we realized we were moving away from the coast, we turned back and made a beeline for the sea. It was rough, there was a chill in the air, it was very windy, and fortunately the sun was out. You know that place where you go to relax and gather your thoughts, that place that you can call your own? I think I found mine.

Summer goodbyes

Marseille saw a loadful of tourists this summer; the crowds have already begun to thin and it's not even the end of August. Farewell to humidity, summer clothes, Italian glacée and boisterous noises from the streets below.

We just got from Fort St. Jean which about a 150 feet outside our apartment. It has two bridges, one that connects to MuCem over a body of water and another that connects to a roadway, over another roadway!

It has fantastic views of the sea and this evening, it was choppy and cloudy. And it looked like a few boats might topple over.

We spent last weekend in Lyon. It's the 3rd largest city in France. It's such a beautiful and civilized city. I would call it a miniature version of Paris in what it offers to tourists, but much more calmer. I would call Marseille its cousin from the village, with its rough corners and rustic, sailor-friendly life style. You'd still have to keep up with fashion if you lived in Lyon. But you could smile and talk across in the Metro and be sure that it will be reciprocated. 

For pictures of the beautiful city and its traboules, please go here.

I am STILL waiting for my residency card. It allows visits to other EURO countries and it's high time we set foot outside the country. I feel like time is passing us by. Not that I wouldn't be grateful even if France is all I could see. But still....

Let's backtrack...

14th July, 2013

Bastille Day, I think, is synonymous to August 15th, 1947. Except that the common French kicked royalty and the church in their respective butts when they decided to revolt about 2 centuries ago. The essence of the revolt is probably lost, as is the case with most countries whose forefathers fought colonialism to gain independence. That does not deter the French from celebrating their national day with pomp and fanfare!

We are so lucky to living bang in the middle of the city where ALL the action takes place. In the evening, we got a glimpse of the airshow they were conducting near the beach. We were told to watch out for fireworks later that night. I thought we'll get a good look from the window in our living room. D thought we ought to go out and see them. So around 9:00 last night we headed out with the camera and walked around to get a good place to sit and that offered a good view.

As is the case with celebrations in Vieux Port, restaurants were loaded with people, terraces were filled with people enjoying their private BBQ parties, roads were blocked to vehicular traffic and everybody was literally pouring onto the streets.

Once we found a place to sit, we settled and waited patiently for the 2- minute fireworks display to start. At the exact moment it was about to start, they shut the street lights and the show began. I cannot begin to explain the magnanimity of the event nor the scale at which it was being conducted. Huge lights, lasers, synchronized music and fireworks...that's what we saw for the next 25 minutes. It was enthralling, to say the least!

Videos and pictures do not do justice. But go here and here for a glimpse.

 

Calling it a night...

6th July, 2013

Lavender blooms around this time of the year. Fields of purple hue are left to fully bloom till they are harvested by the end of July. From the time they start appearing till they are harvested, there is a window of opportunity of about 2-3 weeks to go see these beautiful flowers, take pictures and trample around the French country side. 

After twice being told to delay the visit by a week because they hadn't bloom as fully, we finally went the week before last to check what the whole deal is. There are conducted day tours and since we do not own a car, we thought this the best option.

With 20 other tourists of American and Chinese origin and a very knowledgeable guide, we spent the day viewing lavender fields in Plateau of Valensole, understanding the history of the area, visiting Moustiers-Ste-Marie, a medieval village where ceramic ware is made and sold. The surprise was the Sainte Croix Lake, created by a dam. You are not allowed to use motorized boats, thus keep the water pollution-free. It's the peak of summer and the lake was full of people swimming, boating, jumping off the cliffs. It was lovely and made me yearn for such places back home where the community comes together to enjoy and appreciate nature.

This region, Provence, is marvelous!

Lavender and olive trees

The darker in lavendine, the lighter lavender. Both have different purposes.

Wheat and lavender side-by-side

Moustiers-Ste-Marie perched up those cliffs

Church in M-S-M

Alps ka THANDA pani

Lake St. Croix

The combination of the sun and the minerals the water brings out this colour

3rd July, 2013

The finish line of the 5th Stage of Tour de France was in Marseille and I was able to go see them. The main event was preluded by a lot of fanfare and companies giving out freebies. It was a fantastic moment to see them as they swooshed past you.

I was able to take a video and this picture just as they took that turn!

As you can see, it's been a good summer so far!