Les Andelys, Rouen, and Honfleur

Les Andelys Overview from Richard the Lionheart's Castle

Richards Castle remparts

Our hotel in Paris was 50 metres from the highway that leads you out of the city west toward Rouen and the Normandie coast. Heiko had not been to the D Day beaches so we headed out that way with intermediate stops in Les Andelys to see Richard the Lionheart's Crusader castle, and Rouen to see St Joan of Arc’s memorial and where she was burned at the stake at age 19 by the British. St Joan of Arc is the patron saint of France.

Clock Tower Rouen

The cathedral there is immense, stark and holds the relic remains of King Richard the Lionheart’s, actual heart. Very close by is the Plague cemetery Sandra wanted to see as well. This was done under a cloudy humid Normandie sky, typical of weather in this part of France and perfect for setting the tome of this part of our trip. Rouen has as well a famous astronomical clock which is close to the town square.

Cathedral

Saints

Beautiful stairs

Plaque Cemetery Markings

Site of Plague Cemetery

Town Square

St Joan of Arc Stake

Champlain Recognition

Later in the day we made our way to Honfleur,  where Samuel De Champlain set sail 4 times to Canada on expeditions and to populate New France. 

Honfleur Harbor

Oldest Wooden 

Church

Honfleur Streets

Our final hotel destination was Hotel La Romantica, just outside Honfleur with a view of the Sea. It was fine as accommodation but did not live up to the hype that Trip Advisor had reaped on it. Later in the evening we returned to Honfleur for Mussels, Sandra having her's in a cream sauce which was excellent.

Paris

What can we say? Our picture was taken
 by 2 students from Parksville, BC!


To see a larger view of any picture,

1.  right click to open in new window
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It’s tough to do a tour of France without including Paris. And even though we had been to Paris twice before we realized there were things we hadn’t seen or considered. This year though Sandra had researched Paris very well and we felt we could see a lot of new places. Along with Heiko we agreed to buy 2 day Paris Museum passes that would give us access to a great number of sites/museums for 1 lower price. With Versailles included it was an easy decision to make. 

Panorama of Paris

          Sacre Couer       Montmartre                   Champs Elysee                 Montparnasse             Eiffel

Rodin's The Thinker

We started out a Napoleon's Tomb, “Les Invalides“ in the centre of Paris. The lines at 9:30am were nearly non existent and once you get your Pass you can skip most lines as the Pass speeds you right through. Napoleon's tomb was far more spectacular than we thought and included a great WW1 museum with it. Well worth the visit. Immediately across the street was the Rodin museum. Most well known for his sculpture of “The Thinker”, Rodin was truly an artist and we enjoyed many of his works, especially those that were displayed in the gardens. With our weather again sensational we really enjoyed the gardens.

Musee D'Orsay Main hall

Notre Dame

From the Rodin museum we made our way to the Musee D’Orsay, housed in the old Paris train station. More art sculptures, some paintings, works of furniture art all made up the collection on display there, as well as the Grand Hall itself which was beautiful. Both Sandra and I enjoyed the furniture artwork given our past work responsibilities.
By this time it was approx. 1:30 pm and we made our way over towards the Louvre where we had lunch and then went to enter St. Chappelle, but the lineups were ridiculous. This was in part because the Louvre is closed Tuesdays. We substituted another visit to Notre Dame cathedral and then walked back across the Champs Elysees to Place De Concorde and then to the Arc de Triomphe. From here we climbed the 400 plus steps to the top for a panoramic view of Paris. It was here Heiko advised he wouldn’t go along with the power sightseeing anymore. We admitted we had stuck a lot into one day.

Napoleons Tomb Altar

Napoleons Tomb

Orsay Clock

Beautiful Sculptures

Incredible Colors

Sacre Couer from Arc DeTriomphe

Napoleons Tomb

Rodins Roses

More Rodin

Rodin smaller sizes

More Rodin

Day two saw us catch an early train out to Versailles,  where we toured both the buildings and grounds and then returned to downtown Paris where we got to see Mona Lisa again at the Louvre. Wow, that place is huge, and always full of people. There is no better single ticket than to buy it for the Louvre.

Versailles Side Gardens

Dining for 2

Main Gardens

Kings Bed

Heiko and Sandra at Versailles

Ceilings

Chapel

Waiting Room

Famous Hall of Mirrors

Mona Lisa

wedding feast of Cana

Day 3 was a breeze in comparison, we all went to the Eiffel tower then Sandra and I walked to the Bon Marche, the oldest department store in Paris, as well as the Grande Epicure. Very impressive. From there we caught the Metro to Montmartre walked up to Sacre Couer, and then all the way back to our hotel through the early afternoon. By the time we had done this we were in shape to walk anywhere.

The Paris metro is quite efficient and very cheap in comparison to say the Frankfurt S Bahn. And armed with a free Android app called Metro 1, we were able to find the best pairings of connections from each station to our destination. We bought books of 10 tickets which cut costs even further.
Our meals were equally good as well. From Nicoise salad, to Spaghetti and smoked salmon, to Carbonara and pizzas done just like the best of Italy we ate well, although prices are higher in France.

The Rhine and more

Castle at Kaub - Rhine river

Castle Mania on the Rhine

We have really enjoyed our time here in Frankfurt. On Friday we took a daytrip west from Frankfurt to Weisbaden, Rudesheim, Lorch, Kaub, and St Goarhausen; all part of the Rhine valley. With a day reaching near 30C and sunny we rode the autobahn and eventually narrowed down near Rudesheim to a 2 lane windy road in the valley. With vineyards on the right and the river on the left we rode north until past St. Goarhausen stopping in Kaub where we had spent a day in 2006. Kaub is home to a castle above the town and another in the Rhine river just south of town. It is a very picturesque place and the bicycling as well as motorcycling is very active there.

Castles at every stop and turn

A view from the dining terrace at Schloss Johannisburg

We have always talked about this part of Germany being full of castles and as the lead photo indicates there is alot of eyecandy to see.

Bike Break in Bernkastel Kues

Part of the Casements -Luxembourg

Jazz band in City Square They were great!

Chapel in the Gorge Luxembourg

Stained glass in Cathedral - WoW!

After a couple of hours of riding we were ready for some lunch so we stopped at Schloss Johannisburg just east of Rudesheim. Heiko took us there in 06 and we have looked forward to it’s best in class Riesling wine. As well Spargel  “asparagus” soup which is in season was on the menu. It was a superb meal. After an uneventful return to Frankfurt we headed back downtown Saturday afternoon for the Pealing of the Bells, a special celebration associated to the feast of the Pentecost. Here (hear) ten churches ring 50 bells in unison for ½ hr. and walk around to hear them in stereo. Simply something that can’t happen in North America.

Today with Heiko ready to ride, we headed out to Luxembourg riding the autobahn west for 80 kms then caching a great back highway through to the Mosel valley at Bernkastel Kues, then Trier and finally Luxembourg city itself. The video I shot of the winding road against the river is over 1 hour long with some excellent scenery. We arrived in Luxembourg at noon and went sightseeing in the afternoon taking in the casements, and the Luxembourg gorge. It is a very quaint and pretty city that dates back to 963 AD. Not a bad first day!!

Oberursel Frankfurt

Frankfurt/Oberursel

Mainz river and the Skyline of Frankfurt

Our first few days travelling back to Germany were filled with recovering from jetlag, visiting with our good friend Heiko, and doing some maintenance chores on the ‘Strom’. Since the last trip was over 20000 kms I knew it was time for another air filter but I couldn’t believe how bad the old one was, choked with flies, wasps, and sand.... oh yeah we did go through a desert come to think of it. Replaced it with a K&N lifetime filter and I really like the additional induction sound it provides.


Though the brake pads weren’t worn out I wanted to do the preventative maintenance stuff, and installed EBC HH sintered pads well known in V Strom circles. Yes I can notice the better feel in the lever/pedal, and they feel very powerful. Should be great for the autobahn eh? Won’t bore you with the rest, but the bike is really easy to work on except the plugs and air filter. One thing I put to incredible use is a forehead headlamp (LED) that straps to your forehead when working in low light conditions. It was amazing how the light was always in the right place ( where I was looking) and I never needed to commit a hand to focusing it.

Old and New Skyline together

Town Square buildings

Ratskeller

Sits in a mezzanine by itself

Ann Franks plaque

Today we headed into Frankfurt from Oberursel. A 25 min. S5 DB rapid transit ride that took us right to the centre of Frankfurt, a city of 600,000 by night and 1.5 million during the day.It is the hub of finance in Europe and there is alot of building going on. It is not really a tourist town but it has some neat architecture of interest. It definitely is a conference/show town though with the Auto Show there every second year and the largest in Europe. The Old town sq. is restored like so many others in Europe, it has a feel very much like Rothenburg or  Bruges. The Ratskeller or City Hall is beautiful and very large. There must be 15-20 churches in this close vicinity and this weekend is the feast of the Ascension. On Saturday we’ll come back to hear 50 church bells ring in unision at 4:30 pm. We love church bells!

Another thing we love, to hear are pipe organs and the pipes at the St Bartholomew are among the largest we’ve seen. Now if we could only hear them!    

Frankfurt is also home to several Holocaust memorials. One is constructed as a wall that has a small plaque for each Jewish resident of Frankfurt killed by the Nazi's in a concentration camp. This wall surrounds a cemetery the size of a CFL football field and has a small plaque commemorating each individual. Ann Frank, known by her diary was a Frankfurt resident who was killed at Bergen-Belsen.

Ann Frank was not alone

The riverfront in Frankfurt is very scenic as well with a walkway on either side of the river and parks and cafes everywhere. We enjoyed a leisurely stroll down it in 28C heat only to escape to a 7 storey department store for the air conditioning. What wimps!!  We tolerated 47C last year, I guess we’ll just have to acclimatize ourselves again. Now back in Oberursel and readying ourselves for a little Rhine valley circumnavigation tomorrow. Plan to shoot our first video during that ride so stay tuned for more!

Children's Art Workshop in the Town Sq.

La Pieta in St Bart's Cathedral

More Old Town foto's