At this time last week, I was arriving in the 12ème arrondissement of Paris, home to the Gare de Lyon, Viaduc des arts, and the Bastille, among others. Like the last time I was there, it was for a three-day job training course, so I didn’t have much daylight to explore the city. I did very much enjoy my time there, though, since I got to catch up with two friends who introduced me to some great eateries, and also got to see some sights I hadn’t before.

The photo above is of a place I had already seen – this is a beautiful building across the street from Gare de Lyon, photographed just over a year ago in daylight here. It has a bit of everything: great art deco type on the brasserie signage, the Haussmanian architecture so typical of Paris, and striking colors. My first photo in the city was actually of place de la Bastille – when I got home, I was treated to the neat surprise of it being in bleu blanc rouge, “blue white red”, the colors of the French flag.

In all the times I’d been to Paris, I still hadn’t seen the Sacré Cœur basilica in Montmartre. It was quite a métro and walking trip to get there from Bastille, but I was treated to a gorgeous twilight setting with rare clear skies and the nearly-full moon gracing them. My Paris photos in this set include those of Montmartre; this one below is my favorite. The bright spot in the sky is not the moon, but something else (I quite like it, whatever it is). This is a purely Parisian shot, as I’d forgotten my monopod at home, so I used one of the wrought iron railings in front of Sacré Cœur to set my camera on.

The next day, the biting cold, windy weather got another addition: snow! I was delighted. Paris covered in a clean white dusting was an unforgettable sight and something I’d long hoped to see.

I spent a nice but chilly three and a half days in Paris, and had the chance to take some photos while exploring the city in the evenings. I didn’t have any room to pack my tripod, so some of the night shots don’t have stunning clarity, but they did turn out surprisingly well. Along with this archetypal photo of the Seine taken from a bridge that connects the 4th quarter to the Île de la Cité, my other favorites are Notre Dame against a twilight sky, the terrifically Gothic St. Jacques tower complete with spooky branches in the foreground, and Pont Alexandre III with Eiffel dressed in Christmas lights and her rotating beacon. They and other photos can be found in my photoset for the Paris trip.

The TGV rides to and from Paris were neat, as always. Timewise, it’s rather comparable to taking a plane: flight time is about an hour and a half, then you need to add an hour for check-in, plus another two or so hours for travel to and from the departure and arrival airports, as well as waiting to gather your luggage, which makes it about 4 or 5 hours in all. The TGV takes just over 5 hours, and train stations are in the city centers — no special travel or parking necessary! I prefer the train because it’s so much less tiring. It was a relief not to have to deal with luggage or security restrictions, and to be able to get up and walk around whenever I wanted. You also get beautiful views from the large windows.

I filmed two short videos with my mobile phone, the first on Monday as we travelled through Provence between Toulon and Aix-en-Provence, and the other just after we’d left Paris on Thursday afternoon — there had been a dusting of snow over the French countryside.

This afternoon I attended a performance of “Eugene Onegin”, an opera by Tchaikovsky, in Monaco. While “going to the opera in Monaco” may well seem tinged with a bit of snootiness, in reality, performances in the principality are often more reasonably priced than elsewhere.

Tomorrow I take a TGV from Nice to Marseille, up through Lyon and on to Paris. I’ll be in the city a few days on business, leaving the kitties in the capable hands of a pet sitter. If you’re interested, keep an eye on my photostream; I’ll be updating it with shots from my mobile phone while in Paris. Pictures taken with my DSLR will have to wait until my return to be uploaded.

I’m really looking forward to the long train ride — my company was sweet and got me first-class tickets. It’s 1,000km (about 620 miles) from Nice to Paris, which takes just over 5 hours by TGV. The TGV still runs “slow” (about 120kmh, or 75mph) from Nice to Marseille, but gets up to speed on the Marseille-Paris stretch, which takes only 3 hours. Marseille to Paris is 660km, or 410 miles. That makes for an average speed of 220kmh/137mph — keep in mind the TGV comes to a full stop in Lyon.

Once I stepped off the train in Nice this evening, the familiar woman’s voice announcing arrivals and departures came on with one that first caught my ear because of its very short train number: 19. I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard the train’s destination: Moscow. “Le train numéro 19 à destination de Moscou va partir.” It’s a new line that was put in place just two months ago: French Riviera train for Russia. With fares starting at about 300 euros, I’m sorely tempted to try it out some day. It’s anything but a fast trip though, at 53 hours!

I’ve been busy lately, and today was no exception — I went to Paris for a business meeting. Once it ended, I hopped on a metro to the Eiffel Tower, hoping to see it in the sunset. I didn’t have time to visit anything else in Paris, which meant that I could devote what little time I did have, to photographing more of the Eiffel Tower than I would otherwise. It was a beautiful evening, and as always, my breath was taken away by Eiffel’s gorgeous conjunction of imposing mass and fine grace. You can see more of the “Iron Lady” in my photoset from today.

Earlier this week I took another mini-vacation, this time to Geneva. As with Corsica, I had visited Geneva before, several years ago, since my ex-family-not-quite-in-law lived nearby in the Ain département. I didn’t remember much of it, however, and so thought it might be nice to take advantage of Nice-Geneva flights to spend two days in the city.

It turned out that the flight was gorgeous! We flew over the Alps, which shone in the early morning sun; I took nearly a dozen photos. I suspect I may have photographed Mont Blanc, since it looks familiar, we were pretty close to Geneva, and the mountains seem to fit satellite views of Chamonix. A few minutes later, the weather, time of day and the plane’s altitude all came together for this beautiful shot of sunlit clouds.

Apparently I took Nice’s weather with me to Geneva, since it was lovely that day. All my photos of Geneva are in this set. As usual I wandered around with just a map — no guide book. I’ve always enjoyed cities more with the thrill of discovery that comes when, for instance, you notice amazing lamps, approach the building to see just what it is, and it’s an incredible concert hall covered with the names of famous composers. (You can learn more about Victoria Hall here.)

My favorite “discovery”, however, was the towers in Cathédrale Saint Pierre, which was the church where John Calvin preached. (This year is Calvin’s 500th anniversary of birth — you can see banners on the cathedral announcing it.) For four Swiss francs, you can walk up a first steep, narrow spiral staircase that takes you to an ancient room midway up a first tower, then cross a cramped, dark passageway through to another room, with a door to yet another staircase, even steeper and narrower than the first. In that room I used my flash for the only time during my trip — you can see the ceramic roof tiles are laid directly on the roof frame. I was alone with the huge, cracked wooden beams and dark passageways during my visit, which made it very easy to imagine myself back in time 450 years ago, when the towers were built. In addition to bird’s-eye views of Geneva, you can see the roof tiles from above, and a nice information chart on the church’s bells (one weighs more than six metric tonnes!).

The second day was damp and overcast, so I spent it in two museums: the Natural History, and Art and History museums. The Natural History museum was filled with every sort of animal and mineral imaginable, which was great for learning the French names of birds and mammals I often see here but didn’t know in either English or French. The Art and History museum had an exhibition on Rembrandt, Rubens and Ruisdael, as well as another on 17th- and 18th-century Flemish and Dutch painters. It also had several rooms that were fully done — furniture, floors, ceilings and all — in the style of a Swiss castle.

All in all it was a great visit. These mini-vacations are a fun compromise: cheap, and the brief stays make it possible, paradoxically, to visit more places in a given city. You don’t need anything more than a single bag, so never have to worry about luggage, and since it’s so much cheaper, you worry less about spending money on food, museums, and souvenirs. Physical fatigue is also less of a concern since you know it’s only going to be a day or two, so might as well make the most of it! While you do miss out on getting a better feel for a place, and on visiting surrounding areas, you can identify what you’d like to see and plan to return another time. In the case of Geneva, two days seemed just right for the city itself.

I first went to Corsica in 2002, on a trip from Ile Rousse down the coast through Calvi, Porto and to Ajaccio, then back up through the center via the Restonica gorges and Corte, and finally a tour along the Cap Corse to finish in Bastia. I fell in love with the island then — it reminds me of Oregon, in a Mediterranean climate. Wild, mountainous, with a rocky coastline, and people who want to protect its beauty.

Yesterday I returned for a day trip to Calvi, which also ended up including a trip to Calenzana for a wine tasting, and another trip to Ile Rousse! When I ordered my ticket on the phone, the woman had said I’d be in Calvi the whole time. It’s a good thing I double-checked at the ticket office about the time my “boat from Calvi” would be leaving, since there was no boat from Calvi, it was from Ile Rousse. Lesson learned: when you buy a ticket by phone, double-check at the physical (real-life) ticket office, no matter how certain you are of what you heard.

As always I’ve created a photoset of my Corsican trip. Calvi is a gorgeous town, and with our lovely weather yesterday, the colors came through wonderfully. I also tried something new this time, inspired by vistas like the one you see above: panoramas! Click on the “All sizes” icon above these to see larger sizes:
- Panorama of the Corsican coast in the morning sun
- Panorama of Calvi’s port
- Panorama of Calvi from beneath an olive tree
- Panorama of Ile Rousse
- Panorama of the Cap Corse

It was an enjoyable trip, but a bit much for one day. If I’d had more funds available, I’d have paid twice as much for the two-day trip, which includes a night in a Calvi hotel. (All excursions are described here.) Another possibility is the shorter trip, which is the cheapest available at 20 euros, where you only stay for 5 hours rather than 9, but is available on fewer dates than the others. With the longer trip I took, the rough part was being tired and hungry at 6pm, which is too early to eat dinner in a restaurant here, and too late to do anything else with the boat leaving at 7:15, plus we arrived in Nice at 11pm, adding even more to the fatigue factor. For a day trip, it would be better to lose a few “exhaustion hours” by returning earlier (and it would cost less).

I also have to recommend against the wine tasting option. I actually didn’t take it — between the boat departure location and this, I’m really puzzled about what I was told on the phone! I paid for the 49 euro excursion, which does not include the tasting, but I got it anyway. I’m glad not to have paid for it since the domaine’s wines were mediocre. The red “prestige” wine aged in oak vats was strong and yet without body; their fizzy muscat tasted like 7-Up mixed with grape juice; their orange wine was far too bitter even with a piece of honey nougat; only their Cap Corse was decent, but I’ve tasted so much better that I didn’t buy any. As my tastes in wine go, I love Côtes du Rhône and Patrimonio (a Corsican appellation) reds, Oregon pinot noirs, Mâcon and Patrimonio whites, good Cap Corse, limoncello (a lemon liqueur), and have had homemade fruit liqueurs so strong they numbed my throat — and which I enjoyed because they were good, with real body to them. These were table wines in comparison. Even then I wouldn’t serve the orange wine to anyone.

If you want to go to Corsica to taste wine, stay for several days, rent a car and drive through the Patrimonio region. I did this as part of my 2002 trip and it remains one of my favorite experiences. I’ll never forget one vineyard in particular, where I had dinner served with a different wine every time I finished a glass. Every one of those wines was delicious. I’m looking forward to returning to the island again, for a longer stay some day.

I’m taking a short vacation this week — short by French standards, anyway, with 3 days off before the weekend. In my current job, I get 25 base holidays, 1.5 extra holidays due to length of time with the company, 2 “bridge” days, 4 employee RTTs and 6 employer RTTs, for a total of 38.5 paid holidays. Per year. The “bridge” days are to be used when there’s a national holiday on a Tuesday or a Thursday — you can take the Monday or the Friday as a “bridge” (pont). RTT stands for réduction du temps de travail and is related to the 35-hour legal work week in France. Since we work 39 hours a week at our offices, we recover that overtime with extra paid holidays, called “RTTs”. Some are “employee”, i.e. can be used at employee discretion, whereas others are “employer”, i.e. only the employer can set them for the employee, up until October, when the employee can then use them at will. These are mainly used for any unassigned time, since we’re consultants and sometimes, though rarely, don’t have a mission. As for sick days, the concept as used in the US does not exist in France, since if you’re ill enough, a doctor will give you an official form (arrêt maladie) for the number of days you need to stay at home. You’re always paid for those days, and regular paid holidays are only affected by sick days if you miss a large amount of work due to illness (after something like 2 or 3 months’ worth, they might take off a few paid holidays).

So in short, I’m using a few of those 38.5 paid days off to relax! Tomorrow I’ll be taking a day excursion to Corsica, and thought I might share how I pack for day trips in this part of the world. I only take one bag, which is my camera bag. In it I put:
- my camera with a fully-charged battery
- lens cleaning tissue
- my mobile phone, also with a fully-charged battery
- sunglasses
- fold-up brush with mirror (it’s surprising how handy a mirror can come in)
- small packet of tissues, because I’ve had it happen often enough that public restrooms had no toilet paper!
- a few bandages and aspirin just in case
- small wallet — not my usual one — with just one bank card, my carte Vitale (French national health care card), one piece of ID, and a bit of cash (not much)
- prepaid bus card for travel to and from the boat (or train or plane)
- keys to my home, of course
- a pen (always seem to use it when I bring one)
- an extra, small fold-up bag for any purchases

In addition I carry:
- a bottle of water
- snacks

The bottle of water is important, because when traveling in France, you can count on bottled water prices to be much higher than in any regular supermarket. The boat to Corsica is fast, but still takes 2 hours and 45 minutes — you don’t want to be stuck on a boat without anything to drink and where a small bottle of water is sold for €1.50, when you can get them in stores for around 30 cents, or fill your own bottle at home for free!

This way you have a minimal amount to carry, making it easier to explore unencumbered, much easier to keep an eye on your things, and yet you have the right necessities to ensure that all will be well in case anything goes awry.

Photos from my excursion will likely be up on Friday.

The Daily Show’s Holistay bit is great. I had a brief “heh?” moment when John Hodgman snootily says he’s going to Monaco, not necessarily because it’s a 20-minute, 10-euro train ride from where I live, but because it’s a rather boring place to visit. I worked there over a period of a year; I know all too well! But of course it has its cachet with rich folk. It does feel strange sometimes to think that I can actually call the French Riviera home. Not a bad place to have a “holistay” at all!

My cherry tomato plants are in various stages of blooming, and now little green tomatoes are forming. A big summer batch of strawberries is in the making as well, since all of my plants have an amazing amount of blossoms. Malo still hasn’t used the cat door — he thinks it’s a cat window, since it’s transparent — but he’s been enjoying the terrace anyway. I should have it clean enough for some decent photographs tomorrow.

While packing for my upcoming move, I discovered that the photos of China I’d long thought lost were, in fact, packed in a box along with other backups. Today I uploaded, organized and mapped them in a photoset: China 2003. The photo here was taken at a temple in Tianjin. I happened to notice the Carrefour supermarket we’d just been in behind one of the temple gates, and thus this photo bringing together over a thousand years of architecture. Plus a weird contrast between spiritual and material values, not to mention between East and West (Carrefour is French).

Other favorite photos from my trip to China:
o Musicians in a park playing traditional instruments
o Bell pagoda in a Tianjin temple
o Roof tiles, Summer Palace, Beijing
o Old bridge, Summer Palace — the photo turned out like an impressionist painting
o An imperial guardian lion’s ball
o Fan dancers near Yonghegong (Lama Temple)
o The long at Longqing
o Pagoda on a cliff, Longqing Gorge