A walk from Paris to Versailles

I'll get back to Troyes and Canada eventually, but since the walk to Versailles is still fresh in my mind, I'll do that first.

Wednesday was such a pleasant fall day - not too hot, not too cold, a bit overcast in the morning with sun in the afternoon - a great day for a hike. And for such a nice walk, there was just the right turnout; there were 17 of us, with Daniel in the lead.

As usual, it was a day of conversation. The day started out in the lead with Michael, then I started to lag and spent some time with Suzie, and continued to lag and met Joetta, and so on. But with all that talking, I still managed to see some of the scenery.

We left from the metro station Boulogne-Pont-de-Saint-Cloud and, after crossing the bridge, stopped briefly at the Saint Cloud church before heading for the Parc de Saint Cloud. One of the first things we saw as we started out was the Albert Kahn museum in Boulogne Billancourt, almost next to the metro station. There is a temporary exhibit (until March, 2008) called "Les Couleurs du Maghreb" and since Pierre and Gillette were looking for an outing, I called them to let them know. They went and told me that the exhibit was ok, but the highlight was the garden. I hope to visit, soon.

Paul and I used to go to the Parc de Saint Cloud all the time, almost every weekend, back in the early days of our marriage, with the Gavettis and the Maymous. I can't remember the last time. By the time Claire was born, we gravitated more to the Parc de Sceaux. This was the first time that I actually walked through the park. I think we entered from the Northeast corner and walked though a wooded area until we came out of the woods with a beautiful view of the fountains. There was also a belvedere somewhere nearby where we had a view of Paris before the fog lifted. It looked like the Eiffel Tower was still under construction. The trees still had leaves on them, just turning yellow and brown and with enough leaves gone so the sun came through.

We came out of the park in Sèvres on "avenue Gambetta", where we stopped first to admire a sculpture to the glory of Leon Gambetta. (I keep confusing him with an Italian hero.) I'm not much a fan of this kind of sculpture, but I noticed it was done by Bartholdi, who is famous for having sculpted the Statue of Liberty, so I pointed that out to the others. Next to the sculpture is Gambetta's house.

From there, we proceeded to Ville d'Avray for lunch at the ponds. The ponds (étangs) have always been fish ponds. The first one was created late in the Middle Ages and the second in the 17th century, I think. Corot painted the scene and it hasn't changed much. On the way to the ponds we saw some nice architecture from the 1960's - not the bland apartment buildings, but the clean-cut houses.

We crossed the Forêt de Fausses-Reposes; Ville d'Avray is really surrounded by woods. I found a map on the internet and tried to retrace our path, but I'm not sure I managed very well. But I do know that we "entered" this map in the upper right corner and "exited" in the lower left corner.

Actually, I think we came out on the main boulevard "des Etats-Unis", really at the corner of the map. We entered Versailles and made our way to the train station "Rive Droite". This is where I left the group. I was not alone. A couple from Saint Maur joined me for the ride home. The others either continued on to the other Versailles stations or stayed for a tour of the Hameau de la Reine.

Provins

Our first outing with the Ile de France walks (iledefrancewalks@yahoo.fr) was a day trip to Provins two weeks ago.

The e-mail said to meet Daniel at the Gare de l'Est before boarding the train to Provins so we caught the RER on one of the first really nice days of this summer. Shortly after we arrived we noticed a small group forming - a bunch of people about our age, with little backpacks. They looked just like us! And they were speaking a mix of French and English, so that confirmed the identification.

The trip to Provins was our first trip on the Viaduc de Nogent. We've lived in Nogent for almost 30 years. We've admired the bridge; we've read about the bridge; we've seen the bridge in paintings. (If you're ever in Nogent, visit the town museum: http://www.actep.fr/Musee-de-Nogent.html)

I just love meeting new people and spent the entire trip in conversation. Once we arrived in Provins, it took a little while for us to actually get started - just like kids. We were all more interested in our new friends than walking. But Daniel finally managed to herd us together and we strolled through the center of Provins to the other side of the town for lunch.

The first time we visited Provins was about 12 or 13 years ago, when it was the destination for one of the kids, who was learning to drive. It was cold, then. The town became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001 and I was afraid it might have turned into a real tourist trap.

After our picnic lunch just outside the wall, at the Porte de Jouy, the group split. The courageous half went off with Robert to hike in the countryside around Provins and we stayed with the others to explore the city.

We opted out of the visit to the underground galleries; we remembered it vaguely from the last time. This time, we went to the top of the Caesar Tower and visited the Tithe Barn, where they've set up scenes of the town's industry when it was a major stop on the trade fair route. We didn't take many pictures and they're not all that great. We got more involved with looking at the sites: farm buildings within the midieval walls - and it's still a working farm because we could see all the equipment in the yard; half-timbered construction (colombages, in French); the shops; and more.

Not working? Go for a hike

July 31st was the last day on the job. August 1st, I went for a hike.

If you are looking for hikes in the Paris area, then ask to be put onto the recipient list at iledefrancewalks@yahoo.fr. It's just an e-mail list, no website to see. Volunteers scout out a walk they'd like to do, get in touch with the list coordinator who sends out the invitation to the group and everyone meets a the announced departure point. It seems to be mostly anglophone residents, some long-time residents, some short-term expats, and a few French hikers, too.

For a first hike, it was, perhaps, a bit ambitious. It was a 16-km. walk from Villenes-sur-Seine to Mareil-sur-Mauldre. On this map, Villenes-sur-Seine is in the upper right hand corner and Mareil-sur-Mauldre is in the lower left. Our route was the GR1, which formed a rough half circle, along the the limits between Orgeval and Bures, then Morainvilliers.

On the way, we picked a few plums, stopped to find apples on the ground in an orchard, and ate a few blackberries, too. If we'd known we were going to find so much fruit, we might not have bothered loading ourselves down with lunch. We had a great little picnic near a pond on the edge of Orgeval. It was a hot and sunny day, but we were well protected in the woods most of the time.

It was a great day out, a perfect way to celebrate not working. There was always someone interesting to talk to. As we all kept changing pace, we kept moving from one conversation partner to another. The only thing missing was sites to see. Walking for walking's sake has its limits. I need some point of interest as an objective to keep my feet moving.