Cinque Terre - Riomaggiore

From Genova we travelled by Trenitalia train (very cheap!) to Cinque Terre - a very beautiful northern coastal region of Italy. Cinque Terre is made up of five small towns nestled between hills and coast - Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. We stayed in Riomaggiore - the smallest and least touristy town and thoroughly enjoyed our 4 night stay here. We found a small apartment with kitchen and bathroom from €40 a night...what a bargin!
We found a really nice bar/cafe in Riomaggiore on a cliff edge looking over the sea. Beautiful! We often started our afternoon at the cafe drinking coffee and would then move onto red wine as we watched the sun slowly set over the Med!
The five towns are joined by a coastal walk which is approximately 18km long. The track between Riomaggiore and Manarola (the next town) was quite a pleasant stroll as it was a flat, stone path with a few rest spots along with way. This part of the walk was very enjoyable. From Manarola we decided to catch the local train to Monterosso at the other end of the coastal track to walk back towards Riomaggiore. The 3 or 4km walk between Monterosso and Vernazza was a killer! It was the complete opposite of the walk we´d done earlier - it was all huge hills, steep stone staircases and rocky uneven paths. However, we saw some amazing views and slept very well that night!
Having the use of our own kitchen for the first time in a while Jo was able to cook some delicious meals while we stayed in Riomaggiore. Every day we´d head to the local shops and buy fresh ingredients for our meals - it was wonderful! We had such meals as fried zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella and capers; pasta primevera; chicken cacciatore with ciabatta and garlic sauteed fennel! Yum!
Jason also got the chance to practice his Italian coffee-ordering skills, by visiting a number of different cafes in Riomaggiore trying machiattos and cappucinos.

Jo at the beginning of the Cinque Terre walk at Riomaggiore



Jo having coffee and cake at our favourite cafe in Riomaggiore



Coastal views along the walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola




Jason with a puddy-cat on the Cinque Terre walk - someone doesn´t want to be cuddled!



Jo on the coastal walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola -



Views of Manarola -




Main street of Manarola -




Puddy-cat looking lovingly at Jo, who is a safe distance away from he/she -



Manarola harbour -




Views of Corniglia -



Monterosso -




Vernazza -

Genova - Italy

Our first stop in Italy for two nights was Genova (Genoa to the rest of the world) - a beautiful old, yet busy modern harbour city. We visited the Genova Acquarium (the largest in Europe and aparently second largest in the world) and also walked around the streets of Genova, admiring the harbour views and ornate old buildings and churches. We also enjoyed the food on offer (but not the breakfast from the hotel - where even the toast was pre-toasted and packaged)! We tried Genovese pasta (trenette pasta with a basil pesto), focaccia, pizze, gelati and baci (hazelnut flavoured soft biscuits glued together with melted chocolate). We also ventured into a coffee bar and tried our first coffee standing up! It was much better than French coffee. As we gulped down our caffe machiattos, it was great to be a part of the Italian bar scene! And two coffees only cost €1.80!!

Views around Genova city -







Jo telling Jason to stop taking a photo of her and take one of the hotel door -



The door of Hotel Aquario - where we stayed -



Views of the Genova harbour -




The Galleon Neptune - what a big man!

Avignon

Our next (and last) stop in France was Avignon. What a beautiful old city! The Palais du Papes was amazing. As were the lovely gardens behind the Palais called the Rocher des Domes. The Ponte d'Avignon was also quite lovely, however we decided not to pay the €4 each to walk along a half-finished bridge! We also loved seeing our first glimpse of the Rhòne river - we spent two of our three days in Avignon having lunch by the river. We spent most of our time in Avignon walking around the streets, admiring the buildings and relaxing by the Rhòne as the museums in Avignon were a bit costly for our budget! It was good to just relax as we felt a bit museum-overloaded after Paris and Dijon. Our forays into trying food from Provence weren't too successful. One night we visited a restaurant which had three course meals starting from €11, which we tried as the tantalising menu promised "roasted lamb cooked in provencàl herbs served with green beens or rice". It turned out to be a small lamb steak with a sprinkling of dried herbs which looked like it came from a supermarket-bought herb bottle. Infact, we're pretty sure there is an actual Masterfoods Provencàl Herbs product! Oh well, what can you expect for €11!

Views around Avignon -

Dijon - city and mustard

After our sojourn in Paris we travelled by TGV train to Dijon for two nights. Dijon is a small city with a large, young university population so it has quite a different vibe from Paris.
We spent our two days walking around the coblestone streets of the old city centre, admiring the beautiful old Burgundy Ducal buildings as well as visiting some of the (free) museums and the botanical gardens. Unfortunately, we couldn't visit the Dijon Mutard (mustard) museum/factory because it is closed at the moment! However, there was lots of mustard for sale in Dijon shops so we bought a few bottles. You can buy all sorts of Dijon mustard here, including seeded, taragon, basil and also blueberry (yuck) mustard. Also, some cafes and restaurants had little sachets of mustard instead of sauce sachets!

Views around Dijon -










The hotel we stayed in - previously it was an old relay posthouse

Paris in the Spring time!

We arrived in Paris in the Spring - a beautiful time to see this city for the first time - blue skies, lovely weather, blossoming trees and mating pidgeons!! (A spectacle that is surprisingly entertaining - at least for Jason). We enjoyed our short stay and did lots of sight-seeing and walking! Walking is a great, cheap way to see the city and to walk off all the pain au chocolats, glacès and nutella crèpes we ate! On our first day we walked from our hostel in Monmatre to the Sacrè Coeur to the Louvre and then onto the Eiffel Tower! Needless to say, we caught the Metro home that day! We also visited the Musèe D'Orsay and the Louvre and felt we walked the length and breadth of Paris in those two museums alone! We were very good and got to the Louvre early to avoid the long que - although a lot of good that did as they were late in opening it up. While we waited in the que we entertained ourselves by making up conversations of the Security Staff who were walking around looking very impotant but not seemingly doing too much!
(Read with a strong French accent)
Jean-Pierre: Jacques! I hive lost zee key to zee Louvre!
Jacques: Mon Dieu Jean-Pierre! Where deed you last zee it?
Jean-Pierre: Ah! It was vhen I vas buying a croissant! Quick! To the croissant stand!
Jacques: Oui! Oui!

Our commentary seemed to amuse some of our fellow foreign tourists lining up with us.

We also walked along the banks of the Seine, visited Notre Dame du Paris and the Botanical Gardens. We saw a lot of Monmatre and found a charming square near the Sacrè Coeur called Place du Tertre - here artists were painting scenes of Paris as well as tourist portraits, surrounded by many cafes, bistros and restaurants! We visited this square several times during our stay.

Our first visit to the Sacrè Coeur was amazing as we arrived early on Easter Monday morning, when there were hardly any tourists around. After we'd looked at the view of Paris, we made our way inside to be greeted by the etheral sounds of a small choir of nuns singing hymns in French. It was such an emotional experience to walk around this beautiful Basilica, admirering the gold mozaics with these heavenly voices reverberating off the cavernous ceilings uplifted in praise!

Streets of Monmatre


Views around Sacrè Coeur



Views around Paris







Jo infront of the Venus De Milo in the Louvre



The back of Notre Dame