Salisbury May 2019

With a new baby in the house (not me! I'm long beyond that), I'm not getting out and about as often as I could be. But this weekend I took myself off to visit friends Tarryn and Paul in Dorset.

Almost the first thing we did was go back across the county lines to Salisbury in Wiltshire, specifically to visit the beautiful medieval cathedral. 

Salisbury recently went through some tough times with the Novichok poisoning of the Skripals by Russian agents in March 2018. Father and daughter both survived, a policeman was also affected but then in July a woman died and her partner was seriously affected by picking up a found perfume bottle, thought to have been the method of administering the poison and then discarded. For a year this was a city in lockdown and living here must have been a nightmare. Police and Army everywhere, what was safe, what wasn't? It's been given the all clear and things appear to be getting back to normal, but tourism must of necessity have been affected, so a fiscal effect to add to everything. What a world we live in! Beautiful, but also very very dangerous.

So on a lovely sunny day in May we did our bit to normalise life for Salisbury citizens.

What a lovely place.

Built between 1220 and 1258, the Cathedral has had the highest spire in England since 1549 (123m).

 

A South African connection. We always find one.

 

I keep on trying to photograph stained glass windows with not a lot of success.

Man's best friend, but to put your feet on? No!

An unusual feature of the nave is a modern font, installed in 2008. Designed by the water sculptor William Pye, it is a cruciform shape and has a 10-foot-wide bowl filled to the brim with water.  It is designed so that the water overflows through each corner into bronze gratings embedded in the cathedral's stone floor.  It's quite lovely.

Time for tea ...

In the Charter House is one of the surviving copies of the Magna Carta - a charter of rights agreed to by King John at Runnymede, near Windsor in 1215. What? you may ask.  It established the principle that everyone is subject to the law, even the king, and guarantees the rights of individuals, the right to justice and the right to a fair trial. Cornerstones of liberty and democracy and still as important today.

 

A good spot for wedding pics.

 
And now for something even older! Old Sarum (no, not Lord of the Rings), the first settlement of Salisbury and nearby to Stonehenge and Avebury.  Evidence of prehistoric settlement, an iron age fort, Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans - this site has seen it all. A royal palace and the footprint of the original Cathedral which was then moved to it's current position. There is a definite sense of age and history.

The site is now run by English Heritage.

 A freezing wind had sprung up on the hilltop so we headed back over the border to sunshine, dinner and wine.

Paris Feb 2019 Monday

And just like that, it was all over. But not before we did some shopping .....

A confession to make here, I'm not the world's best shopper. I know, how can that be? In Paris? Blasphemy.  Without bottomless pockets, I'd rather spend my money on travel. This beautiful shopping centre is certainly a travel destination - Galeries Lafayette Haussmann. If possible, even more bling than Liberty's or Harrods in London with all the luxury brands present.

https://haussmann.galerieslafayette.com/en/culture-and-heritage/

This dome is just beautiful

But probably the most awe inspiring and anxiety inducing is the 9 meters footbridge suspended below the dome and 16 meters above the void. Access is from the 3rd floor and there's usually a queue as they limit numbers at any one time - thank goodness. 

 

If you are in Paris, you need to include this amazing place.  They even have guided tours - free of charge and arranged upon request (parties of 10 to 20 people).

Details: To make a reservation, contact the store at the following address: patrimoine@galerieslafayette.com leaving your name, surname, contact details and the number of people interested in attending a tour.

So, what did we shop for you ask?  Macarons - the only thing in our price range ....

Then back to Gare du Nord and the long trip home. Actually, it's not that long - easily doable for a weekend. We'll be back!

Paris Feb 2019 Sunday

Still so much to see and the weekend is almost over!  We caught the Metro this morning, no problem. Quite easy to understand, even when you miss the stop and have to back track, which may have happened ...

This is where we were headed today - The Eiffel Tower.

But breakfast first ...

It didn't take too long to get tickets - a good time of the year to travel, especially when the weather plays along. I had seen the tower from the river previously but up close it's seriously impressive.

This is apparently the most visited (paid) monument in the world - almost 7 million visitors in 2015. It is 324 metres high and the concept was initially hated by the French. This is an exerpt from a petition in 1887. Ironic that the tower has become the iconic symbol of France.

'We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection … of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal.'

These are glass floors, gulp!

But good to orientate youself, if you can bear to look down.

 

The view from the top!

And so, back down to earth. Tick that off the bucket list ✔️

A Seine cruise was next on the agenda - Batobus - hop on, hop off.

These make good bookmarks.

Lunch at a street cafe in St-Germain-des-Pres. Wine at any time of day, but never to excess.

and dessert from a local patisserie.

A stroll along the riverbank popping in to an unexpected sculpture exhibition at The 11 Conti - Monnaie de Paris - Thomas Schutte a well known modern German Sculptor

Onwards to Notre Dame - we were so lucky to see this beautiful cathedral before it was so badly burnt in April

That was the end of a very long day with so much visual input - it's exhausting. I find that it takes numerous visits to a place to get beyond the iconic sights and tourist attractions. You can only see and absorb so much in a weekend. This is a reason I enjoy this blog so much. I've seen the place, now I go back and look up and research the places.  I will go back to Paris, we only scratched the surface. Thank goodness for Uber!