Flight Diary Stats

My Flightdiary.net profile

29 May 2017

France & Germany 2017 – Day 11 part 1 / Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte

When we were on vacation, after 3 days I was no longer able to include pictures in my blog posts. After 4 days I was no longer able to upload anything at all, but I still composed my posts to update later when I got home. After 8 days I got fed up of bothering to write up things I was not uploading so I gave up. Now that all the technical issue have been resolved, it’s time to go back in time and finish these diary entries.

Steps today: 25 082 / 16½km

Today I crossed an item off my list that’s been on it for years! Château Vaux-le-Vicomte.

Getting there was a bit of an ordeal, but it was due to my lack of advance planning.

I got the instructions of how to get there using public transportation from their website. It’s since been updated for the 2017 season, when I checked it out originally it was still all 2016, but the basic instructions are still the same:

image

Simple enough right? I though so! We caught the train from Gare de l’Est on time at 8:45…

Gare de l'Est

… arrived at Verneuil l’Etang at 9:20… on time… but no indication to of any kind of shuttle whatsoever! not even a sign! Here I am reading an information board hoping to glean some info.

IMG_1961

We weren’t the only ones wondering/wandering, there was a family of four that seemed equally confused along with an Asian couple. The father of the group went into the station to ask someone about the shuttle, but when he relayed the information to us all he seemed very unsure of what he was saying - he said he was pretty confident the clerk said the shuttle was coming in 10 minutes. He looked so pleased and of proud of himself that he had tried to save the day for this little lost group with his few words of French. It was kind of cute so I didn’t tell him I am fluent… why burst his bubble if it’s not necessary.

A few moments later, a bus showed up and the Asian couple got on – I asked the driver if this was the shuttle to the Chateau and it was not. The driver said she did not know anything about the shuttle service and suggested I ask someone inside the station, I thanked her for time we exchanged pleasantries and she drove off. By now, Mr-Save-the-Day’s bubble was probably burst… or maybe I am underestimating him and he was sincerely relieved??

I went into the station myself now to get the information and learned the shuttle was due at 10:30 - an hour from now!! This is of course where the guy understood the number 10 from, but “in 10 minutes” versus “at 10:30” is not the same thing at all! I went back to inform the others who were waiting that we had over an hour to kill.

I still wonder about what ever happened to that Asian couple that got on the bus?

I eventually found the posted shuttle schedule, it was right our faces yet nobody saw it, and sure enough although just like the website all the dates were still 2016 the first shuttle of the day was at 10:25.

So how did I not know this before leaving??? The problem was I printed the “how to get to the Chateau from Paris” instructions, made a note that there is one train per hour and just ASSUMED the shuttles would line up… and they do! Just not every hour, there are only 5 per day!


image

Was this information on the website?? It sure was!!! But in a link, and not in the same format as he link to the train times, but a separate link at the end of the directions. Here in the updated 2017 version it looks more obvious, I wish I could see what the page looked like when I looked at it. I am curious to see if it was really missable, or was it just me?

image

Unwilling to wait around at the bus stop for an hour, we sucked it up and cabbed it. It cost us 30€, not cheap, but our time had value also.

Turns out that cabbing it was a GREAT idea because we arrived before most of the tourists, and those who were there, having arrived by car, start with the Chateau so we started with the grounds and had the entire place to ourselves! We walked the entire garden perimeter, passed the canal, up to the Hercules status and back – about 4½km stroll. Just gorgeous! 

IMG_1966

20170414_102517

20170414_102816

IMG_2016

IMG_1980

IMG_1984

IMG_1991

IMG_1990

IMG_2000

IMG_1994

We enjoyed our walk around the grounds very much, but we only zoomed through the interior of the Chateau and didn’t take any pictures. We’re both “seen one, seen em all” when it comes to endless rooms upon rooms in Royal Palaces.  The only thing I regret not doing is visiting the inside of the domed roof, that would have been neat but we could not take the chance of missing the shuttle back to the train station. Had we missed the 1 o'clock shuttle, the next one would only be after 3 and we wanted to spend the afternoon in Paris. I did not want to chance it. 

We both agreed in hindsight that his day trip would have been much better if done by car instead of with public transportation – it reminded us of the same constraints on our time when we visited the Pont du Gard in 2015.

We grabbed a quick snack the café/snack bar to hold us over until we could have a nicer meal later in the afternoon, and headed back to Paris.

20170414_121434

20170414_122404

IMG_2018

France & Germany 2017 – Day 10 / Lille

When we were on vacation, after 3 days I was no longer able to include pictures in my blog posts. After 4 days I was no longer able to upload anything at all, but I still composed my posts to update later when I got home. After 8 days I got fed up of bothering to write up things I was not uploading so I gave up. Now that all the technical issue have been resolved, it’s time to go back in time and finish these diary entries.

Steps today: 20 394 / 13½km

Today we went to Lille, but it was a long time before we got going (for us anyway!)

Gare du Nord (4)

Gare du Nord (3)

We got to the Gare du Nord train station a little after 8AM and went to the kiosk to buy our tickets hoping to leave on the next train… turns out, the 9:45 train was about FIFTY Euros less than the next two trains departing for Lille. That’s a LOT of money – enough to convince us to leave later than planned!

So how to kill time? Easy: FOOD! We went to a café across the street where I indulged in a Camembert Sandwich for breakfast. SO DELICIOUS!

10. Breakfast on Thursday at Café du Nord (3)

We arrived in Lille a little before 11AM, ready to explore. I fell in love with the architecture right away! I also got a little vacation bubble burst. See the restaurant on the far left of this picture: “Les 3 Brasseurs” it’s a chain restaurant here in Quebec and I had no idea there were any this far from home… I did see one in Ontario once called “3 Brewers”, but never in Europe!!

You can bet we did NOT have lunch there!!

Place de la Gare (2)

The Old Town of Lille is just beautiful!! Sadly however there was a lot of construction in the main square, Place Charles de Gaulle, and area around the base of the Colonne de la Déesse was completely boarded up.  It was a little disappointing, but that’s life on vacation! We just had to be a little creative with our picture taking.

Place Charles de Gaulle (3)

Place Charles de Gaulle (1)

The Vielle Bourse building was impressive:

Vieille Bourse (5)

Vieille Bourse (1)

Vieille Bourse (4)

And the Place du Théâtre nearby was in great shape!

Place du Théâtre - Opera & Chamber of Commerce Tower

Place du Théâtre (2)

We made a mental note to come back to the area for lunch, and then set off to wander the back streets.

IMG_1934

We made it to the Citadelle, but frankly it was a let down so we turned back and headed to the main square for lunch.  This is as good a picture I was able to get while blocking out the construction ugliness!

Lunch at La Houblonnière (1)

Lunch at La Houblonnière (3)

After lunch, more exploring. I was impressed by this super-modern church (Notre Dame de la Treille) and the alabaster façade!

Notre Dame de la Treille (8)      Notre Dame de la Treille (2)

We wanted to sit down for a drink, but it was FREEZING in shade and the clouds were large enough to block the sun out for long periods.

Notre Dame de la Treille (9)

Back to walking, we discovered the charming Place aux Oignons but still too cold to sit outside.

Place aux Oignons (2) 20170413_144331

Around 3PM we found a sheltered place to relax

IMG_1940

Drinks at Au Point Central (2)

Drinks at Au Point Central (3)

Drinks at Au Point Central (4)

After our break, it was back to hitting the pavement (or rather, the cobble stones) and continued crossing sights off our list. Again, there was a lot of construction all over the city so here are just some of the unobstructed highlights.

Palais Rihour

Place Richebé - Général Faidherbe (2)

20170413_160853

Porte de Paris (2)

Frank was particularly impressed with the Beffroi of the Hôtel de Ville


Beffroi de Lille (2)

Beffroi de Lille (1)

Église Saint-Maurice (4)

We decided to start heading back to Paris around 5PM, and could have gotten yet another cheaper ticket like this morning had we waited around until 7PM and we did consider sticking around to have supper – but eventually decided to take the next train out.

Train Station - Lille Flanders (2)

This turned into the best idea because it meant we could go to the pizzeria near our hotel for supper. My mom and I discovered it last fall and I LOVED it! The pizza was so good! Mind-blowing good and we even broke the no-resto-repeat rule and went twice. I knew Frank would love it and the location just around the corner from home base was terrific; we were able to go back to the room, freshen up, empty our pockets and have a relaxing meal to end the day.

(The car would not get out of the way of this shot! GRRR)

11. Supper on Thursday at Café d'Italie (1)

11. Supper on Thursday at Café d'Italie (2)

11. Supper on Thursday at Café d'Italie (3)