On Wednesday 16th November we travelled by train from Paris to Tübingen, via Stuttgart. Check out the speed of our train to Stuttgart! I can only imagine what it would be like in NZ if we had a 300km/h high speed train link between Wellington and Auckland...
We spent our first two nights in a very quaint 1-bedroom Airbnb apartment, in the building below.
Tübingen is a picturesque little university town with a nice old castle up on the hill. Everywhere was walking distance so Will and I spent a lovely day on Thursday exploring.
Like a lot of European towns and cities, Tübingen has a beautiful old cobble-stoned town square.
Here are a couple of panoramas taken from different angles.
This town has some lovely old wooden buildings.
Will spent all day Friday at the University of Tübingen with his colleague Martin and I spent another day exploring. It was a bit grey and drizzly, but there was a pretty park by the river to wander around.
No matter what the country, or what the language barrier, I always manage to order coffee and cake!
That night the University put us up in a hotel. Will's colleague Martin and his wife met us at the hotel later that evening and took us out for a traditional German meal. There is a chance that they might end up on sabbatical in Dunedin, NZ later in the year so it would be lovely to see them again and repay their hospitality.
That was the end of our short stay in Germany. Next stop, and the final one on our European leg, Milan!
On Saturday 12th November we took the Eurostar from London, St Pancras to Gare Du Nord, Paris. It is quite amazing that you can board in central London, then arrive in the middle of Paris a mere 2 and a quarter hours later. It had been a LONG long time since I last took the Eurostar, and St Pancras had undergone a major facelift since then. It is a very cool station.
On arrival at Gare Du Nord we took an Uber to the Airbnb apartment we had booked. It was on the top floor of the building below, on a quiet street smack in the middle of Le Marais.
This was a very cool area with lots of hip bars and cafes, and cute little boutique stores.
The apartment was teeny, but very stylish with everything that we needed. The best part was that it was walking distance to all the sights we wanted to see.
Will and I spent a couple of days exploring Paris by foot, including long walks along the River Seine.
It was very bleak and grey during our time there, and the coldest weather we'd experienced on our trip to date. It was nice to finally make good use of our winter woollies, having lugged them around the world for the first 9 months of our trip!
We took in the main tourist sights, including Notre Dame...
And also the Eiffel Tower...
Last time I was in Paris I went up the Eiffel Tower, so this time we made do with admiring it from the ground. It was interesting that you now have to pass through airport-style security to get into the area. I guess it would make quite an enticing target for terrorists...
We were there at dusk and it was cool seeing the tower slowly get lit up.
It is such an iconic building, and so photogenic. We took loads and loads of pics, so choosing just a few to post here is difficult. Here is a selection of some of the more 'arty' ones!
And a couple more to finish, taken as we began our walk home.
Here's a short video, it looked so pretty all lit up, and photos don't really do it justice.
In terms of galleries, I had only visited the Louvre on my last visit to Paris, so Will was keen to take me to the Musee D'Orsay which he loves. I enjoyed it, although he is more into the Impressionists than I am. I loved the building though, the museum is situated inside a former railway station.
My favourite part was the huge clock which you can look through for a view out towards Sacre-Coeur.
Here is a better view of the Basilica, up on its hill, taken from the museum steps.
In one part of the museum they have created a whole scaled down-model of the surrounding area which you can walk on top of. I love this type of thing!
There is also an awesome real-life model of the Opera House. The intricacy and detailing was amazing, right down to all the behind the scenes mechanical staging, as well as miniature reproductions of the artwork on the walls. I think this was my favourite exhibition in the whole museum!
If you've read some of my other posts you'll know that I love my Rodins, so a visit to the Musee Rodin was also a must-do.
It is interesting seeing casts of the same sculpture in different sizes and different materials.
I've seen several renditions of 'The Thinker' on this trip...
As well as several "Gates of Hell"
The grounds of the museum were dotted with more sculptures and were very pleasant to wander, especially since we just managed to avoid the rain.
It wasn't all play during our time in Paris however. One day we took a trip by train to Cergy where Will visited the University of Cergy Pontoise. There, Will caught up with Philippe who was also on sabbatical at the university of California, Irvine when Will was there. Will spent the morning giving a presentation, then touring Philippe's labs and discussing their research, while I spent the morning wandering around Cergy. I must admit, it wasn't the most exciting part of France... I ended up spending most of my time in a shopping mall. I did enjoy the 'virtual aquarium' that I found on the underside of an escalator!
The French love their rugby, and also love the All Blacks. It amused me that in a sports store I visited there was more All Blacks supporters gear available to buy than Les Bleus merchandise!
It is bit of a cliche, but nowhere in the world does bread quite as good as the French. A couple of our dinners were simply fresh warm baguettes and cheese, washed down with some local red wine. Simple, yet so so good.
With Will's French being so much better than mine, he also got dispatched on a couple of mornings to buy fresh pastries for our breakfast.
In all we spent four very enjoyable nights in Paris, a good start to the short European phase of our trip. Next stop, Germany!
