Three of the six of us from Paris carried on for the next leg of trip to the south of France.

Bruce and I were tagging along with KV to see his friends Pascal and Nancy who run a five-room B&B called Le Gite de Chasteuil in the tiny hamlet of Chasteuil (pronounced ‘Shastoi’) in the Haute Provence. We had no real idea of where we were going or what to expect; KV just told us we needed to meet these fine folks as they had travelled down the path we were about to pursue in New Zealand and he thought we’d have a lot in common.

We spent six days at the B&B — it was tranquil and serene and was the perfect way to end our franctically paced trip. Excerpts from my journal:

This is the last evening in Chasteuil. How fast it all goes. It’s so easy to sit and gaze out the upstairs window onto the valley and mountains beyond. It’s been a relaxing trip. Plenty of time to sit and read and to eat with Pascal and Nancy, generally late at night after the guests have already been fed. Dusk occurs at 9 pm, often when we are dining; dakness comes by 10. We don’t get to sleep before midnight and we wake sleepily around 9:30 am in a frantic hurry to make breakfast which is served between 8 – 10. Chasteuil is perched atop a ridge, 2.5 kilometer hairpin turns up a gravel and dirt road off the main road. I am afraid to drive these narrow roads and leave it to KV to chauffeur us around. Once or twice we came head to head with another car and had to do some fancy manuevering to back up into a pullout to let the other car pass.

We’ve had many lunches and dinners with Pascal and Nancy which has given us a lot of opportunity to hear their stories of becoming B&B operators in this small village of 20 or so occupants. Stories abound as one would expect from small towns where everyone knows each others’ business and they don’t hesitate to talk behind your back — similar things which we experienced owning our rental property in Kauai.

Nancy and Pascal are lovely people — each with their own super powers which makes for a successful operation. I was able to ask lots of questions — how do you decide what to charge, what to serve, how to furnish, etc — all things which will give us guidance when we get our project going in New Zealand. Pascal, a mason by trade, has morphed what was once a nondescript schoolhouse into a modern, comfortable, five room B&B with a wonderful common room with three large open-air windows with amazing views, a lovely large kitchen, sitting area, and stone fireplace and a full third floor for their private quarters — all on a tiny plot of land. Despite it’s smallness in land size, I think they’ve got the best deal as they’re the last building in the village and it probably has the best views. It’s a testament to their hard work and location that makes me feel so comfortable just sitting and reading and not wanting to leave the premises. I’ve spent hours each day on the veranda, reading and gazing; I would love to come and stay for a month or more; it would really rejeuvenate and realign the soul.

Despite all the sitting, we did manage to do a few things:

* Saturday morning jaunt to the town of Castellane to attend the farmers market in the town square; then a walk up to the old church which is perched atop a 600′ cliff face; finished with lunch at the square.

* A 6 km hike in the blazing heat from Chasteuil up and over the ridge to Rougon, another tiny hillside village, to have lunch at one of the best creperies in the region!

* A short drive to the next town to see the Ashram of Mandarom. This is a gated and guarded ashram with 30 foot statues of Jesus, Buddha, temples and the like piercing the vista. It’s a bizarre place and we were told, no surprise, that it’s quite cultish. Tours are given regularly but we came too late; we were only able to take a quick peak from the gates.

* Hiking through the Verdon Gorge, the Grand Canyon of France. People come from all over to raft and hike the gorge. It’s an all day activity, but we didn’t have the wherewithall for such a strenuous hike; we made do with a very short ‘walk’ which took us through a 600 meter tunnel where one needs a torch in order to pass. If you don’t bring your own flashlight, there is a gentleman waiting at the entrace to sell you one at an inflated price. The gorge is beautiful, the water blue and pristine.
This is a lovely region of France — I look forward to returning some day.

(more photos in the Photo Gallery)

Four of the nine from the Iceland trip carried on to Paris where we rendezvoused with two more friends from the States.

After having spent the better part of the previous four months in a non-urban environment, I was, yet again, unprepared for my entry into Paris. There are something like 10 million people in the greater Parisian metropolitan area and it seemed like we saw every one of them en route from the airport to our lodging destination, Mary’s Hotel.

We decided to go cheap for our Paris visit and settled on the 3-star Mary’s Hotel located between the Bastille and the place de la Republique (60 euro/night for a triple room, book on-line for additional savings). The rooms were cozy and clean; with a bit of juggling, the three of us managed to fit our many bags and our big selves into the room. This small hotel was staffed 24/7 by a friendly family and offered internet access — it was perfect for our needs.

What can I say about Paris? After a day of my ‘culture shock’, I got back into an urban groove, digging the walking around, jumping on and off the Metro, viewing parks, architecture, and museums, and patronizing the endless cafes and restaurants. Ah, Paris in the summertime…..

Highlights of the trip:

* An afternoon at the Musee D’Orsay, Musee Rodin, and Musee Carnavalet (Museum of History): Not having much time, we did a whirlwind visit through these three museums. It was our first visit to each. Once a former hotel, areas in the Musee Carnavalet reminded me of a mini-Versaille with the opulent reconstitued palace rooms filled with fine furniture and decor. The Musee D’Orsay exceeded expectations: housed in an old train depot, the museum boasts one of the finest collections of impressionist paintings. Both Bruce and I independently discovered and fell in love with one painting by an artist unfamiliar to us: Le Bouddha by Odilon Redon. The Rodin, in addition to being filled with fine Rodin sculptures, boasts having the prettiest gardens of any museum. All worthwhile.

* Visiting the Catacombs: This was one of the wierdest places I have ever visisted. Six million people’s bones are here, neatly piled up in orderly rows six feet high and many feet deep througout the tunnels. In the late 1700′s, when Paris was growing rapidly, the city cemetaries started to overflow and cause hygienic problems. So the government decided to make use of all the old quarries and underground tunnels and had the bones and rotting corpses moved into the catacombs. It took 15 months to dig up and cart the bodies/bones across the city, usually done in the wee hours of the night so as to not distress the non dead. There are close to two miles of tunnels open for public viewing. The disturbing thing is not the bones themselves, after all, people die and their bones have to go somewhere (yes, usually not for public viewing though); the disturbing thing is the careful artistic display of the bones — some crazy overseer had people sort through all the bones, pulling out the leg & arm bones and the skulls and neatly arranging them in macabre patterns; the rest of the body bones were just randomly thrown into piles out of sight.

* A day at the Louvre: Our second visit to this fine musuem. Sucked in by hoopla surrounding “The DaVinci Code” movie release, I purchase the audio tour promising to take me on a davinci code’esque tour of the museum. It’s really just the normal audio tour which happens to take you by the many fine pieces featured in the book. My favorite collections this go around: the Objects de’Arte of Islam, Midieval Lourve, and Roman Eqypt.

* Absinthe sampling: I’m not much of an absinthe lover, but Bruce and some of the others really dig it. A handful of establishments in Paris serve absinthe and we ventured to two of them (in the Bastille on Rue de la Roquette). Serving absinthe is an artform: A carafe of ice water with a special spigot is used to drip water over flaming sugar cubes on slotted spoons into the absinthe, making it turn from emerald green to milky white. Sip slowly and enjoy. Beautiful. For me, I enjoyed an absinthe and champagne cocktail which was quite tasty!

* Picnicking in the Jardine de Luxembourg: There are so many gorgeous parks in Paris to be enjoyed year-round, but especially in summer when the flowers are in full bloom and the sun shines well into the evening. We loaded up on cheeses and wine and head to the park for a rendevouz with the others. There’s lots of great scuptures and art in this park — I particularly loved the bamboo and blue-dyed gravel lined walkway where interesting opaque 5×4′ prints of people fluttered in the wind along with bamboo chimes. Striking.

* Experiencing some magic: One night at dinner, DG said we needed to manifest our energies to bump into someone we knew from San Francisco unexpectedly while in Paris. So, over some cocktails, we concentrated and manifested. The next night, as the six of us cruised around the Bastille, on a very narrow street, enjoying the celebrations and gaeity of Gay Pride weekend, we suddenly found ourselves side-by-side with a long-time friend of mine, Martina. Oh, my, god. Martina & I go back 10+ years and we hadn’t talked since my move to New Zealand. I had no idea she was going to be in Paris and there she was with some of her friends. Hugging, laughing, and drinking ensued as we remarked on this fateful encounter!

We enjoyed so much more: Sacre Couer, Montmarte, meeting with New Zealand curious Parisians, eating crepes; but you get the gist — everyone should visit Paris!

(more photos in the Photo Gallery)

After a crazy week of getting the NZ house prepped for renters and all our gear locked up in storage, the long flight to San Francisco, and a quick 36 hour layover, I found myself back at San Francisco Airport in a bar with seven of our friends waiting for the overnight flight to Reykjavik, Iceland. I wasn’t quite ready to be thrust back into this level of socialization and revelry. Thank god we were able to get some sleep on the plane, albeit, in THE most uncomfortable seats I’ve ever had to endure on an international flight!

We landed mid-afternoon. It was cold and wet. Ughh. I just left cold and wet in NZ. I was looking for warm and tropical! The closest I got to that was on our first stop to the Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s premier hot springs (check out the Virtual Tour, the rest of the website doesn’t do it justice). Set among the volcanic topography, the Blue Lagoon offers waterfalls, spas, and lots of soft clay with which you can pat on your face or pour all over your body. It tingles; it makes your skin feel good.

Next we made the 40 minute drive into Reykjavik. The scenery from Keflavik airport to Reykavik did not impress me; lots of volcanic rock as far as the eye could see. I kept thinking desolation, despair. This is not what I expected.

We stayed most of the week at the Alfholl Guesthouse, located a few blocks from the city center and run by the affable Christian. We had one ‘apartment’ consisting of 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small kitchen and two other bedrooms located in the main building with several other rooms. Our apartment served as central headquarters for us: a gathering place for tour strategizing, breakfast eating, game playing, and, yes, late night drunken revelry. Rooms ran at 8000 kroner for a double (about $125 USD).

The first few days we stayed in Reykjavik, taking in the sights, perusing the flea markets, and eating & drinking in local establishments. We timed the trip to be in attendance for Iceland’s Independence Day. Celebrated as a full-day festival with sound stages, kids play areas, food stalls, drink galore, and parades, it seemed as if half the country came into town to particpate. The streets teemed with very drunk young people, the women of which, although attractive, somehow didn’t read the instructions on how to use facial self-tanning bronzer, and had faces disporporationately tanner than their shoulders and arms. The day was quite festive and we all enjoyed a night out on the town visiting the local establishments (Sirkus on Laugavegur was the hip bar in town we liked).

We also spent several days touring the countryside. We managed to travel the full southern ring road as far as Hofn and followed the road north as far as the Snaefells peninsula: this allowed us to visit two of the icecaps (and several glaciers) and several national parks as well as enjoy the varied landscape: rocky, volcanic, and mossy terrain; steamy and bubbly mudpots and vents; verdant mountains; gushing waterfalls; and glacier tongues galore. It was beautiful.

Highlights of the trip:

* Day trip to the Golden Circle: Pingvellir - a political assembly spot from 930 – 1798; Geysir – THE great geysir from which the term geyser was coined (unfortunately the Great Geysir doesn’t erupt on cue anymore – we made due with the Strokkur geysir which erupts every few minutes); and Gullfoss – a glorious waterfall and one of the natural wonders of the world.

* Glacier tour on Myrdalsjokull: DG decided that for his birthday celebration, he’d like to be on a glacier, so we all piled into the cars for the drive up the mountain to take a 10 am glacier tour. Snowmobiles are the tour norm, but we elected something more milder: being pulled around in an open-aired box by a snowcat. This way we could all be together, safe and silly, taking in the sights while singing birthday songs and passing around the flask. It’s chilly on a glacier and we had to don the proper ‘glacier-tour’ attire – full on ski suit with gloves and head scarves. I thought we looked rather smart. The morning was lovely – sun shining, clear visibility. We got pulled along about a 1/2 mile or more where we then stopped and offloaded. Here we were able to have a really good view of one of the glacier tongues which was riddled with large blue crevasses. We also got to see a neat waterfall and play around in the snow. A hour well spent!

* Views of the many glaciers and waterfalls of Vatnajokull and a stop at Jokulsarlon : Vatnajokull is the largest glacier in Iceland and as you drive around the ring road you see glacier tongues poking out of the mountains every 10 minutes or so – I swear at one point on the road we could see four of them at once! Also right off the ring road is Jokulsarlon – an eerie glacial lake filled with icebergs that are calving off from the glacier. The icebergs take on resemblences of all sorts of things (I saw a duck and one that looked exactly like the Matterhorn in Disneyland) and they very slowly drift along making their way through a narrow channel out to sea.

* Going on the Haunted Walking tour in Reykjavik on the Solstice: We all decided to do a group activity for the Summer Solstice and the least expensive activity was the haunted walking tour which was going to culminate in a midnight beach burn to watch sunset (midnight’ish) and sunrise (2:30 am’ish). Thirty+ people showed up for the tour which was led by a mid-fortyish Icelandic gentleman and his associate. The tour started well enough (shots for everyone) but quickly deteriorated as we were subjected to disjointed stories about how ghosts were everywhere in Rekjavik (proven by mediums who’d previously been on the tour) as well as the mischievous little people. A participant told me about the little people and how they live in rocks and pastures and in one particular case, caused trouble for the city during some new road construction. The story goes that there was a big rock housing some little people right in the path of the new road. Nary a bulldozer nor crane could destroy or move that rock and the drivers of such equipment all came down with mysterious illnesses. Finally the city decided to let the little people be and the road was built AROUND the rock. Surveys show that 80% of the Icelandic people believe in elves, fairies and little people. Who’s to say? The walking part of the tour was quite enjoyable and we were led to little hideaway spots in town. Finally, nearing midnight, everyone piled into cars and drove out to the lighthouse/beach for the bonfire to enjoy the longest day of the year. Beers were passed around; more stories told. Some of us (me included) were sleepy and didn’t stay for long. Bruce, Ted, Kelly, and Mike stayed to the end with the tour operators and it is said that several of the manfolk stripped down nekid and plunged into the sea in honor of the solstice. : – )

* Day trip to Snaefellsjokull: Me, Bruce, Jim, and Mike took a day trip up to the Snaefellsnes peninsula to drive up the Snaefells mountain. Located about 2 hours north of Reykjavik, Snaefells is actually an old volcano with a glacier at its top. On clear days, you can see if from Reykjavik. Its said to hold magical powers and to be a frequent landing area for space aliens. Cool! Along the route to the top we stopped off to explore the Singing Cave which has the perfect acoustics for song. The road up the mountain takes you close to the top — you have stop right before the glacier. We got out of the car and each went off exploring the rocky terrain – we found a small glacial lake and lots of cool rocks. Both Bruce & I thought we could feel the energy eminating from the mountain. The scenery was gorgeous.

* Boat tour to view the Puffins: Puffin watching is big business for Iceland. Each year 6 million puffins stop in Iceland to breed. They arrive in April and stay till August and during that time one can go on any number of tours to see the cute little things. Two ‘puffin islands’ are located 20 minutes offshore of Reykjavik and you are guaranteed to see thousands of them. You can also see them nesting in the high in the rocks on the black sand beach in Vik.

* Hiking in Skaftafell National Park: We stopped at the park twice, on the way to and from Hofn and were able to do two short hikes. The first was an hour-long round trip up through alpine meadows to get to the Svartifoss waterfall. The second was another hour-long round trip to the foot of the Vatnajokull glacier. It looks like a pile of rocks, but on closer inspection, you realize you are on a huge chunk of ice. Bruce & Daniel found a little ice cave!

* Stumbling into the Christmas store and finding out about the Icelandic tradition of the 13 Yulemen.

All sound good? It was. Although frazzled at first, I was quite happy to have made the trip. Travel with friends certainly has its up and downs and this trip was no exception. Organizing and mobilizing folks can be a chore as well as dealing with periodic personality conflicts, but, all in all, each individual in our group had a special ‘super power’ which contributed to the benefit of the whole. I am grateful to DG for inviting us to share in his special birthay celebration as I don’t think I would have ever chosen to venture to such a far off destination. I look forward to returning some day.

(More photos in photo gallery)