I want to go to Brighton!

I Want to go to Brighton!

Brighton Beach

On about Tuesday last week Tony and I decided we wanted to go away for the weekend. We looked on the map, and after looking at some lovely escapes recommended by Sawdays over near Bristol, we decided we just wanted somewhere close. As it turned out - one of the  closest pieces of beach to London is Brighton. 

All I knew of Brighton was that it was the scene of Lydia's disgrace in Pride and Prejudice - and that 'a little sea bathing' would have set Mrs Bennett up forever.  Nevertheless we threw out 'togs' and beach towels into our duffel bags, slung them over our shoulders and jumped on the train with all the rest of London escaping to the beach for what was forecast to be a properly sunny weekend.

Brighton Pier

Brighton, no longer the place of Regency era parties, balls and promenades, is now a bustling English resort.  We booked into The Old Ship Hotel facing the waterfront and neatly between Brighton Pier and West Pier, in a room on the top floor overlooking the sea. The hotel was once obviously the scene of dances, with reception rooms still used today for weddings and the like. It had lovely folding doors opening the bar and restaurant onto the beachfront - letting in the sea breeze where we ensconced ourselves with cold beer to escape the heat.

We had spent our morning wandering the promenade, taking in the carnival sights on Brighton Pier (which is basically like sideshow alley from the Canberra Show - but over the water).Do not be fooled into thinking that any actual fishing or boats are associated with this Pier. I imagine if you were a teenager spending the summer in Brighton with your folks, it would be a great place to kill time - but for us we were more than satisfied with a quick walk the full length and back - cultural experience done.

Below the Promenade

One thing that has amazed us is the lengths the English went to to transform the beachfront for their purposes. Apart from the two huge piers - but built for leisure not work - a promenade the entire length of the heads was built - with wrought iron arches, and long gentle ramps to take you down to the sea.  Such effort to fore the sea to shape to people seems very at odds to us as Australians - even Bondi hasn't tamed the beachfront to this level. The promenades do however provide a useful roof for bars, clubs, restaurants and cafes that line up to serve the swarms of people promenading their way past.

Pebbles for Sand

Tony being forced to pose for a photo

Also very odd to us was the pebbly beach - quite painful to walk on rare foot - but conveniently means you come out without the usual covering of sand. We only bothered to go in up to our knees but spent a long time sitting on the pebbles watching other people play in the tame surf less water. With no waves, and therefore no rips, we realised why it is that English tourists get to Bondi and promptly have to be rescued by our lifeguards. They haven't grown up with an understanding and respect for the rules of the waves and the sea.

The only way to sit on this beach

After buying me a large sun hat (I left all mine in Australia) we also realised how little respect there is here for the sun. We re both covered in 50+ sunscreen, and me now also in my umbrella sized hat and still felt it was time to heat out of the sun after a few hours. However no one else seemed to ca re - most of them were lobster coloured with sunburn, and no one had a hat on - not even the children. Whilst no where near as ferocious as the Australian sun, the English sun on a summer day is certainly enough to make you burn.

Lunch time found us looking for a traditional fish and chips - of which here were lots - serving fresh fish heavily battered with great chips in cones of paper - vinegar not lemon. We took ours to the edge of the promenade to watch the beach whilst eating. Within a few bites however we were ducking for cover as the seagulls appeared from nowhere, stealing pieces of fish in their beaks and knocking into our shoulders ant almost taking my hat in their rush to get our food. We sought shelter in a nearby bus stop until they dispersed - much to he amusement of everyone walking past.

The oldest surviving
Victorian Bandstand - apparently

The pleasure gardens

After our scene from The Birds was over we hid from the sun in The Lanes - the oldest parts of the town which were one the old fishing village before sea bathing became a fad and brought the whole of London to visit every summer. I had hoped the Lanes might be full of vintage - and everyone had told me how wonderful they were.  Unfortunate they were all new shops - just in lovely narrow and old lane ways. I think I've been spoiled by Portobello rd - but I can't be bothered with chain stores regardless of how quaint their surroundings.

West Pier

Probably my favourite part was the ruins of the West Pier. About 200m down the beach from the carnival of the Brighton Pier, stands an iron shell of a very large pier. It was built in 1880s and a ballroom and concert hall was added in the early 1900s. It must have been an amazing venue - right out over the water- with grand Victorian architecture and music floating out into the night over the sea. The pier sadly closed in 1975 when the corporation that owned it went bankrupt. It slowly fell into disrepair, although you could go on guided tours of it until large storms damaged it during the 90s, and the walkway was removed for safety reasons. In 2002 it suffered 2 huge fires that completely gutted the structure.  Fire crews couldn't put the blaze out ash they had no way of reaching it.  There has been talk of restoring it to its former glory however the cost would seem prohibitive. Until someone finds the money it is now only a blackened reminder of a more elegant past for a city that has hopes of somehow finding its way back there one day. 

Paris in the summer

Paris in the summer

The wonders of airbnb

Passage Verdeau

The passage behind the passage

We have discovered airbnb - how people travelled Europe on a budget without it is beyond me. Through the wonders of this site we found Delphine and her lovely flat, hidden away in the passages of Montmartre. In the 19th century the Parisians built a network of beautiful glass ceiling'd passages for shoppers - to keep them dry and off the busy, dirty muddy streets. Behind these passages, apartments were built - only accessible through the passages, with no direct street frontage. The passages are locked at night, so only residents with the code or key can access these gems and wander in the semi dark to their private retreats in the centre of Paris.

Delphine's flat was in behind Passage Verdeau, one of the smaller passages in the network, through a locked door, down another passage, up 3 flights of stairs. Not recommended for those who have heavy luggage or can't manage stairs - but for us sprightly young things, it was a secluded wonder, with full length windows opening to give us a view over the tops of the passages and a glimpse of a hidden part of Paris missed by most tourists.

I had been a little nervous about renting a flat from a website (those who know about our disastrous experience upon arrival in the UK will understand why), particularly in a country where I didn't speak the language very well, and hadn't ever been as an adult. As a result I had chosen to rent a flat that we would have all to ourselves. Airbnb offers entire flats, rooms in houses, shared rooms - you name it - however sharing a flat with a stranger was not what we had in mind for our four day romantic escape. However I shouldn't have been worried - I had messaged with Delphine our host several times before our arrival, and she seemed lovely. Upon arrival (she even came out to find us in the rain when we couldn't find the passage), she gave us a tour of the flat, provided cake and tea, and had even given us a list of the local cafes and restaurants that she liked to frequent, and an outline of her favourite walk through the passages with turn by turn instructions.

The flat was a wonderful base for our 4 day adventure - we were hardly there as we tried to pack in as much of Paris as possible - however when we came home exhausted at the end of each day it was wonderful to feel you were in the real Paris, in a Parisian's flat (beautifully and tastefully decorated) and not in a hotel for tourists. 

Versailles

The front gates of Versailles - and the line...

Our first day in Paris however was spent as real tourists, wandering around the gilt halls of the Sun King's Palace - Versailles. When mum and dad brought us here in 1998 I remember much of the palace was under restoration - however it was early Spring and I have no recollection of crowds. Visiting again 14 years later and in the height of the summer tourist season was quite a different experience. Much of the restoration is completed, and the palace has built special entrance halls to deal with the huge numbers of tourists that trek out of Paris central to wander the ornate halls.

Lines of old Kings

Once we were through the line to get in - which wound itself around much of the front courtyard of the Palace like a long impatient snake - we joined another long line of people walking dutifully past an exhibition of the history of Versailles. Here I pause to have a quick tourist rant. Why do people take photographs of paintings? and even more irksome - why would you video a video, or indeed video the entirety of your visit to a place - capturing every window, painting, statue you walked past. When do you think you will sit and watch the entire tour of Versailles captured on poor quality hand shaky video? Or worse - which poor relative are you going to force to watch it? I guarantee the internet will have a copy of every painting in there, and even a virtual tour if you so desire. Stop watching your screen - and actually be in the moment.

Rant aside - taking photographs is in itself enjoyable - capturing just the right angle, composing an interesting image that leads the eye through the frame, or working with tricky lighting to capture rich colours and texture. I captured some photos of the parts I enjoyed the most. Long corridors lined with statues of past kings, courtiers, scholars, rich tapestry and furnishings.

The King's public bedchamber

The bedchambers of the King and Queen were closed when I was last at Versailles - however they have now been loving restored to their original overpoweringly opulent state. Can you imagine sleeping in a room this busy - not just busy with colour, gilt and pattern, but also with people? The King's bedchamber was a public court space where the King held audience - and in the evenings, the court gathered to put the monarch to bed and tuck him in.

The sights of Paris by Velib and boat

I think I can confidently say we discovered every possible thing that could go wrong with using the public bicycle system in Paris (lovingly named 'Velib' - part 'velo' part 'liberte') - except for falling off or getting run over. After working out how to use the machine to get ourselves day passes, then working out how to actually release the bicycles from their stands, the first two I got were broken - one suffering from a broken chain guard that got caught in the wheels, the other from a missing pedal. Once we found two that had all of their parts in working order we took off rather hesitantly down the street. 

Tony on Velib with phone

It was a fantastic way to see the city. Rather than travelling by metro and missing all the interesting details in between, you rode past them, could stop, take photos, and if you were especially keen, put the bicycles in a stand, go in, enjoy, come out, get new bicycles and be on your way. They cost next to nothing - $1.30 for the day pass plus about $1 per 30 minutes after the first 30 minutes (which was free).  Best of all - unlike driving a car around, if the traffic got a bit much or there was a scary intersection, we simply got off and walked the bikes across the pedestrian crossing or down the footpath. 

Annie at the Arc

We rode all the way from our apartment in Montmatre, past Opera, Madeline, down to the Obelisk, up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph. We happened to choose Bastille Day for our cycling adventure - so we encountered many roads closed for the military marches and lots of crowds  - but it did mean that the Arc was looking amazing with a giant French flag hanging in its centre.  We tried to go up - however it was going to cost 10 Euro each, and there was a long line so we gave it up in favour of cycling on in the general direction of the Eiffel Tower. After gazing up at the Tower we cycled merrily homewards, along the river and up winding side streets tired but successful. 

We were so pleased with ourselves and conquering the Velib that we decided we would ride up to the Sacre Coeur to get dinner and watch the fireworks.  We discovered that from our apartment to the Sacre Coeur is one big hill - and the 3 speed Velib weren't ideal for the task. We did make it - huffing and puffing to the steps of the magnificent church - only to discover there was no where to put the bicycles away. After a long 'discussion' we finally rode much of the distance back down the hill, returned the bikes, and walked all the way back up. Lesson learnt - work out where the nearest velib station is before setting out.

The next day we decided to take the ultimate tourist tour - the boat trip down the Seine. For next to no money we had a sunset cruise past all of the main sights. Our favourite comment by our tour guide was as we passed the Obelisk - it was described as Paris's oldest monument. We wanted to point out that the only reason it was old was that it had been somewhere else for thousands of years - and Napoleon had stolen it only a matter of a couple of hundred years ago.

The river afforded a pretty amazing view of many of the beautiful buildings in Paris - but my favourite were the Grand Palace and the Petit Palace - the French exhibition buildings build around the same time as the Eiffel Tower. At sunset the true magnificence of their glass and steel structure was outlined against the sky.

The Exhibition Palaces. 

The things people do for religion 

Our tour of Paris had turned into a bit of a 'tour of things from the outside' - the lines for everything were huge and we had left it too late in the day on our second last day to get inside Notre Dame. We did enjoy the outside however and the grand flying buttresses. Tony's favourite was the statute of the first bishop of the church that stood on the site of Notre Dame - he was martyred by the romans who cut off his head. So when Notre Dame was built, they portrayed this bishop along with all the others by the front doors - holding his severed head in his hands...

Holding his head in his hands

The absolute highlight of the trip was on the last morning - we finally waited in line long enough to see the inside of the Saint Chapelle cathedral. On the Ille de la Cite - at the other end from Notre Dame is a much smaller - but more glorious - church. Built to house the 'Passion Relics' - bones and other relics of Jesus including his crown of thorns apparently, the Capetian King Louis IX spent more buying the relics than on building the church. As you can see from the pictures below - the relics must have cost a fortune because no expense was spared on the church.

The lower chapel - for the commoners

Much of the church was under much needed restoration, however it didn't detract from the overwhelming beauty of this church. Walking into the lower level chapel first, the simplicity of the gothic lines, the bold red and blue paint work with the pattern picked out in gold was stunning. The commoners who were permitted to worship here must have felt the presence of God - with the blue and gold ceilings dotted with painted stars and the gravity defying arches.

The upper chapel - for the king and the relics

Up a narrow stone staircase (the King used to enter from a link to the next-door palace that no longer exists), you come out into the main chapel. The light and colour really does take your breath away. Each of the windows tells the story of one of the books of the bible - with the story of Jesus and the resurrection in the middle over the alter - and somewhat obstructed by it. You read them like a book - moving from one image to the next from top to bottom - a simple and  beautiful solution to a population who couldn't read.

We retired to our apartment to pick up our bags, buy some cheese from the local fromagerie and jump back on the Eurostar to London.