Last day in Paris

Well its nearly all over! We spent our last day here is Paris being rained on! We went to the catacombs- a bit eerie but interesting then we spent some time looking around the Rodin Gallery (the man was a maniac. I cant believe that one man could make so many bronze and marble sculptures). All in all its been a fantastic trip and its sad to be leaving.



Millions of bones in the disused quarry under Paris's streets (the catacombs)




The Thinker by Rodin





Just singing in the rain (in Paris)



Metz and Verdun

We decided not to go north to Germany or Luxemburg as we were running out of time and energy. We decided to head west to Paris very slowly. We stopped at Metz, a vibrant little city, beautiful in its autumn colours. It has 34m square of park land per capita and they are very proud of it! 

Cait and Andrew enjoying the interactive park in the heart of Metz. they had about 6 gardeners putting in new plants for the winter and tidying up the fallen leaves.





Swans landing on the Moselle River at the base of a 16th centuary church




walking through cobbled streets in Metz near the uni



After leaving Metz we made our way slowly west and stopped overnight at Verdun. Verdun is a very quiet almost depressing place, especially compared to Metz. On the outskirts of Verdun are numerous WWI memorials. They are several grave yards with rows and rows of crosses marking fallen soldiers.



Moving tribute to the fallen





All thats left of a once quiet little village. The French government gave the land to the forestry dept to re-vegetate because the surving locals couldn't rebuild the town or farm the land. There were about 5 villages that were completely destroyed and all thats left are holes with their surrounding mounds that bombs left. Very moving and devestating.



Alsace

Alsace is a very interesting place. Lots of quaint villages with brightly coloured houses surrounded by vineyards. It is a great time of the year to be here as the autumn colours are wonderful, its raining yellow leaves everywhere- something we aren't used to seeing in Australia! The area is known for its white wines and Andrew and I had a merry time tasting the different vareties at 11am the other day. Their reislings are not as sweet as Australia's nor is their muscat a fortified wine. I left the cellar very happy and giggled all the way past several villages! Its unfortunate that we can only take a limited amount of alcohol back to Aust, I could have easily fill two boxes.

Switzerland

We left Como Thursday 28th for a relative short drive to Interlaken, Switerlandand. what a beautiful place. I should have worked harder learning German as everyone speaks German and not French in Interlaken!!  I did however answer in Italian when the hotel owner asked me something in German! One major downsid to Switerland -VERY EXPENSIVE!



Caitlin caught on film throwing a smow ball at me. It hit its aim...down my singlet!



We spent a day taking the rack railway uo to the Kleine Scheidegg Pass up to Jungfrau, the Monch and the Eiger mountains, the highest in Europe (called 'Top of Europe'). It was a beautiful sunny day with low wind and a top of 0.4C.



the three of us in the Ice Palace