Rennes on Ascension Day

day 3 Thursday 20 May

Our first morning in Rennes. A long night’s sleep and a nice breakfast of muesli and fresh baguette with butter and jam. Dick went down to the boulangerie with Jim to get it. We spent a lot of the morning looking at our family album photos on Jim's computer. We had ham, cheese and lettuce rolls for lunch and walked to the multicultural festival at Triangle in the afternoon hoping to meet up with a Romanian friend he had run into at the shop that morning. We did not find her there but it was interesting to be there after our multicultural involvement in Mareeba. The cultures represented were French speaking countries, which reminded me of stamp collecting. We watched some drumming and capoeira and kids playing in the sun. It was a public holiday for Ascension Day.

Cambodia

outside, kids were playing

For dinner I cooked a potato soup with onion and bacon. It turned out really well. Another early demise.

Roissy to Rennes

day 2 Wednesday 19 May
France

After the long night on Air France, we had a good breakfast with fruit, yoghurt, croissant, jam, ham and cheese and lettuce. We arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport at 6.20 am; a dawn descent over farmland. It was very slow getting from the plane to the terminal in a bus and we then made the mistake of going to the toilet before reaching immigration. We then gravitated to the end of the queues of Africans, and when we reached the baggage carousel, only two bags remained - ours. Jim's Prince bag was already taken by a porter so I ran up to reclaim it. Then we walked out - No Customs! We headed to Gare CDG and got our tickets for the TGV which left for Rennes at 8.40. It was smooth and warm and I got quite sleepy.

We arrived in Rennes at 11.30 and Jim was there to meet us. We emerged into France and the plaza and caught a bus to his place. 

Place de la Gare - my first impression, taken 2 days later.

Jim and Dick went out to get lunch of baguettes with ham and cheese. And we relaxed and chatted. I had a tendency to the horizontal.

Jim's apartment.

Then we walked into town to see Le Thabor gardens. Some pictures Jim took in April.

St Melaine at le Thabor entry

We then walked across town to find Decathlon and get a camping mattress for Jim. He had already tried unsuccessfully to find it, having not gone far enough. It was like an Amart sports place with lots of people getting camping things for the coming holiday weekend. It was hot and sunny and we walked a distance back then got a No 2 bus home. Jim cooked us galettes for dinner with a nice fruity semillon. I crashed by 9 pm although it was still light.

Off to the Old World

Sally and Dick venture to the old world - May-June 2004

Day 0 - Monday 17 May - Mundubbera en route to Toowoomba
The DPI was reorganised the previous Friday so Dick was busy on the phone and went in to see colleagues in Toowoomba while I collected our France Rail Pass and bought a small thermos.
Day 1 - Tuesday 18 May
Next morning we had time to buy some thongs for Dick before heading to the airport. We checked in at the terminal then had a picnic lunch of boiled eggs, salami, cheese, fresh tomatoes, lettuce, vita wheats and the remaining wine from the previous night.

The flight to Singapore left at 2.30 pm took 7.5 hours. We flew over Moura, Blackwater and Clermont, then probably the Cobbold Gorge area near Georgetown. We enjoyed the comfort of business class seats on Qantas and a movie about the Flemish painter - The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

Blackdown Tableland western escarpment in the afternoon

South Blackwater mine

South Blackwater mine and the Blackdown Tableland

evening cloud towards Singapore

We had three hours in Singapore airport. It was a long terminal and a bit empty although there were a number of people. We walked across to the other terminal to check in, tried their Oasis lounge with the fancy seat/beds, then the sky train to terminal one before heading to our departure lounge. 

We were quite tired by the time we boarded Air France at 11 pm [ add 2 hours to Brisbane time]. I was dozing off but decided to have the meal. This must have been about 2.30 am or so. Air France economy was pretty cramped with little reclining on the seats but at least we had a vacant seat between us. A 14 hour overnight flight meant a long sleep - if only we could have! I awoke over Tehran at midnight on France time. We then went over Bratislava and Bucharest.