This weekend, a great honour was to be bestowed upon me. I was to become godfather to Florian, the son of two very good friends of mine, Nathalie and Patrick. So it meant a trip to Nantes for this weekend. As flights from Nice to Nantes were rather steeply priced, we decided to take the train – a decision some might question as the train journey takes no less than 10 hours. After considering various options, we finally decided to take the night train to Paris on Thursday night, and then the TGV in the afternoon from Paris to Nantes. And back on Sunday via Marseilles. That’s a lot of train for one weekend!
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The trip from Antibes to Paris went pretty well – I even managed to get some sleep. I was actually looking forward to spending a day in Paris – it’s been some time since my last visit. After a pleasant breakfast near Gare de Montparnasse (in a real Parisian-style bistro), we headed off into the sunshine to explore Paris. It was a glorious autumn day – we were lucky to pick a weekend when the weather on the Cote d’Azur actually seems to have been worse than elsewhere in France. After walking down Rue de Rennes, we made a quick detour to visit Saint-Sulpice. Perhaps sadly enough, the reason I wanted to go was the fact that the church featured in the Da Vinci code. We did find the famous “Rose line” featured in the book (and learnt – not much to our surprise – that the stuff in the book about the Rose line was a load of Blarney). I suppose that’s why must tourists visit the church (even now – 10 AM on a Friday, there were quite a few) – but this atmospheric and majestic church really does merit a visit. Carrying on our walk, we headed down Boulevard St-Germain and Boulevard St-Michel, where I managed to acquire a few bargain-price BD’s in the superb 2nd-hand bookstores that are a big feature of St-Michel.
We then sped back to Gare Montparnasse where we met up with Ollie for a nice lunch in one of the local brasseries. Having filled our stomachs and said our goodbyes to Ollie, we did some last-minute suit shopping (er, this was due to some rather poor planning on my part…). We did eventually manage to find one big enough for me ;-). We still had time to squeeze in a visit to a photography exhibition at La Fondation de Cartier-Bresson – who is of course one of the best photographers of the 20th century. Great stuff – and the guy didn’t even use Photoshop ;-).
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And then it was time to jump on the TGV to Nantes. That marvel of French engineering took us to Nantes in seemingly no time – in just over 2 hours. Nathalie was kind enough to pick us up at the station, and take us to their lovely house in the suburbs of Nantes. After some slight initial shyness on the part of the kids (I have to give them credit – I didn’t manage to scare them in spite of my best efforts) we all got along great, Florian and Timothe even provided some free track ‘n field action in the living room – Florian ended up with an astonishing 19 gold medals (Timothe also did pretty well though, pinching no less than 19 silver ones!). A few tasty pizzas later, Nathalie’s brother Nico took us and Kathryn, an Australian ex-colleague of Nathalie’s from her days in the UK, back to our apartment hotel.
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Saturday was the big day for all of us! So up we got bright ‘n early, and sped down to the town hall, for the big triple ceremony (that’s right, all three boys – Florian, Timothe and Gurvan, were to be baptised). I actually had the honour to take part in a revolutionary ceremony – as the mayor (Mathilde did tell me afterwards it wasn’t really the mayor of Nantes – in spite of the fact that he fulfilled all the criteria of a French mayor. I mean he was a “well rounded”, jovial and had a tricolour band around his waist – that’s all it takes right?). I say revolutionary, since the civil baptism ceremony was actually introduced along the civil marriage during the revolution by no less than Mr. Robespierre. Anyway, the ceremony went well without any gaffes on my part – at the end of it I got a great little certificate and my proud god-son Florian got a little medal (to round up the 19 he got last night to a nice and even 20 ;-).
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As it was still too early for lunch, we were taken to acquaint ourselves with a rather special elephant. Basically it’s a huge mechanical contraption constructed by various artists and engineers in Nantes – all a bit in the spirit of Jules Verne. It really does look a bit like something out of 20,000 leagues under the sea, both on the inside and the outside. We all got to go on a ride in the thing – a most pleasant experience (but it’s not a very fast means of transport, I’ll tell you that). All I can say is – if you ever visit Nantes, do make a point of checking it out. After this it was time for the Big Meal (that’s what I like about Important Events in France – they never go cheap on the food, that’s for sure ;-). The restaurant was quite an interesting place – situated in an old villa, kind of like an oasis of class stuck between car dealerships and warehouses at the outskirts of Nantes. Several delicious courses, several glasses of wine and a fair bit of chocolate cake ensued – what else can one ask for? And the godsons got their pressies, of course.
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With our stomachs well filled and our minds content, we bade everybody farewell and then waited for Aude and Magaye (who also live in Nantes) to pick us up. They took us down to the city centre, where we ended up parking the car in the middle of a Breton nationalist demonstration (Nantes is kind of just outside Bretagne). From there we made our way to Le Cigale, which is something of a Nantes café institution, apparently, for a coffee and some pastries (as if we hadn’t already eaten enough…). I can see why the place is a local institution; the interiors wouldn’t look out of place in Versailles… After a pleasant walking tour of Nantes (which took in the lively old town, including the castle and cathedral) – our stomachs were growling again (well, mine was anyway), so we headed back to Aude and Magaye’s flat for a great dinner. Having filled our stomachs to the brim once more, we were chauffeured back to Nathalie’s and Patrick’s place, where we said our final goodbyes. Nico was kind enough to take us back to the hotel again.
We had to get up very early on Sunday to catch our train, which was leaving at the ungodly hour of 7:30… Nico, poor chap, was kind enough to drive us again (we really need to make all the driving he did up to him one day…). The train journey back to Antibes was surprisingly pleasant, considering it lasted 10 hours in all. I guess being a bookworm helps… I just find train travel a lot more relaxing than flying.
Anyway, it felt nice to be back home after a very eventful and important weekend. And I still feel pretty proud about now being a double godfather ;-) (I think I should even be able to remember Florian’s birthday as it’s on the 29th February – rather unusual, that…)
More photos here.
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The trip from Antibes to Paris went pretty well – I even managed to get some sleep. I was actually looking forward to spending a day in Paris – it’s been some time since my last visit. After a pleasant breakfast near Gare de Montparnasse (in a real Parisian-style bistro), we headed off into the sunshine to explore Paris. It was a glorious autumn day – we were lucky to pick a weekend when the weather on the Cote d’Azur actually seems to have been worse than elsewhere in France. After walking down Rue de Rennes, we made a quick detour to visit Saint-Sulpice. Perhaps sadly enough, the reason I wanted to go was the fact that the church featured in the Da Vinci code. We did find the famous “Rose line” featured in the book (and learnt – not much to our surprise – that the stuff in the book about the Rose line was a load of Blarney). I suppose that’s why must tourists visit the church (even now – 10 AM on a Friday, there were quite a few) – but this atmospheric and majestic church really does merit a visit. Carrying on our walk, we headed down Boulevard St-Germain and Boulevard St-Michel, where I managed to acquire a few bargain-price BD’s in the superb 2nd-hand bookstores that are a big feature of St-Michel. We then sped back to Gare Montparnasse where we met up with Ollie for a nice lunch in one of the local brasseries. Having filled our stomachs and said our goodbyes to Ollie, we did some last-minute suit shopping (er, this was due to some rather poor planning on my part…). We did eventually manage to find one big enough for me ;-). We still had time to squeeze in a visit to a photography exhibition at La Fondation de Cartier-Bresson – who is of course one of the best photographers of the 20th century. Great stuff – and the guy didn’t even use Photoshop ;-).
.JPG)
And then it was time to jump on the TGV to Nantes. That marvel of French engineering took us to Nantes in seemingly no time – in just over 2 hours. Nathalie was kind enough to pick us up at the station, and take us to their lovely house in the suburbs of Nantes. After some slight initial shyness on the part of the kids (I have to give them credit – I didn’t manage to scare them in spite of my best efforts) we all got along great, Florian and Timothe even provided some free track ‘n field action in the living room – Florian ended up with an astonishing 19 gold medals (Timothe also did pretty well though, pinching no less than 19 silver ones!). A few tasty pizzas later, Nathalie’s brother Nico took us and Kathryn, an Australian ex-colleague of Nathalie’s from her days in the UK, back to our apartment hotel..JPG)
Saturday was the big day for all of us! So up we got bright ‘n early, and sped down to the town hall, for the big triple ceremony (that’s right, all three boys – Florian, Timothe and Gurvan, were to be baptised). I actually had the honour to take part in a revolutionary ceremony – as the mayor (Mathilde did tell me afterwards it wasn’t really the mayor of Nantes – in spite of the fact that he fulfilled all the criteria of a French mayor. I mean he was a “well rounded”, jovial and had a tricolour band around his waist – that’s all it takes right?). I say revolutionary, since the civil baptism ceremony was actually introduced along the civil marriage during the revolution by no less than Mr. Robespierre. Anyway, the ceremony went well without any gaffes on my part – at the end of it I got a great little certificate and my proud god-son Florian got a little medal (to round up the 19 he got last night to a nice and even 20 ;-). .JPG)
As it was still too early for lunch, we were taken to acquaint ourselves with a rather special elephant. Basically it’s a huge mechanical contraption constructed by various artists and engineers in Nantes – all a bit in the spirit of Jules Verne. It really does look a bit like something out of 20,000 leagues under the sea, both on the inside and the outside. We all got to go on a ride in the thing – a most pleasant experience (but it’s not a very fast means of transport, I’ll tell you that). All I can say is – if you ever visit Nantes, do make a point of checking it out. After this it was time for the Big Meal (that’s what I like about Important Events in France – they never go cheap on the food, that’s for sure ;-). The restaurant was quite an interesting place – situated in an old villa, kind of like an oasis of class stuck between car dealerships and warehouses at the outskirts of Nantes. Several delicious courses, several glasses of wine and a fair bit of chocolate cake ensued – what else can one ask for? And the godsons got their pressies, of course. .JPG)
With our stomachs well filled and our minds content, we bade everybody farewell and then waited for Aude and Magaye (who also live in Nantes) to pick us up. They took us down to the city centre, where we ended up parking the car in the middle of a Breton nationalist demonstration (Nantes is kind of just outside Bretagne). From there we made our way to Le Cigale, which is something of a Nantes café institution, apparently, for a coffee and some pastries (as if we hadn’t already eaten enough…). I can see why the place is a local institution; the interiors wouldn’t look out of place in Versailles… After a pleasant walking tour of Nantes (which took in the lively old town, including the castle and cathedral) – our stomachs were growling again (well, mine was anyway), so we headed back to Aude and Magaye’s flat for a great dinner. Having filled our stomachs to the brim once more, we were chauffeured back to Nathalie’s and Patrick’s place, where we said our final goodbyes. Nico was kind enough to take us back to the hotel again.We had to get up very early on Sunday to catch our train, which was leaving at the ungodly hour of 7:30… Nico, poor chap, was kind enough to drive us again (we really need to make all the driving he did up to him one day…). The train journey back to Antibes was surprisingly pleasant, considering it lasted 10 hours in all. I guess being a bookworm helps… I just find train travel a lot more relaxing than flying.
Anyway, it felt nice to be back home after a very eventful and important weekend. And I still feel pretty proud about now being a double godfather ;-) (I think I should even be able to remember Florian’s birthday as it’s on the 29th February – rather unusual, that…)
More photos here.
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2 comments:
hey hey, had never seen you in a suit ;-)
Yeah, I could hardly recognise myself ;-)
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