We had an absolute ball, so thanks to everyone who contributed to our travel fund!!

Here are our final thoughts:

KRISTIAN's......

Favourite place/s: Amsterdam,Great city, easy to get around with everything from great galleries to liberal drug laws(something for everyone) and everyone speaks English which makes all the more easy to get around.
Cinque Terre, Beautiful place to relax and unwind

Favourite experience/s:
Not one but all the different food we got to eat and see in the markets, Especially Tokyo Fish Market
Wandering about Dijon

Most interesting experience:
Hard to pick one, the whole trip was one big interesting experiance

Least favourite place/experience:
Lyon, not through any fault of their own, just bad timing and not having booked accommodation ahead of time.
Nice, having to climb up the huge hill to our hostel in the pouring rain and ending up with a cold.

Best food experience: Between, La Rochelle (Iron Chef Sakai's Restaurant in Tokyo) and L'isle Sonnante in Avignon (Baby Ravioli topped with perfectly cooked Fois Grais, Heaven)
Chocolate shop in Venice

Best gallery: Georges Pompidou, fourth floor was very average but the fifth floor was amazing (The best of modern art from Piccasso, Kandinsky, Dali, Matisse etc etc)
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, again as above

Best activity:The whole trip, too hard to single out one, maybe further down the track when i can digest it all a bit more.

Prettiest scenery:Cinque Terre, The Cottswolds, Tuscany

Best accommodation:Apartment in Florence

Any regrets?:Never have any regrets!

Place most likely to return to: Amsterdam, Tokyo

JANE's......

Favourite place/s: Florence (Tuscany)

Favourite experience/s: Swimming in the clear waters of Cinque Terre; Eating in Iron Chef Restaurants; being with Kristian for 6.5 weeks straight!

Most interesting experience: Tokyo (as it was the most 'foreign' country we went to) and Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Least favourite place/experience: Nice! The French Riviera is so overrated and vacuous; living out of a suitcase and not having my hair straightener!; Waiting in train queues in France!

Best food experience: Kristian's prosciutto, pesto and mozzarella pasta in Cinque Terre and L'Isle Sonnante in Avignon; Market produce in France; chocky in Venice; Gelati from Vivoli in Florence

Best gallery: Georges Pompidou in Paris and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Best activity: Driving through the villages of Provence; strolling through Dijon; shopping in Florence; Driving through England with Mike; Market hopping in France

Prettiest scenery: Costwalds, Tuscany, Provence.

Best accommodation: Mikey's house and the apartment in Florence.

Any regrets? Not doing Karaoke and bars in Tokyo.

Place most likely to return to: Italy and Japan....because I didn't get to see enough!

written by  JaneandKristian on October 27, 2007 from Melbourne, Australia
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged Melbourne
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However, we loved every minute of Tokyo and wished we had more time!

We were very very tired during the trip - Kristian particularly, which meant that unfortunately, Jane's dream of reenacting part of Lost in Translation (and in the process somehow morphing into Scarlett Johanssen) didn't happen - no crazy nights in Roppongi in crazy bars and karaoke. And if Kristian doesn't feel up to going to a bar after dinner, you KNOW he must be tired.

The people in Tokyo were SO friendly - I can't state this more. Not only helping if we were looking at a map puzzled, but doing so despite our lack of Japanese language skills (and lack of ability to consult a phrase book due to phrase book burnout), but going out of their way to find information for us.

We stayed in a lovely older style neighbourhood - called Ueno, right near a large park. We stayed in a traditional Japanese Inn, so got to experience the flat beds and, best of all, the hot Japanese baths! Jane wants one installed at once!

Our Japanese room

Ueno park

Jane was once again Queen of the Metro, and what a great system - so clean and efficient.

Everyone is very orderly in Japan - there are lines where you stand to queue up to board the train - no pushing and shoving. And no-one talks on their mobile on the train etc. Everything is explained A LOT - ie the whole train journey contains Japanese commentary that MUST have been saying more than just "the next stop is...." - we're not sure what though.

Subway

The one strange thing amongst all of this efficiency is the address system - there is none! Well none that is logical. There are no sequential street numbers. If you are lucky enough to have the street name phonetically spelt, the numbers are to do with the district, the block and the building - but the building numbers go in the order they were built! VERY annoying. We were SO proud of ourselves, when we found this particular Soba noodle restaurant - it was a little brown house amongst tall buildings and we only had a sketchy map - what an achievement.

Sensational soba

The most fabulous find was that so many restaurants have those plastic replicas of food in their window. You see some in Chinatown in Melbourne, but it's EVERYWHERE in Japan. Jane wanted to bring a bowl of something home but they are actually very very expensive, so she settled for a couple of magnets!

Plastic food!

Plastic food!

We, of course, went to two Iron Chef restaurants and Jane giggled like a school girl when she got a Chen Kenichi souvenir pin! The view from Sakai's restaurant on the 32nd floor of the Cross Tower in Shibuya was fabulous!

Chen's restaurant

View from Cross Tower 32nd floor

Sakai's restaurant foyer

We got up for the crazy fish markets, just missing the tuna auction - but still seeing the frozen bodies on the floor and the general craziness!

Fish auctions

We really just wondered to different neighbourhoods in a daze, such as Ginza, Asakusa, Electric Town - we couldn't do the fabulous museums etc, or a day trip to Kyoto or anything really - but we loved it - the crazy shops, the Harajuku girls, the strange audio and visual assault amongst this orderly and polite place.

Shibuya by night

"daikon" building (Jane's name for it)

Temple shopping strip, Asakusa

It really wasn't as crowded as we expected.

HIGHLIGHTS: Iron Chef restaurants, the food (!), Japanese baths, the people, the plastic food, the architecture.

LOWLIGHTS: The address system, being tired.

INTERESTING FACTS: When the Americans were present in Japan for awhile after the war, they tried to bring some logic to the address system, which was promptly removed when they left!

USELESS INFORMATION: Too tired to think of any!

written by  JaneandKristian on October 23, 2007 from Tokyo, Japan
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged Tokyo
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Brekky

It was SO nice being met by someone and not having to carry our luggage and figure out maps etc. Mikey drove us to his lovely flat in Wimbledon Park (yes, Jane has been looking out for wombles - no luck yet).

We had decided to come to London a bit early, partly because of travel fatigue, partly because of severely reduced funds.

No rest for the wicked though, as coming early meant that Mikey wanted to take us to see a little bit of England for the weekend. Ironically Jane has seen more of England than Mikey - after a month in the UK in 1999.

For our England "mini break" We all headed off to Bath, with the aim of Mike's new Tom Tom, where we saw the fabulous Abbey and amazing roman baths. We toured the Cotswald villages and went to Blenheim Palace (home of the drunken looking Duke of Malborough). They are so picturesque! We then headed back to London town (oh god how to people here cope with the traffic). Jane insisted on playing English folk music in the car - good old Steeleye Span!

Roman Baths

Bath Abbey at night

Strolling through the Cotswolds

Mikey gets attacked!

Beautiful friends at the B&B

Lower Slaughter

Strolling through Moreton on Marsh

Arboretum in Moreton on Marsh

Beautiful autumn colour in Moreton on Marsh

More beautiful stuff

Arboretum in Moreton on Marsh

Sheepy

Alfie the Owl

Moocows!

Blenheim Palace

The boys approaching Blenheim Palace

Mike then took us on a whirlwind "London in two days" tour, including Fortnum and Mason (for Jane to get excited about), Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace, St James' Park, Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben ("Look kids Big Ben" was mentioned a lot for all of you European Vacation movie fans), the Tate Modern, the Sloane Museum, the Tower of London and the London Eye. Don't worry - some of these things were literally just walking past them, but this was not a tour for the faint-hearted - Mister Mike is a hard taskmaster!

Strolling in St James' Park

Approaching Buckingham Palace

Look Kids Big Ben

Tower Bridge

Off to the Tower!

Diamonds are foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr - 23 million worth of diamonds!

We also went to the theatre and saw a great comedy called Boeing Boeing. We had a few drinks in the pub afterwards and the whole cast was there, which was great. Mikey put his fantastic accents to work, as one of the characters was a crazy German woman so they both did accents together which was very funny - he was born to be on the stage!

Wednesday was a well-deserved rest day, hence all of the blogging! Kristian cooked a fab roast chicken!

Roast chicken at Mike's

We caught up with Jane's step brother Steve on Monday night for a fantastic dinner in a converted warehouse in East London, complete with an interesting movie installation downstairs. So much fun and lots of great cocktails -thanks Steve!

Last day we did Camden Town, which was great. Kristian found some great tops (finally actually bought something!!) We had a great night at Mike's local with some of his mates for our final night AND J&K beat a couple of guys in pool who thought they were really good! HA!

Camden town

We can't thank Mike enough for his generosity. If it wasn't for his sponsorship, we wouldn't have been able to stay in the UK for a whole week!

At the airport

HIGHLIGHTS: Staying with Mike and catching up with Steve, England "mini break", the Autumn leaves in the countryside, Roast beef in Burford, strolling around London, the London eye (such great views particularly of the Houses of Parliament), going to the theatre, history of England (ie Bath, Blenheim).

Fabulous roast beef and yorkshire pud in Burford

London City Tour

LOWLIGHTS: Prices, not enough time.

INTERESTING FACTS: London is bloody expensive! Thank god for Hotel de Mikey!

USELESS INFORMATION: We love the names in England. Some of the Cotswald villages included Bourton on the Water, Burford, Stow on the Wold, Moreton on the Marsh - you get the picture. My favourite is Upper Slaugther and Lower Slaughter. Even better was Wapping - pronounced Whopping and Tooting Broadway!

Both J&K were thrilled to have a cooked English breakfast! We missed it!

written by  JaneandKristian on October 17, 2007 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged London and England
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We found that after the magnificence of Florence, Venice had a much different character. Because we weren't there in peak tourist season, we were lucky enough to explore the little back lanes and canals without too many other people and this gave things a distinctly eery character at times.

Venice streets

We actually stayed on the mainland to save money, but it really worked out well. We were walking distance to the train and the bus and in 5 minutes or so we arrived at the island each day.

We had both just read the Donna Leon book "Death at La Fenice", which gives great descriptions of the city. Jane, being the juvenile person that she is, then pretended that everywhere we saw an Italian man in a bone coloured trench coat that this was the book's main character, Inspector Brunetti. Jane found this incredibly amusing - Kristian no doubt found it immensely embarrassing!

La Fenice

La Fenice

As we aren't such fans of religious art, we decided to do a few different things in Venice. The first was to get lost in the streets - just wander around and then just pop out wherever. Actually that's really just normal!! We did a tour of the Jewish ghetto, which was very interesting. We did a quick tour of the Opera House (again Jane was searching around La Fenice as though she was solving the murder in the Donna Leon book) and we avoided the over-priced gondola ride.

We went to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, which was another great museum featuring some impressive work within the home that Peggy lived in herself - with her voracious appetite for both the art and the artists (so the story goes). It was also really interesting to see where this interesting woman lived and very sad to see some of the wonderful artwork of her only daughter, who died under "mysterious" circumstances.

We of course visited St Mark's Square and basilica and watched in amusement and people handled the pigeons, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they will now probably have salmonella for days!

The cat amongst the pigeons

St Marks square

The grand canal

St Mark's in all its grotesqueness!

St Mark's

For us, the 2 days was really enough, but with more money and perhaps if we were at the beginning of our trip, another couple of days would have been nice!

HIGHLIGHTS:

Glass blowing at Murano

Gorgeous glass miniatures - ballet, singers and orchestra!

2. FOOD (but see lowlights below). It does seem strange to have food as a highlight and lowlight, but there you go! We had heard that Venice is not particularly known as a 'foody' area and that tourists are really ripped off. However, we found the most fabulous pasta in a little "Osteria" (a bar that does little tapas dishes and some main dishes) - it truly was divine - home made taglietelli with a ragu sauce, with an octopus apetizer. We also found the BEST chocolate shop we have ever been to. So much so that on our last day, we crawled around Venice retracing our steps to find it again!

Best chocky shop in the world!

Jane was particularly fond of the little triangular and pinwheel shaped sandwiches in Venice. They really are divine - ham with an olive mayonaise or just a little mini roll with lovely salami and cheese. Again, Australia take note! And yes, it goes without saying that it's a sad state of affairs when a coffee from the local train station tastes just as a good as one in a cafe in Melbourne.

3. EERY CANALS. There really is something amazing about the 'streets' of Venice and something very sad about the fact that our children probably won't get to see it!

The winding canals

4. SHOPS - Nothing Jane could afford to buy, but some seriously divine shoes and clothes in this place!

LOWLIGHTS:

1. FOOD - Yep we fell victims again, not just of a guide book recommended place, but of a place recommended to us by two English people we met in Aix-En-Provence! This was seriously the worst treatment. All of the tourists were in one room and the Italians the other and seriously - the food was so ordinary and overpriced and we just knew it wasn't what the italians were being served and then of course there's the Venetian's service tax, table tax, dumb tourist tax etc. We ended up having one dinner at a chain diner in desparation!

INTERESTING FACTS: The Jews were not allowed to use marble to build their synagogue in Venice, so they used a pretend marble product called marbelina. Marbelina is now actually very rare and very sought after! GO JEWS!

Some of the floors in Venice are divine (yes I'm my father's daughter). I'm not sure of the material, but really stunning.

amazing floor

USELESS INFORMATION: Jane is now SOOOOO fat. You would think that writing this blogs and realising that it's sounding like a food review would be a hint. Let's just say this - the jeans that were bought a little while ago and were "falling off" and which lead to buying a second even smaller pair are now just "snug" and the second smaller pair and rather tight and now sitting at the bottom of the case. Jane will now be placed on her diet again before she returns and she is looking forward to getting back to a routine that does not involve eating at every opportunity!!!

Off to the UK to stay with Mikeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

written by  JaneandKristian on October 11, 2007 from Venice, Italy
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged Venice
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Well this really is a magnificent city! We had 2.5 days in Florence (NOT ENOUGH) and then a day trip to each of Siena and San Gigmignano to get a little taste of provincial Tuscany. It was all divine and we really wish we could have taken our time from the French Riviera and transferred it across to Italy - Nice really is a vacuous waste of space! (yes Jane's still bitter)

Magnificent Duomo

Our Apartment

Up until this point, we really hadn't done much shopping. Partly because we were so busy sight seeing, partly because we didn't want to lug things around with us! (Poor Kristian has already been carting Jane's heavier bag around and Jane his lighter one!) But this place is a shopper's dream!!!

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. SHOPPING - Beautiful Florentine paper, leather shops, fashion etc, as well as lots of markets full of crappy stuff! So many great shopping districts - jewellery at Ponte Vecchio, cute vintage stores around Palazzo Pitti, leather in Santa Croce (although a lot of it was a little generic to be honest)....

Santa Maria Novella Church

2. ART AND ARCHITECTURE - We really aren't into religious art, but it doesn't really matter. The whole place is just full of magnificent and interesting buildings all around and all within walking distance. You can stroll through one lovely square after another.

Piazzo della Signoria

Ponte Vecchio itself

At Ponte Vecchio

Seeing the David statue for the first time from the end of a long hallway really did take our breath away. The Uffizi again is something that can be appreciated even if it's not 'your' sort of art. It was worth going for the Bottecellis alone! (Tip: Do what we did and book your places at major museums in advance by phone so that you wait in the queue for 15 minutes and not 4 or 5 hours!)

3. VIEWS OVER FLORENCE (including from PIAZZA MICHAELANGELO)

Ponte Vecchio - picture perfect!

4. GELATI GELATI GELATI

Meringue Semi Freddo from Vivoli!

5. SURROUNDING TUSCAN TOWNS

Siena and San Gimigniano really are divine. An easy day trip (cf: Provence) they combine amazing history, beautiful food (including wild boar pasta and traditional Tuscan bread soup) and of course lovely shops! The Duomo at Siena truly is the most amazing building I think we'd seen to date (well perhaps Ste Chapelle in Paris is joint).

Stunning Siena

Duomo Siena

Magnificent Duomo

San Gimigniano

Duomo Siena

Rolling hills of Tuscany

6. DAY TIME TIPSYNESS - K has always liked a daytime tipple, but Jane has found that in France and Italy getting a little pissed during the day is really good - much better than in Australia. Vermouth is everywhere and very chic, which of course makes Jane chic and even 'house' wine in Italy is good - no throat closing over phenomenon!

LOWLIGHTS: Not many, but the Menu Turistico phenomenon was a major one! We actually walked out of a restaurant in Florence because of the apalling food. Even though we had read the guide books warning us that there is often one menu for tourists and one for Italians, we weren't quite prepared for this! Obviously no-one who likes their food will eat in the main tourist traps on any main drag in Europe, but this one had been recommended and seemed very busy with Italians too. We watched while the Italians behind us got served magnificent home made ravioli from platters, while we had what seemed like frozen tortellini, followed by K receiving three shrivelled up fatty pieces of lamb (the size of a twenty cent piece) with soggy chips!!!! American tourists have a lot to answer for! Food was incredibly expensive too, so once again we cooked and K made the most amazing roast pork in a tiny little toaster oven!! Supermarket pork and it was stunning (I won't go on again about the travesty that is Australian "new age" pork!)

Roast Pork a la Kristian

INTERESTING FACTS: Italy is so clean! We found it funny enough to watch people in France blatantly waste water by washing down everything they possibly could all the time, but Italian trains and streets and bathrooms etc were all really clean.

USELESS INFORMATION: Italian train ticket machines are fabulous! Unlike the stupid French ones, which only take local credit cards and no money, they take money so we could avoid the ridiculous queues we had to stand in to get on French trains!

We both found it freaky to hear little children speaking in Italian. It's quite a harsh language and it made them all sound like little men and women, particularly if they were whining at their parents. Absolutely hysterical!

Dogs in Europe are not friendly! Seriously! If you call a dog or go over to one to pat them, they really aren't interested in you. In Oz and the UK they are normal and friendly - perhaps a reflection on their owners' more restrained nature?

written by  JaneandKristian on October 9, 2007 from Florence, Italy
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged Florence
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Riomaggiore

Peaceful Vernazza

First comment - there are so many Australians in Europe! We have noticed this everywhere of course, but particularly in Cinque Terre, because here are some of the smallest little places we have ever been to and all we hear is "oh gees Lorraine isn't that view nooooiiiice!"

Anyway, cultural cringes aside, this really is a lovely spot. We really need a break and some relaxation time. Yes, it is meant to be for hikers but hey! who says you have to follow the crowd?

Looking back at Riomaggiore

We stayed in an apartment in Riomaggiore, the 'biggest' of the 5 lands. It really consists of one main street, a marina area and a beach. The houses are all tall pastel coloured buildings that are worn from the sea and the sun and each land has little fishing boats that go out and return each day. However, naturally the main industry these days in tourism and you can tell! It's not crowded but once you take the English speakers out you can tell how sleepy it really is.

Kitties

We stayed in a lovely kitsch apartment, so we got to cook a little to save money (yes by this point we had realised how poor we had become)...Kristian made the BEST pesto and buffalo mozerella pasta - Liguria is famous for its pesto and it really was brilliant.

Check out K's fab pasta and the tablecloth!

Apartment

Opposite the apartment was a little bar/restaurant that stayed open until 1am (thank god for ear plugs). We had a few drinks one night and actually met some interesting people - a lovely solo traveller Emily from Richmond and two US soldiers on leave from Iraq - one of them in particular was so interesting to talk to and he loved Jane's southern accent imitation.

HIGHLIGHTS: The highest of Jane's trip to this point was probably swimming (in Kristian's undies and a singlet) in one of the pebbly beaches lovely clear water.

Beautiful clear water

Pebbly beach

Sunset at Riomaggiore

LOWLIGHTS: The locals were VERY rude on the whole - it's like they know they need the tourists but resent them at the same time.

INTERESTING FACTS: Some people actually LIKE hiking. We still haven't figured out why but apparently, this is one of the best places in the world to go hiking. Well yes, perhaps it is, but we were on holiday! We did the easy peasy walks that are completely flat and that was nice, EXCEPT for the huge stairs that no-one told me about at the end of one of the walks. And don't worry, you can get to each town by train! Once you are from Australia and have driven down the Great Ocean Road, it's hard to be blown away by ocean views. Having said that, the views would be amazing from right up into the cliffs. Years ago, the area was a farming area - and there are still some vineyards and olive groves built rights into the cliffs. Why on earth they thought that such steep slopes would make for fun farming I don't know, but to each their own!

Jane looking pleased after climbing stairs

View from the coastal walk

USELESS INFORMATION: In Cinque Terre Jane made the most amazing discovery of the trip so far. In Australia, there is a terrible conspiracy going on - we have been deprived of the full range of pre-prepared Italian deserts. Yes, we have the cassata, the Bacio and the tartufo that you can get from your Italian takeaway shop, but there is another - a coconut. It's a real half coconut shell with coconut icecream inside! How could this have been kept from us for so long John Howard???

Coconut icecream in a coconut shell!

written by  JaneandKristian on September 30, 2007 from Riomaggiore, Italy
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged CinqueTerre
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-Rain in Cannes, hail in Antibes, bad accommodation for us in the wrong location (a hostel with 20 year old Aussies that Jane had thought was a 15 minute bus ride from the train station not a HUGE walk up hill, a shuttle from the hostel and THEN a 15 minute bus ride!), Picasso museum hasn't been open for 3.5 years (thanks guide books), Kristian got a cold etc etc. Great weather for one day to see Monaco but for various reasons only ended up with 2 hours there! ARGH!

BUT - met some nice people, including the Aussie chef at the hostel. It was good to see how the other half live in Monaco and Cannes but overall not so much our sort of place.

Oh well, off to Italy!

written by  JaneandKristian on September 29, 2007 from Nice, France
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged Nice
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Kristian in our Avignon hotel

This is how good the weather is!

We had a week all up and we could have spent longer! We only really had one full day in lovely Avignon by the time we got our bearings, so we did the bridge of course and the fantastic Palais de Papes - quite amazing that you get so much access into this interesting building.

Jane gives the Papal wave

Sur le pont d'avignon.....la la la la

K at the Palais des Papes

Avignon is a lovely blend of old and new - the amazing roman ruins and building combined with modern shops etc - the clothes shops were great (but Jane resisted out of poverty), but like so many places we have encountered in France there is a lot of construction going on, which is fair enough but it can spoil the peace a bit! It has a great vibe though and our hotel was in a fantastic position.

Breakfast at Place Pie

On the carousel

We had the best meal we have had, not only in France but also full stop for awhile at a Michelin Guide restaurant called Isle Sonnante in Avignon. Jane had the "Au Retour de marche" menu, which is put together on a daily basis after the chef has returned from the market. Jane has decided that Kristian is going to cook like this from now on (in fact see our own meal after returning from the market in Aix below)! Kristian had a fantastic ravioli with fois gras.

The best restaurant in France....for us

Jane spent a frustrating afternoon trying to figure out what could be done using the local bus system and the answer to that is not much! Fair enough that many of these villages probably don't want to be overrun by tourists but we were determined not to spend a fortune on ridiculous minibus tours, so we didn't! We went to St Remy, Isle Sur La Sorgue Sunday morning market and to Fountaine de Vauclause - the amazing water spring. We also popped over to Villeneuve for a lazy lunch.

Pumpkins are so orange in France

Petit cochon

The beautiful clear water of Fountaine

We hired a car (at the most ridiculous expense - 200 euro all up!!!) but it allowed us to explore some of the little villages of the Luberon made famous by Peter Mayle (Bonnieux, Lacoste, Menerbes), as well as Gordes and Rousillon, which Jane has always wanted to do. You really need longer but this at least gave us a taste.

The happy couple

Looks like Oz!

Kristian makes another friend!!

Roussillon

Amazing Gordes

HIGHLIGHTS: Driving through the Luberon villages -particularly Gordes and Roussillon; Eating at Isle Sonnant; Breakfast in Avignon; Our B&B in Aix and going to the market for supplies to cook for ourselves; Isle Sur La Sorgue market and village; the weather. Les Halles food market in Avignon; Le Tinel restaurant in Bonnieux.

Les Halles market

Breakfast by the pool in Aix

Au Retour de Marche

Mushrooms a plenty

LOWLIGHTS: St Remy (we didn't feel its charm and the Van Gogh walk is a joke "here is where we think that maybe Van Gogh might have looked at some point and then painted something but we can't really tell because it's all residential now" - although there was one area that looked like his paintings!); missing Les Baux (choosing St Remy instead); construction in Avignon; public transport in Provence.

Van Gogh trail

See? It looks like the painting!

INTERESTING FACTS: French like Siestas at the best of times let alone in the 'country' - everything shuts between about 1pm and 3pm, but we kind of liked things sleepy! Jane and Kristian have been talking about wanting to buy a miniature pig for awhile, and seeing one in the market at Isle Sur La Sorgue (see petit cochon pictured above) confirmed it but Kristian wants to call him Pat (not just as in Pat the Pig but as in Pate) - Jane has said "non!" in her bad French accent.

USELESS INFORMATION: French customer service is really appalling - we have never seen so many train stations with HUGE queues and two people on while others stand around chatting. Also Jane's credit card - gold one at that - doesn't have the special chip needed to use the ticket machines so she has to stand in line grrrrrrrrrr!

(Jane wants to say at this point, in answer to a few comments about the amount of times I feature with food in these photos, that yes there are a lot of food related photos and they will continue as will the expansion of Jane's waist so it's back on the diet when she returns!)

The French do know some things about food! They cook fish so well and the strawberries here and so much better than we get. The pork is in a class of its own. K reckons that it's because they don't breed all of the fat out of them like they do in Oz. I normally don't like pork but our "plat du jour" in Vienne that was so wonderful was just roast pork in roasting juices with some peas and carrots cooked with bacon and more cooking juices and it was so tender and superb! They also take pride in their accompaniments (ie you get individual little moulded veggie sides) and their salads are so much more inventive.)

written by  JaneandKristian on September 25, 2007 from Avignon, France
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged Avignon and Provence
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Here's how the trip should have gone:

Jane making a wish on le petite couhette

Beautiful Place de Rude

We spent a lovely day in Dijon - even though it was a Sunday there were shops open and a lovely market and our very cheap and nice hotel was right near the Palais des Ducs. We sat sipping drinks in the Place de Rude (named after the sculptor not after any naughty activities) and took an historic walking tour where we learnt about the little owl - the symbol of the town etc and the activities of the Dukes of Burgundy - all with great names like Richard the Nice, John the Even Nicer. The next day we headed to Lyon for two days where we enjoyed fantastic food and the beautiful historic old town Vieux Lyon and then we took a day trip to Vienne - the sun was shining the birds were tweeting.........

Place de la Liberation

OH HANG ON NO THEY WEREN'T IT WAS A BLOODY DISASTER....This is what actually happened...

FIRST LESSON OF FIGHT CLUB.....dont book a train until you have somewhere to stay and don't go anywhere that hosting both rugby and a large convention at once (we didn't know about the latter).

Long story short, the first part of the story is true - Dijon was lovely - but as for Lyon we could not find anywhere to stay at all - and I mean at all - you may think we are exaggerating but we werent and the site of peple in the train station with their bags and grim faces said it all - If K and I hear the announcement music or Lyon train station again we may fly into a murderous rage. The tourist office said it was pretty much full up (they should have said CHANGE YOUR TICKET NOW AND STAY IN DIJON AS YOU WILL NEVER FIND A PLACE TO STAY NOT EVEN A HOSTEL BED AND ALL YOU WILL SEE ARE INTERNET CAFES WHERE YOU WILL TRY AND FIND PLACES AND PHONE BOXES WHERE YOU WILL CALL PLACES)

Lyon station not amused

We spent the night in an expensive hotel by the train station. We spent the whole rest of the day trying to find somewhere else to stay even out of town in Vienne but they seemed suprised that their little town was full too! And then it started to pour with rain not just a little but buckets and lightening. The next day the weather was awful but we had luckily secured one more night at the hotel (well lucky for their bank account). We decided to get out of Lyon and go to Vienne, a lovely little town nearby on the train. We had a lovely meal and looked at the Romanesque sites.

Vienne

Beautiful plat de jour

Vienne

Cake in Vienne

We basically then got the hell out of Lyon (but again we pass no judgement as we saw nothing of it) - in hindsight we would have been happy staying in Dijon for more time (we like little places) and going to Beaune for the day but hindsight is a wonderful thing....

We are now in Avignon so stay tuned for the South of France chapter!!

written by  JaneandKristian on September 19, 2007 from Lyon, France
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged Burgundy
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Staying in the Latin Quarter is great because it is lively and close to great train lines. Our hotel was quite good - simple but very clean and 2 minutes walk to the Metro and we had a private juliet balcony (for K to smoke out of anyway). We didn't have enough time in Paris but that's life! We packed so much in to 4.5 days but it's so expensive here that we had to make the decision to move on...

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Georges Pompidou Centre (5th Floor) - Jane could have spent hours here and Kristian enjoyed it too - Kandinsky, Dali, Matisse, Tanguy, Delaunay etc all in the one spot....superb. Can,t say the same for the 4th floor (see low lights below);

Picnic in Bois de Bolougne

Jane loves Berthillon!

Fruit at Hediard

3. Rue Mouffetard - great area and fabulous market;

Place Monge market

4. Beautiful St Chappelle - unfortunately being restored so the main Passion of the Christ window wasn't visible but absolutely the most beautiful monument in Paris

St Chapelle

Some painting...

6. THE METRO - I am Jane Queen of the Metro and I would sell my car tomorrow if we had a train system this good!

7. The Lalique shop.

LOWLIGHTS: Georges Pompidou level 4 - call us uneducated but really, the current brand of modern art is a crock! Jane is a 1900 - 1960ish girl - we wasted time TRYING to get it but we don't!; The Louvre - sorry but again just not interested - even got the tour to see if we could be; Paris is pricey; the Champs Elysee is not what it was!; French keyboards suck - stupid extra characters and letters in different positions!

INTERESTING FACTS: Police in Paris outdo the Amsterdam police being on bikes as they are on rollerblades!!!!; In Amsterdam and Paris they have a cute habit of serving gingerbread biscuits with tea - very nice - Jane is going to recommend john So bring in an ordinance making that compulsory in Melbourne cafes!; The French love the sound of their own voices (fair enough too!) so we have found ourselves watching US TV shows being dubbed - not subtitles - but dubbed - very funny!

USELESS INFORMATION: Jane can express herself in French but never understands the response!; You can virtually learn another language on the Bateaux Mouche as it's translated in so many languages!; Jane hates Becky the stupid host from CNN - the only English speaking channel in the hotel....but we loved the crazy weather girl; Believe it or not Jane forgot to bring sunscreen and managed to get burnt during a 22 degree day!

BEST LAID PLANS......Unfortunately even organised and well researched people like Jane can get it wrong from time to time.....We had the beautiful Luxembourg gardens within walking distance but a guide book had made it sound like it wasn't such a great picnic spot so we went all the way to the Bois de Boulogne only to find we were at the wrong end and considering it is about the same height as the whole map of Paris that was too bad, so our tip for a picnic is Luxembourg!!

Beautiful Luxembourg Gardens

Little boy playing sail boats

written by  JaneandKristian on September 14, 2007 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged Paris
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