Travel Biography Photo Extravaganza - Part 7.

 Introduction to France 1985.

You may envision a Traveller as someone who lives in the UK and journeys halfway around the world to penetrate deep into the Amazon jungle, explore Victoria Falls, or reach the heartland of Australia. However, if you're at a location away from home, then you must have travelled one way or another to get there. As a young boy, a short walk around the corner on my own to the groceries to fulfil an errand was an adventure in itself.

Lately, I have watched videos of individuals on YouTube backpacking around the world equipped with a video camera and a laptop shooting locations which I have found boring and uninteresting. For example, a rundown settlement in Egypt, away from the tourist spots, might be a long distance from his Californian home, but I would never spend time and money to shoot a video on a street of dilapidated buildings, a rubbish dump or even litter scattered around. Yet, one lone traveller whose videos appear frequently has one of the highest numbers of views in the overseas backpacking category - even if through boredom I have known to turn off the video barely halfway through. Yet, it's not so much the location he's filming that has made him so popular as the professional way he presents himself.

What I am saying is, that for interesting or inspirational locations, distance becomes irrelevant. France, our nearest neighbour, is one example which is featured this week. Where I live, which is in Bracknell, is just 30 miles, or 48 km west of London. Paris is nearer to my home than the whole of Scotland, yet I wouldn't say that I'm abroad or overseas if I'm in Scotland. Yet, that was still the case in France, even on the north coast. Indeed, I still needed to show my passport just to cross the Channel.

Unfortunately, there is so much beauty in France that I never got around to visiting. And that was because I was unaware of its existence. One example of this is the Calanques National Park near Marseille. However, having visited Cinque Terre and the mountains of Lake Como, I could say that northern Italy has given the southern French coast a good run for its money!

In this extravaganza, I'm concentrating on the 1985 holiday, even if I paid a visit to France in 1983. In 1985, I took a train from London Victoria which stopped at Newhaven in Sussex. From there, I boarded a ferry for a four-hour cross-Channel sailing to Dieppe. I then boarded a waiting train to alight at Rouen and found a suitable hotel in the city centre. From there, I returned to spend a day at Dieppe and also took an express train to Paris Gare Lazare. It's also worth noting that since 1994, the Dieppe Harbour line passing through Dieppe Central Station, no longer exists. It was closed down and in 1995, the Harbour Station was demolished, and Dieppe Central is now the terminus of the line from Paris.

Rouen is famed for being the site of the execution of Joan of Arc for leading a battle against the English invaders during the Hundred-Year War. She was burned as a heretic at the stake in Rouen in 1431, and a modern-looking church, built to resemble the bow of a ship, now stands in its place. One of the attractions I visited in Rouen was the Musee Jeanne d'Arc. In contrast, swimming in the indoor pool of the city's Leisure Centre, built on the Ille Lacroix on the River Seine, took up an afternoon.

In Paris, I spent time on the viewing platform of the Eifel Tower until dusk. I also walked through a 1.5-kilometre-long underground tunnel leading to the Paris Catacombs. Here, human skulls and countless femur bones of six million Parisians in the ossuary were less unsettling than the mummified corpses of the Capuchin Catacombs in Sicily, so I include them here. As with other venues, I was alone here as well.

By vivid contrast, the Church of the Sacred Heart is a brilliant white edifice that overlooks the whole city and could be seen from just about anywhere, no matter where I was.

As I wrote before, I hope you'll enjoy browsing through these 53 pics. As before, they were taken from slides through a viewer. A rather primitive method, I agree. But at least it worked.

Click here for the Biography Index where the appropriate week of the main Travel Biography is accessed.

Slide Photos of France 1985.

Dieppe Ferry Harbour.

A Ferry leaves Dieppe for Newhaven.

A Ferry in Dock, Dieppe.

Ferry watching, Dieppe.

The boat train at Dieppe Harbour, as it was in 1985.

Rouen.

The Church of Joan of Arc.

Eglis di Jeanne d'Arc

Interior of the church.

Rouen City Centre.

Joan of Arc waxwork, Musee de Jeanne d'Arc.

Jeanne d'Arc.

The execution of Jeanne d'Arc.

River Seine, Rouen.

Relaxing by the river.

View of Rouen from Cote Sainte Catherine.

View of Rouen from Cote Sainte Catherine.

View of Rouen Leisure Centre.

Paris.

The Notre Dame, Paris.

At the Notre Dame

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.

Notre Dame interior.

An Italian in Paris.

Notre Dame is seen at a distance.

Arch of Triumph.

 The Unknown Soldier Memorial, Arch of Triumph.

View of the Champ Elysee from Arch of Triumph.

Night view of the Trocadero.

The Seine from the Eifel Tower

The Seine from the Eifel Tower.

The Trocadero seen from the Eifel Tower.

A Stadium at dusk.

I find myself walking through a mile-long tunnel.

The tunnel runs under the streets of Paris.

A carving on the wall of the tunnel.

The tunnel continued on until...

I arrived at the Paris Catacombs.

An ossuary of bones from 6,000,000 people.

The tunnels were originally a stone mine...

Before they were used as catacombs in the 18th Century.

North of the city is the Church of the Sacred Heart.

Posing, Eglis Sacre Coeur

O, those were the days...

Facing towards the city from Sacre Coeur.

A Gargoyle at Sacre Coeur.

Interior of Sacre Coeur.

The Pompidou Centre, Paris.

At the Centre.

Inside the escalators. In the centre is Eglis Sacre Coeur.

The escalators are also a lookout.

View from the escalator lookout.

Fontaine Stravinsky.

Fontaine Stravinsky is next to the Pompidou Centre.

An Escapologist makes an effort...

And he finally breaks free.

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An error occurred during preparation. The image of the Pompidou Centre is back to front. I apologise.

Next Week: The End-to-End Cycle Ride of Great Britain.