“Warm croissants and cold bubbles”

Palpable senses like smell, touch, taste and sight resemble song and verse; all clues to a locality.

The sunrise brings the sweet buttery fragrance of warm freshly baked croissants, early bird risers meandering through cobble stoned labyrinths and the rush of the first caffeine in one of the numerous sidewalk cafes. The tease of gossamer morning mist rising from the serpentine river and the unmistakeable sight of an elegant haute couture woman walking her poodle, each hummed location.

Country France and it’s the weekend. Paris and the Champagne region of Eperney are the selected destinations. Paris is fabled for Lovers; romance fills the air with cologne. The streets are paved with golden leafed mystical warlords. Museums whose sole purpose is to honour and worship art abound. Fine food and fine wines are staples. Partaking of all the sensory delights in equal measure was a hedonist experience.

An espresso on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, reflecting on the Arc de Triomphe, watching a Gendarme orchestrating the traffic with all the skill of a maestro. Speculating on travellers and nationals drifting and converging in transit was a voyeuristic paradise, comfortable in the ordered seats of the Parisian cafes.

Entrance to the Louvre Museum is through a wide-open paved expanse of courtyard, with a glass triangle floating on the hard blocks. Looking down, the perspective and scale mirror life in a fish tank. The Louvre’s countless galleries were hushed after the honking of street life. Mona Lisa’s eyes and expression follow you around the room demanding your attention, “look at Me”, she seems to be booming. For having such a big reputation she is surprisingly small in size. Room after room of priceless masterpieces are accessible but not touchable; what a visual extravagance.

The theatrical leering gargoyles of Notre Dame were ever watchful; inside vaulted ceiling and dominating altars cautioned worshippers to silence. The Cathedral is a gothic tour de force constructed between 1163 and 1345 and renovated in the 19th century.

The evocative Eiffel Tower commands the horizon. Familiar from TV, magazines and films, it is Paris. It also offers food and wine. As a birthday celebration, it was decided to lunch there. The Michelin star rating of the “Jules Verne” restaurant confirmed the culinary excellence. Would you enjoy the chosen menu?
∑ Heavenly pastry filled with crab and prawns surrounded by a frothy sauce of delicate spices, accompanied by a silky mix of salmon and caviar, cool and smooth. Tastes and textures meet our expectations; luxurious comes to mind
∑ The signature dish was sea scallops with pork, an unexpected union. I aspire to cook like this
∑ A hushed movement signalled the arrival of the cheese cart. With expert advice the choices were made: creamy, strong and gentle, cow and goat. Where to start, the French are very good at this.

It was cheese on toast for dinner that night. I didn’t try to emulate our lunch, but it was French cheese. Oh and did I forget a little bottle of French bubbles, with chocolates for desert.

Next door to the hotel was the oldest chocolate shop in Paris, “Debauve and Gallais” founded in 1800, merchant to the King of France. As you walked into the shop, tastebuds quivered; all the eye and nose could detect was chocolate; luxurious velvety shapes and colours flaunted to perfection. Price is on weight at EUR 100, 000 per tonne (approx USD 150, 000).

The works of Monet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh to name a few of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists were represented at the Musee D’Orsay. Beautiful, iconic in colour and style, superlatives cannot describe such fantastic works. The Musee is housed in a restored railway station; it was a work of art in itself. The combination of art and history was irresistible.

Following Louis X1V’s example we journey by train rather than coach to Versailles for an afternoon stroll through the celebrated gardens crammed with imperial marble statues, lakes festooned with rowboats and boulevards back-dropped by the stunning summer residence. The serenity of the gardens provided a welcome relaxation.

Parts of Paris offer a living history. Tour D’Argent, which began life in 1582, is the oldest restaurant in Paris. Duels were fought there to obtain a table. Dinner is still impossible unless you book months in advance; fortunately we did not have to duel for a lunch reservation. During the Third Republic (before 1914), the ritual of the “Canard au Sang” was created, it was decreed that each duck would bear a number, which continues to this day. Duck number 1,035,438 had our name on it. The owner Claude Terrail is quoted: “Nothing is more serious than pleasure”. I think we are devotees, or at least foodies. We were in heaven with more bubbles to celebrate our participation in this living history.

Being of the firm belief that French Champagne is one of Life’s pleasure; we sought more pleasure and headed to Eperney for our last night in France to offer our services for quality control in the Champagne region.

Maintaining the weekend’s theme of leisure and pleasure, overnight was in a former coach house “Le Royal Champagne” part of the Relais and Chateaux group. The vales and lees ended in valley floors of green grape vines and rusty brown village dwellings, the light played among the vines, giving them sparkle and fizz.

In the village of Epernay the various Champagne houses have carved their cellars from the limestone where they turn nature into liquid gold. The 17 miles of caves at Moet and Chandon are 250 years old. Mysterious dark mazes filled with bubbles at various stages of effervescences and aromas. Would Madam care to taste the final product? With a suitable pause, then “Yes Please!!” Not sure, we may need a second; oh but “that is your third”, oh dear!!

Streets bustle, the language lilts, the urban scape stuns, the art is like sunshine and rain, the food heavenly and the wine sings. Confidence and proud, France dazzles the senses.

Cambodia: Ancient and Mystical

Books!!!! In particular books on Ancient History are an ideal way to explore the world. Just focus on the words, liberate your imagination and the pages can take you to exotic foreign shores.

The antediluvian pages echoed of ancient parchment, like old bones they creaked. Opening the classification “Angkor period” (9th to 15th centuries), the settled dust formed a small cloud as it mushroomed into the present. The history lesson commences with a turn of the pages.

Cambodia has been found and is eager to share its temples, gentle religion, charming people and enchantments. This land has an old history, a brutal recent past and a bright future. Jumbos laden with tourist are disembarking to discover the appeal and astonishment of Angkor Wat and its many temples.

Volume 4 Page 4: Angkor Wat. It is hard not to be awe struck when there it is before you, the shrine in all its splendour, believed to be the world’s largest religious building. The main temple of Angkor Wat is big and imposing but it is more - one is left with a sense of another dimension. Built during a time when religious beliefs and tomb building tributes to the Gods and King required ostentatious statements.

Angkor Wat is a jaw-dropping sight as your eye travels across the bridge over a watery moat to an extended stone walled perimeter, which surrounds the whole temple, 1.5km by 1.3km. Looking up behind the outer limits there is a central square platform with the tallest of a series of pinnacles visible; corner and side layered towers complete the symmetry. Crossing the Cruciform Terrace into the central structure and past the Gallery of a Thousand Buddha’s, you are into the soul of the temple.

The heart of Angkor Wat houses many carvings of heavenly nymphs (Apsaras). There are hundreds of these beguiling delineations; the details are exquisite, illustrated by fascinating decorative flourishes. You climb the layered towers via steep stairs. As you near the top the angle of ascent is so sharp climbers find they are crawling vertically; it is only near the top they realise the descent may be tricky. This part of the Wat is busy with Monks and many visitors all-marvelling at the astonishing structure.

Elder women dressed in white with close-cropped hair attended the shrouded Buddha’s. An exotic assortment of objects, candles, flowers and food surrounds the statues. The calm and gentle action of lighting incense and making offerings to Buddha are performed with great courtesy and reverence.

The Wat is busy. It may not always be possible to find a quiet spot to sit and appreciate it. The temple of Angkor Wat is a vision that captures Cambodia’s spirit in a single illustration.

Volume 5 Page 5: Unlike Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom resembles a glorified pile of rubble from a distance but once inside magical things materialize. To enter Angkor Thom some 10 km2 in extent, entry is via the south gate past 54 gods and 54 demons on either side of the causeway. The fortified city has at its centre the Bayon temple, three levels containing 1.2 km of extraordinary bas-reliefs incorporating more than 11,000 figures. 54 gothic like towers are decorated with 216 coldly smiling enigmatic faces of the God Avalokiteshvara. Climbing the steep stair ladders into the nooks and crannies the faces follow you, the ancient stones confront you. The temple is masked in mystery; as you clamour to the top of the towers the jungle breezes whisper the enigma. This is an ideal place to sit, contemplate and marvel at the mind-blowing structure.

Among the quiet of the monument the air is still, then movement stirs the space; a blaze of unanticipated colour amplifies the relic epoch blocks. Monks in saffron hue fabric dally; the fabric rustles unlike the tourist’s garb, adding displays of energy. Whiffs of incense catch your nostrils; the wisps take form, draughts of smoke rise towards the temple roof with ancient rituals being enacted in quiet corners.

Volume 6 Page 6: The temple of Ta Prohm, outside the east gate of Angkor Thom. Unlike other temples in this vast wonderland which have been restored, Ta Prohm is still a vestige left largely to the elements. The jungle appears to be consuming the shrine but in fact the tangle is pegged back and only the largest trees have been left in place making it manicured rather then left to natures plan. Knarled and nobbled, thick buttresses strangle the closed courtyards; fallen stone blocks are witness to nature’s relentlessness. Lichen and moss carpet some of the bas-reliefs; narrow corridors dislodged by the onslaught of tree roots. Ta Prohm had its 15 seconds of fame when it was featured in the film “Tomb Raider” staring Angelina Jolie, an atmospheric ruin.

Volume 7 Page 7: Preah Khan is a wonderful place to wander without the masses. Vaulted corridors and maze like spaces, lichen covered stonework proliferates; uncluttered altars appear milky with candle wax. Thick square doorframes and corridors repeated endlessly entice you into their spaces. Deserted and razed by time, heavy humid heat sits weighty in the still air; audible silence broken only by the intermittent rustle of the leaves, the roots of their hosts steadily enveloping the building blocks eventually crushing them back into pebbles, the stones returning to the earth where they rested eons before.

Volume 8 Page 8: Banteay Srei is considered to be the jewel in the crown of Angkorian art. Unlike its contemporaries, is pinkish in hue and awash with the finest stone carvings seen anywhere on the planet. The elaborate carvings are too fine to be crafted by the hand of a man and legend has it the temple was built by women; Banteay Srei means “Citadel of the Women”. Almost every inch of the interior buildings are decorated with ancient customs chiselled into the stones.

The ancient Buddha beckoned, the ritual began; the saffron robed monk filled the bowl from the water barrel, the two women sat on the stairs of the temple, hands joined in prayer, peaceful expressions softened their facial features. The water symbolizing purification was poured over their heads and bodies, soon they were drenched but this did not seem to dampen their serenity. One of the ladies saw us watching and smiled a gentle acknowledgement sharing her tranquil state of being.

Closing the encrusted history manuscript leaving behind legends and treasures one is returned to the present. Daily thoughts have been washed away by a saga, richly portrayed and represented by the temples of Angkor Wat.