Top of The Tower Views

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The Champ de Mars stretches out into the distance from the feet of the Eiffel Tower. The Champ de Mars is a large public green space, located in between the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and the École Militaire (Military School) to the southeast. The park is named after the Campus Martius ("Mars Field") in Rome, a tribute to the Roman god of war. The name also alludes to the fact that the lawns here were formerly used as drilling and marching grounds by the French military. [Source: Wikipedia... ]

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Two views of The Trocadéro, and the Palais de Chaillot, an area across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. The hill of the Trocadéro is the hill of Chaillot, a former village. For the Exposition Internationale of 1937, the old Palais du Trocadéro was demolished and replaced by the Palais de Chaillot which now tops the hill. Like the old palais, the palais de Chaillot features two wings shaped to form a wide arc, however, unlike the old palais, the wings are independent buildings and there is no central element to connect them: instead, a wide esplanade leaves an open view from the place du Trocadéro to the Eiffel Tower and beyond. [Source: Wikipedia... ]

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Left Bank view. The large building in the middle of the image is Les Invalides at Avenue du Maréchal Gallieni. Officially known as L'Hôtel national des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids), Les Invalides is a complex of buildings containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. Les Invalides also serves as the burial site for some of France's war heroes, notably Napoleon Bonaparte. [Source: Wikipedia... ]

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Eglise du Sacré Coeur (Church of The Sacred Heart), Avenue Paul Vaillant-Couturier, 94250, Gentilly. Standing at a height of over 60 meters, the Church of The Sacred Heart, was built in 1936. Originally, the church was to be part of the City International University which is directly opposite, but it has now been cut off from the University by the A6a highway. Today, the church is mostly frequented by the large Portuguese community who live in the area and who have made Paris their home. [Source: The Evene France website… ]

Not a bad photo considering I took the shot from the top of the Eiffel Tower, and the church is between five and six kilometers from the Tower as the crow flies. If you go back and look at the previous image, the church is the pale triangular smudge at the top right of the skyline!

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Another view of the Les Invalides complex.

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A couple of general views of Paris in the near vicinity of the Eiffel Tower. Note the dark triangular shadow of the Tower (pointing due East) in the lower left of the photograph immediately above. The late afternoon sun causes the shadow to reach out hundreds of yards across the River Seine.

After more than 30 years of waiting (see previous entry The Eiffel Tower – A Promise Kept). I am delighted to have finally visited this iconic structure and happy too, to have had the chance to see Paris from the unique perspective provided by the Tower. If you ever have the opportunity to make the trip to the top, I can highly recommend the experience – and the views.

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Finally, for the technically minded, all photographs were taken with my Canon PowerShot SX20 IS, and enhanced using Photoshop Elements 4.0.

Click here to see these Parisian photographs and other travel images on my Flickr page…

Palace of Versailles Gardens

Image: Plan of the chateau of Versailles and the gardens dating from 1746, by the Abbé Delagrive, geographer of the city of Paris.

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The gardens of Versailles cover 800 hectares. I don’t know who has the job of counting them, but according to Wikipedia which uses the official Château de Versailles website as its source, there are 200,000 trees on site, and 210,000 flowers are planted annually, as well as 50 fountains spraying 620 jets of water into the air. The surface area of the Grand Canal covers 23 ha., and if you want to walk the perimeter of the Grand Canal, you should be prepared for a stroll of over 5.5 km.

However, none of these facts and figures really capture the overwhelming size and scope of the grounds surrounding the main Palace building, and as I wrote in my last entry Viva la Revolution, it is while walking around these grounds and gardens that the grandeur of Versailles really overpowers you and hits home.

I spent a couple of hours walking through the grounds on a freezing winter afternoon, with the snow crunching underfoot, and a low mist hanging over the long allies and landscaped gardens. It was hard to believe that the hustle and bustle of metropolitan Paris with its 12 million inhabitants lay sprawling around the site.

The gardens of Versailles occupy part of what was once the Domaine royal de Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover some 800 hectares of land, much of which is landscaped in the classic French Garden style perfected here by André Le Nôtre. In addition to the meticulous manicured lawns, beds of flowers and sculptures, are the fountains which are located throughout the garden. Dating from the time of Louis XIV and still using much of the same network of hydraulics as was used during the Ancien Régime, the fountains contribute to making the gardens of Versailles unique. In 1979, the gardens along with the château were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, and are one of the most visited public sites in France, receiving more than six million visitors a year. [Source: Wikipedia...]

Where the main building was packed with a constant stream of visitors filing dutifully through grand halls, past royal bedchambers, and room after room filled with a priceless paintings, sculptures and other objects, the gardens were almost devoid of people or the constant presence of security personnel and other staff. I felt as if I had the whole garden complex to myself, and rarely saw or heard anyone else as I wandered down long allies, exploring side paths and small alcoves, while discovering just a small part of this incredible place.

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Image: Bosquet de la Salle de Bal, Versailles

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The World English Dictionary defines a bosquet as: (noun) a clump of small trees or bushes; thicket

The Salle de Bal (ballroom?) bosquet was designed and built between 1681–1683. It features a semi-circular cascade that forms the backdrop for this ‘green hall’. Interspersed with gilt lead flares, which supported candelabra for illumination, the Salle de Bal was inaugurated in 1683 by Louis XIV’s son, the Grand Dauphin, with a dance party.

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Image: The frozen over Bacchus Fountain in the gardens of Versailles

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The Bacchus Fountain (also called the Autumn fountain), is one of four fountains dedicated to the seasons and can be found near the Royal Walk. Bacchus, a figure of Roman mythology is said to have taught the cultivation of the vine throughout the world. He is regarded as the god of wine and drunkenness, and in this sculpture he is surrounded by small satyrs, half child and half goat.

It wasn’t until I reached the Grand Canal that I encountered people in numbers, and even then, there were nowhere near the numbers one might expect to see on a warm summer day at the height of the tourist season.

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Image: Allie du Roy (the King’s Alley), one of many that crisscross Palace grounds and gardens

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Image: The 1,500 metre long Grand Canal disappears into the distance

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It was Louis XIII who began the program to layout the gardens of Versailles in the 1630s, and it was Claude Mollet and Hilaire Masson who designed the gardens, which remained relatively unchanged until the expansion ordered under Louis XIV in the 1660s. With the aid of the architect Louis Le Vau, the painter Le Brun, and landscape architect André Le Nôtre, Louis began an embellishment and expansion program at Versailles that would keep him occupied for the remainder of his reign – as it would successive kings and rulers.

Like many of the most famous locations around Paris, you need at least two days – and preferably three – to explore the Palace of Versailles and surrounding gardens with any type of thoroughness. I was there for less than a day and never saw any of The Grand Trianon or anything of Marie-Antoinette’s estate. I missed most of the copses and groves, fountains and open-air salons, the King’s Garden, the Apollo Baths, the Ornamental Lake of The Dragon, and many other locations large and small as well as dozens of sculptures that had been covered over to protect them from the harsh winter elements.

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Image: the statue of Apollo (in the Grand Canal) trying to break out of encroaching ice!

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One could of course, make a good argument for leveling the whole site and turning the acreage into cheap public housing for those that need it most, but then people might forget the reasons for the French Revolution: the poverty and hunger; the near financial bankruptcy of the Crown following France’s involvement in the Seven Years War and its participation in the American Revolutionary War; and the perception by many French people that the Royal Court at Versailles was isolated from, and indifferent to the hardships they were facing. These are just a few of the reasons behind the upheaval leading to the revolution of 1789.

As I said in my previous entry on Versailles, I can’t think of any modern political leaders who wouldn’t love to be able to bask in the glory and opulence of a Palace like Versailles. Which is why the Palace of Versailles should be maintained and kept open to the public and visitors from all over the world – to remind them that absolute power, corrupts absolutely. And to remind them that if they are not vigilant the power elite will happily create their own versions of Versailles.

You may be thinking: But they are doing that anyway, and it is true, they are. Saddam Hussein had palaces to spare. The former Shah of Iran had his own grand palaces before he was thrown out by the Iranian revolution of 1979. No doubt, Kim Jong-il of North Korea is happily sheltered from the hungry eyes of ordinary North Koreans in one of his many citadels. President Ferdinand Marcos and his shoe fetishist wife Imelda had their own versions of Versailles amongst the poverty and corruption of the Philippines before Corazon ’Corey’ Aquino led the People Power revolution in the 1980s, that finally brought an end to their indulgences. And so it goes on.

But I say again, that is exactly why the Palace of Versailles should stay. To remind the French and the thousands of people who visit the site, that not only should they remain vigilant, but also to give them hope that together they can challenge the power elites that govern them, and that they can make a difference.

More Information

All of the factual historical information used in this and my previous entry about the Palace of Versailles is drawn from two internet sites; the Official Palace of Versailles website… and numerous pages on Wikipedia (that wonderful and indispensable online knowledge base), including the Gardens of Versailles page…

Vive La Revolution!

Image: Part of the massive main building that is the Palace of Versailles

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If you ever needed to be convinced that revolutions – even violent revolutions – are necessary, just visit the Palace of Versailles, in France. Here amongst the opulence and splendor that marked the reign of King Louis XIV (14th), and successive French rulers, the reason for revolution is writ large. Larger than large, in fact. Here is grandeur, extravagance, wealth, and sumptuousness of the highest order. No wonder then, that on the eve of the French Revolution in 1789, it was at Versailles that the citizens of Paris came to demand that Louis XVI (16th) return to Paris to face the wrath of the people.

The Palace of Versailles is a royal château in Versailles, the Île-de-France region of France. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. [Source: Wikipedia…]

The Palace of Versailles consists of 700 rooms providing around 67,000 square meters of floor space. The Palace’s collections include over 6,000 paintings, 1,500 drawings, and more than 15,000 engravings. Add to these 2,100 sculptures and around 5,200 pieces of furniture and objets d’art, and you get some idea of the size and scope of this amazing historical site.

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Image: The massive Hall of Battles at Versailles

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In room after room, luxury and indulgence seemed to be trying to outdo each other. Just when you think the fittings and decorations, the massive paintings adorning walls and ceilings couldn’t get bigger or better, they do. When you think nothing could top the massive Hall Of Battles (see photo above) and the 33 huge paintings located there depicting scenes from some of France’s greatest victories, and which also includes 82 busts of various military leaders who died in action in many of the battles depicted in the paintings; just when you think nothing can top that you walk into the equally massive Great Hall of Mirrors.

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The Great Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles. Image courtesy of Arnaud 25

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Ceiling view of the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles

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The French painter Charles Le Brun, is responsible for decorating the ceilings in the Hall of Mirrors (Galerie des Glaces), with a series of stunning paintings only equaled by his other works at Versailles in the Halls of War and Peace (Salons de la Guerreand de la Paix), and the Ambassadors' Staircase. It was not for nothing that Louis XIV declared Le Brun "the greatest French artist of all time".

The dimensions of the Hall of Mirrors' are 73.0m × 10.5m × 12.3m (239.5ft × 34.4ft × 40.4ft). The ceiling decoration is dedicated to the political policies and military victories of Louis XIV. The central panel of the ceiling, Le roi governe par lui-même (The king governs alone) alludes to the establishment of the personal reign of Louis XIV in 1661. Other panels represent the military victories of the king beginning with the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), through to the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678.

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Image: Part of just one of the many wonderful ceiling paintings at Versailles

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Images of King Louis XIV swanning his way down long passageways and through vast rooms, flash through my head. Look! Here he comes now, closely followed by a retinue of handlers, hangers-on, and assorted family members, while courtiers, foreign visitors and gawkers wait and watch to catch a glimpse of his supreme eminence.

Does he pause to admire the monumental work of Veronese called, The Feast in The House of Simon – a gift of the Viennese court? As he enters the cavernous Chapel to attend Mass (where years later, Marie-Antoinette married Louis XVI), does he stop to chat with one or two of the lesser leaders of the day, who are here to curry favor and bask in his attention – no matter how brief or cursory?

I suspect he barely gives them more than a passing glance. It is enough to know they are there, and that he has created a building large enough to house monumental works of art, as well as draw sycophants and other toady’s to his palatial home far from the Paris mob. A palace big enough to satisfy even his overblown ego. For surely that is the point of Versailles. To show that this one person has the power to call upon the greatest builders of his era to carve stone, bend and shape timber, weave giant tapestries, plant and landscape hundreds of acres of land, and to do this all at his behest with little or no regard to cost in terms of either monetary value or the human cost of this monumental construction project.

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Ceiling decorations in the Royal Chapel at Versailles. Image courtesy of Diliff

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I am not sure if we will ever see buildings like Versailles being created again. Not because we don’t have the money, but because there are so few people of vision around who could design, let alone build palaces like Versailles. And if there were? Would people allow such wanton excess? Such extravagance and splendor? It’s not just the scale of the building, but the detailed extras that have been incorporated into the design that impress and shock.

Statues and friezes, fountains and gilded furnishings, landscaped gardens, manicured lawns, broad mile-long pathways and secluded alcoves. Was there anything not included in the scope and design of Versailles? I suspect that pretty much every skill in design and artistry extant at the time the Palace was being built, was used in some way in the extensive building process that went on even after Louis XIV was long dead and gone.

Sadly, I can’t think of any modern political leaders who wouldn’t love to be able to bask in the glory and opulence of a Palace of Versailles. How it would feed their egos and pander to their vanities! How they would delight in being surrounded by fawning acolytes and supplicants seeking to curry favour and win even the briefest of passing attention.

It is exactly for this reason that places like that Palace of Versailles need to be maintained and kept open – as a reminder and proof that absolute power, corrupts absolutely. That if the people are not vigilant, if they are satisfied with bread and circuses, the power elite will happily create their own versions of Versailles, and continue to run the game exactly as they wish to.

Having toured through the Palace, you can either leave Versailles and head back to central Paris, or you can go for a walk in the grounds and gardens that surround the main building. It is here that the grandeur of Versailles really overpowers you, and it was while I was walking around the grounds that the full impact of Versailles hit home. But that’s a story for another day.

The Eiffel Tower – A Promise Kept

Image: Gustave Eiffel’s gift to the people of France and tourists the world over

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On my recent trip to Paris I finally kept a promise I have been holding myself to for over 30 years: namely that the next time I visited Paris I would go to the Eiffel Tower and make the journey to the top. The story behind that promise may be a good example of how the arrogance of youth can change as one gets older and – hopefully – wiser.

Way back in the early 1970s, when I was in my mid-20s I passed through Paris on my way back to London from Greece. I’d met a couple of other travelers on the train ride from Athens, and during our stay in Paris we went to see the Eiffel Tower.

My memory is hazy now about the exact details, but I do remember that I considered myself to be too ‘cool’ to do the standard tourist thing and actually go up the Tower. After all, it seemed such a clichéd thing to do, and even back then I was not interested in following the crowd. Of course, I was happy enough doing that other clichéd tourist activity – posing inanely before Gustave Eiffel’s Tower and getting my, “This is me in front of …” picture (a practice by the way, that I try to steer clear of now).

But then, over the years, somewhere along the way, I began to regret my decision. After all, on that 1970s trip I remember my travel companions and I did visit the Louvre, and we did go and see the Mona Lisa, and wasn’t that as much a cliché as visiting the Eiffel Tower? And just for the record, I did make another visit to Mona during my trip to Paris.

Why do we travel anyway, if not to see and experience as fully as possible the cities and locations we have chosen to visit? Going to the Louvre just to see the Mona Lisa would be a complete waste of time and money, given the effort one has to go through to actually see the painting. There are thousands of other reasons to visit the Louvre (namely the other paintings, sculptures, displays, etc), and personally I think most of them are more interesting and exciting to examine than the Mona Lisa’s whimsical smile.

The same reasoning can be used regarding the Eiffel Tower. If you are visiting just so you can cross it off your highlights list, you are missing some of the real magic of the experience. For me, that magic and wonder involves the groundbreaking feat of engineering that went into building this amazing structure, even more than the view over Paris.

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Image: The bird’s-eye view from the top of the Eiffel Tower

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Image: The Eiffel Tower would be hard enough to build today, let alone over 100 years ago!

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Gustave Eiffel was writing the book when his company designed and built the tower that honours his name, not working out of someone else’s book of instructions.

Eiffel was born in Dijon on December 15, 1832. Graduating as an engineer in 1855, he was soon hired as associate by Charles Neveu, a manufacturer of steam engines and railway equipment. It wasn’t long before Eiffel had started his own company, and for the next 20 years or so he specialized in designing and constructing a range of projects including numerous bridges, viaducts, and other major buildings. From 1881-84 Gustave Eiffel also designed and built the framework of Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty, which now stands at the entrance of New York harbour.

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Image: Gustave Eiffel ‘s metallic structure for the Statue of Liberty

Image courtesy of the Official Eiffel Tower website…

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In 1884, answering a bid to mark the centenary of the 1889 French Revolution, Gustave Eiffel, together with his associates Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, pitch their idea for the construction of the Tower.

Construction involved over 5,300 drawings, and a team of 120 workers to fit together more than 18,000 parts, weighing over 10,000 tons, using 2.5 million rivets, over a period of two years. Despite the fact that the men were working hundreds of metres above the ground, only one man died during the construction of the Tower, and that accident occurred outside of regular working hours.

As you might imagine, almost immediately after its completion, the 324 metre (1,063 ft) Tower began to attract a motley collection of adventurers and thrill seekers intent on trying to be the first to set a range of records associated with the structure. These include Santos-Dumont who, in 1901, won a prize for flying higher than the Tower in an airship, and the Count de Lambert who flew over Paris in an airplane in 1909, and around the Tower for the first time.

Sadly, in 1912, a tailor nicknamed “the bird man”, died when he jumped from the first floor using a parachute of his own design and construction, and in 1926, Léon Collot, also died when he tried to fly under the Eiffel Tower. Happily, the two paratroopers who jumped from the third floor in 1984 without permission lived to tell the tale, while in 1987, a New-Zealander performed a bungee jump – again without permission – from the second floor.

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Image: Some of the intricate steel lacing and support work at the first level

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And so it continues. A veritable circus of stair climbers and runners, motocross and mountain bike riders, wheelchair users, and yes, Ripley, believe it or not, even a circus elephant (which climbed the stairs to the first floor) have used the Eiffel Tower to add their names to the record books.

For my money, none of those noted above are a patch on Victor Lustig who in 1925 ‘sold’ the Eiffel Tower to a scrap metal merchant after convincing him that the Tower was going to be demolished. And why not? Originally, the Tower was meant to stand for just 20 years, after which it would be pulled down. The fact that it is still around 120 years later is a testament to the design and construction skills of Gustave Eiffel and his team of workers.

Today, the Eiffel Tower is the most visited fee-paying monument in the world, attracting over 7 million visitors each year. Some twenty replicas large and small can be found around the world in countries as far afield as the Poland, Denmark, Belgium, the United States, China, Japan and Dubai. Even in France itself, a 10 metre high tower weighing 3.2 tons was built for the France in Miniature Park. One can’t help but wonder whether Gustave Eiffel, who died in 1923 at the age of 91, ever in his wildest dreams thought his tower would become such an icon, not just for Paris and France, but also for the rest of the world. One that continues to reach well into the 21st century.

For all these and more reasons, I wanted finally, to visit the Eiffel Tower after more than 30 years. If I had made that journey in the early 1970s, it would have only been for the photo opportunities it would have given me. Now that I am much older, and at least a little bit wiser, I have finally honoured that promise to return, and have done so at a time when I have been able to appreciate the engineering skills that built it – as well as to take the photographs and enjoy the great views.

More information

The Official Eiffel Tower website…

The Eiffel Tower page at Wikipedia…

Paris, France

Image: The iconic Eiffel Tower late on a winter's afternoon

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Just a couple of quick photographs to let you know I haven't been asleep during my nine day sojourn in Paris. I have much to write, and will do so as time permits, but for now - as I ready myself to return to Greece - these two shots will have to do as an appetiser.

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Image: One for the romantics - Parisian sunset over the Seine

The Sound of Angels Singing

Image: Choir members taking a bow at the end of the concert
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So this is what the sound of angels singing must be like. Four and five part harmonies; soaring tenors, and deep rumbling basses, pure sopranos and sweet, sweet altos. I’m sitting in Notre-Dame Cathedral on a freezing December night listening to a concert of Marian Polyphonies of the Renaissance.

No, I don’t know what that means either, but by chance I noticed a poster pinned to a board during my visit to Notre-Dame de Paris (French, for Our Lady of Paris), and on the spur of the moment, decided to attend this performance of choral works under the expectation that no matter what language the works were sung in, they would sound spectacular – and I wasn’t disappointed.

Some of the songs performed dated back to the late 1400s, while at least two pieces were written quite recently by the French composer, Caroline Marçot who was born in 1974.

I’m assuming all of the twelve songs performed during the evening were sung in Latin, but could be wrong. It doesn’t really matter anyway. Conducted by Lionel Sow, the director of Notre-Dame’s youth and children’s choirs, the sound of the small choir of around 20 performers (children and adults), filled the cavernous heart of Notre-Dame with exquisite harmonies and fine, clear singing. It was the sound of those voices that made the performance so special, and transcended the need to know or understand what was being sung.

As you would expect, the acoustics in the Cathedral are perfect for this type of concert, and as far as I could tell, no microphones or amplification of any type was used during the night. In fact, the choir left the ‘stage’ and formed a circle right in the middle of the audience (just one or two metres from where I was sitting) to perform the last song of the evening – and the sound was indeed heavenly.

Concerts of choral works are performed on a regular basis in Notre-Dame Cathedral, so it is well worth checking the Cathedral’s website to see if your visit to Paris coincides with one of these events.

The Last Time I Saw Paris

Image: The Palace of Justice buildings overlooking the River Seine
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The last time I saw Paris, was during the summer of 1975. If I say nineteen seventy-five as quickly as possible, it doesn't seem like 35 years ago – but 35 it was! On several very brief visits to France in the early 1970s, I never spent more than a couple of days in Paris itself, so you can be sure I was looking forward to my current ten night stay in this amazing city.

Already I am overwhelmed by the possibilities. Paris is a photographers dream, as well as their nightmare. There is so much history here; so many amazing buildings, streetscapes, wonderful backdrops, and spectacular locales waiting to be photographed that one great image is immediately supplanted by another one, and many others after that. And that’s before one actually enters any of the dozens of famous museums and galleries or visits historic monuments that present tens of thousands of photographic opportunities. Millions, even.

…Image: Motorbikes and scooters disappearing under a cover of snow
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When I stepped off my flight from Athens on Friday night, the temperature was a freezing minus three degrees. I’d forgotten how cold that is, but Paris didn’t take long to remind me.

On Saturday it snowed for most of the day. That may not mean much to many readers, but it was the first time I had experience the magic of falling snow since my last winter in London in 1976! Yes, it doesn’t take much to keep me happy on a holiday as you might guess, especially since we don’t get much snow where I come from in Australia (in point of fact, we don’t get any). That’s why I was happy to slop through the streets while freezing every step of my first exploratory walk around the neighborhood surrounding the Palace Hotel, which I am calling home during my stay.

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Image: View of apartment blocks taken from the Pompidou Centre
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Its far too early to give you any sort of useable impressions, but one obvious change over the past 35 years has been the huge influx of new immigrants into France. I can’t give you a breakdown of immigrant figures, but there appear to be large numbers of Indians and Pakistanis, and migrants from former French colonies in North Africa. Then there are Lebanese migrants and of course, Asians.

I don’t know how much of that often talked about French arrogance still persists, but I suspect even that has been tempered by the new migrants who have opened businesses across the city.

For example, the small Boulangerie that I have adopted for my morning coffee and cake, turns out to be run by Lebanese (whose owner has cousins in Sydney and Melbourne, and who speak perfect English, and are happy to use it). The young woman at the Asian restaurant I ate dinner at the other night also spoke excellent English, which made me think they were originally Hong Kong Chinese. And so it goes. In the face of all these new migrants that speak at least three languages, and sometimes more, the French must surely have begun to adapt and change their attitudes to foreign nationals, and to how they communicate with them.

So far, my very limited French has got me through every important encounter where I have needed to use it, and I’ve managed to bluff my way through others when my language skills were totally deficient – which is most of the time. It’s all part of the great adventure that is international travel, and I’m looking forward to the challenges and rewards ahead.

Love The Life You Live

Image courtesy of Children At Risk Foundation (CARF Brazil)
CARF Blog...and CARF Website...
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Two years ago I made a decision that continues to challenge and push me in directions that I had always dreamed about, but never knew if I could actually achieve. I sold my house, invested the proceeds, and I’ve been trying to live off the interest and a small stipend ever since. Occasionally, I do some part-time work to help supplement my self-funded retirement, but for the most part, I manage to live on less than AU$1800 a month. In fact, right now I’m getting by on AU$1500 a month.

I do this by trying to be as disciplined as possible with purchases that are not absolutely essential. Therefore, I rarely buy CDs, DVDs, or other home entertainment treats that I used to purchase on a weekly basis. I make do with a 30 year old television that regularly flickers and distorts, but not quite to the point where it is unwatchable. I go to the movies less than I used to, but still manage to eat out once or twice a week. I could have made further savings by giving up my car and using public transport. Come to think of it, I have given up my car. I got rid of my 18 year old Toyota Camry wagon just before I left Australia at the end of June. I could save even more if I cut cappuccino’s and cake from my diet!

My one weakness (apart from coffee and cake), is books. As much as I try to not buy books, I always seem to collect more. At least 80 percent of my book buying purchases are for secondhand books which I guess helps, but still, I just can’t seem to stop myself from accumulating more.

Thankfully, I’ve never been a smoker, regular drinker, or gambler – three things guaranteed to drain your wallet faster than a Wall Street banker! The trade off for all this austerity is that I am able to travel on extended journeys that most people – even those who are retired – are unable to.

For example, as I write this I am five months into a round the world trip that included three months in the United States, two of which I spent in New York City. I am currently into my second month stay on the Greek island of Ikaria, and about to head off to Paris, France for a ten day visit, before returning to Greece.

In March I will return to Australia, but not before I make a stop in Cambodia where I will visit the temples of Angkor Wat and other sites. If I can manage it, I will also make a quick side trip to Turkey to visit the ancient ruins at Ephesus.

Of course, having places to stay at little expense helps my limited funds go a lot further than they would if I was staying at even the cheapest hotels. My New York stay involved me apartment sitting for a friend of the family. In return for a rent free, two month stay in the Big Apple, I cared for two cats, some house plants, collected the mail, and let would be burglars and other ne’er-do-wells know by my presence that the apartment was occupied and being watched over. I also stayed with relatives while travelling through the southern states of America as far as Tucson, Arizona, and I am staying with family here in Greece.

Since I’ve been on the road, I’ve taken to signing my emails, and occasional Facebook and Twitter updates with the phrase: Love the Life you Live.

And why not? I am living the life I’ve wanted to live for many years, and needless to say, I’m loving it. I have little or nothing to complain about. I am in reasonably good health, and at 62 I’m young enough and fit enough to spend hours on my feet walking the streets of New York and other cities, and old enough to not be offended by pretty much anything that comes my way. In addition, I am tolerant of other people’s opinions, broadminded, easy going, and easy to get along with.

You only get one shot at life, folks (resurrectionist and Buddhist theories aside), and there is no time like the present to start planning for the day when you too will have time to travel, or put into train your long held dreams and desires – whatever they may be.

I’ll leave you with the chorus of a new song I’m in the process of writing with the above title, in hopes it will encourage you to pursue your goals with joy and love.

You’ve got to find joy in everything you do,
Follow love and let love follow you.
Let go and remember to forgive,
Give thanks, and Love the Life you Live.
© 2010, Jim Lesses. All Rights Reserved.

Airport Taxes Be D@md!

Image: Air France A320 coming into land

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I’ve just finished booking a ten night stay in Paris, France. All my bookings were done online, and I’m happy to say the whole process was relatively quick and trouble free. But having booked a return ticket from Athens, Greece to Paris, with Air France I still feel a need to vent my spleen.

The actual cost of the flight is just €52.00euros (US$71.00). Return!

This is a bargain if ever I saw one so I have no complaints here. However. Once airport taxes and fees are added to the cost of the ticket, the price jumps to €171.64 (US$235.00)!

Don’t bother, I already have the answer – that amounts to an additional €118.64 (US$162.00) in various taxes and extra fees. Yes, that’s well over double the actual cost of the airline fee. Here’s a breakdown of those extras courtesy of Air France:

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Image: Air France Taxes and Surcharges screenshot

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If you are having trouble reading the screen shot, here are the itemized extras (in Euros):

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I’m not blaming Air France for all these ‘Taxes and Surcharges’. The figures include taxes and fees levied by Athens’ Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport as well as those by Paris’s Charles De Gaulle airport, and I have no way of knowing who gets what when the spoils are divided up between them. But the fact remains, that a cheap €52.00 euro return ticket has more than doubled due to corporate and government greed that happily continues to milk travelers for as much as they can get.

I’m not happy. Not happy at all.

What on earth is a Solidarity Tax? I don’t care if it is only one euro – I want to know what it is, and who gets it. And how does an Airport Fee differ from the Passenger terminal facility charge and the Airport development tax? And what is the Passenger service charge international anyway?

And what about those ridiculous figures? A French airport tax of 4.11? Couldn’t they round the eleven cents down to 10, and the 10.13 cent Passenger service charge international up to 15? Imagine how many croissants the could buy with all those extra millions of 1 cents collected. Yes, I am being sarcastic.

This is patently ridiculous. Imagine how much cheaper air travel would be all over the world if taxes like these were done away with. Ok, that’s expecting too much. Halved, then. Imagine how much cheaper air travel would be all over the world if taxes like these were halved.

Surely someone, somewhere has done the sums on this. Surely, people would travel more if the costs were cheaper. As a case in point, take myself. I would love to visit several other countries in Europe, particularly Italy and Spain and even some of the northern European countries, but simply can’t afford to. I certainly can’t afford to fly to them anyway. So instead of visiting several countries I am only visiting France (apart from Greece where I am currently located).

Sure, if I was visiting three or four additional countries, I would spend fewer days in each destination, but if more people could afford to fly to more countries, one would expect the extra visitor numbers would more than make up for any drop in the length of each visit.

I don’t expect all air travel costs would be reduced by two-thirds if all these extra fees were eliminated, but my one example does shows how cheap air travel could be, if they were.