A weekend in Hardelot, a small and charming seaside town

During summer, Parisians, looking for sun and sea for obvious reasons, tend to think about Spain, Italy, Greece, or closer to home, the French Riviera and Corsica, for vacation destinations. Rarely do we think of going to the nothern coast of France which houses a lot of suprises, including good weather!

So I took off to Hardelot Plage last weekend. Not very far from Touquet, but a more modest and discreet town I was told. Not too far from Paris either, only 3 hours by train, so a journey that can be comfortably done on a normal two day weekend.

I went with a friend on Friday evening from Gare du Nord, right until Hardelot Neufchatel, with a switch at Amiens. The person who was renting us his car greeted us at the train station and off we went to the little house that we had rented at Hardelot, quite close to the beach and between two golf courses (Gîte des Loups - Allée des Chênes). As soon as our bags touched floor, we packed our picnic and took off for the beach; it was a little windy but it was so wonderful to picnic with the sound of the waves and not too many people around. It did get cold after sometime so we took refuge in a local bar filled with youngsters mostly from the region, and Lille. A beer and a game of darts later with our new found friends Mathias and Louise, we called it a day.

Saturday - after a quick breakfast, we went to the beach (côte d'opale) to enjoy the sun. It was a little windy but the sunshine was definitely warming. I must admit that I did not dare to swim in the sea but my friend did; he had to walk nearly a km before reaching the water at low tide. We then headed for lunch in the city centre and what is nice about being in Hardelot is that you easily find a place in the sun on the terrace!
In the afternoon we walked around in the forest, following a well marked out trail along the dunes, called Café du Mont. We came across only 3 people during our walk and even found a nice opening in the forest to play some badminton.
Next stop: the St Augustin church for the 7pm mass. This modern and simple church that can accomodate about 300 believers, was absolutely full.
After a quick change of attire, we headed to a chic restaurant, Hostellerie de la Rivière in St Etienne du Mont. The food was delicious and the service was great.

Sunday - after a long and lazy morning breakfast, we headed to the Château d'Hardelot or Hardelot Castle which is actually in Condette. I'm sure there's a reason for this bizarrerie but I haven't found it yet. The site was built in the 12th century, changed hands several times between the French and the English, and was even dismantled at some point. The castle that you see today is a fairly modern one with 19th century interiors which I frankly didn't find very interesting. The surroundings however, including the gardens, are absolutely charming. We halted in the garden for a quiet picnic, once again, no crowd around here!
This pretty much marked the end of a restful weekend and we headed back to Paris, finishing our leftover wine and picnic on the way.

Tips:
- A car is not indispensable in Hardelot, but do try to hire or take your bicycles, the region is well adapted with cycling tracks and beautiful views of the dunes as you go along.
- Now, I'm not into golf but it seems that Hardelot's golf course is really worth it.
- If you decide to go dining at the Hostellerie de la Rivière, make sure you book a table in advance and that you respect the timing...depending on the time at which clients turn up, they sometimes close the kitchen as early at 9.15pm! We nearly missed our reservation because of a delay!
- Entry to the Château d'Hardelot is free on the first sunday of each month.

A journey through Vincent Van Gogh's last days

It was quite a revelation when I visited the Amsterdam museum two months ago. Generally intererested by impressionist paintings, I was quite sure I'd enjoy Van Gogh's. What I didn't know was that I would get totally obsessed by this extraordinary painter that I will refer to as Vincent in this article (this is how he signed all his paintings). Soon after this trip to Amsterdam I visited the temporary exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay showing some of Vincent's finest works.

After having read his biography written by David Haziot, I went back to the Musée d'Orsay for a deeper analysis of his paintings. The next natural step was to go to Auvers sur Oise, just 45 mins from Paris by train, a charming little town where Vincent spent the last 70 days of his life, before shooting himself with a revolver. Known as the impressionist's town, Auvers also saw Camille Pissaro, Paul Cézanne and others, all revolving around the famous Dr. Gachet who also treated Vincent. So I headed there today, the 27th of July 2014; I realised on arriving there that Vincent had killed himself on this very day, in 1890!

We started our day by visiting the local church that was made famous by Vincent's painting (Notre Dame d'Auvers). As luck had it, the mass was just ending when I entered the church, with one of my favourite songs! We walked on to Vincent's and his brother Theo Van Gogh's tombs, situated about 300m from the church and close to the wheat fields that Vincent painted more than once. Under the bright sun and the spotless blue sky, the fields looked a lot less ominous than in Vincent's wheat fields with crows (champ de blé aux corbeaux), one of his last paintings.

We then headed to the Chateau d'Auvers where we first filled our growling stomachs. The Chateau is void of decoration and furniture, it houses a ...well, I'm actually unable to say what exactly. It's haphazard, not interesting at all and costs 14€! I'd recommend your skip it honestly!

After a quick visit of Dr. Gachet's house, who obviously lived in excellent conditions, we walked along the river Oise and stopped for a well deserved chilled beer (it had easily been over 30°C the entire day), before heading back to Paris.

It is useful to know that during the summer months, there is a direct train to Auvers sur Oise leaving from Gare du Nord (Train H) at 9.38am. It leaves Auvers at 18.25 for Paris.

A lot of Vincent's paintings still remain to be seen but they are unfortunately dispersed all over the world. So now I'm waiting for the next obsession to come along :)

Priorities

"Don't make someone a priority in your life when you are just an option in their life". I thought I had found the teaching of the day but I soon realised that though it sounds theoretically right, it is practically impossible. How do you decide in what quantity to love a person so that he doesn't become a priority as long as you remain just an option? Is that how it is supposed to be? A blunt give and take?

I don't love someone because that person loves me, but because he inspires me, respects me, makes me grow, encourages me to achieve more. And I know that I am in love because my heart aches at the thought of not seeing him for many days, I share his frustration and joy and because the moment I see him I have a smile on my face even if we may have fought the night before.

"Live your life in a way so as to never have regrets. If you love someone, tell them so today as there may not be a tomorrow". I'd rather apply this quotation in my life. After all, I was born to live!

Happy New Year

Why do people make such a big deal about year ends? Why is the 31st of December more important than the others? Do you feel different when you wake up on the 1st of Jan? Do you feel brighter, more loved, more knowledgeable, fitter, happier on the 1st of Jan? In today's era, when loneliness is termed as individualism, we take up every occasion to celebrate but New Years is a period I stopped liking when I realised that everyone was counting the years gone by and looking upon the past year rather than looking whole-heartedly forward to the following one. Since two years, I have even lost the reflex of wishing people 'Happy New Year' when the new year begins! Even then, despite being cynical to the core, the end of 2008 was quite something for me. Sun, sand, sea, love, laughter and good food...I couldn't have asked for more. I'm hoping the 'new year' will give us all love, laughter, peace and harmony.

Hare Krishna

Continuing on the same theme of observing people in public means of transport, I experienced something unique today in the metro after work. I was sitting in the crowded train, counting how many stations I had before I reached my destination when suddenly at a station, 4 white men walked into the metro singing 'hare krishna, krishna krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare'. One was wearing a dhoti, another had a teeka on his forehead. One of them announced that they were propogating a concept called 'metro yoga' and that their service in the metro was free of cost. They even had a glossy black card advertising www.metroyoga.com, distributed free of cost (I'm not kidding, check out the website and you will see the guys I am talking about).

It may have been the concept, the ridiculously out-of-place attires or the mysterious enthusiasm, but everyone around had a wide smile on their faces. And then I thought of something beyond all this. These 4 men didn't want anything material in return for what they were doing. They were not ashamed or afraid of having convictions that differed drastically from the people present around them. They just wanted to give and share. Just like that. Without an ulterior motive. How many of us ever do that? I suddenly envied them and the peace that showed on their serene faces. Wouldn't life be a more passionate story if we could only concentrate on giving?

Eternal love

What I love to do while using public means of transport, is to observe my co-passengers. On my way back home in the bus the other day a father-son team caught my attention. They were facing each other. The boy, not more than 6 or 7 years old was looking out of the window, his eyes betraying fatigue. His dad was looking at him, his eyes full of affection and love. Then the little boy said something to his father who came forward with a big smile on his face and hugged his son and kissed him on the forehead. I couldn't help but smile looking at them. While most of us were getting impatient to reach our destination and do something more important than sitting in a bus, the dad was savouring the precious moments with his son who would probably go back to his mom's in the evening.While I was evacuating my loneliness by watching their love for each other, the dad was probably dreading his lonely evening that would follow. While I was looking for eternal love, the dad was expressing his in counted moments that would end with the bus trip.

Why are you looking for love?

I was walking up the Champs-Elysées with a friend today. She usually walks down the most famous avenue in the world, in a hurry. She hates the crowd, the tourists blocking her way to get the perfect picture of the Arc de Triomphe, the restaurant chairs and tables generously spilling onto the huge sidewalks, the geometrically shaped trees of uniform size, the traffic jam and the cars honking...well, just about everything. She just wants to get through the ordeal of this walk and get into the metro station.

Today however, was different. She was taking her time walking, looking up at the trees and the sky beyond, and was even smiling...at strangers around her. A little hassled, I asked her what was going on. She gave me the corniest answer one could give - "It's so beautiful to be in love". Yep, that's exactly what she said. My jaw dropped, and I started looking around, perplexed.

Yesterday I met an older woman, a staunch feminist and a very independent woman, who went on for an entire hour about how men are selfish and demanding and how they always expect the woman to be perfect, even if they themselves are light years away from even the vicinity of perfection!!

Wherefrom my obvious confusion. My friend is so passionate about falling in love, that I know that in a few months or years we will be walking up this avenue again, and she would have fallen out of love with her guy. I am equally sure that the woman I met yesterday must have her moments of loneliness and a desire to have a stable company in life. They are both so different and are yet looking for the same well hidden treasure. Would the solution be to stop looking and stop expecting? Like Khalil Gibran has said,
"And think not you can
Direct the course of love,
For love,
If it finds you worthy,
Directs your course."