Pompidou Centre and Galeries Lafayette

We woke up to our last full day in Paris. With packing, shopping, the Pompidou Centre and dinner on the river, it was going to be a big day. As with the previous days, breakfast was first on the agenda. After that, we swiftly took the Metro all the way to the Galeries Lafayette. Everything was very expensive, backpacks costing 600 Euros, bracelets costing 400 and wallets costing 150 Euros. Needless to say, not much was bought but the size of the complex was fascinating,

Then we travelled to the Pompidou Centre, an art gallery consisting of contemporary art. We thought it was very intriguing and the artwork was truly engaging.  It was much different to anything we had seen before. Some artworks stand out, such as the film of the religious practices in India, the white tile chamber and a painting of a penguin shopping were all works that stood out to us.

Soon after that we headed straight to the river to enjoy a delicious meal on a floating restaurant. An entrée of egg with mushroom and leak, a main of potato and duck followed by a succulent pear and ice-cream to finalise the meal was more than enough to keep us content.

The end of the day finally came and with it, mixed feelings. We packed our bags to get ready to leave the beautiful city of Paris and for the 20 hour travels ahead of us.

Jack and Ben

The Palace of Versailles and the Louve.

We started our day with an early breakfast at so we could leave by 8.00am. When we boarded our coach our tour guide, Delphine, outlined our exciting day ahead at Versailles. During the ride, which took around an hour and half, our guide shared some interesting facts about the areas we passed through.

Upon our arrival at Versailles, we were greeted with the tall golden gates and a beautiful fountain. We were given some time to explore the garden full of hedges, cultivated gardens and some interesting forests which seemed to stretch out for miles. We weaved our way through a maze and strolled around the massive ponds and fountains.

 

We re-grouped at eleven to eat our lunches at a small café just outside of the palace. The food was classically French, with baguettes and croissants. We then returned to the palace for the tour within.

Splitting into two groups, another tour guide joined us going by the name of Sophie. We were given earphones that we could listen to their telling of the history behind the château. The history was very informative and interesting, and we got a lot out of it. We asked the students what they thought of the palace.

“I really like the outside”

“It was pretty awesome”

“There was a lot of gold. It was quite pretty”

“The garden was massive”

“I loved the Hall of Mirrors”

We were astonished as soon as we stepped foot in the palace by the extravagant designs and the art on the ceilings and walls. We explored through king and queen apartments and saw the classiness of the dining rooms. Background information of what it was like when the palace was occupied was supplied by our tour guides through our earphones.

After we saw the palace we got on our coach and headed back to Paris. Although we were exhausted, the tour guide consoled us by telling us that most Parisians, because they don’t have a car, walk seven kilometres a day. We were dropped off at an Italian restaurant near the Louvre where we had a hilarious waiter that everyone enjoyed the company of.

When we headed to the Louvre, it was still daylight and men selling key chains, little Eiffel Towers and other souvenirs greeted us. We lined up, buzzing to see the famous ‘Mona Lisa’. We wondered around the gallery for a moment before heading off in one big group to find the famous portrait. The room that held the painting was huge and we pushed through the crowd surrounding to see the small, framed picture. Although many enjoyed the experience, few said it was underwhelming and the painting was smaller than they expected. All together, the gallery was amazing, especially at night, and was an experience we will clearly remember.  

Jamie and Morgan

Tuesday - Eiffel Tower and Montmartre

Today was our biggest and most tiring day yet. After waking up and eating our awaiting croissant, we set off for Montmartre at around 9am. We took multiple Metro lines to get there, once we arrived we walked up, what seemed like an endless array of hills and slopes, to get to our destination, Sacre Caure . We were given multiple tasks including poetry, writing, visual art and photography based tasks. The atmosphere of Montmartre was captivating, in limited time we we were able to eat, complete the tasks we were given and experience French culture that it emphasised. 

We met back up at 12pm, via the Metro and walking (on our soon to be exhausted legs) we started making our way to the famous Eiffel Tower. The walk was long but rewarding. We crossed the padlock bridge on the way, which was a fantastic display of the love for which this city is famous. Tens of thousands of locks covered the rails with names and love hearts written all over them. We all took the opportunity to take many photographs. We then continued towards the tower, with each step our excitement grew. We were all buzzing with anticipation, this huge, intimidating landmark that we had only ever seen in pictures, was upon us. 

Standing beneath the Eiffel Tower everybody’s jaws dropped while staring up at the breath taking architecture. We were rounded up and squeezed into a very tight elevator to start making our way to the different levels of the tower. Standing on top of the city was an amazing experience and being able to see all of Paris from all angles was fascinating and beautiful. 

After an hour of taking photos and seeing everything from a new perspective, we headed down to the ground to get dinner. We arrived at Le Terminus Nord for our best dinner yet. We really got to experience fancy French food and service. 

After enjoying an amazing meal, we all waddled with ‘stuffed bellies’ to Theatre Des Bouffes Du Nord, an old, near-derelict theatre, to see our first fully French play ‘La Revolte'. The play was a beautiful two person performance (by a female and male actor) and even through we still aren't sure what it was about, we know it was passionate, intense and was done well. 

Leaving the theatre, dragging our tired bodies, we made our way home.

Niamh and Griffin

Monet’s Garden and Introduction to Central Paris

Today (Monday) we took a two hour bus ride to Monet’s Garden. There was a large variety of flowers and colours in the garden, which made the atmosphere of the gardens fresh, lively and beautiful. The history and hidden stories contained within the gardens were amazing and the preservation and restoration of the property did the original justice. We wondered through both the water garden and the flower garden until we arrived at Monet’s house. Inside we saw replicas of his paintings and original paintings from Japan that Monet bought to hang around his house. After some lunch and ice cream, we went to the art museum, with works from Degas, and with an exhibition using pastels and a time line of evolution through art. Once we had seen all we could see, we departed to Paris and back to our Hostel. 

A quick freshen up, we headed to the local park and wandered exploring for about half an hour, before we set off for dinner. Our first course was salad and quiche, followed by chicken and spaghetti, and cream caramels for dessert. Extremely full at this point we went on an ‘expedition’ to experience the Paris Metro.

Exiting the Metro, we walked down the streets arriving at Notre Dame. Our ears were soon drawn to a French/English busker set up in the main square of Notre Dame, and we soon flocked there. We talked with the busker and explained where we came from, as well as listening and enjoying his songs for about 20 minutes. There, after taking many photos of this historical church and the surroundings, we became excited when we saw the Eiffel tower for the first time. We wandered a bit more around the Seine River before we made our way back to the Metro and home to our awaiting beds.

Madison and Isabelle

London to Paris on the Eurostar.

The day started with a frantic rush. With alarms going off too late, breakfast at 7 am, people hogging the bathroom, objects going missing and doing the final packing of our luggage, we sure had something to talk about on the Eurostar train to Paris. We arrived at the St Pancras Station, collected our tickets and went through French immigration while still firmly in the middle of London. Soon after we left London and 2.5 hours later we were in the heart of the French capital. To fill in our time many of us purchased food and drinks such as tea, hot chocolates, croissants, sandwiches, and LOADS of chocolate and chips or should we say ‘crisps’! 

So then we arrived in Paris! The city of love, or in this case - love of art! Although no-one could understand the signs or posters, we found our guide who walked to us to our transfer bus.  With luggage in tow, mouth open and heads turning we began to take in this different city.

We arrived at the hostel, half asleep but excited. When you walk into the hostel, our eyes were drawn to the most gorgeous outside area, a courtyard in the centre of the hostel. While some of us got our room keys straight away and settled into our new home, others had to wait an hour for their rooms to be clean and ready. We’re sure the other hostel customers didn't mind hearing a bunch of us singing and playing guitar in the courtyard as we waited.

The bedrooms where huge - at least certainly compared to our rooms in London - and hold either 2, 4 or 6 people. There are different themes to each room, some consist of very bright and bold colours and patterns such a Baroque style red and grey room.

In the evening we walked around for an hour getting feel for Paris and then had dinner at an Italian restaurant (Yes! An Italian meal in the French capital.) where we got pasta or pizza and chocolate mousse. 

We are all excited to see Paris over the next four days. It should be ‘chockerblock’ full of interesting things and fun!

Lauren 

The Tate Modern

We woke up to a noisy alarm and had to rush to get some washing done, it being the final day in London, which was quite a rush. We later enjoyed a continental and hot food breakfast, which like every morning, is absolutely delicious with fresh/hot bacon, eggs and sausages.

We departed at around nine o’clock to arrive at the London underground station closest to us, Canada Water. We hopped off the train at Southwark and walked in the light rain on our way to the entrance of the Tate Modern Gallery, one of the biggest art galleries in the world.We started at ‘The Tate’ with paintings and pictures from Marlene Dumas. There were other exhibits at the art museum too, but we had booked in for this exhibition. The exhibition was located on level 3 in the gallery, with a near by café with the best hot chocolate.

The exhibit housed around a hundred art pieces, several of which were near pornographic, as quoted by the artist. There were fourteen rooms in the exhibit, each housing between five and twenty pieces of art. Although her art was very unique, it was enjoyable and understandable. Strangely enough, some paintings / pictures were obscure, one being quite a lot of scribbles on a canvas. Others were beautifully expressed, for example an oil on canvas painting of a flower pot.


Later the group parted and one half went across the Millennium Bridge and the other half stayed and continued in the gallery. The view from the bridge was outstanding! From the middle of the bridge you could see a whole host of London landmarks - The Shard, Tower Bridge, the ‘Walkie-Talkie’, the ‘Cheese-Grater’ and St. Paul’s Cathedral. Below you could see the River Thames rough and quite shallow because of a low tide.

Before we got home, we went to the nearest “supermarket square” (like Galleria, Innaloo, Karrinyup, etc.). Most people went to the ‘99p store’ (the $2 shop) and bought many nibbles for the night and the train ride for the following day. Some people bought little,  others bought as big. When we got home to the YHA hostel, we had to immediately get packed, finish washing and be sure that nothing was missing. Tomorrow we leave our home of 9 days YHA Thameside and head to Paris.

Matthew & Komninos

The 'V&A' Museum and Grimms Tales

The day begun as usual - with a bunch of bacon, hash browns, eggs, toast, jam, or cereal being crammed into your appreciative stomach. Setting off around 9:00 we are lucky to have a later start than usual. We scoot through the maze of the tube station promptly, seeming as we are getting the hang of its busy ways. Victoria and Albert Museum was not what you expect. Rather than observing the average museums - preserved butterflies, brontosaurus fossils, etc -  we were given an amazing opportunity to visit Alexander McQueen’s ‘Savage Beauty’ display.

Before that day we must admit  that many or us had no clue whatsoever who this “Alexander McQueen” was. He was not a fashion designer. He was an artist. With beautiful gowns of sea shells and glistening wire, he expressed history and turned it into majestic art in which you can wear. Though some of his work could be taken as rather confronting, many of us were able to push past this and realise truly how breathtaking his work was. He had it all- every detail, within the detail, even more detail. His clothing was like a optical illusion. His quotes inspired. His work was truly fitted to the title “savage beauty”.


“I wanted to have everything, to touch everything. And I don't just want to use crystal - I want to invent something new”  
-Alexander McQueen 1998

We returned home for dinner after having explored the V&A and then rushed over to the Oxo tower wharf (near the Globe Theatre) to attend an immersive theatre performance of Grimm tales, most of which we have never heard of before.

Now imagine a room of flickering dull globes - and sounds of unknown origin bouncing off the walls. Portraits cut apart and altered slightly perhaps to add a realistic eye to an octopus or a doll to a child's photograph. Now picture a mirror. This mirror watches you back. You become part of the action - this is immersive theatre, you are included. With short tales and dark rooms the actors both narrate the story and be the story. They tell the original story with all the “distasteful” parts in which fairy tale books remove. The king cut off his twins heads to save his faithful servant. The princesses’ father chose to marry her. The jealous step mother pushed her step daughter into the river to drown.

Caught up in the thrill of chasing the actors the smiles on the audiences faces showed it all. We were truly immersed. We were truly in love.

We walked around the theatre for a solid two hours and by the time we arrived back “home” we were EXHAUSTED and fell sound asleep.

Alison

Brighton and 'Oh What a Lovely War'

Another early start to the day,

Meant there was no chance for dismay.

Luckily, however we had a private coach for the whole day,

Transporting us from city to bay

We headed down to Brighton

Where we explored a new type of fun.

We toured the royal headquarters of King George the 4th,

Who was very much a forward thinker in the north.

His palace was lavish.

Filled with nothing but the best dish.

Hinted with the traditional origins of Asia,

It was a certainly full of many treasures.

After our amazing tour of the palace,

We filled our hungry bellies with splendid taste.

Later we met our lovely tour guide,

Who showed us all around Brighton like a ride.

We were showed the closest England has to a “nice” beach,

Except the only problem was the foggy weather was blocking out their “nice” beach.

So she gave us a brief explanation of its history and moved on.

Next we were taken through the weaving lanes all throughout Brighton.

These little lanes were gorgeous,

With their shop front displays and hidden houses.

After some exploring we headed out to the Theatre Royale,

To watch the highly acclaimed musical ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’.

The musical was incredible and full of energy.

This introduced us to a new idea on what the real war was like,

But also how it affected those still at home in fright.

Overall, a memorable sight.

Now we are just relaxing and taking it easy for tonight,

With a scrumptious dinner for our chilly night.

Jess and Hannah

'Punchdrunk' and 'Matilda'

The day started with breakfast as usual before the heading to our favourite underground station, Canada Water. We closely followed Mr Warren and our group leaders through the underground and packed into a busy tube. 

After several train changes, we arrived at our destination in Blackheath to participate in our workshop with ‘Punchdrunk Theatre Company’. Kate, our mentor, gave us a quick explanation about the theatre company and the work that they do. They specialise in immersive theatre and showed us how we could use such theatre to change the atmosphere within a space, without words and use our bodies to convey a situation. We were given the opportunity to use the skills that were taught when we devised our own short performances.  We then performed in front of the group. We all had a lot of fun learning new ways to perform and using different spaces such as the stairways and large ballrooms. 

Following on from the workshop, we made our way back via several more busy tubes. We stopped briefly, at the Surrey Quays shopping centre close to the hostel, for a late lunch. After some mundane domestic chores, such as laundry and cleaning up our rooms, we set off for The West End to see ‘Matilda the Musical’ at Cambridge Theatre. The tubes were packed but we managed to get there and back without losing anyone. 

‘Matilda’ was absolutely incredible and everyone loved it so much. The standard and quality of performance, the talent of the child actors and the older actors was completely amazing. Everyone has described it as being “the best thing they have ever seen ever” and we all agreed that we would be happy to see it every night for the rest of our lives. There was a buzzing chatter amongst leaving the performance which has continued all throughout the night and to the next day. 

The Globe and 'Man and Superman'

Monday the 6th of April. The 29 students on the SVAPA tour started their day with a trip to south bank to view the historical remains of the Rose Theatre before undertaking a tour of the re-constructed Globe theatre. This provided an insight into the way that Shakespeare’s plays were performed when they were first written. 

After a quick lunch we attended a workshop with the assistant director of ‘Man and Superman’, a play we saw later that night. During the workshop we read through scenes one to three of the play and, by using students, it was explained to us the characters,

The story goes that there are a close knit bunch of friends/neighbours that care very much for one another. Upon the death of her father, Ann and her sister seek a new guardian. In the will it appoints her grandfather figure Roebuck Ramsden and her crush and childhood friend Jack Tanner. Ramsden and Tanner dislike each other and the arrangement even more. They both set out to convince her to chose Ramsden but she refuses. 

Octaves, friend of Tanner and madly in love with Ann, proposes twice to Ann and is rejected. It is then found out his sister Violet is secretly married and with child! There is much confusion and in the midst Tanner realises Ann’s feelings for him and he takes off to get away, not wanting anything to do with her. As he’s driving along Tanner and his driver get stopped and robbed and taken by bandits. But they end up being good lads and they all have a nice chat and the leader of the bandits, Mendoza, is actually a previous lover of Tanner’s drivers sister, Louisa. The rest eventually catch up to them and they go their separate ways. 

They decide to travel a little further for their holiday and they soon find out Violet’s secret husband is Octavious’ American friend Hector and his father does not approve of the match because Violet does not come from a wealthy family like him. However he grows to love her. 

Octavious gets rejected by Ann once again and he finds out she's in love with Tanner. He’s heart broken but gives his blessing because he loves her. Tanner, after much struggle, is persuaded to marry Ann and despite his rep and pride being hurt, he does love her.

For the workshop we were split into two groups. During the workshop group 1 played the bandits and had to figure out ways to stop cars passing by and how they would rob them. Our plans were more spontaneous and when worked through, most times they ended pretty gruesome. It was tremendous fun and when we later watched the play we were familiar with some of the lines. 

In group 2 we played some games and used some acting techniques that the actors in the play had used in the first activity; We were split into groups of 4 and given a monologue from the play. We had to walk around the room saying to monologue and doing special actions when we reached punctuation marks e.g. stop and turn 180 degrees for a full stop, pause our walking for a comma, speed up for an exclamation mark and so on. 

This little activity really helped us recognise how important it is to acknowledge these little pauses in punctuation. Next we used an exert from the first scene and were given a chart for which we had to write facts and questions based only on our knowledge from those few lines. Our last game of the day in group 2 was to answer one of our questions about our character by making a little scene in our groups. These were great fun to watch.

After having a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant close to the National Theatre, we then made our way to the show. The show was amazing with Ralph Fiennes, a well credentialed stage and screen actor, playing the major part of Jack Tanner. The vivid sets interchanged throughout to compliment each scene. The actors were probably the best part. It was incredible to see world class stage and screen performers. We watched on, remembering everything we had learnt in the workshops earlier in the day. 

After the end of the show we travelled on the underground back to the hostel. We all headed straight to bed, ready for the next day.

Hannah, Asher and Celeste

The National Gallery and 'Jack the Ripper' tour

On Sunday, the 5 of April, the SVAPA tour group went to the National Galley, a gallery unparalleled in design and size. Straight away we could tell that we were in one of the world’s most renowned galleries. Some of the paintings we saw were the Van Gogh’s, the landscapes of Peter Balke, and the florals of Claude Monet. 

One of the most fascinating things that we found intriguing was the sheer size of the gallery. Floor upon floor, exhibition upon exhibition, we were so surprised! 

After leaving the National Gallery, we then walked into Trafalgar Square, right in front of the gallery. The statue of Nelson upon the gigantic pillar was an eye-catcher, and so were the four lions at the base of the column. (We learnt that the lion’s front legs were actually modelled on a cat.) 

Once we had finished gazing at the statues, we each went our own ways to sketch a part of our favourite piece of art from the gallery. We were asked to think about our sketch as possible statue for the ‘fourth’ plinth. 

After dinner, we once again boarded the underground to meet a tour guide for a Jack the Ripper tour. The tour was slightly scary as the sun fell and we meandered through London’s East End. We hung onto every word that our guide spoke and found out about the gruesome nature of the crimes, and the ways that police tried to catch the elusive killer.

Davis & Madi

The Markets and the London Underground

• Columbia Road Flower Markets 

: There was a lot of different vibrant colours 

: Big, rowdy men selling delicate, pretty flowers

: Back street shops

: Crowded small path

: A little expensive

• Brick Lane Markets

: Many stalls to do with food, jewellery, clothes, bags and bits and bobs

: Little funky masks were hidden on the walls throughout the markets

: Royal Family parodies

: Lots of different cultures were on display in foods and items

: Packed streets

: Twisty roads, easy to get lost

: Hidden shops that lead into back streets and underground

: English people are not afraid to honk their horns

• Covent Garden 

: Not actually but a shopping square lined with rows and rows of stores

: Exaggerated street performers which were amazingly awesome, some were silent performers, jugglers, tightrope walkers, unicycle jugglers/tightrope performers and fire stick juggling. Very entertaining

: “Fanta’s better in England.” - Griffen

: People were interested to hear where we were from and the types of activities we were doing

: There were heaps of people busking with HUGE crowds watching

: The architecture of the buildings was truly spectacular as they seem old but are modern

• London Underground

: Pretty scary

: Steep and fast escalators

: Super fast and loud trains

: Narrow train space

: Quick entrances and exists

: Mystery wind in the tunnels

: General stressed rushing. 

: Ears popping

: Oyster Cards

: 10/10 better than Transperth

 Shannon and Riley 

5/4/15 

London Sights

We started the day off by visiting Westminster Abbey. As soon as we walked in we were amazed by its size and detail. We were shown tombs of famous kings, queens and esteemed members of society. Some included the Unknown Soldier, King Henry the III, Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. This is also where The Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge were married.

After leaving the Abbey we walked down to Big Ben where many people took photos and learnt about the history of the tower. For instance, the the tower is not called Big Ben. The bell inside is and is named after the famous wrestler who helped carry the bell into place.
Leaving the Houses of Parliament we went through St James' Park, which was full of baby pink cherry blossoms and bright yellow daffodils which signal the early days of spring. At the other side of St. James' we reached The Mall which is where we followed the marching guards to Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace was an amazing piece of architecture and was full of intricate sculptures and carvings. Thousands of people gathered around to get a good view of the changing of the guards. 
On our way to the bus to get to the galleries we had to be alert as the crowds were insane.
Upon arrival at the gallery we looked at the amazing artwork in the 'Painting Paradise' exhibition. This showcased the Victorian artwork with the theme based on gardens. Apart from paintings they also had sculptures of bejeweled flowers and vases. Finishing Painting Paradise,we headed of to  the Royal Mews which showcased the carriages, horses and cars which the Royals use.

Next was a short bus trip to Saint Pauls Cathedral. As soon as we entered everyone was stunned and breathless by the colourful mosaics on the roof and walls. This cathedral also had tombs of famous people. A few of us were able to go upstairs and see great views of the the city and inside of the Cathedral.

Next stop was the London Eye, a colossal Ferris wheel right next to the Thames River. Once we boarded the 'pods' we saw breathtaking panoramic views of the river, Big Ben and the rest of London.
We then returned back to the hostel to relax after the long day.

Caitlyn and Nel
 

We have arrived!

Yes! After 20 hours flying the SVAPA tour party has landed in London - All a little tired but very excited. Caitlyn and Nel will follow up with our day's adventures in a few hours.

The SVAPA Tour is about to begin

This opening post heralds the start of our European Tour.
The flight leaves in the morning.
Last minute packing underway!