Woman In …. Paris

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Two girlfriends and I were sitting outside a suburban Melbourne  café, toasting a recent birthday. The sun was shining and we had a scenic view of the Yarra River. We were surrounded by majestic trees, colourful cyclists, and energetic rowers. In a very off-hand manner my friends mentioned that they were both thinking of going to Paris and asked if I would like to join them. They couldn’t even finish the sentence without giggling and I could tell both thought the idea was great, but that it was a bit ‘pie in the sky’.

A trip away to Paris. I took their brilliant concept and ran with it ….why indeed NOT?!!!!

After a few short weeks of flurried phone calls and to and fro texting to try and find a two week period that three women (who were also busy wives and mothers of even busier nine children) could in fact, run away to Paris for a much needed getaway. Miraculously,  we found a window that seemed to please all husbands and children involved.

Tickets and accommodation were promptly booked (following some great research and leg work from my friends)…Our adventure to Paris was set to go!!!

Most of the flight was spent celebrating the fact that we had managed to escape on a whimsical adventure. I marveled at how relaxing it was to travel without my beautiful but boisterous and demanding family.  The peace and quiet was delicious. Paris, here we come. As this was my maiden trip to Paris, my eyes were wide open from the word go.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Parisians were quite tolerant of our non-existent French vocabulary. Most people were happy to try and help with our queries.

Below I have listed, in no particular order, our ‘ Top 10’ experiences.

 

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

1. Musée d’Orsay (7th arrondissement)

This ended up being my absolute favourite gallery. The art work is held in a converted railway station which makes the building a remarkabkle home to an extensive and exciting art collection. Within the museum, there are two fantastic cafes – check them both out before you decide which one to dine in. We ate in the very nice and  reasonably priced café. On our way out of the museum, we stumbled across the more spectacular and lavish café. It’s worth just peeking through the doors to see its spectacularly ornate interior, even if you decide not to dine there.

 

Sacre-Coeur Basilica, Montmartre, Paris

Sacre-Coeur Basilica, Montmartre, Paris

2. Montmartre (18th arrondissement)

Lots to see and do, including the Sacré-Coeur basilica,  a fantastic Dali exhibition (just happened to be on) and a zillion tourist shops – a good place to nail lots of pressies. It started to get late and as daylight slipped away the lights on the famous black lamp poles illuminated the streets with a warm glow. The high vantage point treated us to spectacular views of the city. As night drew in, parts of the city became a bit sleazy – but even that had a charm of its own.

 

 

Le Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen: Parisian flea and antiques market

Le Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen: Parisian flea and antiques market

3. Le Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen: Parisian flea and antiques market (just north of 18th arrondissement)

Slightly further out, but really just a few train trips and so worthwhile.

Imagine narrow walkways in between dozens and dozens of permanent market stalls, housing French antiques of all sorts. I wish I had an apartment in Paris that I could furnish and decorate with these French antiques. I visualised all the French antique shop owners back home buying up big here and shipping it into their expensive shops in Melbourne’s Armadale and Malvern. Beautiful light fittings, tables and small furniture, antique collectables of all sorts, silverware, antique posters. The stall owners were as charismatic and authentic as the merchandise they were selling. If it weren’t for the freezing cold conditions and the persistent rain, I felt I could have fossicked there all day. A short walk from here and you will stumble upon another market. A more conventional market selling clothes, food, bags etc.

 

Musée Rodin

Musée Rodin

4. Musée Rodin (7th arrondissement)

The main part of the gallery was unfortunately closed for renovations.

The garden however was open. There were numerous Rodin sculptures  tastefully displayed in a beautiful garden that I could imagine would be absolutely stunning in the warmer months, when the now bare rose bushes would sprout glorious flowers. The coffee shop (albeit in a temporary building) provided us with a very enjoyable refuge from the cold. Definitely factor in a pit stop here as the food choices were great and the prices reasonable.

 

Marais District, Paris

Marais District, Paris

5. The Marais District (4th arrondissement)

Often referred to as ‘the old Paris’ and located on the right bank of the river is the Marais district. Meandering around the cobblestone streets is an absolute must. It has a much more lively and playful vibe than the more conservative city centre of Paris. It is filled with boutiques (some decent damage to the credit card was achieved here). Lots of fashion and jewellery shops (or is that because they were the shops I happened to focus on?). I also recall many small galleries and hidden courtyards. The Jewish Quarter is located here. We visited the Jewish Museum and filled our bellies with the best felafel any of us had ever eaten- in L’As Du Fallafel (32-34 Rue des Rosiers). Our late arrival of  3:30 pm meant that we avoided the customary long queues and were able to be seated immediately in a their large restaurant, crowded with locals and tourists.

 

Laduree Patisserie, Champs Elysees, Paris

Laduree Patisserie, Champs Elysees, Paris

6.  Ladurée pâtisserie and tea rooms (3 venues in Paris)

On our very last day in Paris, we got up early, dressed in the most glamorous clothing we had and ventured out to breakfast at the famous Ladurée. A very ostentatious place to go for ‘high tea’. It has an incredibly ornate French interior – visualise lots of gilding, mirrors, totally gorgeous and over the top. Photos in this building are banned (destroys the posh ambiance). The tea/menu service is truly an experience. We admired the silver, the tea cups and crockery, even the napkins and of course the presentation of the food. Our waiter was a young opera singer (unfortunately he has been banned from performing for his customers. He used to be able to do this on request, but started to get into trouble as he was neglecting his waiting duties). Don’t forget to look up at the ceilings, and a trip to the bathrooms is also well worth a visit for its grandeur. Definitely book ahead (one or two days should be fine, leave a bit more lead time if you’re after a weekend booking or in peak tourist times) and request to be seated upstairs. There’s a lovely shop downstairs, so on your way out you can purchase some of the beautifully packaged sweets. They make great gifts.

 

Patisserie in Paris

Patisserie in Paris

7. Window shopping the pâtisserie shops

I don’t even eat pastries – but I couldn’t help myself. I just had to stop and admire each window display of every patisserie or chocolatier shop we passed (there were so many). They all looked wickedly delicious and sophisticated – very Parisian. My friends assured me they were every bit as good as they looked.

 

 

 

 

La Terrasse, Paris

La Terrasse, Paris

8. Our local bar

It seems as if on almost every corner there is a bar/restaurant. They seemed to be mainly filled with red lounge chairs. We found our local favourite and popped in most evenings on the way back from the train station en route to our apartment. Early on the waiters recognized us, seated us in our regular armchairs and served us our ‘usual’ for drinks and snacks. Our local was called La Terrasse (although we named it the ‘Rouge Lounge’). The service was excellent, the ambience perfect – a great place to unwind, reflect on our accomplishments that day and watch the locals and tourists passing by.

 

Chateau in Loire

Chateau in Loire

9. The Loire Region (outside Paris but worth a trip)

A region of vineyards, floral gardens and many chateaux (castles).

On my next trip to Paris, I plan to spend a couple of days in this region rather than squeeze it into a day trip. It took roughly three and a half hours to reach there by train, leaving only time for a half day trip to visit two chateaux (there were so many more to see). The castles were amazing and the scenery en route was beautiful countryside. I can envisage spending a few days cycling around this gorgeous town in my next visit (if I had money to burn maybe even renting a small chateau to stay in).

 

Jackie Pila at Eiffel Tower

10. Eiffel Tower (7th arrondissement)

We did this in the evening. The views were stunning and not at all compromised by the blanket of night. As there were no queues, the whole experience took under an hour.

 

Some other suggestions 

Not quite making it into the Top 10, but definitely worth a mention, and a visit, is the Père-Lachaise cemetery (20th arrondissement). It’s huge. You will find many tourists looking for the graves of famous people like Jim Morrison and Rita Hayworth.

A lesser-known destination, but one I found totally charming is the Shakespeare and Company Bookshop (5th arrondissement). This is a good place to pop into when you are visiting the Notre-Dame Cathedral (as it’s just across the bridge on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the 4th arrondissement.) It’s a tiny bookshop that has inherited the tradition of the original. It houses both second-hand and new books (beware, you could barely swing a cat in there) but it has a special feel – I almost felt well-read and literate by just stepping in there and taking a browse. Be cautioned though – more than a few books make for heavy weight in your suitcase.

Definitely fit in a cruise down the Seine. It provides a picturesque perspective of the city and plenty of photo opportunities.

It’s helpful to get an overview of the city on the first day. You can achieve this by going on the ‘hop–on/ hop-off bus’.

 

Paris Travel Tips

* The Metro was a great way to get around and very user friendly. We purchased ten single-ticket rides. (cheaper than buying individual tickets). We eventually learned not to store these tickets together with our credit cards – it deletes them.

* Here’s a very important tip – Don’t queue for the Louvre! We pre-purchased tickets from an outlet in the nearby underground shopping mall. Alternatively, you can purchase the Paris Pass or Museum Pass. In our case this saved an hour and a half of queueing (and that was in the off peak period).

* DON’T use a selfie stick – very unchic!

* It was definitely worthwhile travelling off peak in the cooler months as it meant minimal queueing (we hardly saw any waiting lines – with the exception of the Louvre). It also meant our flights and accommodation were considerably cheaper – leaves more money for shopping! Just make sure you have a very, very warm coat – it’s an absolute essential.

* Use Google maps to help orientate you and to get you to places (we found the local paper maps way too confusing)

* Always arrange a back-up place to meet if you get separated or lost (in case phones not working or if they run out of batteries). Our meeting place was usually the museum shops.

* Carry a spare phone charger with you. We found this very handy as using Google maps and taking photos both chew up the battery pretty quickly.

* Baguettes are baked so frequently and are so readily available. Get into the local mind set of buying one baguette in the morning and then another one freshly baked in the afternoon/evening. A big French no no is to eat in the evening a baguette you bought in the morning.

* Dress très chic. If you’re wearing athletic gear, you had better be running or exercising. It is unacceptable to be walking the streets in runners or tracksuits whilst you’re in the fashion capital.

* A visit to the  Galeries Lafayette (9th arrondissement) is worthwhile if you like large department stores. I personally prefer the smaller, more personal service of the unique boutiques, but Galeries Lafayette has an amazing dome roof and apparently you can get out on the top level for a great view of the city (we missed this). From time to time Galeries Lafayette holds fashion shows. You can ring ahead and check. It is possible to get a refund of the 10% VAT but you must produce your purchased goods in the airport and by the time you wait in line at  Galeries Lafayette for the paper work and then again at the airport – you may be tempted not to pursue this refund.

* Duty free shopping at Paris airport was surprisingly good – a final opportunity to buy presents for loved ones.

* I’m sure this is not news to most of you, however no matter how much your travel agent may assure you, ensure you have a minimum of an hour and a half in between connecting flights. This will greatly improve the chances of both you and your luggage arriving to the intended destination on time!

* If you luck out and your luggage misses your flight, you can request compensation (you are entitled). We did this upon arriving in Paris.

* A couple of cute stores to visit; Merci in the Marais (111 Boulevard Beaumarchais) – a cool lifestyle store, and Monoprix (3 locations in Paris) – fun, affordable homewares, food and fashion.

*Most important – start a ‘must do’ list for your next Paris trip

Some of the ideas I have written down for next trip to Paris include;

* Stay in the Marais; spend a few days in the Loire and Bordeaux areas (rather than just day trips); make it to the Pompidou Centre (closed on Tuesdays); visit Versailles and the Luxembourg Gardens (ran out of time).

* One more piece of advice, when relaxing on the aeroplane, don’t forgot to supervise your steward when he passes your neighbour their hot beverage. Make sure he passes it in front of you rather than over your head, so that if he accidentally drops the whole cup of steaming hot coffee, it won’t spill (and burn) all over your head, face, clothes and seat!

If you’re planning a trip to Paris…Bon Voyage!

******

Jackie Pila is a Melbourne social worker, art therapist, mother, and is passionate about travel. In her spare time, she enjoys boxing and Brazilian Jui Jitsu.  This trip was a rare opportunity to escape daily life and immerse herself in a wonderful French experience.

Di Morrissey – My Top 5 Places in Australia

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Di Morrissey is one of Australia’s most successful writers. She has written 24 best-selling novels and 2 children’s books.

Before publishing her first novel Heart of The Dreaming in 1991, she travelled the world as a journalist, television presenter and producer, actor, and diplomat’s wife. What followed was not only extraordinary success as a writer, but also a long-standing activism on behalf of the environment.

Each of her novels is anchored in a particular place that inspires her writing.

” The place chooses me. There’s generally a circumstance or I’m invited to go somewhere.  I went toad-busting in the Kimberley. And I began to see what was happening in the Kimberley and went, ‘No, no. I have to write about this.’ “

Di trained and worked as a journalist in Sydney and London. When she married her first husband, Peter Morrissey, a U.S. diplomat, they were posted to Hawaii, where she began a career as a television actor.

When her marriage ended, she returned to Australia and for eight years appeared on Channel Ten’s Good Morning Australia. Risking all, she left this job in order to write – a desire she had nurtured since childhood.

Many of Di’s books portray the challenge of a woman breaking the mould and striking out to explore her identity. They also integrate key social, political and cultural issues into the narrative. They are all Australian stories, even when their settings are elsewhere, e.g. Burma (Myanmar), Malaysia or Vietnam.

Like many of us, Di was more familiar with foreign destinations than with Australia. That changed when she began filming stories and travelling with Good Morning Australia. In her own words, she “ fell in love with ” her country and realised how special and important it is that “ we look after our country.”

Those feelings led her to join writer Tim Winton in their successful campaign to save the Ningaloo Reef (read WomanGoingPlaces on Ningaloo Reef for Women Travellers) as well as her involvement in many other environmental issues.

She also actively campaigned for the release of Aung Sang Suu Kyi, which led her to Burma (Myanmar) and the subject of her book The Golden Land in 2012. She established a school outside Mandalay and set up the Golden Land Education Foundation in order to raise funds for the school.

To read more about Di and her books go to her website: http://dimorrissey.com.au

To find out more about Di’s school in Burma go to:  www.goldenlandfoundation.org

Di’s Top 5 Places:

 

Broome

Broome

Broome

I passed through Broome in 1983 when filming for the TV programme Good Morning Australia and found a sleepy, far flung dot on the Kimberley coast, proclaiming  itself to be an international pearling centre. In the time I was there it made an indelible impression on me –  not just the dramatic scenery, but the historical aura that surrounded it still alive with the remains of an old pearling lugger in the mangrove swamps, the pearling masters’ latticed and distinctive homes and the still existing Chinese and Japanese influences. The old pearling sheds had been  turned into pearl shops selling the magnificent pearls produced by the local pinctada maxima oyster in the pristine, warm azure waters just off the coast. There is no more perfect pearl in the world than Australia’s South Sea Pearl – a product of technology and nature.

Now the old world is married to upmarket tourism where the magnificent Cable Beach stretches for miles and where camels led by Afghan cameleers now carry tourists along the sunset beach. The blue sky is extraordinary as are the turquoise waters. A coastline of blood red rocks and sand record that it was where dinosaurs once walked.

It’s always been a town that welcomed travelers, those getting away from it all and those whose lineage is woven into the local multicultural heritage. In Broome you feel you are in another world, far from mundane realities.

There’s a definite magic on the northwest coast which inspired Tears of the Moon and Kimberley Sun. 

 

The Kimberley

The Kimberley

Mitchell Plateau & The Kimberley

The Kimberley in WA is a vast area of stunning beauty sheltering one of the last pristine wilderness areas on the planet. The magnificent gorges, rivers, waterfalls and plateaus are not only spectacular scenery but home to the world’s oldest art and sacred sites. The many indigenous tribes of the Kimberley, although some no longer living on country, respect and observe traditional ceremonies. I spent time with Ngarinyin elders on the Mitchell Plateau, learning about their culture and visiting secret sites of Wandjina art which was a huge privilege and evolved into my novel, The Songmaster.

A lot of places are difficult to access, some require permission from traditional owners, some are best seen by helicopter, but it is an unforgettable experience to travel the Gibb River Road. Like so many precious places in Australia, you should  see it before mining interests ruin it.

 

Heron Island

Heron Island

Heron Island

The Great Barrier Reef is our best known natural feature, and the one most seriously threatened by overdevelopment.

Heron Island is  one of the few islands in north Queensland that is  actually part of  the reef and is a naturalist’s wonderland. It’s always been a modest, simple place that attracted nature lovers. It’s the sort of place which had no loud nightlife, little communication with the outside world and where people went to bed early to get up before dawn to watch the magnificent green and loggerhead turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. Months later the hatchlings make their perilous dash to the sea.

You can walk around the island, whale watch, swim, dive and snorkel amongst the magnificent coral, take a boat outside the reef to fish and yet because it is so low key you feel you have the place to yourself. There has been a University of Queensland  research station on the island for fifty years. I spent time with marine biologists and researchers and it was especially exciting to be there the night of the coral spawning when the sea turned crimson as the coral released millions of spores into the sea to hopefully form new coral clusters and cays over time.

Heron Island is the setting for my novel The Reef.

 

Dorrigo National Park

Dorrigo National Park

Bellingen NSW

I was looking for a small, pretty, peaceful town for the location  for my novel The Road Back. A place where there is an interesting, caring community, where the beautiful environment is treasured, a place where residents hold memories of idyllic childhoods, neighbours who look out for each other, where heritage homes are restored and gardens made showplaces – an oasis place in this troubled world.

I lived for many years in beautiful Byron Bay, but its ethos changed as money moved in and the colourful characters (an attraction in the town) were moved out. Driving between Byron and Sydney I always made a stop to see friends in Bellingen. So I went back recently and stayed and explored the area of Dorrigo plateau, the country surrounds and the rainforests. The lovely Bellinger River is perfect for swimming, fishing, kayaking, rafting, birdwatching, or a picnic.

There’s a lot of old history in the area and its scenery has been painted, photographed and filmed. It was used as the setting for the film ‘Oscar and Lucinda’ and the  little church at Glennifer was instantly recognisable. There are a lot of  cute B&B’s both in town and out in the picturesque  countryside and plenty of good food. The place is so idyllic that it seems too good to be true and yet just a few minutes for bustling Coffs Harbour with its myriad of facilities.

 

 

Manning Valley - Flat Rock lookout

Manning Valley – Flat Rock lookout

The Manning Valley NSW

The green, green valley of dairy farms dating back to pioneer days, and even earlier times when cedar logging sustained the infant colony of NSW, is a magical place to me. The beautiful Manning River which rises in Barrington Tops in the Great Dividing Range flows down through the valley in a massive delta system and out to sea.

The historic town of Wingham in the valley  is where I was born and the house my grandfather built is little changed from those days. I had been living for many years in Byron Bay, but on a return visit to the valley walking through Wingham a lovely old man stopped me in the street to say, “I went to school with your Mum, love.”  I realised this place holds my earliest memories and my roots are still deep in this valley, so I moved back in 2007.

There are wonderful scenic attractions from Ellenborough Falls on the Elands Plateau, the villages around Wingham and riverfront Taree. The river runs through the heart of the valley, an artery that refreshes us  and is great for fishing, boating and kayaking, or, as in my case, a place to sit and dream, to remember and to find inspiration.

My book The Valley is set here.

 

Travel Tips:

* Don’t buy cheap luggage, it’s not worth it.

* Same with a good travel agent.

* I always carry a pashmina or a sarong and basic toiletries and spare reading glasses   (and a book!) in my hand luggage.

* Do your homework about the place you’re going to before you leave.

* Choose gifts that are small and light.

* And talk to people along the way!

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Masterpieces from the Hermitage: The Legacy of Catherine the Great

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Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria – until 8th November 2015

 

Catherine’s Bad Girl Reputation 

Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia has had very bad press for over 300 years.

She was the most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, reigning for 34 years until her death in 1796 at the age of 67.

But ask the average Russian what he knows about her and he will smirk and say Catherine was debauched and is mostly known for having countless lovers, usually from the ranks of her young army officers.

So why has the NGV decided to mount an exhibition dedicated to her?

Catherine: Art Collector Extraordinaire

Because in fact, Catherine was one of the most enlightened and powerful leaders of Europe in the 18th Century. Masterpieces from the Hermitage: The Legacy of Catherine the Great  showcases some of the works she sourced and commissioned to create one of the world’s greatest art collections in history. Catherine is said to have wanted to have the greatest expression of man’s genius all under one roof. So she constructed palaces to house her ever-growing collections. She called these pavilions the Hermitage, and so began her great legacy of what today is the renown Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

The NGV, in conjunction with the Hermitage, is now showing the largest collection of her treasures ever to be exhibited outside Russia. It includes Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez and Van Dyke.  This is the finest group of Dutch and Flemish art to come to Australia. Amongst the 400 masterpieces from her personal collection are paintings, sculptures, drawings, porcelain, silver and precious gems.

From Teenage Bride To Empress

A German-born princess, Catherine at the age of 14, was married to the heir to the Russian throne. After a coup in 1762 in which her husband Tsar Peter lll was murdered, Catherine took his place on the throne. She then proceeded to drag Russia from a cultural and political backwater to an imperial power. Ably assisted by Grigory Potemkin, who was both her lover and her political partner, she pushed back the Ottoman empire, established a Russian presence on the Black Sea and extended the Russian empire to Alaska.

Empress Catherine And The Enlightenment

Largely self-educated, she oversaw a period of cultural renaissance in Russia. She was an innovative thinker and dedicated to education, the arts and culture. She sought the advice of Diderot, the most powerful art critic of the time about which art works to amass. In a period of only 10 years, she siphoned into Russia 1,800 paintings and 40,000 written volumes – including the greatest European and Asian achievements in architecture, design, art and literature and transformed the imperial capital St.Petersburg, into an international centre of enlightenment.

Catherine corresponded for 15 years with Voltaire, one of France’s pre-eminent Enlightenment philosophers, about the ideas that were re-shaping Europe. Her ideals of abolishing serfdom and ensuring the equality of all citizens under the law were ahead of her time, but she was powerless to overcome the opposition of the nobility who were determined to keep their slaves. However, she achieved numerous other reforms, including the introduction of paper money and the modernisation of Russia’s education system.

There is an excellent biography ‘Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair’  written by Simon Sebag Montefiore. Interestingly enough, Montefiore looked into the number of lovers Catherine was supposed to have had and he concluded that she probably had around 12 lovers – hardly the debauched monarch of legend.

For information about the exhibition go to www.ngv.vic.gov.au

ACCA – The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art

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ACCA – the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art –  is Australia’s most significant contemporary art space and plays a pivotal role in developing contemporary art in Australia. It is the only major public gallery in Australia focused on commissioning rather than collecting, and has commissioned an unparalleled number of new works from emerging Australian contemporary artists.

NEW15

The current NEW15 exhibition is part of the annual NEW series that provides young artists with the opportunity to create large-scale new works. NEW has been so successful that for some artists it has become the launching pad to local and even international recognition. Now in its 15th year, NEW is highly regarded and generates huge excitement in the local art world and annual pilgrimages to ACCA in Melbourne.

 

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Venice Biennale 2015

In addition to NEW, through its exhibitions and commissions, ACCA promotes a range of talented Australian artists. Some of those who exhibited at ACCA have gone on to exhibit at the Venice Biennale, the world’s most prestigious art event. They include Callum Morton, Daniel von Sturmer, Susan Norrie, Patrician Piccinini, Ricky Swallow, Shaun Gladwell, Simryn Gill and now Fiona Hall. (See image slider above)

At Venice Biennale 2015, Fiona Hall’s installation, ‘Wrong Way Time’ will be the inaugural exhibition of the new Australian Pavilion.  Australia is the first nation to be granted permission to create a new building among the Biennale’s heritage-listed buildings. This is remarkably significant for Australian art and architecture as it is the first 21st century pavilion to be built in the historic Giardini.

This new $7.5million pavilion represents another link between ACCA and the Venice Biennale. John Denton, Director of Denton Corker Marshall, the Melbourne based architecture firm that designed the new pavilion, is also Chair of ACCA. The previous Chair of ACCA was Naomi Milgrom AO, businesswoman, philanthropist and distinguished patron of contemporary art and architecture.

The ACCA Building

The ACCA building itself has become a distinctive architectural icon of Melbourne.

It’s rust red steel exterior is reminiscent of the red earth in outback Australia, and like this earth, it too changes colours in response to the sun. Sometimes it is a brooding dark red, at other times a vibrant, rich burnt-orange colour. The building was designed by local architects, Wood Marsh, and completed in 2002. But ACCA’s history as Australia’s only ‘kunsthalle’  showcasing the latest and most significant artwork by living artists from around the world, goes back 30 years.

The ACCA building is located behind the National Gallery of Victoria in the arts precinct of Southbank, and in a sense was regarded as the  “new kid on the block”. The National Gallery had reigned over art in the state of Victoria for 152 years. But increasingly, ACCA became the place to see the newest and most exciting trends in contemporary art. This was in stark contrast to the NGV which largely turned its back on contemporary Australian art.  It was only last year, with the blockbuster exhibition, ‘Melbourne Now’, that the NGV finally flung open its doors to contemporary artists, many of whom had been welcome for some time at ACCA.

ACCA’s renowned Artistic Director and curator Juliana Engberg who has commissioned and overseen more than 120 of ACCA’s Australian and international exhibitions, is now leaving to join the roaming European Capital of Culture series.

ACCA Events

In addition to its exhibitions, ACCA also holds very popular events. There are drawing workshops, educational programs and lectures. Currently, there is a highly acclaimed lecture series called ‘The Grand Tour: Cities Shaped by Art’  that covers London, Venice, Berlin, Beijing and Amsterdam.

The ACCA courtyard is shared with the Malthouse Theatre and is a very attractive place to enjoy a coffee after viewing the exhibitions.

 

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Wine, Vineyards and Kangaroos

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Yabby Lake Vineyard, Mornington Peninsula

Rows of vines, draped in white netting, spread down the hill and across the valley. The sea shines in the distance. You sit on the deck overlooking the vineyard and enjoy an excellent meal. The wine you are drinking is produced from the vines below you, and it is some of the best wine in Australia. Suddenly six kangaroos come leaping past and hop between the vines down to the lake – Yabby Lake. ( Yabbies are small, freshwater crayfish)

The Trophies 

Yabby Lake Vineyard sprang into public prominence when it made history by winning the coveted Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for Best Red Wine of the 2011 and 2012 vintages. It was the first time in its 52 year history that the Jimmy Watson Trophy was awarded to a Pinot Noir –  a Yabby Lake Block 1 Pinot Noir 2012.

This remarkable achievement was followed by accolades and awards for the Block 2 Pinot Noir 2013, which to date has already collected 11 trophies.

The Founders

And yet the vineyard is only 17 years old. When Robert and Mem Kirby bought the land in Tuerong on the Mornington Peninsula, they were not winemakers, but wine collectors who always dreamed of planting a vineyard. The land had the perfect conditions for growing high quality chardonnay and pinot noir – ‘hungry soil’ and a north-facing slope capturing both maximum sunshine and cooling sea breezes from 3 directions – Port Philip Bay, Western Port Bay and Bass Strait. It is this maritime climate that has turned the Mornington Peninsula into such a successful wine growing region.

 

 

The Viticulturist

A viticulturist with 27 years of experience, Keith Harris has been at Yabby Lake right from the beginning, carrying out research, soil surveys and preparation to ensure that the right variety of vine clone was matched to the type of soil. Then season after season, he hand-nurtures each vine.  When asked how Yabby Lake managed to achieve distinction for its pinot noir in such a short period of time, he replied,  “ It’s rigour. To grow good pinot noir you need rigour. Rigour in the vineyard, rigour in the winery, and rigour with the bank manager. We’ve had all three. It’s a very expensive way of growing grapes.”

The Winemaker

Tom Carson, joined Yabby Lake as General Manager and Chief Winemaker in 2008. Prior to that he was at Yering Station for 12 years during which time the winery won international acclaim including ‘International Winemaker of the Year’ at the 2004 International Wine and Spirit Competition in London.

He believes that  “ wine is not a competition game. It’s a respect game. It’s respecting wines, where they come from and why they taste the way they do. We don’t think that we are making wines that are better than any other particular producer or place in the world. What we can say is that we are making wines from our site and we have a site that is capable of producing exceptionally good quality.”

The Cellar Door and Restaurant

The Cellar Door and Restaurant opened only 2 years ago but is already recognised for its quality wine and food. Acclaimed chef Heston Blumenthal brought his family for lunch and Melbourne fine dining restaurant Vue de Monde held a food and wine tasting there recently.

Chef Simon West uses local suppliers extensively and the menu, which changes daily, offers casual, but refined, sophisticated food. The paintings and the sculptures combine with the natural beauty of the place to make it a lovely way to spend an afternoon in a vineyard.

It’s only a 50-minute drive from Melbourne on the M11 but the contrast with the bustling traffic is immediate. The gates of Yabby Lake open onto a silent, peaceful vista of rolling hills covered in vines – vines protected by nets in this season. The drive to the winery and restaurant is through a long avenue of tall eucalyptus trees, which give a distinctly Australian aspect to the rows of vines on either side of the road. These tall trees look as if they have been here forever, but they were planted by Mem Kirby as small saplings.

Kangaroos Between the Vines

If you are lucky, you might spot a kangaroo between the vines. Kangaroos are not usually associated in our minds with vineyards, but  apparently wine and kangaroos cohabit very comfortably. They don’t often eat the grapes as they prefer the grass that grows between the vines.

The Winery

The significant new addition to Yabby Lake this year is the opening of the winery which was constructed not far from the Cellar Door.  Now tractors are able to deliver the freshly hand-picked grapes a short distance directly from the vineyard into the winery, rather than being pressed at a distant site.

WomanGoingPlaces was the first to film the pressing of the grapes in this new winery. The grapes are dropped into a huge, highly sophisticated de-stemmer that removes the stems from the grapes by gravity. The grapes are never pumped or handled in a way that can damage them. New technology for an ancient craft.

Australia does not have the benefit of centuries of winemaking, but we are not as new to it as you might think. In fact, when the first British ships were transporting convicts to this land, they also transported grape vines. The first pinot that we know of in Australia, is called MV6  (Mother Vine). It was brought  out in 1840 and was thought to originate in France. The grapes that are grown today in Yabby Lake are clones of this original Mother Vine.

The Wines

Yabby Lake Vineyard produces single vineyard wines under the Yabby Lake label and from an additional site under the Heathcote Estate label.

Yabby Lake’s range of wines includes pinot noir, chardonnay, pinot gris, shiraz and sauvignon blanc. Their wines are exported to major wine markets overseas including to their 5 cellar doors in China.

The vineyard evokes an Australian childhood idyll – the  summer pastime of searching for yabbies in dams, creeks and lakes – for which it was named. The idyll is still present in the wide bucolic sweep of the place. But the Yabby Lake Vineyard, first under Robert and Mem Kirby and now in the hands of the second generation, Nina and Clark, has developed into an enterprise that is making its mark on Australian wine-making.

 

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Photographs & Video – Rosalie Zycher & Augustine Zycher

Music – Albare  CD  ‘The Road Ahead’  ‘Expectations’ track www.albare.info

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Woman In…. Esperance, West Australia

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Our Road Trip

Esperance is a seaside town on the south-eastern coast of West Australia. To get there, my daughter and I set off on a road trip from Perth, and in one day, drove 730 kilometres  through the lower belly of West Australia.

On our journey on National Route 1 and on smaller local roads, we passed through a great inland sea of wheat, salt lakes and remote towns.

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My daughter has lived in Fremantle in Western Australia for the past three years and will be returning to Victoria later this year, so before leaving the west she was keen to see more of the state. I work from home as an editor and at the time I had no looming deadlines so I was free to join her.  So we decided to visit Esperance and Cape Le Grand National Park.

In spite of the air conditioning being on its last gasp, ‘Olivia’, my daughter’s trusty old  all-wheel drive Subaru was in good mechanical condition, a must for travelling the roads of West Australia. We had extra water and snacks as a precaution. Even though we weren’t going to be travelling in extremely remote areas and the roads were all sealed, it’s always wise when driving in rural West Australia, to take extra water and food in case of emergencies.

Picnic at Yilliminning Rock

Our first stop was Narrogin where we bought lunch and decided to stop along the way to have a picnic. About 20 minutes from Narrrogin we pulled onto Birdwhistle Road to follow a sign to Yilliminning Rock, where sure enough there was a concrete picnic table and an information board. Keeping an eye out for snakes and our feet up on the bench-seat away from large hungry ants, we ate our lunch in a cocoon of heat and bush silence;  I took my first long, relaxed breath since leaving my home in Melbourne five or six hours earlier.

Yilliminning Rock is a granite rock rising about 50 metres from the surrounding farmland. The 10-minute climb afforded a lovely 360 degree view of the plains through which we had travelled and were yet to venture. Tiny pins of heat stung the skin on our backs, somehow finding their way through the threads of our clothing. It was time to get back in the car, with a change of driver.

Through the Wheatbelt and a Milkshake at Lake Grace

For most of the 730 kilometres we were shoulder to shoulder with straw coloured walls of wheat, the West Australian wheatbelt. While some might find the kilometres of wheatfields tedious, I didn’t. I was fascinated by the very largeness, the weight of blue sky, and the silence, and I entertained myself imagining what life on the land would be like. I enjoyed the memories from childhood of similar journeys my father took us on into the Australian bush. We stopped for a close-up look at the wheat, and the dry, red aridness dispelled any romanticism. A kind local woman stopped to make sure we were OK, as we were pulled over on a dusty road in the middle of nowhere.

We drove on stopping for petrol and coffee and a milkshake at Lake Grace. We visited the gallery next door to the café and discovered that the town had a vibrant arts and crafts community. The locals had been busy knitting and a gush of red knitted poppies filled the median strip dividing the highway running through the town.

About nine hours after leaving Perth we arrived in Esperance, and found our accommodation, a barn-like holiday flat called Doo Drop Inn. Quaint, but it had everything we needed.

Esperance and the Whale

Esperance is a small seaside town with comfortable accommodation choices. You probably won’t find five star rooms, and certainly not five star restaurants but you will find hospitality and somewhere to fill your tummy at the end of the day.

We discovered three highlights of Esperance (there would be more but we only had a short stay). The first was the development of the waterfront, including a path winding through low indigenous planting. Even in its incomplete stage the path was interesting and relaxing to walk. It was the local jogging and exercise route.

The second highlight was a beautiful sculpture of the tail of a breaching Southern Right whale, at the centre of this redevelopment and at the entrance to the Tanker Jetty. The piece stood meters high and was made from steel and wood, inlaid with coloured glass. We later met one of the artists, Cindy Poole, at her studio, Section Glass Gallery, (a must visit) who told us the story of the sculpture. The brief was to incorporate the elements of the local area and she and another artist decided on a whale to represent beauty and the migrating whales that pass the town, steel and wood for industry and the port as well as fishing vessels, and glass to reflect the colour of the area. The sculpture is one of the most beautiful pieces of public art I have ever seen.

The third highlight was a coastal route that takes you past some stunning ocean scenery and swimming beaches. We stopped for a swim in the aqua waters of a Twilight Bay, just out of town. On our return we stopped on a cliff top to watch a storm approach over the ocean. We longed for the cool and wet of the storm, and hoped it would reach the dry fields inland.

The next day we would leave for Cape Le Grand National Park.

Cape Le Grand National Park and Frenchman’s Peak

At 50 kilometres south-east of Esperance, Cape Le Grand National Park is an ideal day trip, or if you have camping gear or a camper van you can stay as long as you like. At Lucky Bay camping ground, where we stayed for one night, there was an outdoor kitchen, BBQs, clean amenities (toilets and showers) and ample sheltered space for tents, with a separate space for camper vans. There is no power and you will need to bring your own drinking water. There is a small charge per night.

On our way into the park we stopped to climb Frenchman’s Peak (262 metres). I resorted to crawling on hands and feet for a short section early on, however the rest of the climb, while needing endurance, wasn’t difficult. The rock faces could get slippery so I wouldn’t advise this climb during or just after rain. Having said that, it rained lightly while we were at the top so we took extra care on our descent.  The 360-degree view from the summit is beautiful. On one side we watched the rain approach. From the height we could see the perimeter of the rain cloud, and it moved like a swarm across the land, over us, then out to sea. Looking in the opposite direction, the colours and formations of sea and sky mirrored each other and we could not tell where one started and the other stopped.

After setting up camp we used the clean outdoor kitchen to cook dinner. More campers arrived during the evening, many of them young people and families from overseas. There is a ranger’s cottage nearby the camping area, and even without this we felt safe and comfortable. Lucky Bay is famous for kangaroos that come down to the beach, and it was very strange seeing kangaroos lying around on the sand. We saw a group of people who had been four wheel driving along the beach to get to remote fishing spots, but most people were there to bushwalk. There is a main 15-kilometre walk (one way) that can be done in a day, or broken into smaller walks, which are around three hours one way. We kept our activity to beachcombing as we only had one night available.

Before heading the 800 kilometres back to Perth, I woke early for a walk and to watch the sun rise over this natural, unspoilt corner of Australia.

 

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Photographs – Jacinta Agostinelli

Jacinta Agostinelli is a Melbourne-based writer and editor. She also works pro bono on the management committee of a local community organisation, cares for her granddaughter, and grows vegetables and raises chickens using organic and sustainable methods. She enjoys spending time with her family of five daughters and husband, especially in far away places.
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Bathing Boxes Brighton Beach Melbourne

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WomanGoingPlaces continues to receive such an enthusiastic response to our post on the Iconic Bathing Boxes of the Mornington Peninsula, that we are following up with another post on the bathing boxes  –  those on Brighton Beach. These 90 beach boxes are located in inner Melbourne, within sight of the central business district.

 

 

 Price of a bathing box?

What would you pay for what is essentially an empty wooden box, smaller than a boat shed, without running water or electricity?

Well, at the end of 2014, two auctions were held on the hot sand at Dendy St., Brighton Beach.  One newly built beach box, No.57A, was sold for $215,000 – that is $44,791 per square metre.

Minutes later, bidders trudged across the sand to another box, No.67, that is over 100 years old, and they eagerly pushed the sale price up to $190,000.

Why are bathing boxes so valuable and why are so many people charmed by them?

Each one unique

What is most obvious is their curious, colourful beauty. The 90 bathing boxes on Brighton beach form a vibrant arc of colour that curves along the sand and stretches to meet the skyline of Melbourne. It is a beautiful vista. Each of the boxes has its own character, shape and splashes of luminous paint. No two are identical.

Then there is their history. Most of the Brighton boxes and the additional 1300 beach boxes along the Mornington Peninsula date back to the 1880’s. They were originally built so that women could modestly change into swimwear and not expose their bodies on the beach.

Bathing Box Licence 1936Brighton Historical Society has records to show that there were originally more boxes in Brighton, but some were washed away or destroyed by rough weather. The Society retains a copy of a license dated 1936, granting permission to occupy a bathing box.

 

Family treasures 

Those who have been fortunate enough to own a bathing box over the last century, seem to view their boxes as a family treasure. They are much more than a convenient place to store beach gear – towels, umbrellas, chairs, canoes, boards. They are places to store family memories of summer holidays – carrying the baby, for the first time, from the beach box into the sea, swimming, playing cricket; eating meals and drinking wine on the sand outside the box while watching the sun set and rise over the sea.

This repository of family celebrations by the sea is handed down from one generation to the next. For example, beach box No 67, mentioned above, which is over 100 years old, had been in the same family for 50 years.

Building investment

There is also another compelling reason for the desirability of the bathing boxes. They are an outstanding investment.

If you had purchased one 30 years ago you would have paid around $12,000.  If you waited until the 1990’s to buy one, it would have cost you around $60,000. But then you could have resold it 10 years later for $214,000.  The record for a Dendy St. beach box was set in 2011 at $260,000.

Their value is the reason last October, Bayside Council approved 10 more boxes on Dendy St beach, swelling its coffers by about $1.6 million.

Most councils along the Mornington Peninsula have strict rules forbidding the building of new boxes.

The rules and regulations governing bathing boxes date back decades and are supervised by Bathing Box Associations in each council area where the boxes are located.

In Brighton there is a caveat on availability – only a bayside ratepayer can own one. Licensees are not allowed to rent or sublet their beach boxes. Nor are they allowed to sleep in or use their boxes as accommodation. There are even strict guidelines that dictate how beach boxes can be decorated.

Therefore it is surprising to see one box that displays a huge blue wave, not on an Australian beach, but on the coast of Japan, with Mount Fuji in the background. The design on bathing box No. 66 is derived from a famous Japanese artwork, Under the Wave off Kanagawa. This work by Katsushika Hokusai, is one of the best recognised works of Japanese art in the world.

Building memories

Those who do not own a beach box are still drawn to make them part of their family memories. Each year hundreds of brides in wedding gowns traipse through the sand with their bridegrooms, bridesmaids and best men in tow, to have their wedding photos taken next to the beach boxes. This is in addition to the thousands of tourists and visitors who come to photograph and be photographed next to them.

The allure of these quirky bathing boxes has made them instantly recognisable and turned them into Australian icons.

Li Na just after winning the Australian Open Trophy as Women's Singles Champion 2014

Li Na just after winning the Australian Open Trophy as Women’s Singles Champion 2014

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Photography – David Zycher

Video editor – Augustine Zycher

To see each photo separately go to our Gallery page.

Music – Albare  CD  ‘The Road Ahead’  ‘Heart to Heart’ track www.albare.info