Well, my wife and I returned from our combination business/pleasure trip to
Britain and France last Sunday night (8:00 P.M. local time: 4:00 A.M. *body
clock* time...), and, after getting over the worst of our jet lag, we're happy
to report that it was a mostly successful trip.
I took a vastly-reduced kit, motivated by my wife's (valid) comments that my
whole collection of lenses, bodies etc. would be way too heavy. So, three
lenses came with: the Zuiko 100/2.0, the Zuiko 28/2.0 and the Zuiko 21/2.0. As
it turned out, for many of the narrow streets we were in, the 21/2.0 was my
most-used lens, with the 28/2.0 being used for more general "people shots" and
the 100/2.0 being used for some special candids of people, as well as a few
perspective shots of street scenes, architecturally-interesting buildings seen
from across the Seine, etc. All three of the lenses were, in their own way,
indispensable, and I think they were the right choices.
All this was used with a single body -- my trusty old OM-4, which performed
flawlessly. No tripod was hauled along, for which I was sorry when I was
inside cathedrals etc., but I may nevertheless have a few interesting shots
(film still being processed...). Carried the entire setup in a Lowepro
Offtrail hip-belt pack, which I really came to like. Went to Cambridge, Paris
and then the Normandy countryside (never made it to the South of France for
family reasons). Some random observations:
1. Airport X-rays. All the Canadian airports we were in would do hand
inspection of both film and cameras. Once we got to Heathrow, this courtesy
evaporated, and I gritted my teeth as my film was repeatedly bombarded by
X-rays for one interminable inspection after another. Same problem at
Roissy/Charles de Gaulle in Paris: hand inspection is unavailable. (They
seemed to think I was some kind of kook for even asking for it for the camera).
I'll let you know whether problems arose in the films as soon as I get them
back.
2. People shots. Not sure why, but people in Paris, Cambridge and the Normandy
countryside seemed much more relaxed than Canadians about having their pictures
taken in public places. It certainly helped that I had the 100/2.0 with me, as
I was able to be less conspicuous and in-their-face. I'd forgotten just how
much I love that lens. Got a lovely shot (I hope) of a couple in a park, doing
the usual casual flirting that two people do when they're sizing each other up
for possible further liaisons. It was a sweet, tender moment, and I hope I did
it some justice.
3. Paris on May 1st. Don't do it. (It's Labour Day, and a big national
holiday for the French.)
4. Paris during the spring. Nice place. To my Canadian sensibilities, it was
crowded and noisy, but still beautiful. Prices for the most part were
acceptable for a tourist (found a nice hotel on a quiet pedestrian street for
400 FFr, about $100.00 CDN/night [that's about $68 U.S. or 64 Euro], right
between the fashionable Invalides section of Paris and the Eiffel tower). Had
we not been doing so much of the standard first-time-tourists-to-Paris thing, I
would've wandered around more with the camera equipment -- lots of interesting
side-streets etc. Oh yeah, and the chestnut trees were in bloom in the
Tuileries. ;-)
5. Cambridge, and the East Midlands. An architectural bonanza for Olympus
users. Didn't know which way to point my camera next, there were so many
interesting sights to shoot. Again, found Cambridge crowded (but *very*
interesting people -- struck up some great conversations in local pubs, of
which I did my level best to visit as many as possible [it's good for jet-lag,
doncha know?... :-)] ). Interestingly, with all the reputation of Parisians
(and the French in general) of being rude to foreigners, the only place in
Europe where anyone was rude to us was in Cambridge, where a bus driver chewed
me out for asking about whether he could place our bags in his stowage
compartment for the trip to Heathrow. I figured someone pissed in his corn
flakes that morning. In contrast, the Parisians and Normandisois (if that's a
word) were pleasant, friendly, helpful, gracious, and somewhat fascinated by me
and my wife (probably my wife -- she's *way* cuter than I am).
6. Normandy. Normandy, Normandy, Normandy. Seems to have something for
everyone. Hopefully got some great photos of Mont St. Michel from across the
bay, shrouded in cloud and mist, looking ethereal, otherworldly. Gained weight
from the food and booze (Normandy's known for four things: cream, cider,
Camembert and Calvados, to which "pommeau" [a mix of two parts clear, hard
apple cider and one part Calvados apple brandy] should be added as a fifth
invention the world would be poorer without).
7. Heathrow and Roissy/Charles de Gaulle.
Heathrow's a bloody big barn, but at least there are numerous places to plant
your tired butt while waiting for your connecting flight, including, of course,
pubs. And it's reasonably well-signed (although mostly unilingual), so you
always know how to get from point A to point B.
In contrast, CdG is an architectural marvel in its own right (Hall "F" of
Terminal Two is larger than the entire Edmonton International Airport, and
looks like a modern derivative of a cathedral), but feels cold and inhuman,
more of a monument to French aestheticism than anything else. Not
user-friendly, *extremely* poor signage (we spent forty-five minutes wasting
precious time, driving around Terminal Two trying to find the car rental return
place, getting repeatedly trapped in pay parking areas that had nothing to do
with car rentals -- I finally got out of the car and walked around to find the
rental area, and then returned to the car to help my wife find the place).
Memorable sight: a businessman in full suit sprawled across a two-meter-wide
raised brushed-stainless-steel dais, trying to catch some sleep, because there
was no other place for him to sit or lie down. I was gonna take his picture
and call it "down and out in Paris", but then reconsidered.
IMHO, both these airports could take some lessons from Frankfurt, which does a
commendable job of trying to be all things to all people, and is signed in
multiple languages. (Plus you can actually figure out where to return your
rental vehicle without going through the psychic equivalent of root canal
surgery.)
All in all, a good trip, with the usual misadventures. I hope to have at least
some of the pictures sometime this weekend, and then I'll update the Oly
Gallery both with some of my own stuff and with all the other submissions that
have come in in the last two months or so. (Thanks for being patient,
everyone...)
Garth
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