Paris to Antananarivo

Our Trip Has Begun

We spent three beautiful days in Paris, up early for coffee and a croissant, walking for hours visiting all the familiar places, taking in a nighttime Siene River cruise and frequenting the many neighborhood bistros and shops.  One can never say enough about Paris.  It's a georgeous city and our weather was perfect.

Here are a few snaps taken during our short visit, September 24-26th

Jerry at the bridge with all the locks. 

 

The magnificent fountains.

 

 

The Eiffel Tower at night.

 

The little sail boats at the Luxembourg Gardens.

 

On Monday, the 26th we spent several hours in the military museum.  Having had no previous idea of the vast and comprehensive collection of armaments, military garb, photos, videos and historic documents, we concentrated only on the periods of World Wars I and II which comprised about a third of the museum's collection.  The museum is worth several repeat visits.  

On Tuesday, the 27th we boarded Air France flight 934 for the 11-hour flight to Antananarivo, the Capitol of Madagascar.  The flight took us along the western coast of Italy which was beautiful with a clear view of the coastal towns and various islands.  After crossing the Mediterrean, we had an awesome view of the beautiful blue sea hugging the stark sands of the Egyptian desert.  We flew for hours over the harsh sandy landscape seeing only occasional signs of desert villages.  It is amazing that people have lived here for centuries.

  

Antananarivo

We landed just before midnight in Madagascar's capital city most commonly known by its colloquial shorthand form, Tana.  During the daytime the drive from the airport to our hotel in central Tana would be through chaotic traffic of taxis, busses, zebu carts, trucks and people with wheelbarrows spilling out into the road. But, at midnight, with limited electricity it was dark and fairly quiet.  We were met by a driver from Audley Travels, our international tour operator, who drove us to our hotel the Maison Gallieni which occupies the bottom two floors of  Consulate of Monaco,  It is perched on a hill overlooking part of the city.

Unfortunately because of the darkness we were not able to take in the real charm and color of Tana but the hotel is lovely.  The following photos are shots of the hotel.  Tomorrow when we start our drive to our first national park we'll drive through Tana and see more of this colorful city of 2 million people.

      

 

The following morning we met the driver and guide that will accompany us for the next several days.  We will visit approximately seven national parks in the southwest part of the country. 

  

Our guide, LaLa, got a big kick out of my brother-in-law, Tom who, was perhaps the tallest client he had ever had!

Founded in 1625, the city of Antananarivo was built on a series of hills with the Queen's Palace placed on highest peak. The city takes its name (the City of the Thousands) from the number of soldiers the King assigned to guard it.  Today the palace is an empty shell and the city, as it has grown, has sprawled across the hills in a disorganized fashion.  It is boardered by rice paddy fields and brick factories. As we exited the town we experienced the endless traffic we had missed during our arrival the night before.

  

Our destination today is the Eulophelia Lodge in the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. It was an interesting four-hour ride through colorful villages and beautiful countryside. We made a couple of stops for scenery photos and then an unexpected stop when our guide spotted an unusual Oustaleti Chameleon on the side of the road.

  

   

We continued on the RN7 road to the south, snapping shots out of the car windows.  While the appearance of the area is of extreme poverty, the villagers are very productive farmers and craftsmen.  The fields are beautifully terraced for the seasonal rice crops and crop rotation of beans, corn, carrots, and cauliflower.

  

In early afternoon, we reached our home for the next three nights,The Eulophelia Lodge.

 Eulophelia Lodge is a privately owned beautifully manicured property of several hundred acres adjacent to the Mantadia National Park.

 

Sarah and me in front of one of our cabins discussing our upcoming "night walk" in the surrounding rainforest and laughing about the decorated toilets.

   

That evening we headed out with our head lanterns and flashlights to look for wooly lemurs and mouse lemurs as well as different species of frogs and chameleons.  Our guide had a sharp eye and amazed us as he spotted the smallest of smallest of critters hiding in the crevices and under leaves.  Unfortunately neither Sarah nor I were successful in capturing photos of everything.  The lemurs were the hardest to spot and sometimes all we saw were their eyes shining in the lights.

Here are a couple little creatures we managed to capture by cameras.

 Heading out into the forest.

 

Tree frog

 

 

Flat-tail chameleon.  This one is about three inches long and was just changing color to blend in with the tree branch.

We saw lots more during the walk but, like I said, successfully photographing them was difficult.  Not having the photos did not diminish the thrill of being in the Madagascar rainforest at night and witnessing the sights and sounds of life of certain species of animals that are not found anywhere else in the world.  There is more to come as we explore the areas during the day.