Le Chic En Rose

Getting back into routine after the festive season! Our visitors have left us and it seems a bit strange to have the house back to just ourselves and the pets.

We’ve done quite a few local outings over the past few weeks including a pleasant day in Fremantle with Mlle when she was here from London.

 

I have posted about a previous trip to Fremantle (see here). By Perth standards it’s quite a historic place being the first port of call back in 1829 when the first European settlers set up a colony at the mouth of the Swan River (see here). However, importantly, it also has a rich indigenous heritage, which you can read more about here. There is an acknowledgement about the land and traditions on the City of Fremantle website:

The City of Fremantle acknowledges the Whadjuk people as the traditional owners of the greater Fremantle/Walyalup area and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still important to the Nyoongar people today.

It’s always lovely to wander the streets and explore the older style buildings from colonial days. The Fremantle Markets are a wonderful way to while away time and pick up supplies (I have discovered an excellent stall selling all manner of loose leaf teas including all my favourites!)

 

 

Aside from the markets, Fremantle also has plenty of interesting shops selling all sorts of things – artwork, old books, maps and clothing. Monsieur was on a mission to find some old vinyls for the new turntable he received at Christmas! He duly found a store selling a myriad of old records and I left him there to browse for quite a while.

We wandered back down to the sea front and passed by Notre Dame, the univeristy situated in Fremantle – its locations are spread out over a number of old-style buildings.

Later we met Mlle for lunch at coincidentally the same place as my previous Fremantle post – Little Creatures down by the front! I should stress however that there are numerous other cafes and eateries from which to take your pick – The Raw Kitchen restaurant is another of our favourites and the adjoining shop a great place to pick up gifts.

 

 

After lunch we strolled around the historic port front – it was a blustery day though the sea breeze was most welcome. There are some displays about the port’s heritage, an art gallery and steps leading up to the Round House used to house prisoners for many years (we have visited quite a few times so didn’t go up there on our recent visit).

 

 

Fremantle is a perennial favourite somewhere I often pop down to even when we don’t have visitors. If anyone is coming to Perth I’d highly recommend it – it has a charm and character quite distinct from the far more modern Perth city.

 

 

We have fortunately not been affected in the Perth Metro area by the horrific bushfires, though there was a severe fire in the Yanchep area to the north before Christmas and the eastern part of Western Australia has been badly impacted by fires near the South Australian border. This is a relatively under-populated part of the state though it has alas burnt through large hectares of bushland and caused traffic delays on the Eyre Highway (the main link road between Western and South Australia).

Thoughts continue to go out to those affected further east by the drought, terrible fires and most recently floods.

Copyright © 2020 Rosemary Thomas Le Chic En Rose. All rights reserved