A Paris

With the Queen and her conquering cricket team behind us we ventured (in two taxis, one with me and the luggage, the other with the rest of the caravan!) to London St Pancras to catch the Eurostar, our first very fast train journey.  It is a fabulous way to travel and the Anglo-Franco transition started immediately with very friendly French waiters getting us started on our conversion into speaking French...thanks partly to Sam, as alot of our conversations have taken place in cafes and restaurants, and started with "pas noisettes?"ie. no nuts?

For this our first stint in Paris, our apartment was in the Marais district, or 3rd arrondissement; in Melbourne terms more like a Brunswick/Fitzroy with a terrific bohemian feel.  The apartment was classicly Parisien, walking into tall windows letting in a warm breeze from a leafy courtyard.  Weary from the journey we wanted a quick dinner and around the corner was a perfect bistrot, dining on the street and Michaela spoke to the waiter like a local.  The food was already up a notch from London, with Sasha in particular enjoying, not for the first time, her favourite omelette.  The poulet roti (roast chicken) was perfect!

We familiarised ourselves with the Metro/RER rail system and made our way to Eurodisney the following morning to see the first ball bowled (or roller coasted!).  An amazing place and we had a perfect day of circa 28 degrees with bright sunshine.

With only 2 full days in Paris, we had been recommended both a Seine canal cruise and the Palace of Versailles...and of course, the Eiffel Tower. We were not disappointed. Our canal cruise took us along the Seine for a couple of miles before entering a canal tunnel that navigated a long tunnel under Paris before emerging into a series of around 10 locks before dropping us on the outskirts of Paris.  The canals were largely built under the reign of Bonaparte bringing fresh(ish) water into central Paris for all for the first time.  They now empty the canals for cleaning every 7 years finding a myriad of flotsam and jetsam (cars, safes, cows (dead ones) etc).

Our guide was a lovely 'motherly' woman called Elizabeth, pronounced I think as "Eliiiizabet". She imparted a great deal of information and knowledge, and ended up with quite a soft spot for young Sam. He has taken to street (and boat) dancing in random locations during these holidays, and the canal boat was no exception. Oblivious to spectators, Sam was happily jigging away when Eliiiizabet stopped her commentary...a pause followed, and so did everyone's eyes on Sam. Will and Sasha were downstairs and when they heard over the microphone a request for more dancing, they knew it was their younger brother! Needless to say, Sam did not disappoint and an encore performance followed. Eliiizabet's parting remarks accompanied by a kiss for Sam, "if you have him in your family, there is no need for television...you would watch him all the time!"

We then made for the Eiffel Tower and took the obligatory dozens of photos from all sorts of angles before joining our queue jumping tour guide, which was a relief.  We passed a couple of hundred people queuing at ground level before taking a lift to the second level - a mighty achievement for Michaela.  Despite much cajoling and encouragement that was as far as she was going.  Will, also not keen on heights, stated calmly that if he could make it to the second level he could make it to the top; so the four of us made off.  There was a big difference between level 2 and the top, the view was inspiring and we all absolutely loved it.

I think the Eiffel Tower is the most impressive structure I have seen; remarkable to think that it was built with the intention of bringing it down after the exhibition for which it was originally made, as the entrance gate! Mac wasn't too pleased about the "bring it down easily" part of the guide's talk, and spent the next few minutes checking the apparent tightness of the bolts!

As with any attraction like this, we were all very conscious of pick pockets and it was oddly fascinating to actually see some of them at work trying to distract tourists.  Usually a child operating in tandem with  a parent - a clear representation of the sorry state of the French economy and social system.  We made off for the train on a high after a fantastic day, taking some last snaps of the magnificent tower.  We also got a family shot with the help of a passing Spanish family, for whom we reciprocated. This required putting our backpack on the ground......can you see where this story is going?

It was less than five minutes later that we passed through the gates of the RER and I realised I had left the backpack.  It felt like a scene from a movie.  I knew exactly where I had left it and every step I had taken - the contents were mostly replaceable (why my iPad was in there I have no idea!!), except Will's camera.  I sprinted to the spot leaving my family on the station - not there, eerily there was nobody there; what had been a crowded promenade was empty, I could see easily it was nowhere in sight.  I raced around a carousel and food area hoping to see sign of it (asked a machine gun toting French military trio for help in vain) and returned devastated to the station.  Seeing tears well up in Will's eyes over the memories in his camera was a real bad dad moment.

My amazing positive wife then sprung into action and said we would go back and check again, and mentioned that she had seen 4 french police on velos (bikes) near the area we left the backpack. Why she recalls seeing 4 handsome french policemen in bike gear...mmm, let me think? I was mournfully downbeat but off we went. Still no sign of the bag (or policemen), Mac suggested we go to lost property at the Tower and we made straight for tourist information who directed her with an almost sarcastic (Bon Courage) tone to try the police.

As we approached the police station at the Tower, incredibly one of them saw us and exclaimed "le sac, I have your backpack!".  Hard to describe how lucky I felt at that moment.  They had checked the photos on Will's camera and linked me (having remembered the logo on my shirt) to Sasha and Sam in Will's last photo.  Great police, great persistence from Michaela, great relief for me!!

The next day was Versailles; what an unbelievably stunning place.  The scale of every part of it is absolutely beyond belief.  Not hard to see why the natives got a bit restless when they were struggling to put food on their table and the various King Louis' were steadily enhancing this most extraordinary of estates.  The palace is ridiculously ornate and massive, but the gardens are something else.  We wandered through a tiny percentage of the gardens (for a couple of hours) for the most part accompanied by Mozart concertos emanating from invisible speakers - of course. As we strolled alone up one avenue of hedges we heard an opera and happened upon 10 minutes of a fountain show to music across an amazing vista, that seemed to have been put on just for us. Forgot to mention this was all in torrential rain...again the kids were stoic and fabulous!

The palace itself was the reverse with masses of people herding through magnificent rooms, the Royal Chapel and Hall of Mirrors particular highlights.  It was tempting for the revolutionaries to trash it but the visionaries saw beyond the inequality of the regime that created it, and made it a museum for France and the world - we are lucky they made that choice.

We note below a very similar statue of Louis XIV, approximately 200 metres from our apartment in Montpellier. Needless to say, young Louis was a rather arrogant chap. The story goes in Montpellier, that when the park area was built (where his statue is located), it was built to sit above the main city. Not good enough for Louis, his statue needed to be the (then) highest point in that park and Montpellier! Fittingly now, and in memory of those who fought and died in the French Revolution and other conflicts, Montpellier's Arc de Triomph towers over his statue.

Next blog to follow....the Dordogne...our beautiful french holiday, during our french holiday!

UK adventure continued - London

Off to London to visit the Queen, well at least see her palace.  We had a great apartment right in the heart of the action, 200 metres from Westminster Abbey and close by Buckingham Palace.  Only downside was a level 3 apartment and a hot stairwell - 4 large suitcases up the stairs (then later down) was my workout for the day!  We spent our first afternoon enjoying the sights of Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the bridge over the Thames before lunch in St James Park and playing the tourist (with a few thousand others) outside Buckingham Palace. Then we headed off to East Finchley about 20 minutes north of London for a great dinner with our dear friends Rick and Janet and their boys, who had just returned from 3 weeks touring Spain.  

The next few days were a whirlwind of the sights; we set a punishing schedule for the kids and they were fabulous, enthusiastically taking in each new part of the adventure. Highlights:

Hamleys, an extraordinary kids store, 7 stories of toys - quite overwhelming really!

Tower of London, a terrific showcase of the brutal history of London but very much the beginnings of our exposure to London queues; the Crown Jewels was a monster line, but our patience was rewarded with some enormous diamonds on show and interesting history of the monarchy.  Think it was lost on the boys who were more amused at the other meaning of crown jewels!

Night time trip on the London Eye; quite an achievement for Michaela given her fear of heights although she had a pretty tight grip on the bench in the middle of our pod; the views were amazing and kids were enthralled. Will was obsessed with seeing Wembley stadium and Michaela, the MI6 building..both living their respective worlds of fantasy.

Boat trip down the Thames to Greenwich, very amusing guide, that appealed greatly to Michaela's sense of humour. A particular poem that made Mac laugh referred to the Lions' heads that adorn the side walls of the Thames, to indicate water levels and floodlines. It went something like, "When the lions heads are ducked, London is…..flooded"!! The cruise down the Thames highlighted London's ever changing skyline and architecture, as they proudly retain and/or rebuild replicas of buildings from eras long-past, while erecting the tallest building in Europe, made of glass (that wasn't meant to rhyme!). Greenwich meantime was a bit lost on the kids, but a must-do, given the significance of the location as the centre of time!

Harrods, women in full muslim dress and gucci sunglasses - very easy to get lost in this place.  

London Duck Tour - Our Jack Blackesq guide hosted us in a World War 2 amphibious vehicle converted into a canary yellow touring bus around Westminster before plunging into the Thames (and fortunately floating) next to MI6 to the background of the James Bond soundtrack and of course once we hit the water switched to… "We all live in a yellow submarine". The kids were hankering for a double decker bus ride so we isolated the right route to get us to Hyde Park Corner and one came along shortly.  We then covered almost the same route as the Duck which gave us a chance to test the kids absorption of the facts - they did surprisingly well!!

Kensington Gardens were absolutely beautiful and a lovely warm day with the kids playing in the Princess Diana memorial walking fountain (spot the children who have come from the Southern Hemisphere winter!).  It was quite a long walk from one end to the other and an occasional break on conveniently placed very comfortable shaded deck chairs.  The amble was punctuated by the kids discovering a limping pigeon and elevating this to a national emergency resulting in a compliant park ranger coming to the rescue.  The kids asked what he would do with it and he kindly said he would take it to the vet.  I think I saw him deliver the last rites as he tossed it into the rear of his vehicle! We were lucky to see the Grenadier guards clip clopping past on their way home from Buckingham Palace.

Lion King - great seats and a wonderful play with the classic songs.  Astounded at the group of 16-18 year olds that spent a good deal of the performance talking to each other and the elderly Indian lady who checked her voicemail half way through the second half lighting up the whole section of the audience.  The audience lacked the appreciative grace we get used to in Melbourne and to me seemed as though they were ticking the box of a West End classic.  Despite all this we loved the show and the songs featured in the following days as the kids danced around London and Paris.

We had a great dinner with our friends Graham and Jennifer Martin at a flash Japanese restaurant in Knightsbridge.  

The kids became adept at navigating the Tube and travelled free of charge - hustling through the disabled gates at high speed as we traversed the network.  Their confidence is growing everyday!

Paris blog to follow! A bientot mes amis!