P and I went to London and met Shirl ( we had a nice stay for a couple of days at the Heathrow travelodge.)
It was art week so we visited some lovely sculptures. and Shirl and I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, and other London landmarks.
As a treat we were allowed into the roof cupola and had great views over London.
then Claire and Blair arrived, and we did the hop on bus and other London activities.
Including meeting Blair's sister and having a chocolate fondue at Harrods.
Then a week here in Leeds then they were off again as B's aunty had a place in London and was off to NZ for a month so they went and stayed there. They also had a few days in Paris.
from her
What can I say about Paris....it rained a lot....
Kidding! It was great! I can safely say I subsided solely on sugar, ham and cheese in various forms - my favorite of which was the crepe MMMM
We caught the Eurostar under the English Channel (takes only 20mins to go under all that water). It was an odd experience, every time we went in a tunnel I got the most intense ear ache!
Got into Paris at 7pm, which was seriously daunting. Managed to work out the Metro System after lots of annoying touristy behavior E.g. Stopping in the middle of narrow passages, changing direction with no warning and talking loudly in English. Made it to the right area of town...which seemed awfully dodgy. When we did track down our hotel I don't think either of us wanted it to be the right one. Mum suggested that it might be a 'one night' hotel, seeing as Sexy Paris was right across the road.
Went up to our room and discovered a certain lack of toilet OR shower...we did have a bidet though. After a rough night on a rock hard bed sharing a "uno-pillow" - one super long pillow to be shared by two, we headed off into Paris.
Outside our hotel, Blair stopped a lovely French lady and asked her "Where is the river?" in his version of French, which simply involved saying it in a dreadful French accent and waving his arms about like the Italians do on TV. She responded in perfect English with a bit of a giggle. The first day we hopped onto the hop on/off bus and sat back to enjoy the sites of Paris.
Bused to the Eiffel Tower and joined the MASSIVE line. At this point you need to remember that Blair is not a great fan of heights, and the tower is veeeery high. Jumped into the lift (really don't understand why people pay extra to walk up...). Level one was high,level 2 was freaky the summit was terrifying! Blair did very well and even got right up to the edge. BEST views over Paris, it was amazing and a once in a life time experience.
Caught the boat back down the river to Notre Dame, which it turns out is only 2 blocks from our hotel. I think I need to clarify at this point that the hotel was actually much nicer than our first impression. In fact, the area was AMAZING! It was a "Car Free" shopping area filled with cafes and crepe makers, 5min to Notre Dame and 15 to the Louvre.
DAY TWO:
Decided to stroll along the river to the Louvre. Feet were beyond sore, and both of us were grouchy from lack of sleep and lack of decent shower. Arrived just in time to join another large line, but like the Eiffel Tower, it moved really fast.
Can't say either of us was particularly enthused, I think both of us would have preferred to be lying down somewhere (not our rock hard bed though). Saw the Mona Lisa, which I still think is overrated. highlight of the visit was probably when I accidentally set off the alarms after trying to show Blair the amazing detail on a statue's big toe. Alarms and everything, whoops!
Hopped on the bus and did a massive tour of the rest of Paris - saw the Latin Quarter and along the river. Popped into Notre Dame, where Blair refused to light a candle and didn't tip the nun on the way out.
All in all, Paris was a beautiful city but we have both decided that we need to go see it in Summer and explore the South of France more! Claire.
more from me in the next blog
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