Le Petit Garçon!

Sundays in Paris are nearly almost 'family' days.  Events happen on Sundays that don't happen other days of the week ...... such as picnics in the park, cycle riding, and floating boats in the Tuilleries.
After our truly awful day we could now get on with our holiday.  We walked along the Rue de Rivoli, checking out the cheapo souvenir shops, looking for the best buy postcards.  The prices of postcards vary between shops but I have found that the 'gallery', as I call it, opposite the Louvre has the best value ones.  
After I had purchased them all (lots and lots of course!) we wandered across the road into the gardens to eat our pastries, moving a couple of the chairs so we could sit in the shade.  

Yes! you heard right, the sunshine was very bright and hot even though earlier in the morning we had had to shelter from the rain.


Whilst we were sitting, I noticed that man with the boats was at the side of the pond....... we wandered over to him and I managed to persuade PJ to hire a boat with me.  


So off we went ..... two sailing boats floating on the pond, one gentleman floating his boat and one pink haired lady running round the pond laughing out loud with happiness!!!

Parisians probably saw a pink haired English maniac of a woman with a elderly gentleman trying to pretend he wasn't with her!!!!

'Somebody's' boat just loved the fountain in the centre of of the pond!

After a while, several proper children joined in and the pond became a little crowded, so we handed back our boats and stood watching for a while.  

 
Across the pond a gentleman was feeding the ducks and then we realised that the ducks had moved away, yet he carried on throwing his bread into the water.  
We walked round to where he was and there were ..... lots of Koi and other fish!  
Some of the koi were huge , they appear as shadows in the photo but were amazing and unexpected.
We will definitely visit this part of the Tuilleries garden next time we come.  
Now that PJ has found the fish, he is already thinking about our next visit!!!

Paris III

The next morning, Saturday, we went down into Reception to find ..... still no tickets!  
After going on line, free wi-fi provided by the Hotel and assistance from the staff, we managed to find out that we needed to contact the office at Gare de Nord.  
The address given for the office was not really clear but eventually we found the kiosk inside the station.  The lady explained that she was unable to help us but if we came back after lunch, she hoped that her colleague would be able to.


We went off the the Baroudeur, just outside the station where we had spent some lovely afternoons and we knew they did good food.
How times change!  
I think the waiter must have thought us two English idiots!  We ordered deux Croque Monsieur, Grand Creme and deux Kir.  Simples!

This is what we expected! 

What we received was a slice of stale bread with some boiled ham and grated cheese layered and grilled over the top! 
It was disgusting!  I was shocked when the plates were put in front of us, but the taste was unbelievable ...... I could not eat it and PJ had to leave his.  When we told the waiter that we did not expect such rubbish, he said that it was probably because it was French bread!!  
I could not, would not, ever go there again! 

We walked back into the station to be greeted with the words that the young man could not help us, but after much explanations that our travel tickets were with his company, he gave us two of his own personal Metro tickets so that we could get to the main Office.  If you happen to be visiting Paris and see the kiosk .... ask for Olivier and say thank you for us.  He really does know the meaning of Customer Service!
We found the offices at Pyramides quite easily and the waiting area inside was very pleasant.  We were called to the counter quite quickly and when we explained that we needed our travel tickets and/or a refund of courier fees there was much discussion between the manager, staff and the Hotel!  
After an in depth investigation we were told that they had no explanation as the tickets had been definitely sent to our hotel.  They took all our details and, the clever man I am married to had taken copies of all the paperwork, so we left copies of our paperwork with the manager.  They issued us with some tickets which we could use over what was left of the weekend and told us that they would be in touch with us to tell us what had happened.  With that the skies opened up and the rain and hail came down so hard we had to wait inside the shop.  
Eventually it eased off enough for us to leave and we went over the road to a cafe for a celebratory Kir!
We found ourselves a table and when the waiter came over to us ...... well! .... I swear it was Rylan Clarke!!!
I asked him if it was but no ..... it was a Frenchman ...... I told him who I thought he was and he was straight on to the web ...... hope he thinks it is all good....

We then went over to our friend's apartment and spent the rest of the day doing what we came for - drinking, eating, laughing and generally enjoying ourselves!
We rolled back to the hotel very late at night ...... or was it morning .... the shops were still open!

Paris II

We eventually found our hotel - one of the joys for us is the adventure of trying to find our way round different areas of Paris.

If we hadn't misunderstood 'turn left' for turn left when it really meant 'turn left immediately!' - we would have arrived earlier! We laughed when we found out where it was - right on the corner!
The staff were very welcoming but could not find our travel tickets anywhere so we left them waiting on the Manager and went off to our room.  
The room was compact but clean and bright, easy to access via the lift so the ninth floor was nothing!
We asked at reception if the post had arrived but no - possibly tomorrow - they suggested a local bistro for us to have our evening meal.  We set off for our meal and found the restaurant easily - on another corner!

We were warmly welcomed by our hostess, although it was quite early in the evening.  Between her poor English and our poor French we had a thoroughly enjoyable time.  We took the set menu which gave us three courses but to be honest two were enough.
My courses were perfect, except for the potatoes, but PJ had problems with his steak, and potatoes!!  
However, we did have a lovely time and the hostess - wonderful!

Unfortunately the tickets had still not arrived when we went down next morning but ... out of the window by the lift we could see a grey mountain ..... honest!!!  We asked around but but everyone looked at us as though we were daft!  When we came back to England I checked it out and found it!!  

The Zoo!


Honestly!  It has a mountain, known as the 'Great Rock'. 

Paris in the Spring

We nipped off for a weekend with friends again ....

We travelled down to London by coach and then across to St Pancras station to catch Eurostar to Paris. 
Once we had managed to fight our way through the rush hour on the tube, we arrived inside the main hall. 
 The main entrance to the Eurostar terminal is on the ground floor and there are plenty of shops and eateries, so we stopped for coffee and cake!
There was a change this time .... armed Police.  I still find it so unnerving to see our police .... armed.  It's not quite right somehow and yet seeing their presence does make one feel safer.
We moved down the hall to the ticket office and customs area, where PJ had a problem with his ticket.  The Eurostar lady explained that we were too early for our train but if we wanted to go on the next one she would arrange new tickets for us!  
Did this bode well for us?  An extra hour in Paris!!  Yes!!
Soon we were through the customs area and waiting for our train.  An American family were seating opposite us, each one tapping away on their mobile phones .... what happened to talking to one another?!!?
We rode the escalator up to the train and there she was.... waiting for us....... such a darn long train ..... and our coach always seems to be at the other end!  lol
The train was not too full, so there was a gentle hum of conversation as we left the station.
It seemed that in no time at all we were arriving at Gare de Nord in Paris.... where we walked out into the Paris sunshine ... not!   
We had to go get our tickets for the Metro and then find our hotel where our travel tickets and a whole weekend of shopping, eating, chatting with friends, was waiting for us.

So where have I been?

I have been here for the majority of the past month ..... working ....

I have been trying to get ahead with all my swaps ......

We have been practising having Little Soldier for the day .... all on our own.......

I have been tidying up the Visitors Garden at Tyseley Loco Works ........

We have been to Paris ......

PJ has been erecting the Chicken Ranch .......



So you see we have been rather busy, hoping to get enough done so that we can spend some time on our own garden when the Chicken Ranch is finished......hoping!!!

I'll be back soon ..... promise .....  I will enlighten you with our exploits ....stories .....stupidity ..... but most of all .... Fun!!  lol