Our Battered Suitcases

Mum, Sam and Fred drove us from Bishop’s Castle to Shrewsbury, and we arrived pretty much right on time for our train. OK…so...the second and third legs of the trip were by train: Shrewsbury to Birmingham New Street and Birmingham New Street to London, Euston. We then jumped a taxi from Euston to St. Pancras – those who know London will say “Euston and St. Pancras are close! Why not walk?” Bugger off! It was the first official day of the Olympics, London was busier than normal (what’s normal for London?), and we were already tired and still had a long way to go. So there!

Waiting for the Virgin Express in Birmingham

The fabled Eurostar! St. Pancras has been updated from my childhood, wow! Clear security and passport control, then enter the lounge – real nice. Up the ramp after the train is called and queue at the front do of your assigned carriage. What a bloody dump the train was! Clearly these 18 carriages have been used since the start! The trip is unremarkable, other than when you pop of the tunnel, aka, arriving in France, and of course, the ultimate prize for the day of travel – Paris!

Duncan looking at France and Listening to Hedley

Veronica and Euan waiting for Paris

We left my sister’s house at 8:30 am and arrived in Paris some 8 hours later – a normal work day.

No sooner we were off the Gare du Nord platform we were accosted by a taxi driver, he insisted on waiting until we had made contact with the chap who was to open the flat for us and then took two bags and started off to his taxi, or so we thought! Instead, he walked out of the front of the station, across the street to a taxi rank, where he proceeded to sell our trip to a real taxi driver. Once he found one to take us, he put the bags in the truck and asked me for 5 Euros! This, of course, was in addition to the f*%#ing taxi fare of 23 Euros not the 12 Euros originally promised, which was charged to us by a very grumpy taxi driver. I would consider us fairly well travelled! Maybe just not this time!

The flat is great and has the smallest lift ever! A little smaller than we would want and as the pictures show it, but no bigger than expected. It’s right in the middle of the Marias, the area of Paris where Marie Antoinette used to roam, a noisy, party location, oh, and the gay district in this superb city. We are not more than a 4 minute walk from where Veronica and I stayed on our Honeymoon, 14 years ago!

The views from the Flat are better!

After we settled, we went off in search of a shop to get a few groceries, including toilet paper – as the French seem to use a single sheet per poop, no hand-shakes here! We were able to get some cheeses in a bog-standard corner shop, Monop, that you can only get at specialty cheese shops on Calgary – Roblochon! A half a wheel cost us 3.50 Euros. We have decided to fly to Paris if we want cheese, instead of paying Janice Beaton prices!

Food, and wine, in-hand, we headed back to the flat, climbed the 3 stories, put the key in the lock and…nothing! The bloody door wouldn’t open! We tried everything for the best part of half an hour. We would have phoned the chap who let us in but my phone was in the flat. If you could imagine 4 tired people who had been traveling for 8 plus hours and just wanted to sit down, have a drink and change before going out to dinner – not happy. We did have Veronica’s purse, so could have tried to find a hotel. As it happened, there is an American lady renovating two flats below us – Veronica says we are going to buy them both, huge and fabulously – who was fairly gentle when explaining to us how to use a key! Now we know how to open a door! Foolish Canadians, eh?

The Offending Keyhole

The Lock

We didn’t drink the wine then, we are drinking it now. Just opened it – they should identify desert wines a little better – horrible! Right down the drain!

Dinner was a fab place called Les Philosophers, still in the Marias. Euan had cheese on a Baggett, Veronica had a Caprese Salad, Duncan – Boeuf Poivre and I ordered one of my fav’s Canard Confite – they had lamb – I still have three more nights in Paris. Big step for Duncan to order a steak with a pepper sauce, he loved it but swapped it for my Duck – right after he tasted it. Great night, decent food.