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Published: November 28th 2006
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Paris by night
Grab a baguette and some cheese, put on your Edith Piaf record and repeat after me: 'SACREBLEU!' Matt:
I guess there comes a point in every parent-child relationship when the roles are reversed and the parent becomes dependent on their dependent. Although for most, this is a gradual process that happens over a period of years, for me I can now give the exact time and location that this change happened for my mum and me. Thank you Paris!
Mum had arrived in London about a week earlier. Being the dutiful son, I had planned the greeting to perfection: despite her flight arriving at 6am in the morning, I would wake up at 5am and make my way leisurely to Heathrow where I would be waiting with a bunch of flowers (the intention being to make the whole affair as teary as possible). Unfortunately I had arrived back into London late the night before after a week of working in far north Scotland (not that I’m making excuses), and in my rush to get to bed had set the alarm for 5pm.
I awoke at 7am. As a result I was late, mum was lost in Heathrow and there were no flowers and no tears!
Despite this mix-up, we has a pretty awesome first
Mum and Eurostar...
...note the bug stained windscreen weekend in London, touring Buckingham Palace (including an exhibition of the Queen’s dresses over the past 50 years - man, has she blown out!), shopping at the markets and doing some general sightseeing.
The following weekend, we had organised to take mum to Paris as a belated Mothers’ Day present. Our journey began at Waterloo station, where we boarded the Eurostar for the two and half hour train trip to the centre of Paris (that still spins me out).
Now over the past 12 months, Ed and I have stayed in some pretty average places in the interest of spreading our limited pounds just a little bit further. We have endured numerous sleepless nights in construction sites, retirement villages and the odd shoebox and through screaming, shaking, banging and the odd Islamic call to prayer. Given that that this trip was a present for mum though, we decided to splash out and treat ourselves to two nights in the 450 Euro per night Paris Hilton!
Thankfully though, Natalie - a friend of ours who works (or worked) for Hilton - had managed to get an absolutely awesome deal. We ended up getting both massive five-star adjoining rooms
The Tower...
...Ahh - Paris! for the price of half a shoebox!
After settling into our salubrious surroundings, mum and I headed out to the Eiffel Tower (Ed decided he needed a little more settling).
The great thing about staying at the Paris Hilton is that to enjoy the Tower, all you need to do is stick you head out of the window - the hotel is practically built beneath it! Not content with pure window gazing however, I unsuccessfully tried to convince mum to climb the tower by foot (again trying to spread - and shed - those pounds). Eventually, we came to a compromise and agreed to get the lift up and walk down.
There are a number of ways you could describe my mother: giving, intelligent, selfless... Surefooted is not one of them. Nor is brave. Nor is fast moving. All up, it made for a very eventful few hours!
That night, we crashed a romantic evening with Bec and Grant - a couple of friends from Sydney who were in Paris for a romantic weekend (ha ha!) - and joined them for dinner and drinks near the Pompidou Centre.
The next morning after an amazing breakfast
on the roof of the hotel overlooking the tower, we headed for a day of sightseeing.
First stop was the Louvre, where our Lonely Planet guide recommends you spend a full day, but I think you could do in around 12 minutes (straight to the Mona Lisa, sprint to the Venus de Milo and race back past Winged Victory for a couple of photos by Mary Magdalene’s grave). After traversing half of the Eiffel Tower the day before however, mum was in no mood for marathons and so we took a leisurely couple of hours.
From there we headed along the Seine toward the Notre Dame. Along the way we came across the pet shop quarter and went in to make fun of the Parisian Pekinese.
Now I’m sure if it was an accident or just a desperate act of a desperate woman trying to avoid a day of being dragged around Paris by her son and his partner, but at some point between the Pekinese and the Pug my mum managed to drop a glass cat food bowl on her toe. The downside was that mum incurred the wrath of the shopkeeper (who gave her a
After the climb down...
(Part relief, part pain) glare that would have turned a lesser woman to stone); the upside was that she was able to convince us to leave the Tour a la Matt et Ed and take the bus instead.
It was at that point, after dropping mum at the bus stop and waving her off as she gripped her injured foot, that I realised our roles had been reversed. C’est la vie.
Unperturbed, the tour continued sans mother. Next stop was the amazing gothic Saint Chapel, whose two hour long queue of waiting tourists masks an amazing interior of stained glass that makes the Notre Dame look like its poor second cousin. We then headed to Sacre Coeur, Montmartre and the Arc de Triomphe before rejoining mum at the end of her tour (apparently she had done two circuits of the route and hadn’t got off at all!).
That night we had dinner at a café at Montmatre just up for the Moulin Rouge before heading to the Tower for the evening light show.
The following day, we took mum and her miraculously healed foot to Galleries Lafayette for some last minute shopping. After picking up a couple of choice purchases,
The Louvre
Madame Magdalene's there somewhere we headed back to Gare du Nord for the Eurostar back to Waterloo.
This was our sixth trip to France since arriving in the UK a year ago. It is definitely one of our favourite places (not least because it just so damn close!) and it was great showing mum around.
Anywho - hope all is well with you all. For those who don’t know, Ed and I are headed back to Sydney in a matter of days (Yay!). But between the packing and the working and the drinking, we have heaps of blogs to post - so be prepared for some quick succession posting over the next few days.
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It was an accident, it did hurt. I have the scares to prove it. I did have a wonderful time though. Thankyou. See you guys when ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!