Back to Paris and London

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Yes, we are now home (29, Oct.), but still have to post our final two blogs. We were unable to post from Shanghai because of the incredibly slow internet connection.

Sunday, October 14, 2007 - I must say that it is very good to be back in France, although it signals the end of the trip. At this point we are just wending our way back to Paris to turn in the car. We headed out this morning to drive to Lyon, or near it, to stay with the sister and brother-in-law of one of our swaps. These are the same people who let us use their house in St. Cyr in Provence and we were looking forward to seeing them again. We drove like bats out of hell from Menton to Sorbiers, an hour south of Lyon. Although it was motorway all the way, it was still beautiful scenery, though I can’t tell you what we saw. Arriving at the Gide house was great, and it was good to see friends. We had a nice light dinner and it will be a fairly early night tonight.

Monday, October 15, 2007 - If there is one thing I want to do in Lyon it is to see the “traboules”, the famous covered passage-ways used throughout the city for all sorts of reasons, so with Jean-Noel in tow we went into town by train and picked up a tour of the silk-weaving area of town that had some traboules to be seen. It was a nice tour with a lot of information about the silk trade during the 1800s in Lyon, which was the silk weaving capital of at least France, if not Europe, at one time. We also were taken to a silk printing plant and watched that process, which is basically silk-screening. It was interesting to see, and makes one appreciate why some of these items are so expensive, considering the labor involved. Prior to the tour we had a couple of hours to kill for lunch and Jean-Noel took us to Le Sud, one of Paul Bocuse’s restaurants in Lyon. This was a real treat. Now, we can’t remember what we ate, and we probably should have taken notes, but we loved the meal AND, bonus, it wasn’t expensive! Although it was a lunch, this restaurant might be able to slip into our “Top 10 Restaurants in the World” list.
After our tour Jean-Noel took us walking around the city, and we walked, and walked, and walked. Finally, I had to stop for a refreshment and, since it was about 6 Pm we decided to head home. Kevin has been trying to find us a hotel in Paris for the two nights we are there and is having no luck so far. This could be a problem, and we understand there is to be a 24-hour public transportation strike on Thursday.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - Still no luck finding a hotel, so Claudette made a phone call to her brother-in-law and he said he would put us up for a couple of nights. How generous is that, from someone who doesn’t know us from Adam? We were in a quandary about why there were no rooms and Jackie mentioned that it might have something to do with the World Cup. Well, of course, since our team wasn’t playing, we had completely forgotten that it was going on! I was starting to feel like “no room at the inn.” We took off from Jean-Noel and Claudette’s after lunch and drove up to Dijon.
Dijon is a lovely old city, and we were finally able to find a hotel room (I was starting to get tired of this….). We walked to the Centre Ville and had a look around for a restaurant. Bear in mind we are in the middle of Burgundy, home of escargot, beef bourguignon, coq au vin and great wines so finding a restaurant wasn’t too hard. Great food, lots of it! One of the better meals, value for money. On the walk home we passed by the Maille Mustard shop and it was a good job that it was closed as I would have been adding to my (suitcase) overweight. They had wonderful little moutarde pots that were tres cher but very cute! Next time I have vowed that we will come and go through the US for the extra allowance.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - Drove up to Paris today, or, rather, closer to Versailles to stay with Claudette’s brother-in-law, Jackie. He lives in a small suburb of Paris, Bievres. The weather has turned decidedly colder in the last couple of days, and autumn is definitely here. While driving to Versailles just to walk around and check out the chateau bookshop for English books on Marie-Antoinette, we passed a small town, Jouy, and a museum of Toile de Jouy. I will have to go there tomorrow. We came to the house to meet our host and we took him out to dinner tonight as a small thank-you for his hospitality. I don’t know what we would have done otherwise.

Thursday, October 18, 2007 - Since the strike is on and Kevin doesn’t want to drive we have decided to stick close to home. I went to the Toile Museum. Quilters and others who are familiar with fabric know what toile is. It is a style of fabric made in France, in the 1700-1800s, with the most common being pastoral scenes done with two colors of the design and background. Other lesser-known of the toile family are fabrics called “Indiennes” which are printed cottons with Indian and Persian designs. Those of you who remember the cheap cotton Indian bedspreads from the 60s will know the types of prints. So, Toile de Jouy was developed by a man, German I think, in this town in the 1760s and it went out of business in the 1800s. I had to go. The fabric samples were wonderful, and the displays were well done. I am going home to check out my antique toile quilt.
Tonight we went to our host’s friend’s house for dinner and what a nice way to spend out last night in France, since we would not have been able to get into our favorite restaurant. They have a 4 out of 5 star rating by many online sites, and with the World Cup being in, it would have been impossible. Fois gras, confit de canard, and a wonderful tart that was a perfect meal. Our hostess was very gracious and generous to have us.

Friday, October 19, 2007 - Up before dawn, literally, since the sun doesn’t rise in Paris these days until after 7 AM. It was with great sadness that I said “au revoir” to the hat. I just couldn’t deal with wearing it everywhere anymore and it would get crushed in the suitcase so out it went. Perhaps the sweater will be next…. We were on the road at 6:30 to return the car to CDG airport, before going to Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar, the train through the Chunnel. We got lost in Paris, natch, since our very concise directions from Jackie didn’t mention we would be on surface streets. Still we got to the airport in plenty of time. There was one hitch. The trains weren’t running from the airport to the station due to the strike, so we had to take a cab. 60 Euros and 1-1/2 hours later we arrived at the station. We got a coffee and then did what we had to do to get on the train.
What a great train trip! Smooth, fast, quiet! I put on my Ipod, listened to a book on tape, and watched the scenery go by. 2-1/2 hours and we were in London, at the same station we needed for going to Ian and Annette Wheeler’s, where we will be staying two nights. I handed off all the guide books, maps and (oh sadness) my French shopping bag to Annette. That’s good for 3 kilos. Ian was our best man at our wedding, so it was only right that he was around when we opened our 20th Anniversary gifts to ourselves, matching celtic design wedding rings. They are beautiful, gold and silver hand-made braided bands. Both of us are very happy with them and we look forward to showing them off. The one big purchase for the trip AND they are easy to carry! We have spent the rest of the evening catching up since we haven’t seen them since Ian’s 50th, and watched the 3rd Place Rugby game.

Saturday, October 20, 2007 - Ian and Annette were having a rugby party tonight with lots of Kevin’s and my friends so there was cooking and shopping to do. I was left at a bookstore, to fill that void left by all the guidebooks, and Kevin took off with Ian to the Arsenal game. He had gotten a ticket for me as well, but I explained that it would be wasted on me and I am sure he could find someone who would enjoy it more. The afternoon was spent prepping and at 7PM the guests started arriving to watch the Rugby World Cup Final between England and South Africa. After the game finished, all friends sat and talked and laughed and reminisced until the wee hours of the morning with the last lot leaving at 1 AM. A very good time was had by all, even though the favorite team didn’t win. Some friends have even said they will come and visit but we will see!

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Photos

About 150K from Paris
Note the crack in the left hand tower.

Thirty five years on!
Old friends from 35 years ago during Kevin's British Airways days.