So I am in Paris, typing on a keyboard where if I touch type and don’t look at the keys it pretty much makes sense! This current trip is strictly a holiday; no students, no school, just holiday. The main reason for this trip is to go to my friend Carlas wedding, but I decided to take 3 weeks of the long service leave that has been accumulating for several years, tack it on to the end of the school holidays and travel for 5 weeks altogether.
I left Adelaide on Saturday 6 July after a really busy week – apologies to the staff at Clare HS for my stress-induced meltdowns. I arrived in London at dawn sunday morning and made my way to St Pancras station where I waited to catch my Eurostar train to Paris. All my travel arrangements so far have gone smoothly. Good to know I haven’t stuffed up yet! The journey from London to Paris was great, especially when we surfaced at Calais and I got to see some of the French countryside. I arrived in Paris at about 2.30 after having travelled for a total of 33 hours, feeling tired and decidely unwashed. I checked into the Avenir Hotel- great location near Sacre Coere sp?, quite good breakfast and a tiny room just like a shoebox. Same colour too, incidently. I intended to shower then go out for a walk. What I actually did was shower, lie down for 5 minutes I swear, then promptly fall asleep for the next 12 hours… *sigh* I think I have a combination of sleep deprivation and jet lag to thank for that. I woke at about 5am and decided to read until it got light, then go for a walk up to Sacre Coere. It was a fantastic decision; normally obscenely crowded, at 7am I had it nearly to myself.
I returned for breakfast; a roll, croissant and tea, then hopped onto the L’Open Tour bus to do the sights. Having done most of the main attractions before, my main goal was to go to the Louvre to see Verneer’s The Lacemaker, which was on loan last time. She was there, thankfully, and very beautiful too. Then I hopped back on the bus to do a whistle stop tour of the rest of the sites. Lunch was in a small cafe near Notre Dame. A lovely day.
I am about to run out of internet time, so will edit this later and add more detail. Am off to Avignon today to begin my walking tour in Provence.
Pleased that all is going well.
Enjoy the walks through country France – we are green with envy and all that – and freezing back here in South Australia.