2013-06-30 Homeward Bound

June 30, 2013 - Sunday

Flight at 10:40 am; arr YYZ 1:40 pm;  Fui Ling had insisted that she wanted to take us to the airport.  We had originally planned on ordering a taxi.  We got up pretty early in order to get ready to leave the house at 6:45 am to drive to Gatwick.  Fui Ling said the trip should not take more than 40 minutes if traffic was okay and at that time in the morning, it should be fine.  But we decided to give ourselves a few extra minutes anyway as we had to get our VAT rebate forms stamped at Customs before mailing them and checking in.  I was the first one downstairs and had to turn the alarm off.  Irene and I had our usual breakfast and then Irene and Florine went back upstairs to move the suitcases down.  Fui Ling wanted me to update the Tseu family tree with our information so I did that to the best of my knowledge.  I could not quite remember Danny and Kenny’s Chinese names though.  After that, we packed the Range Rover and left for the airport. Fui Ling had to negotiate a very narrow bridge, which left a couple of inches between the side mirrors and the post when she took a short cut to the main road. There was a very pretty pub, The Anchor, just past the bridge. Traffic was good, and we got there with lots of time to spare.  Fui Ling pulled up and helped us unload from the Range Rover.  We said our goodbyes, got a couple of trolleys and headed into the terminal.  Fui Ling took such good care of us during our stay with her and we hope that we would be able to meet up again in the near future.

We found the Air Transat check in counter and asked a couple of people manning the line if we should go to Customs before checking in.  One was not very sure and the other thought we should.  We were in the priority check in line so we asked at the counter and the woman said we should go to Customs first.  So, off we went to look for the Customs office, which was one floor up from the check in counter.  We only had to wait a couple of minutes before the Customs officer was available.  She was a very nice young woman and we chatted a little about our trip and the places we had been to while she was going through our rebate forms.  She recommended we visit the Isles of Scilly if we ever came back to the Cornwall area.  She said she was planning on a visit to the isle in August.  It is known for its warm weather, bird watching and sub-tropical plant and heavily dependent on tourism.  The islands were designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1975. After we all got our forms stamped, we found the mail box and then went back down to the Air Transat check in counter.  The lady checked all the bags in and did not say anything about being overweight – perhaps our 6 suitcases were within the limit when taken together.  After checking in, we found seats in a lounge to wait for our flight gate to be posted.  I went into a duty free whiskey store and bought a sampler pack of Tomintoul whiskies. When our gate was posted, we made our way over to it and then sat down and waited for the boarding call.  We did not have to wait very long for them to board the Option Plus passengers.  We were midway in the plane, just in front of the wings on the right side.  I managed to watch 3.5 movies on the flight back to Toronto.  It was daytime and I was more awake than during the overnight flight out to London.  I watched Guilt Trip, This is 40, Happiness Never Comes Alone (in French with English subtitles) and about the first half of Parental Guidance. The food was boring – beef stroganoff with maybe one piece of beef.  We got our bottle of sparkling wine after take off, a snack, gin and tonic and then red wind with lunch.  We also got a slice of pizza before landing.  We had Captain Picard again, and he landed the plane ever so gently.  The man is good.

After we landed, we had to show our passports to a couple of CBSA agents just outside the ramp from the plane. We were not sure who he was looking for, but they seemed to be questioning younger men more closely. From there, we went into the customs hall where we had a choice of using the automated machines or talking to a live agent.  Irene and I opted for the machines just for the experience while Florine went to line up for a live agent. She had goods to follow and needed advice and a form.  Irene and I had to see a live agent after we got a copy of our customs form back from the machine..  The agent wanted to know what food we had brought back with us – we had a few bottles of mustard, candy and cookies.  We were not asked how much alcohol we had with us, which was disappointing as I had calculated that between the 2 of us, we had 2.25 litres of whiskey and assorted little bottles that we did not drink in the plane and about 30 cl for Florine.  The agent made a note of our food items and then we were free to go.  We handed in our customs card and went to the luggage claim area.

We met up with Florine and went to get our suitcases, which did not take long to appear.  We loaded them onto 2 trolleys and went outside to wait for Dureen.  I tried to call her but could not get service under all the concrete.  I was finally able to call and got her voice mail.  I then sent her a text message. Then Dureen comes out from the airport.  Apparently, we had just missed each other – I guess she was going into the arrival’s lounge while we were making our way out.  I had scanned the crowd when we came out of Customs but did not see her.  We went over to the parking garage, loaded up the Journey and went home.  I think I might have put my journal on one of the suitcases when I dug my cell phone out and then forgot about it.  It has probably been reduced to pulp by now on the pickup lane at terminal 3.  If I did not lose it at terminal 3, then I probably lost in outside the whiskey store in Gatwick.  Oh well.

Dureen had brought some lamb over so I barbecued that for our dinner.  Unfortunately, I was out of practice and burnt most of it.  But we had a nice dinner and then Dureen headed home.  I drove Florine downtown to her house and then Irene and I came home.  I unpacked some stuff and then showered and went to bed.  That was the end of our fun vacation.

2013-06-29 Goodbye, Paris

June 29, 2013 - Saturday

We went out to buy croissants for our breakfast and chose a bakery not far from the apartment.  We decided to buy 6 croissants so we could eat 3 and take the rest to Mutiara with us.  We went back to the apartment to have the croissants but they turned out to be underwhelming, sort of dough-y.  So we decided to leave them for the cleaner and perhaps pick some up when we went out for our walk.  Bernard came by at about 10:30 am but we said we were not leaving until closer to 12:30 pm and that Aidan had arranged to come over to pick up the keys at 12:20 pm.  Bernard was okay with that.  The cleaner, Josephina came in before we left for a last walk around the neighbourhood before departing for the train station.  We walked around the area but many of the stores had yet to open.  Florine tried on some shoes but did not find them comfortable enough to buy.  We went into a little store where we saw, and bought, some very colourful scarves.  Irene also bought a hairclip.  We did find another bakery where we bought some croissants and sandwiches for our lunch.  After that, it was time to go back to the apartment to meet Aidan.  Florine had ordered a taxi to take us to Gare du Nord yesterday and both Aidan and the taxi were on time.  We left E15 for the cleaner and gave a E20 tip to Aidan.  We got to the train station before 1 pm and walked for a bit to get to the Eurostar terminal.  The terminal was quite busy but we found a place to sit and wait.  I went to the duty free store and bought a bottle of Issey Sport cologne for Chris. Then it was back to the lounge to wait for our boarding call.  Once the platform was posted on the board, a line started to form at the gate.  We joined the line-up and watched as a tour group was allowed to enter the platform to board the train.  When we were finally allowed to go on the platform, we had to make our way down some stairs and on to the end of the train as we were in carriage 18.  It turned out that Irene and I had seats facing the back of the train so once the train got going, Irene changed seats with Florine.  A nice Englishman had the seat beside Irene.  We had our lunch on the train and I kind of nodded off for a while.  This time, the pressure on my ears did not feel as bad compared to our outward bound trip to Paris.  I watched first the city go by and then the countryside.  I updated my journal for a while and nodded off for a bit.  The man across from me took a nap too.  After sitting in silence in a while, we started chatting with the man across from us.  It turned out that he lived in Oxfordshire, near Woodstock.  He told us that the locals could get into the grounds of Blenheim Palace for free as they know the various footpaths and it was not an issue as long as they did not go around to the palace lawn.  He was returning from a week’s vacation in the Burgundy region and had been on trains since the early morning.  He liked to hike up to mountains and admire the view from the top.  We talked about Snowdon, which he had climbed a few times and really enjoyed. The train pulled into the station before long, and we went our separate ways.

We figured out how to get from King’s Cross to Waterloo (I think we changed at Green Park and then took the Jubilee line to Waterloo) so that we could catch our Southwest train to West Byfleet.  Fortunately, we did not have to wait long for an express train to West Byfleet.  Fui Ling had texted to say that she was going to pick us up from the back of the station, the side where all the stores were.  Once on the train, I texted her to let her know that we were on our way.  When we got off at West Byfleet, a little old lady came to our aid when we were trying to figure out where the shops were.  She took us down an elevator, under the platform and then back up in another elevator before pointing to the shops.  Fui Ling was there waiting for us in her little black car.  We went back to Mutiara and went to our respective rooms to get our luggage sorted out. Stephen and Tristram were out in the Aston Martin.  I saw them come home from the front window of our room and decided to go down and take some photos of the car, a DBS convertible in black.  Florine and Irene also came out to admire the car and Stephen offered to take us for a ride, one at a time.  I got to go first and it is a fabulous car.  Stephen had fun with it, taking it through its paces through country roads and then the highway.  He got up to 130 mph for a short stretch and then slowed down as he did not want to attract the attention of the police. We chatted about him taking the car to Europe with Fui Loong in his McLaren or one of the Ferraris.  Fui Ling would not drive the AM, but she had said she would drive the Range Rover as the backup car for luggage and in case of any problems. The hard braking that he does with the car must be really tough on the brakes. I think we were out for about 20 minutes before he headed back to the house.  Florine went out next, and after that, Irene.  They had to go and get gas when it was Irene’s turn.  We all enjoyed the rides, but I think Stephen had more fun driving the car around.

After that, Stephen parked the car back in the garage and we got ready for our dinner of fish and chips. Fui Ling had sent him out to get the fish and chips earlier in the day and she had it warming in the oven.  Petros had the fish and chips at the restaurant before he left for Athens and thought it was really great so when Fui Ling suggested that we had it for dinner, we were quite happy to agree.  The fish and chips were still good, even though it sat in the oven for a couple of hours.  It must have been awesome at the restaurant.  Fui Ling made the same fruit and mascarpone cheese pie for dessert.

After dinner, we went back upstairs to finish our packing.  Then I went downstairs to chat to Fui Ling for a bit.  Tristram said his goodbyes before he went up to bed. 

Where we stayed:  Mutiara

2013-06-28 A Little Shopping, A Little Sightseeing

June 28, 2013 - Friday

Peoples Place des Vosges; Shopping in Galleries Lafayette. Shoes-Patagaus. Dinner at Les Enfants Rouge.

Where we stayed:  Marais Saintonge

2013-06-27 Finally, Shopping in Paris!

June 27, 2013 - Thursday

In the morning, we went shopping in the area around the apartment.  We found some nice linen dresses, skirts and tops.  We also found some nice knits and Florine found some dresses. We walked around looking at clothes and shoes.  We were supposed to go to Montmartre in the afternoon, but we spent so much time shopping that it was almost evening by the time we dropped our purchases at the apartment before heading out.  We also picked up a raspberry charlotte to take with us to Fabienne's.  Fabienne is a friend of Florine's from her time in California, and now lives in Montmartre.

We finally got to Montmartre around 6:00 pm. We took the subway and walked to Fabienne's apartment from there.  When we came out of the subway, it almost felt like we were in an African country with the people and the stores around the area.  We had to walk uphill for quite a while and when we got to the generally vicinity of Fabienne's building we were about to call her when she and Sebastian, her husband caught up with us outside on the street.  They were just returning from an afternoon movie. She took us up to apartment just below the Sacre Coeur church while Sebastian went to pick up their 7 or 8 year old daughter from school.  Fabienne was on phone for a while dealing with a client.  We were out on the balcony, admiring the view, and listening to some musicians playing out on the hillside.  Florine and Fabienne had lots to catch up on once she was off the phone.  We finally got to meet the daughter when Sebastian came back with her.  We got a tour of the apartment and had some thing to drink and shared the raspberry charlotte. Fabienne told us about her job which entails welcoming tourists renting apartments from the company she works for.  She really enjoys it but keeps irregular hours as people renting the apartments can come and go at any time and she had to be there to hand out or take back the keys and/or payments.  She is also their point of contact for any issues they faced at the vacation rentals.  We had a lovely visit but it was getting late and time to head out.

We decided to walk up to the church and Fabienne said she would come with us.  She took us up the road before detouring back to the steps as she said the road was not as steep as the stairs.  It's a bit of a hike up the hill to the church but the view was great once we got up there.

There were still quite a lot of tourists around the church.  There was a man on a small column that was part of a fence playing with a soccer ball.  He had pretty good control of the ball while doing all kinds of moves.  He earned a nice round of applause when his exhibition was over and he passed his hat around for donations.

We could see Paris laid out below us from the church.  Fabienne then took us to a corner of the church grounds where we could get a good view of the Eiffel Tower. We walked around the back of the church to the real touristy area.  Fabienne walked with us along some of the quieter streets and then had to head home. We said our good byes and she head off for home while we continued our walk towards Pigalle.  At least this time, the walk was downhill.

It was a beautiful night and the tourists were out in full force in Pigalle.  We walked to the Moulin Rouge and watched as teenagers stood over grates so the draft coming up from the underground could blow their clothing up.  It was not that effective as most of them did not have skirts on.  But it was fun watching them having fun and shrieking with laughter.

We finally made our way to the subway to return to our apartment.  We had a great dinner of all the different little meat pies, cheese and fruit that we had picked up earlier in the day.  That was a long day with lots of walking and it was pretty late by the time we were done with dinner.  We were ready for our beauty sleep.

Where we stayed:  Marais Saintonge

2013-06-26 A Visit to Versailles

June 26, 2013 - Wednesday

Day trip to Palace of Versailles

We left fairly early in the morning for the trip to the countryside.  We went to the bakery and bought some sandwiches for lunch and then made our way to the subway.  We bought our train tickets to Versailles and then took the subway to the station for the train to Rive Gauche, the stop for Versailles.  Once we got to there, we just followed the crowd to the palace.  We stopped at a ticket office outside the gates to buy our day pass to the palace.  It was busy when we got closer to the palace but fortunately, it was not yet peak season so there was still some breathing room.

We decided to walk around the garden first as we figured it would get pretty hot later on.  The gardens were big, with different sections.  We thought about renting  bikes but the place we went to were all out.  So we stuck to walking.  We walked as far as the Petit Trianon before turning back to the palace.  We had our sandwiches out in the garden and relaxed on a bench facing the Apollo fountain.  We also picked up a couple of souvenirs from the gift shop. 

After lunch, we went into the palace, which was pretty crowded and followed the crowds from room to room.  The rooms were interesting but it was kind of hard to really see anything because of the press of humanity.  There was not a lot of furniture left as the palace was looted during the French revolution.  There quite a few paintings though.  The Hall of Mirrors was pretty impressive.  After we had enough of shuffling along with the tour groups and other tourists, we went to have tea at Café Angelina where we had pretty French pastries to fortify us for our trip back to Paris.

We made our way back to the station and it was crowded.  To top it all off, the ticket machines were not accepting credit cards, and everybody had to dig for cash.  Petros and Florine went to the little convenience store to get some change while I stood in line.  Then Irene had to go get more change when we counted our change and realize we did not have enough for the machine.  It took more than half an hour to get our tickets.  Then we had to wait for the train.  It took us a while to get back to the city.

We had dinner at the Café Du Marche, which is on our way back to the apartment.

Where we stayed:  Marais Saintonge

2013-06-25 Exploring Paris

June 25, 2013 - Tuesday

7 hour walk – Louvre, Eiffel tower, Notre Dame;

We started the day by walking down the street to the Café le Saint Gervais, on nearby  Rue Vieille du Temples, to have fresh croissants for breakfast.  There were only 2 left so we had to share.  After that, we went to the Supermarche for a small supply of groceries before going back to the apartment to prepare for our day of exploration.

Our first building of notable fame was the Archives Nationales, which preserves the archives of the French state.  There are 5 centres of Archives nationales with the main centre in Le Marais (although only pre-French Revolution archives will remain here once the new centre at Pierrefitte-sur-Seine is opened in 2013).  The Archives nationales has been located since 1808 in a group of buildings comprising the Hotel de Soubise and the Hotel de Rohan.  Since 1867, it has also housed the Musee de l’Histoire de France.  The oldest document kept here is a papyrus dated AD 625, a confirmation of a grant of land in the city of Paris to the Abby of Saint-Denis issued by King Chlothar II.  Being the superficial tourists that we were, we did not go into the archives.  We were content to admire the buildings themselves, this time from the back street.

We walked across the Seine on the Pont Louis Philippe to the Ile St. Louis before going over the Pont St. Louis to Notre Dame with its distinctive flat towers.




Where we stayed:  Marais Saintonge

2013-06-24 Off to Paris

June 24, 2013 - Monday
We went into the station and bought return tickets to St. Pancras as that was cheaper and also more convenient than having to find ticket machines when we come back from Paris.  That works as long as we don’t lose the return tickets.  The next train to Waterloo station did not take long to arrive.  As usual, we had timed it so that it was an express train.  We got into Waterloo with lots of time to spare before our train to Paris.

We were able to sleep in a little.  Once we were up, we had our usual breakfast.  Fui Ling had offered to drop us off at the station so we could take the train to St. Pancras for our 2:30 Eurostar train to Paris.  After dropping us off, she was going for a walk with her retired physician friend. Petros was going into the village to get his hair cut and then lunch.  Fui Ling was also going to drop Petros off at Heathrow for his 4:30 pm flight to Athens. 

As we were set to go, Fui Ling’s walking partner showed up.  I guess we were running a bit late.  Her friend decided to go into the village and they would meet up after Fui Ling dropped us off at West Byfleet.  She told us she would pick us up after we got back from Paris.

We thought about having lunch in one of the restaurants but decided against it, as we were not sure how fast service would be.  Instead, we bought some sandwiches and drinks to have on the train. There was also a dining car on board the train, but we did not really want to be too far from our luggage.  We walked around and window shopped until it was time to check in and we did that and then went up to wait at the lounge We had chosen carriage 18 and 3 seats together when we bought our tickets on line.  There were not a lot of standard-class seats left by the time we decided to go to Paris.  Carriage 18 turned out to be at the front of the train so it was a bit of a walk to it.  We settled in and Florine’s seat mate did not show up until it was almost time for the train to leave.  He was kind of chunky and took up a lot of room.  Fortunately for us, he left for the dining car once the train was on its way.

We could see the area surround the railway tracks for a part of the journey.  We passed through some pretty country side once we left London.  Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels.  All the trains traverse the channel Tunnel between the UK and France.  The service is operated by 19-coach Class 373/1 trains which run up to 300 kmh (186 mph) on a network of high-speed lines. Eurostar is now the dominant operator in cross-channel intercity passenger travel for the routes that it operates, carrying more passengers than all airlines combined.  Each 18 carriage train can carry 750 passengers. The Channel Tunnel is 50.5 km (31.4m) long and speed in the tunnel is reduced to 160 kmh (100 mph) for safety reasons. Since the launch of the Eurostar services, there have been disruptions and cancellations caused by fires breaking out in the tunnel.  Fortunately for us, the last incident was in 2008.

We arrived at Gare du Nord at about 5:45 pm local time, which is 1 hour ahead of London time.  We collected our luggage and made out way to the arrival hall.  We were looking for our complimentary pickup driver, hopefully some guy with Florine’s name on a placard, but a scan of the people with cards did not reveal one with her name.  We had to wait for a while, and I was going to call the rental office when our driver showed up.  He helped us pack our luggage into the nice spacious Benz van and drove us over to Rue Saintonge.  My first impression of the street was kind of underwhelming – the driver had pulled up against the side of a narrow street and we were surrounded by concrete walls and wooden gates.  The driver then called the greeter to let him know we were waiting outside the building.  We waited about 5 minutes before he showed up.  Aidan Murphy, our greeter, is a young Irish man. As we found out later while chatting with him, he just decided he wanted to live in Paris and called up Bernard, our agent, his friend and there he was. Aidan took us up to our first floor apartment, explaining the entry processes and the security codes as he led us through the main gate and then through the door to the stairway.  The apartment was bright and spacious by Parisian standard.  He showed us how to lock the door while outside and while inside (where you were determined which lock should be used) and we made arrangements for him to bring additional pillow cases and an extra set of keys later in the night after dinner.

We freshened up and set out for my first walk in Paris.  Our apartment was in the 3^rd arrondissement, one of the 20 arrondissements municipaux or administrative districts.  We were near the Archives, the Jewish Museum of Art & History and the Musee Picasso.  On our firs evening in Paris, we walked around the Jewish area before finally having dinner at the Café de des Blancs Manteaux.  It was a very pleasant evening and we enjoyed our walk.  When we got back to the apartment, we called Aidan but were unable to reach him.  We left him a message, asking him to come by in the morning with the spare keys.  We found an extra pillowcase in one of the cupboards.

Where we stayed:  Marais Saintonge, 11 Rue de Saintonge, 75003, Paris; 33 1 55 37 97 36 tel; 33 6 08 07 46 98 cell; Bernard