Same Shirt, Different day-2012 Adventures of the "Devonport Wonder Babes"

Thursday 19^th July to Sunday 21^st July -London to Paris and back.

Wednesday 18 July. Uneventful drive back up London from Cholderton.  Pleasant surprise when returned car to depot at Heathrow to discover no further charges after the two issues with the Volvo in Cornwall at the start of our journey.

Checked in at St Pancras YHA in mid-afternoon, to another pleasant surprise of bottle of wine and free wi fi courtesy of YHA manager we had done feedback with. Lynds and I went out walking up through Camden (where I bought new parka in a sale as had left mine at Cholderton) and along the canal and when walking back ( in the rain again !!) to Euston Rd through Regents Park we had text conversation with new landlady, whom we were supposed to meet at the YHA, and discovered we were just around the corner from her so met up in pub, had coffee and chat and  the keys ready to move in to flat in West Hampstead on Sunday when back from Paris.

Thursday 19 July.  Straight across the road to St Pancras International, checked in 4 suitcases between us at left luggage so could travel light to Paris and then left on Eurostar at 9.12 am for very smooth 2 ½ hr  ride to Paris Gare Du Nord.  

Lyndsay was   navigator on our “only 10 minutes walk from Gare Du Nord” which went around in a circle for nearly an hour on a rather hot and sunny Parisian afternoon but she said  “look we saw the music district and the wedding boutiques and the tabacs and every fabric shop in Paris  “ etc.

 For 3 nights we stayed at quirky hostel called Le Village Hostel in Rue d’Orsel in  Montmartre, which has mixed reviews on Trip Advisor, but which we found perfectly fine.

Outside our room ( 2 sets of bunks with Caro and I relegated again to top bunks)  was a big terrace where we could see the top of the Sacre Coeur Church  and on our first night sat outside for a dinner of delicioamo bagette, aubergine hummous, brie and apricots, cider and red wine all from the supermarche nearby.

Then off up the hill after dinner.

Breakfast was included at this hostel-cereal,croissants, rolls,  coffee with hot milk ( yum)

Friday 20^th July  we all headed out on one of those “Hop on Hop off” bus tours ( we bought 2 day ticket which turned out to  be really good). Visited most of the touristy places enroute ( Champs Elysee  and Place de la Concorde particularly interesting as getting all set up for finish of Tour de France on Sunday) and  ended up at Eiffel Tower in mid-afternoon.

Queue to get up in lift was 3 hours long because of mechanical problems (only one lift operating). We decided to give it a miss and left Caro and Emily in the walking up queue and wandered off down the grassy area.

 Then came upon hundreds of Danes and Swedes waiting the arrival of 800 people who had ridden their bikes from Denmark to Paris to fundraise for a Child Cancer Charity. People had set off in separate local teams from different points in Sweden and Denmark and followed different routes then all met up the day before just outside Paris and rode in to the Eiffel tower as a group of 800, all ordinary  cyclists but on sponsored bikes and bike gear. What a cheerful bunch of people, both competitors and friends.

 Saturday  21 July. Emily and Caro headed off on tour to Versailles for the day and Lynds and I checked out the Metro from Gare Du Nord to Gare D’Austerlitz where we bought open tickets for the train to Blois after we arrive back in Paris from London on August 17^th. Bought Metro tickets for then also so don’t have to queue and will be able to go over there straight after we get off Eurostar.

Before we went over to Austerlitz we attempted to find an Orange (French) mobile phone shop to buy a data card for iPad so we would have it ready for when we arrived back there. After much walking (+++) we eventually found an Orange shop but would have had to have activated a SIM card that day which was not what we wanted. Nice sit in park, eating our picnic and watching kids play in non-touristy area and then walked thru back streets to GDN.

Found a shop on the way that sells those wonderful decorative iron railings, in a multitude of patterns, that grace every window above ground level on older French apartment buildings plus all sorts of other iron ware like grates and fire irons.  

Jumped on the HopOn/Hopoff tour bus again and did another tour segment, then walked around TDF finishing areas again then had beer (expensive) in café behind Madelaine and watched end of the TDF time trials. On bus again and home to Montmartre exhausted.

Sunday 21 July. Nice fine sunny morning for our actual 10 min walk to Gare du Nord, heaps of security around and in stations, soldiers or police patrolling with assault rifles. Border checks this side of channel as well as in London.

Left Paris at 11.20 am, pleasant trip again and arrived in London on time as usual.

Caro and Emily off on train to Ross’s in Brixton and we got Picadilly and Jubilee Lines to West Hampstead. On way to new flat we spent a pleasant couple of hours in ‘The Railway” our new local, watching TDF finish in Paris, quite odd to be watching something happening where you had been standing the day before  in another country, that you had left that morning.