Our full day in Paris was really lovely, the sun was doing it's best to shine, it was a bit cold at times but at least no rain. We got a hop on hop off bus ticket which had a really informative and not too irritating audio track for the sites. We'd agreed to a few of the stops and started by getting off at the recently reconstructed Notre Dame. There was a queue to get in and we saw off a small group of young men who tried to push in in front of us, which led to a short and funny chat with fellow Brits in front of us who agreed that it just wasn't cricket. Inside it was quite noisy, despite the shhhhhh over the loudspeaker and pleas for silence. The building was very interesting, I preferred the other churches we saw, they seemed to have more character and this one was quite dusty which surprised me. Then we went for a beer and had a proper laugh out loud time with a very friendly waiter who found my attempt at ordering in French beer tres amusant. He also did mum a massive sparkler stuck into a bit of orange in a glass when we badly explained it was mum's 75th. He was delighted by our tip, well worth the humour and gentle piss taking from him to me!
We did a bit more bus and headed to the Eiffel tower. The last time I was there was just before Asher proposed. It's changed a bit, I'd forgotten about the Olympics having been there just a couple of years before and I wonder if that's why it was all so fresh and clean. It is a beautiful city, most of it very white, or cream with detailed but not overly ostentatious fronts. We had a meal not far from there and I had a truly delicious beef bourguignon. We had essentially agreed to eat as close to French food as we could find, avoiding the places that offered pizza and noodles, of which there were many. A bit more bus and more information - mainly about Napoleon, of whom they are very proud, despite him not actually being born in France. We then trotted to a little supermarket for wine and bread, got ready for an evening out and once again found a lovely place where I drank Tequila for the first time in many years in the shape of a margherita which actually was so big and so sour it lasted me the whole meal and laughs that followed. I'd worried about the reputation of the French. Sneering at our terrible French but actually every single person was so kind, letting us try and speaking French to us, then English if we looked confused. All telling us we had good French. We did not but I'm sure the effort was appreciated and we got lots of smiles. The meal we had that evening was absolutely delicious and I was a little sad I couldn't finish it all. Totally stuffed, we headed back to our apartment which was in an excellent location, and chatted over the 3 euro wine (it was excellent) and then to bed, this time with slightly less dramatic noises from the radiator.
Our last day began with a short walk to a church for mass, a beautiful old place with lots of character. I could follow what bit of the mass we were in, knowing when to stand, sit and kneel, and understood a little of the French. We then had a coffee before walking to The Louvre. The sun was shining so we walked a little along the Seine before having a very enjoyable lunch of meats and cheese and other nibbles with a bottle of wine. We were on holiday of course. We really got our steps in over the weekend, walking from our apartment to Gare du Nord. It was a very hot station and thankfully we found seats while we waited to go home. Well to my home as mum and J stayed over to set off Monday morning. We had a bottle of the cheap yet good wine on the train and were complimented for our taste by the conductor. The trip home was event free and we were tucked up in bed at a reasonable hour, happily exhausted from a weekend well spent. I left them sleeping on the Monday as I set off for work.
And so to the mundanity of the working week, it was totally fine and easy in lots of ways, even my yr 9 class weren't too painful and I lamented the knowledge that I'm going to have to start all over again. But yesterday, I spent 3 and a bit hours at my new school and felt very at home and welcomed again, so many staff and students were keen to meet me and say hi. I think I'm going to be happy there, busy but happy. To finish off the week BigA and I headed out with his brother, D and E for chats and drinks and delicious Ethiopian food. Despite the weekend of indulgence I've been good at reducing my drink, as Asher and I are helping each other limit our intake by agreeing not to open bottle number 2 and other strategies,
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