Day 37 It's not Goodbye... It's see ya later!!

What can I say about today... Goodbyes are so hard, and with the amazing time we have had with our beautiful family, it was never going to be easy. 

Our first goodbye was early in the morning, when Jack and Lexie went off to school. Naturally I cried, which nearly set Marni off, but we remained strong. It has been an absolute joy spending time with Jack and Lexie, and hopefully it won't be too long before we see them both again. FaceTime is an amazing thing, so we will use that regularly!!

A bit of last minute packing, thank goodness we had that extra suitcase, otherwise Marni may have been leaving quite a bit at home, a few last minute family photos, and we were piling into the cars heading towards Manchester, an hours drive from Penkridge.  A slight incident with a truck nearly side swiping us on the M6, but excellent driving by Katie had us arriving safely at the airport.

We checked our luggage in, no slug $$ for extra kilos, so we were lucky, or should I say Marni was lucky, and then a quick bite to eat with Gary & Katie. It almost felt like we were putting off the inevitable, but the time had come to say goodbye. Lots of hugs, many tears, and through we went to departures.

Trying to gain composure, we were piling our hand luggage onto the scanning belt, the lady was such a grumpy cow, did she not realise we were emotional wrecks?! Then through the body scanners we went. Of course, Kyle beeped, and yet another frisk search was done! This was his fourth frisk, and the rest of us had had none! I'm sure all of a England thought we were using Kyle as a drug mule!!  Anyway,  thinking we were all good, we were grabbing our hand luggage and putting our jewellery and belts back on, and sure enough Kyles bag needed to be searched, something hiding right at the very bottom, what could it be I was racking my brain, sure enough it was a glue stick... What??!! So back through the machine it went, and again, something else in the bag. By this stage I was regretting that I had forgotten to check Kyles hand luggage!! This time it was a can of deodorant, hopefully third time lucky, as we were now starting to run late for boarding our plane!! Luckily the bag went through, and off we raced! All those goodbye emotions were lost, as stress started to take over!!

Fortunately the plane was a little late boarding, and we made it in plenty of time. We flew out at 2.05pm Thursday 16th May, on the Airbus A380, what a magnificent plane, so much room, and the seats were amazingly comfortable, and the in house entertainment brilliant, so we were all comfortable and happy for the next 7 hours. None of us slept, all watched movies, and we arrived in Dubai at 12.10am. 

Our stopover in Dubai was not so stressful, we made it through baggage control with no issues, and remarkably Kyle made it through without needing to be frisked! We were able to spend a couple of hours in the Dubai airport, which is a beautiful place, we grabbed a bite to eat, and before long it was time to board again, ready for our 11 hour flight back to Perth. This time we were riding in a Boeing 777, very squishy compared to the A380, but we were all exhausted, so we all slep at various times and for different lengths. Ashleigh & Grant slept the least, but Marni, Nathan and I easily slept for 6 hours, Kyle slept for 9 hours!! 

Finally at 5.39pm Friday 16th May we arrived safely in Perth, made it through the Electronic Gates (what a brilliant idea), with no problems, had our cards stamped for border control, collected our bags and we were through arrivals within an hour of getting off the plane, to be greeted by Mum, Dad and Chloe Rose!! It was lovely seeing them all there, into the "party bus" we piled, and back to the Windsor, to refresh, before we caught up with Kev, Marilyn, Jess, Wrighty and Jack, for dinner at the Karalee Tavern. 

All exhausted we were in bed by 10.30pm! What a hectic and emotional 24 hours we had just had.

It's a shame that all good things must come to an end, but how lucky are we, as a family to have experienced a holiday of a lifetime together. We truly are very lucky to have each other, and these memories we will hold in our hearts forever. 

For now though, this is not good bye, it is seeya later!!

Lots of Love,

Chrissie xx

Day 36 Last Day in Penkridge

Our last full day in Penkridge, and of course the girls wanting to make the most of it, a quick trip to the Telford Primark was in order! Katie had an appointment in Cannock and Gary was finishing off a job nearby, so we all jumped in the car and made it to Telford with no wrong turns, or putting the wipers on when we were trying to flicker!! 

On a time restraint, (as the new "big girl", which I have to say was not as good as the old "big girl", had to be returned by 12.30pm) the kids and I had an hour, to get everything we needed, actually not needed, wanted!!  The girls didn't let me down, they arrived back with only seconds to spare, with bags of stuff!! The issue now, was do we have enough room to bring it all home??!!

Back to Penkridge, a quick lunch and then off to Cannock. Katie picked Grant and I up, and we popped into Aldi to grab a few things for our last dinner at home, an Aussie BBQ.

The afternoon was spent packing, already a few tears being shed by myself and Katie, knowing full well that tomorrow was going to be very difficult!

Ann popped over for a quick glass of wine, and to say goodbye, then Lisa came around with Libby, George and Erin to say goodbye (plenty of room at our place Spike & Lisa whenever you want to come and stay, or for any of our new found English mates, for that matter!)

More packing, more tears... Kyle, Jack and Lexie went for another ride to "spook woods" for old times sake....  A lovely BBQ tea.... More tears... tomorrow is not going to go well!!

Bedtime, all hoping for a good nights sleep before our 20 hours of travelling tomorrow.

Lots of love,

Chrissie xx

Sorry no photos today :(

Day 35 Warwick Castle and Stratford-Upon-Avon

Early start today for everyone... Gary and Katie had to go to work (what even is work??), Jack and Lexie had to go to school (what even is school??), we had planned a day to Warwick Castle and the Cotswolds.  With a 45 minute drive ahead of us we set off at about 9am, Gary warning us of "spaghetti junction" near Birmingham.  We had only gone two minutes when we had our first hiccup!  With roadworks happening at the entering to the M6, there were signs saying entry closed, unsure of which exit to take we drove around the roundabout three times! As you can imagine, the kids and I were once  again laughing hysterically, Grant on the other hand was not so happy!! I'm imagining that we could possibly show up on one of those motorway shows they have in the UK!!

Anyway we finally found our exit, and we were on the M6 heading south.  We made it to our destination, with no further troubles, even managing to manoeuvre through the Birmingham exits with no problems.

The Warwick Castle is brilliantly set up for families, lots to see and do.  The marketing concept is very commercialised, but each person who enters the grounds, still gets to marvel at the beauty of this castle and the surrounds.  Thanks to Ann (Katie's mum), who had collect 2 for 1 offers for us, the entry was dramatically reduced. However if we wanted the Dungeon Experience, that was extra, but we would not be disappointed!

We first stopped and looked at the archery display, more suited for the younger age group (there were several school groups wandering around), however it was still interesting all the same.  It started to drizzle with rain a little, so we decided to head into the castle.  The castle is very authentic, once again beautiful rooms, filled with old furniture, tapestries and paintings. There is wax figures in most rooms, with recordings of conversations that would have taken place between the Earls and their court, and between the butlers and maids, it took quite a while to walk through all the rooms.  We had already planned to watch the "bird of prey" display at 12.30pm, and then we had our date with the dungeons at 1.30pm, so we took our chance and went down to the food hall for a buffet carvary.  Which was delicious and reasonably priced.

We got to the bird of prey display with five minutes to spare, but unfortunately we could see the very black cloud threatening, and we could see we were going to be in for a very heavy downfall! They were able to start the show, and we did get to see the four birds which they had on display. The birds were very impressive, and massive, their wingspans were incredibly, and they were very graceful. All four birds were eagles of some description, but when the rain settled in the show was quickly finished, as even the eagles were not liking it one little bit. As you can imagine we were extremely soaked by this stage. The drops of rain were huge, and even though we (some of us) had weather protection, it wasn't good enough to keep us dry!

We sort refugee in the bottom of one of the towers, which ended up being a bear cage. Yes, the place the Earls kept bears, to be used for entertaining?! From here we walked to the next tower and made our way up the many steps to the top, minus Marni, who has not yet conquered her fear of heights. The views were amazing looking over the countryside. From here we were able to walk around to three towers, all with hidden places where they kept weapons and ammunition ready for any attack on the castle.  However, the stairwells are very small, and the steps very steep, I can't imagine that they were able to get many men up to the top of the towers very quickly!!

We made our way down from the towers just in time to meet Marni outside where our dungeon tour was to take place. Unsure of what was in store we were looking forward to the experience, and what an experience it was. Very scary at times, informative as well, but I don't want to give too much away, except that if you get the chance, go and do the tour, it really is worth it!!

After spending a lot more time at Warwick Castle then we anticipated, we decided that we would have a quick drive down to Stratford-Upon-Avon, to see the birthplace of William Shakespeare and wander around the beautiful shops! Including the Nutcracker Christmas shop, and an antique store which had many different items, from guns, jewellery, paintings, china and stuffed animals!!

We had planned on being home by 6pm, so we had done very well to be home by 6.05pm (including peak hour on the M6), after what had been a very hectic, yet fun day!  We had an early tea, and then headed to the cricket club to catch up with everyone and to say our first lot of goodbyes. 

It's been a lovely highlight getting to know the Penkridge Cricket Club community, and meeting so many wonderful friends of Gary and Katie's. It won't be long and we will be back again, but this time with a few extra family members!!

Highlights

* Warwick Castle, especially the Dungeon tour

* the gorgeous little shop in Stratford called Vinegar Hill

* more drinks with the PCC crowd! :)

Lots of Love,

Chrissie xx

Day 34 David Austin Roses & Cosford RAF Museum

After what was a lovely sleep in, it was very nice waking up in Penkridge and having breaky with Gary, Katie, Jack & Lexie! We missed them lots while we were in Paris, goodness knows how our farewells will go when we leave to go back to Australia in three days time!!

I caught up on some washing, and we enjoyed a relaxing morning just chilling out at home. Grant headed off for a walk into the town centre, Jack and Lexie headed off to school, and Gary to work, not that he would achieve much, as the rain looked like it had settled in for the day.  Katie had planned a day off to spend with us.

We had an early lunch and then Katie took Grant and I into Cannock to pick up the same, yet different "big girl" (Ford Galaxy), so we had some wheels for the next couple of days. Once we had the keys, we popped into the co-op at Penkridge to pick up a few groceries for tea.

Upon getting home, everyone was ready to hit the road.   Katie, Grant, I and the four kids jumped into the "big girl" and headed to David Austin Roses, Katies workplace, for a look around the gardens. What a beautiful place to visit, the gardens are absolutely stunning, and I only wish we were here for another two weeks to see the roses in full bloom. I have insisted that Katie take a photo when they are, so she can send to us, because it will be a beautiful sight.

The David Austin Roses gift store, is so lovely, filled with the amost amazing smell and beautiful gift wares. We had a lot of fun making several purchases!! From here we went in to the tea rooms for tea, coffee, cake and scones, which was absolutely delicious! In fact my latte is now the best I have tasted throughout our trip!! So it was thoroughly enjoyed!

We drove from here to the Cosford Air Museum. It is an awesome display, of different types of planes and jets from all eras, and many of them, that were on display, had played a part in the world wars.  There were also tankers, cars and motorbikes. The history and information that was shown, was brilliant. There is a flight simulator also, which Kyle could not wait to try, but unfortunately it was closed.  All of this is free entry too, as the whole museum is lottery funded, which is awesome! Several massive hangers full of airplanes, every boys dream!! Whilst wandering around, it was very quiet, so we almost felt like we had the place to ourselves.  However, Nathan dared Katie to get up into the back of one of the open airplanes,totally not allowed, and no sooner had she done it, an employee wandered around the corner!  The lady just looked at Katie and said, 'that was bad timing!' It was really funny!! 

It was time to head home to Penkridge, it had been a big week! By the time we arrived home, Jack & Lexi were home from school, so Kyle, Jack & Lexie went for a bike ride. Grant cooked tea, chicken risotto, which was delicious, and Sarah came over for a few bevvies, so we all had the chance to catch up! It was a very enjoyable evening, lots of laughs, and the next time us three girls (Katie, Sarah and I) will be together drinking champagne, will be June next year, for the wedding!!

Sarah's Dad came and picked her up, so Grant and I were able to meet Doug. What a lovely bloke, Sarah, we will enjoy meeting your mum next year!

Time for bed, as we have another busy day planned for tomorrow!

Highlights

* David Austin Roses - so lovely to see where Katie works, and the gift shop was amazing, not to mention the delicious coffee, and we got staff discount!! BARGAIN!!

* Once again I safely drove everyone around for the day, it made all the difference having an excellent navigator in Katie, rather than 'Gertie'!! 

Lots of Love,

Chrissie xx

Day 33 Home to Penkridge

We woke up in Paris bright and early, excited for our trip back to England to see our beautiful family, and spend our last four days with them. We finished off our packing and tidied the apartment, before heading to the Luxembourg Metro, on our way to the Gare du Nord train station.  Mum, grasping her handbag tightly, boarded the Metro reluctantly.  We arrived at the urine-soaked Gare du Nord, which fortunately is having a refurb by 2015, which is good, as its equivalent in London (St Pancras) is amazing!!!  We filled out our border control declaration cards, before heading through customs and making our way to the boarding lounge.  Mum did an Uncle Gary and made a beeline for the Chanel perfume shop for a ‘freshen up’ while we went to the ‘Relay’ shop to spend our last euros before all taking our seats on the Eurostar.

A short two hours later we arrived in the beautiful country of England.  As soon as we all got off the train, we took a great big breath of fresh air, relieved to be back in God’s country.  We found the exit and walked to London Euston, just around the corner.  Upon arrival, we quickly made our way to the departures board to check for the next train to Stafford or Penkridge.  We found one on Platform 8 where we were told that we were unable to use our tickets on this Virgin train.  Our tickets were only valid on a London Midland service. With that, we made our way back to the departures board to find an alternative train to catch.  There were a few later trains which would take a longer time to arrive in Stafford so Mum checked with the ladies at the information desk, who told us which was the best one to take.  We grabbed some pasties (yum yum) from ‘The Pasty Shop’ and quickly went to the loo, before boarding the London Midland train at 1.50pm.

After a long train ride, we arrived in Stafford at 4.25pm, switching trains to Penkridge at 4.40pm, to be home at 4.46pm. Awesome!  The lovely Katie Brooks picked us up so we didn’t have to walk. (Gary came also, he was a little late (he was running on Pope time! But they’re all the same!).

We relaxed, with lots of champagne, while recounting tales of Paris.  We later sat down to a feast of roast pork and all the trimmings served with the Gravy King’s speciality.  We were in bed early exhausted from the day’s events, all needing a good night’s sleep in a decent bed.

 

Dictated by Ashleigh Smith (typed by Katie Brooks)

Day 32 Pantheon and our Last Day in Paris

 After what was a pretty restless nights sleep, due to me continuously playing back in my head how my purse being stolen could have been prevented, we woke to, would you believe, another rather miserable day weather wise. How lucky we had been that on each day of our tours we had had divine weather!!

Ash has already mentioned our bike tour to Versailles, and I just wanted to quickly reiterate, that that was a fantastic day! Thank you to Kev & Marilyn for putting us on track to doing that tour, and I have to say, if anyone is planning a trip to Paris, this is one tour you must do!!

In terms of the purse debacle, excuse my French (so to speak), but "shit happens"!!  It was an annoyance that we didn't need, and literally it only took a second for me to let go of my hand bag which was strapped across my shoulder to push Kyle onto a very busy train, that they were able to open my bag and pull out my purse, I realised as soon as it had been done, three teenage girls working together, but I was on the train, and they were on the platform, doors closed and we were gone, never to see them or my purse again!!  Very clever, and really if they needed that small amount of money so badly, they can have it! Luckily with Katie's help, we were able to quickly block the travel card, and cancel my Visa card, and all was good. With our Passports and my second travel card safely locked away back at the apartment, everything was fine!  But a lesson well learnt for us all, especially the kids, to a point where Ashleigh and Kyle have been researching pick pockets, learning all the tricks of the trade, assuring me it is for preventative measures, not for anything else!!

Anyway back to today... We were in no hurry, as we really had very little planned besides a walk through Luxembourg Gardens and the river cruise, weather permitting, which it wasn't, so a change of plans was required.

The Luxembourg Gardens was a go though, being it was only a two minute walk from our apartment, and rain or no rain, we thought we would go anyway.  So off five of us headed, Nathan deciding a rest day out of the rain was a better idea for him. We walked around the corner onto the street to see many police, and a police truck, literally lifting cars up by a crane, putting them onto the back of the truck, and driving away with them??!! What on earth was going on! On we went, down to the gardens, which was shut off to the public and guarded by the police... Not again, it felt like a repeat of Thursday all over again!! So instead we wandered further along and decide to visit the Pantheon, a welcome relief from the rain too! 

Inside the Pantheon is beautiful, huge big columns, beautiful art work and amazing statutes. Further on we ventured into the Crypte. Where we were able to view the interment sites of many prominent French figures, including Victor Hugo, Rousseau, and Marie Curie (the only woman). The Pantheon was originally built as a church dedicated to St Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, and construction was started in 1758 and was completed in 1790.

After walking around marvelling once again at the history of this amazing city, we found a nice little restaurant to have lunch, hoping that the rain would ease and the gardens would be open.  Unfortunately, neither of these occurred, so we high tailed it as quickly as we could up the street, after calling into our favourite patisserie, to seek refuge in the apartment!

The rain never really let up all afternoon, Grant and Kyle escaped the confinement of the apartment for a walk around the area, finding another lovely little market, but still arrived back soaking wet! Ash and I caught up on some blogs, and enjoyed people watching from the large windows! This is when we noticed the whole street had been shut down and the police were directing cars, buses, trucks and taxis away from the next street. This was causing quite a commotion, and a traffic jam, so we thought we would wander down to have a look.  Marni opted to stay home this time, but the rest of us headed out, me wanting to take advantage of purchasing some delicious French macaroons for Katie and I to share, once we were back in Penkridge!!

We soon found out that the reason for the car removal earlier and the gardens being all shut down, was because the French President was in the area! WHAT??!!! Is the man following us?? It seems everywhere we have wanted to go, he has got there just before us!! 

Anyway I purchased the macaroons, got a few bits and pieces, and we headed on back to the apartment for dinner and bed, ready for our journey back to Penkridge tomorrow.  

Beacoup Amour,

Chrissie xx

Day 31 Versailles with Fat Tire Bike Tours

Today, we were all pretty excited for our FatTire Bike Tour in Versailles. We woke up early, got ourselves ready, and were at the Denfert-Rochereau Metro by about 8 o'clock. We made our way through the surprisingly quiet peak hour traffic and arrived at the Dupleix Metro station a short time later. From there we walked to the address of the FatTire Bike Tour 'home', but not before stopping for a quick chocolate croissant! While mum and Marni ordered the croissants, I ducked into the pharmacies next door in search of some hand sanitiser. And boy was that hard to communicate to the young French girl, who knew "only little English", on the other side of the counter! After demonstrating my best hand washing charades I could, I walked out with exactly what I needed! We munched on our bakery snacks and then continued on our way to the FatTire Bike Tour!

When we arrived at our destination we asked one of the guys out front if we could check in. After he told us we had only booked for five (awkward), we reassured him we had booked for six! Turns out he just hadn't added on the one child (awkward for Kyle!). Then were handed six blue cards and told to just wait for a few minutes. Shortly afterwards everyone with a blue card was asked to come inside and wait for our guide. We all piled into the little room where we met our guide Anna and 'learner' guide, Ben! And guess what, both Australian! And that's not all, we had another group of three Aussies and four Kiwi's! Needless to say we outnumbered the four Americans and were all feeling right at home! Once we were all introduced to each other and Anna had spoken a little bit about where we were going to be going, we walked a short way to the Champ de Mars Train Station, heading for Versailles. 

After arriving in Versailles after a short twenty minute train ride we headed out of the Train Station and followed Anna to their Fat Tire Bike Tour shed to collect our bikes. We each found a bike and adjusted it to suit us, before having a little practice ride around the courtyard. 

When we were all ready and had attached our baskets, we all hoped on and started following Anna to the Fresh Food Markets of Versailles, with Ben following behind us all. We stopped a few times for Anna to point something out to us or tell us which way to ride. Soon after leaving the courtyard we arrived at the Markets. We parked the bikes in a line and left Ben to lock them up before wandering through the markets buying food for our picnic lunch later on. We bought cheese and meat (including a pate, apparently "the best in France!") and baguettes. We bought fruit and wine and patisseries! An hour later we all made our way through the crowds and back to the bikes. We loaded our baskets with the food and drink we had just bought and  mounted our bikes. From there we began riding to Marie Antoinette's 'getaway'!

Marie Antoinette's story began when she was only a young Austrian girl, twelve in fact! She came from a wealthy family but did not have to worry about marrying anyone important as she had several older sisters to carry on the family name. She wasn't worried at all and had little, if any, responsibility for her actions. That was until her older sisters all, one by one, became ill and slowly died. Then all of a sudden, she was the oldest and she had all of the responsibility! At the age of twelve she was told she was to marry the very awkward, caring, Prince of France, Louis XVI. She had around two years to prepare herself by learning fluent French, the history of politics, proper etiquette and so much more. At fourteen she was sent to France, never to see her home or family again. She married Prince Louis days after arriving in France but their marriage was never fully consecrated until seven years later, when they had their first child. Marie was sent to marry Louis XVI, so she could produce children who could take the thrown later in life. As you could imagine, the public didn't like that they had to wait seven years for the first child and started disliking Marie Antoinette a little more, the longer they had to wait.

Marie did not enjoy living in the chateau, as there was an insane number of rules and regulations were kept. For example, certain people would be allowed to be in the Kings chambers when he woke, another group, when he went to sleep. Someone would open the door for him, someone would stand next to that person. Someone would sit down before another and someone else after them. Every single person had a role and place, and they had to keep it. King Louis XVI knew how Marie Antoinette felt and offered her a piece of land for her to escape to. It was here that we visited.

When we arrived we pulled up our bikes and headed in. Marie Antoinette decided to build a small peasant like village full of farm animals, a flour mill, a milking station and even a large pond full of fish. Every last detail was built to her liking, and it was impressive! We walked through the land, past rabbits and chooks, cows, huge pigs, ducks and even little chicks! The land was absolutely beautiful, and served its purpose wonderfully, it looked like a small peasant village, just as Marie Antoinette wanted. After doing a short lap around the lake looking at the small buildings we hoped back onto the bikes and made our way closer the the Chateau of Versailles for our picnic lunch!

As you would think, the peasants weren't too pleased that Queen Marie was 'playing peasant' when a lot of the population was poor and starving! They were quite angered by the whole situation, even though the Queen intended nothing of the sorts! Unfortunately, Marie enjoyed a very short four years in the Chateau, before the French Revolution began in 1789. 

We arrived at our picnic area along side the chateau canal, we all got out our food and drink we had carried in our baskets and sat down on the grass. We ate and drank and relaxed for around about an hour. The canal was beautiful! The huge hand created canal is shaped like a massive crucifix, and points perfectly North to South, East to West, with the sun rising and setting exactly inline with it. The amazing effort put into the creation of the water system is six foot deep and took around eleven years to fully create! And where does the water come from you ask? The nearest river is the river Seine two miles from the canal. This means that the water must be pumped from the river to the canal constantly, through several individual pump systems at different times! It would have taken a huge amount of time and energy to get everything working and timed perfectly without the technology we have today!

After a big feed for us all, we mounted our bikes again and rode along the canal up closer towards the chateau. We stopped a fair way from the entrance where we stopped and where told the fate of the King and Queen of France. 

Riots began breaking out all over France. And soon revolutioners broke into the chateau itself in search of the king and queen. Marie escaped through a secret passage and ran away to the place Louis was at the time. Eventually however the two were captured and imprisoned. At first the two were kept together in the prison but were later separated, where they would never see the other again. On the 21st of January, 1793, King Louis XVI was dressed in glorious clothes, transported in the finest carriage lead by one of the most beautiful horses, to his execution. At noon that day, the king died.

Marie was kept for a further nine months, suffering even more, before being executed. On October the 16th of the same year, Marie Antoinette was dressed in rags, dumped in an old supplies carriage and paraded around the city for everyone to see, for 6 hours. When noon came she was pushed up the stairs to be executed. Tired, weak and frail, she stumbled up to her place, accidentally tripping on the executors foot. Marie apologised profoundly but the executor did not believe it was an accident. He then stepped up to the guillotine, unscrewed the sharp, clean blade, and replaced it with his oldest, grossest, most used blade. She was placed in spot and he raised the blade. Instead of raising it fully, for a quicker death, he raised it half way and released. Marie was in excruciating pain but had not been killed. Once again the executor raised the blade half way, and once again he let it drop, still not killing Marie. On the third attempt, Marie was finally put out of her misery, and had been killed.

Once we had finished discussing the story we rode our bikes back to the fat tire tour shed in Versailles, where we started and dropped the bikes off before walking back to wander the halls of the great chateau! 

When we entered the chateau the rooms were crowded with hundreds of people in a single room. We managed to shuffle through several rooms, but unfortunately, no where near the huge number in the whole of the beautiful palace. The one room we were not leaving without seeing however was the Hall of Mirrors (the photo above). One huge wall lined with floor to ceiling mirrors the other lined with magnificent windows looking out into the gardens! The Hall of Mirrors was actually the room that the Treaty of Versailles was signed in ending the First World War!

After having enough of the stuffy, crowded, tourist filled rooms we headed out to the garden for a look and some fresh air. The gardens were equally as beautiful as the inside with a lot fewer people to dodge! The Chateau of Versailles is known for it's many water fountains and features scattered throughout the whole area! We wandered for a while but all tired we decided to head for an ice cream and then home!

We walked back to the markets we had riden to this morning to visit a small ice cream shop we had seen earlier. We all ordered our ice creams or milkshakes and started walking towards the train station. Dad saw a little pathway which we all thought lead to the station which we took and hoped for the best! When we weren't fully convinced we were headed in the right direction we got out the map and tried to figure out where we were. While huddled in a circle all contributing our thoughts and ideas, an old man popped his head in and pointed us in the direction of the station. After discussing with another local  further up we had figured out we were going to a completely different train station, miles out of our way! We eventually got on the right road, made it to the train station, and hoped on the first train back to Paris. We all piled into the hot, stuffy train and waited until we arrived at our stop.

From there we headed downstairs to the Metro and hoped on the B line to Luxembourg. The train arrived and it was packed! Luckily though most of the people hoped off as we got on. We were on the train waiting for the doors to close when a girl on the platform points towards someone on the train. With that, two other girls on the tube jumped off just as the doors closed. We all knew by the way they got off as the doors closed that they had knocked something. Yep, as everyone frantically checked their bags and pockets, mum looked down to find her bag had been opened and her purse gone. By now, the doors were closed and the train had left, there was no way to get it back. They had taken all of mums cards, my travel card and around €70 cash. And boy did they do it well! 

We hurried home as quickly as we could to block, and protect all of our cards with the help of Katie Brooks (you go girl!) we were able to stop any transactions from the card. However, it was clear now that I had received my memory genes from dad, as I could not remember my username to my travel card. It was even worse that I had remembered to bring all of my other information, except that vital piece! I racked my brain for hours trying to remember the tiny detail. And after praying to St Anthony (the patron saint of lost things) quietly I could not remember it! 

We spent most of the evening feeling a lot of mixed emotions including anger, stupidity (mainly on my behalf because I couldnt remember my username! Urgh!) and annoyance! We even took the time to all reinact how they must have done it. We even had enough time on our hands to blame ourselves for what had happened. In the end we all agreed that it was just that we were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and hopefully karma would bite them back hard one day! We all settled off to bed eventually,  (me still trying desperately to remember my username!) and dozed off into a much needed sleep and relaxation after the recent events and occurrences! 

Woah! Big day!

Love Ash x

Day 30 Arc de Triomphe, Champs de élysées and the Louvre

We had a well earned sleep in today, and made our way to the Arc de Triomphe, unbeknown to us it was May 8th, and a French public holiday, marking the end of World War 11.  So when we emerged from the metro, we found the place surrounded in police and all shut down!! Not to be deterred, we managed a glimpse and some pics (not very good ones), and after realising what was going on, we made our way around to the champs élysées. I was a little disappointed, as I really wanted to see the grave of the unknown soldier buried under the Arc, but it was not to be. 

Wandering down the champs was a nice stroll, looking at all of the stylish fashion shops, car showrooms, and restaurants. The restaurant Fouquet's is the "place to be seen" frequented by many movie and theatrical stars, including Kirk Douglas, Sean Connery and Sophia Loren. It offers traditional French cuisine, and is very expensive, so we decided not to eat there!! ;)

Couldn't pass up a photo of Louis Vuitton, and Marni, Ashleigh and I just had to wander in to Abercrombie and Fitch, for a look at the shirtless, very attractive men, and to enjoy the fragrance of their cologne! 

From here we wandered down past the Grand Palace and the Petit Palace. By this stage Kyle was being pretty painful, and extremely annoying, we had just seen the French President drive past, and police everywhere, Grant couldn't handle it any longer, and Kyle received a smack on the butt in the centre of Paris!! Ohh great, I thought I was going to be bailing Grant out of a French jail -  we all had a laugh about it during our late lunch, but it was pretty intense at the time!!

We walked to the place de la Concorde, the largest public square in Paris, and where Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antionette were beheaded, and where the large Egyptian obelisk now sits.

By this time we were all very hungry, so we found a lovely little restaurant with the most amazing patisseries and stopped for a late lunch. After filling up, we walked out to find the weather had changed again, and it was now pouring with rain, we headed towards our destination, Galleries Lafayette, a most amazing shopping centre, which was extremely busy! All the same it was very interesting wandering around, especially in the food section, where we saw this Iberico Ham selling for £298, as you can imagine Grant was in food heaven!

Still pouring with rain, we needed to at least glimpse the Louvre, hoping that it may clear by the time we got there, but instead the rain had got heavier. The line was very long, and not undercover, I guess being a public holiday, it was even busier than normal, so we decided that as much as we desperately would love to see the Mona Lisa, it was not meant to be!  So a few quick snaps, including one of Kyle (he was redeeming himself very quickly) standing in the rain, we made our way back to the Latin Quarter to be closer to the apartment.

After a quick dry off, and a rest, Grant, Kyle and I went to the deli and patisserie to get some goodies, including some foie gras, baguettes, strawberries and fresh salad vegetables. (The fresh fruit and veges are delicious at the moment, all the summer fruit is in all the shops, the raspberries are amazing!)

We have had very little luck with the weather, which has been a shame, it definitely hasn't been as enjoyable as we were hoping, and we are all struggling big time with the dirtiness of the French, including women who just spit out their chewies on the street as you walk by, and the smoking is bordering on intolerable!! The architecture and history is amazing, but you get a distinct feeling that the French totally dislike tourists. Even when you try to be polite, and begin a conversation in French. Today the boucherie (butcher), refused to serve us, he took an instant dislike to us as soon as we said bonjour, we did our best to explain what we wanted, however he threw his hands in the air, and made the younger man serve us, who was lovely and very understanding. We all had a laugh with the young man and said Auvoir, the older man still mumbling about us in French to one of his other employees!!

Anyway, hoping the weather would be clear for our very much anticipated visit to Versailles tomorrow, we ate and were all in bed, desperately hoping that the party in the neighbouring apartment, which kept us awake for most of the previous night, would not be repeated!!

Beaucoup Amour,

Chrissie xx

Day 29 Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame

The nights are getting easier, although the beds are still bloody uncomfortable, and the apartment has not got any bigger!! We were up and going by 7.30am, and we had our first encounter with peak hour on the metro!! Oh my goodness!! It was very overwhelming for all of us, we got pushed along with the crowd, and how on earth all of us ended up on the same carriage together, is beyond me! We all handled it extremely well, pushed up against unknown foreigners - Marni would have preferred a nice, young, non smoking, French fellow, however!!  Anyway we made it safely and with plenty of time to meet our guide, so we decided to stop for a hot chocolate and crepes. It wasn't all that nice, and is now known as the "crap crepe" place!!

We met our guide Carolyn, outside Trocadero Metro station, and once everyone was there, we walked around to Place du Trocadero, where we had our first look at the Eiffel Tower. It was a magnificent sight, quite breath taking. As we walked towards the Eiffel Tower, Carolyn talked to us about the history of the Tower, and Eiffel himself, a very interesting tale, and he was definitely a forth coming man, and failure was something he never thought about.

We crossed the River Seine, where Carolyn gave us our river cruise tickets, to use at our own leisure, we will hopefully go on Saturday.  With our tour we were able to skip the lines, and boy it was a very long line, and head straight up to the second floor of the tower. The views were amazing, mind blowing actually, and something we will remember for a very long time. Carolyn took us right around the tower, explaining each of the landmarks, and it gave us a good perspective of the city and what it has to offer.

From here we said our goodbyes, but with our tickets we could go to the very top level, which we did (minus Marni, the height was too much for her). The line wasn't very long, and before we knew it we were on the top level, gaining another perspective of Paris. 

We were extremely lucky with the weather for the Eiffel Tower tour, but our luck unfortunately was not going to last! We walked back to Trocadero Place and had a very nice lunch at one of the many restaurants. From here we could see the weather changing, so we decided it would be best to head closer to the apartment, and visit Notre Dame. We arrived at Notre Dame, just in time, as it started raining very heavily, and thankfully the line moves extremely quickly, so we were able to take refuge in this magnificent church, and wander around at our leisure, marvelling at the history behind this beautiful place.

From here the weather was not going to let up, so we retreated to our apartment, after a quick stop at a souvenir shop to buy a few bits and pieces.  We were actually all very tired, after two busy days and early mornings, so it was nice to relax! We purchased some yummy paris patisseries, that kept us going, and we had an early night.

Beaucoup Amour,

Chrissie xx