The Parisian Flat

We had left booking a place to stay til the last minute because we weren't quite sure if we wanted to stay in Paris the whole time, or be closer to the school for the graduation.  We ended up deciding it would be nicer to just stay in one place the whole time, so I set about looking on AirBnB, Hotels.com, & VRBO.  Hotels were pretty much all expensive if we wanted to stay central (which we did), so I perused the sites looking for flats we could stay in.  There ended up being a glitch in the VRBO system, so I was quoted a really low price for one awesome looking flat.  When the owner got back to me he told me he couldn't give it to me for the price I had been quoted, but he would still give me a discount from the regular rate.  By the time we finished negotiating, it was only 2 days before our trip!

If you are going to stay in Paris, this is the way to do it!  There were 2 days that Chad had meetings all day with some of his classmates, so I was left to my own devices.  I'm not one to go out alone in a city I don't know, especially when I don't speak the language, so I mostly stayed in the flat (except for when I went out in search of chocolate truffles!).  I was very thankful that I wasn't stuck in a tiny hotel room! 

The flat had a loft area which had the washroom & a bedroom.   The flat sleeps 6-8.  The only downside is that there is only one washroom, & it's off the upstairs bedroom, so you'd have to know the people you are sharing the flat with quite well. 

The bathtub was huge & it was awesome after getting caught in the rain one day!

Here you see the entrance to the flat & the stairs up to the loft area.  Just to the right is the entrance to the kitchen.

Nice big kitchen.  There was also a futon in this area.

This is the entrance way again, looking toward the living area.  

This is a futon, there is also a double bed to the left of the TV, & across from the TV is a hide-a-bed couch, which I was sitting on in yesterday's pictures.

Off the living area is the terrace.  When it wasn't raining, we enjoyed sitting on the terrace & having our coffee.

The owner of the flat also has places in Rome & Istanbul.  We may have to go check them out too!

We Arrived in Paris!

Chad & I went to Paris for a week so he could attend his graduation for his (third) Master's degree, & so we could enjoy the city.

 Here we are in the airport, ready to go!

This is the little street that our flat was on.  It was quite close to Notre Dame which made it easy to walk everywhere.  when we arrived at the flat we could leave our luggage, but we were too early for check-in time, so we had to go exploring for a bit.

We walked along the Seine for awhile, but we were thwarted by all the mud that was covering much of the walkways due to flooding from the week before.

You can see on the bridge how high the water was, just under the circles. 

The sun came out when we got to Notre Dame, & we were delighted to discover they had free wifi in the Square Jean XXIII behind the cathedral.

After being up for 23 hours & walking about 5 km we were tired & glad to be able to get into our flat!

Saturday Fry Up, & Meet Up

Saturday I headed to Fiona's house to have a full English breakfast... for lunch!  I took a few busses to get there, but it was a relatively easy journey.  I got to meet her kids & husband, who were very welcoming, & lovely.  I had a fun afternoon just hanging out & chatting about British music & TV shows & movies.  We have similar tastes & it was nice to be able to talk to someone who has seen a lot of the same shows & listens to a lot of the same bands.

Later in the day I met up with Chad, & we stopped at a pub so he could have some good British Sausage & Mash.  We headed back to Geoff & Margaret's to spend the evening with them before heading back to Canada on Sunday.

We are very thankful for the blessing Geoff & Margaret have been to us.  They opened their home to us 13 years ago, when we were poor students struggling to find an affordable place to live in London, & failing miserably.  We have fond memories of walking their dog Tess, helping out when their 2 year old granddaughter Lucy was over for the day, & playing in the wading pool with the older grand-kids when the weather was hot.  We would have had a totally different experience of London if we had not lived with this generous couple.  They taught us what true hospitality was, simply by inviting us in.

Sadly, it was time to leave again, & hopefully it won't be another 7 years before we are back!

Wandering London

Friday I decided to walk around Oxford Street just to see the sights & perhaps do a little shopping.  I was amused when I stopped for a sandwich, by all the choices that I was not used to.

 

After awhile I thought I'd head to Brent Cross to a shopping centre I had heard about.  I wanted to take the Jubilee Line, but it was closed for upgrades, so I had to take the Northern Line.  When I got out at the station I decided it wouldn't take too long to walk to the shopping centre, but the area is really not set up for walking.  Every time I thought I was making headway getting closer to where I wanted to be, I'd find that the walkway ended, or there was no way to get from here to there.  At one point I was on the street below the shopping centre, & all that was between me & the shops was a brick wall of about 10 feet.  Unfortunately I could not figure out how to get from point A to point B, & at that point Fiona texted to see if I wanted to get together for dinner.  So, I wandered around for about 2 hours pointlessly, but I definitely got good exercise!

 I was glad for a rest after all that walking!

And I was happy that Fiona had thought about meeting up again!  Wandering around by myself was starting to get really old!  We spent a few hours talking about our families, & I even managed to get another invitation to hang out again Saturday!

A Visit to Ely

 A friend of mine from Washington State now lives in Ely.  Since Ely is only about an hour & 15 minutes, & I had not seen Meleah in about 10 years, & had never met her husband, & they just had a baby 10 days earlier, I decided to take a day to visit her!

 I had to take a train from King's Cross, so I decided to have a look at platform 9 3/4.  It was teeming with tourists!

Gemma & I bonded, & I got her all kitted out with some Canadian gear.

 

It was great to see Meleah again, & finally meet Luke & Gemma!

Meeting Up With the Old Crew

 Wednesday morning I headed out to try to get my phone sorted out.  I had brought along the pay-as-you-go phone we had bought in Ireland when we visited in 2008 hoping it would work, but it said there was no service.  I took the train to Liverpool Street & stopped into a phone shop nearby.  The told me to go to a different shop where they could see if the phone was unlocked.  At that shop they told me that the phone was sadly locked & sent me to another shop to get it unlocked.  The third shop was closed dispite it being 10am.  I asked at the shop next door, where they directed me to a fourth shop to get the phone unlocked.  The fourth shop was also closed, so I gave up & headed to Tottenham Court Road to see how I'd fare.

I quickly found a phone shop & asked about getting a new pay-as-you-go phone.  They had some cheap phones I could get for around £25, but that would be about $50 Canadian.  I decided to head to the nearby Starbucks & see about adding a travel plan on my phone from home, which I discovered I could do for $5.  It was a lot of running around, but it used up some of the extra time I had.

After all that fun I headed to Covent Garden for some shopping!  I picked up some souvenirs for everyone & then it was time to meet up with my old workmates from when we lived in London.

 

As I walked to the pub where we were supposed to meet, I took a few pictures of the street signs

Apparently there were a few people I worked with who do not check their facebook very often, & they had no idea I had named my daughter after the street!

This is one of my favourites!

Fiona & Mora worked on the Reception desk with me, & were always fun to work with.

Ian & Pete

 I had not seen these people in over 12 years!  It was far too long & we had  a great time catching up.  We had planned to meet up at 3 in the afternoon on Wednesday, figuring that the pub would be dead & we would have the run of the place.  Strangely, there was a power cut, so all the nearby businesses had been let out & everyone had the same great idea to head to the pub!  Despite having no power, the pub carried on serving drinks.  After a few hours the lights came back on & everyone cheered.  At the end of the night you could see that the dishwasher had not been working, as the entire bar was stacked with glasses!

We're Heading Back to Blighty!

Chad has been doing an executive Master's degree which has him travelling for a week at at time to either Oxford or Paris.  I decided it wasn't fair for him to have all the fun, so I decided to 'join' him on his trip to Oxford.  I say 'join' because basically we are traveling from Canada to England together & the spending the entire week at separate places until we meet up again to fly home!  We left a LOT of snow behind at home, so I was looking forward to some warmer temperatures.

 It was really cool to see the ice on the water crossing from PEI to Nova Scotia

 We had a 6 hour layover in Halifax, so we enjoyed a leisurely dinner

 And we took a few selfies to pass the time!

 After flying all night, I traveled to Geoff & Margaret's & took it pretty easy for the afternoon.  I read a bit & got all caught up with what has been going on in their lives.

I managed to stay awake until dinner time & Margaret even had some splodge for me for dessert!