Cake in Brighton
Yesterday
Angel Yarns had an open day with cake (mmmm really good cake) so Neil braved the knitterly conversation and came down with me. There were three underground lines closed in London and a derailment at Brighton so our journey both ways was a bit traumatic but we had a good day. After a journey of about 1 1/2 hours we arrived in Portslade and were picked up by the Angel Yarns taxi (Klyve) and I spent an hour or so playing with yarns and chatting to friends while Neil ate cake :-D
Then we took the bus to Brighton proper and wandered around (in the rain of course) Check out this sky!
It wasn't quite as dark as the photo suggests as you can see from this next one of Neil in front of the famous Brighton Pier.
We'll probably go back some time in better weather, although given the crowds on a cold, rainy afternoon in autumn, I hate to think what it would be like in summer!
Ciao :-)
The City of Light
Paris was truly fantastic. We have been there before, and I remember that I loved it, but I still was unprepared for the awesome-ness of the experience.
The first thing we saw when we arrived was the Eiffel Tower. A pink one. And a green one, a gold one, silver, glow-in-the-dark, stuffed, painted to look like cows and giraffes, etched on keyrings and earrings, on postcards, books, hats, bags, aprons, fridge magnets and undies. The only gift shop which didn't sell miniature Eiffel Towers was inside
Sacre Coeur. However, when we finally got around to wandering in that direction we were once again blown away by the sheer size and beauty of this famous web of metal. We didn't climb it this time but probably will make the effort next time we return.
We spent a lot of our time just wandering around and exploring the different areas of Paris. We spent some time in the Quartier Latin, south of the river where the Palais de Luxembourg and its surrounding park are situated. This area has lots of little streets with restaurants and interesting shops. North of the river in Les Halles - Tuillieres we found all the exclusive shops. Gucci, Armani, Cartier, etc. We kept a sharp lookout for celebrities but didn't see any.
Our two favourite places - areas I know I will return to again and again, were Le Marais, and Montmartre. Le Marais is just north east of the Ile de la Cite, not far from the centre of town. There we found the Chocolaterie (and went a bit nuts!) and lots of other quaint little shops. We spent some time resting our feet in a great little bar tucked away in one of the Marais back streets.
Montmartre is home to the Cathedral Sacre Coeur and was right near our hotel. It is incredibly steep and windy with tiny streets opening into fantastic little squares and courtyards. It is a very arty area and we spent some time on Sunday wandering around watching the artists at work in the main square. The quality varied but some (to our uneducated eyes) seemed excellent and there were several pieces we would like to have bought.
Saturday was Remembrance Day and celebrated in Paris with great pomp and ceremony. We happened to be near the
Arc de Triomphe in the morning and there were long official ceremonies followed by a parade of soldiers down the
Champs Elysees, preceded by the president and his motorcycle escort.
We found the 'normal' shopping on Champs Elysees, all the same shops as in London and I bought myself a new coat - it was a brisk 10 degrees on Friday and it's getting worse than that in London! None of my Australian winter clothes come close to being enough. I much prefer the boutique style parisian shops but it can take a while to find what you're looking for.
On Sunday afternoon we made our only museum visit for the trip -
Musee d'Orsay. It's a much more manageable exhibition than the
Louvre and has an impressive collection of French artists. We will return for more museums in the future but we find you really need to dedicate a lot of time and it's hard to do it justice in a weekend.
There were a lot of things on the list that didn't get done, including trekking up the four-hundred-and-something steps of Notre Dame Cathedral but we'll be back soon we hope and can finish up all our plans.
Settling In
It seems like only yesterday that we arrived but in fact we've been in our flat almost three weeks and have been in London for over a month. It was nice to finally have a relaxing weekend at home - actually at home in the new place - last week, we have been rushing around a bit of late. I had to work at the
shop on Saturday but we had the rest of the weekend to relax and settle in.
Tomorrow we are off on the long-awaited and notoriously difficult trip to Paris. We had to settle in the end for a 5:30am train (ick!!) but we bit the bullet realising that it was that or wait until next year. We'll have nearly three days and look forward to just meandering about the streets most of the time soaking up the atmosphere (hopefully that will be all we soak up - haven't seen a weather report to date!)
If you haven't seen the pics of the flat, check it out
here. Bernadette's blog is much more up to date than this one :-D
Au revoir!
