Weeks 10 to 13 (France - Mougins)

We arrived in Nice in great spirits.  Big A had sorted the car out and arranged for the Renault rep to collect us from the airport and take us to their centre where we sorted out the final paperwork.  It was a smooth transaction and I recommend anyone who is planning on spending more than 3 months in Europe to explore the benefits of leasing a new car from either Renault, Fiat or Citron. You can only do it for a maximum of 165 days but it works out at around $20 a day for a brand new car with full insurance and GPS Navigation.   We did think about buying a car in the UK but it was difficult to get  it insured and then we would have had the problem of selling it before we left. 

Thanks to GPS “English Jane” we found our way to Le Club Mougins where we would call our two bedroom apartment home for the next 3 weeks. The hotel is very comfortable and the staff have been terrific.  

First day at school 

We’d pre-arranged interviews with two international schools in the area so the day after arriving we set off with Middle and Little A to see the schools.  School A was just beautiful.  Great location, facilities and school grounds but alas no places.  We knew this before we went but thought we might be able to charm them into extending their class numbers for our two little princesses – no such luck!   We were all disappointed but prepared for School B where we knew there were places.  I was sure Big A and the mini A’s would reject it outright due to the absolute stark contrast between the two schools’ first impressions.   Whilst on the edge of bushland, the school is still at the bottom of a purpose built business park.   The primary school has about 5 classrooms with no more than 15 children in each class – so very intimate.  They teach an international curriculum and spend half the day teaching in English and the other half in French.  This partial immersion into the French language should help the girls pick up the language – fingers crossed.  So two days later the girls started school in Ebica and will attend until the end of the French school year in July.   Great news for the girls / not so great news for Big A and his chances of getting another Maserati when we get back (international schools are not cheap)!   

The school day is a long one from 8.30am to 4.30pm.  The girls have 11/2 hours for lunch where they eat a school dinner and play.  On Wednesday the school closes at midday so the girls can either do an activity like golf, horse riding or theater or we can collect them and do something together.  They don’t have a uniform but the school is quite strict (which is actually in keeping with the French attitude towards education).  Putting the girls in school was a decision we made before leaving the UK as it was obvious that the girls would rather hang out with other kids than Big A and I all day and so far, 2 weeks in it seems to have been a great decision.

With the girls gone all day Big A and I then had to consider what we would do to make good use of the next 4 to 5 months.  Before we could romanticise too much about cooking classes or long walks through snow capped mountains, we had to sort out our long term accommodation, bank account, skiing and telecommunications.

The school was dictated by basic geographical criteria but we still wanted to check out the many villages in the area.  There are some stunning places like Valbonne, Biot, Theole Sur Mer, Vence and Saint Paul but we had a pretty tight budget and that limited our options.  We visited an old farm house in Opio which was very remote and to be honest a little “sparse” in its furnishings so really didn’t have a homely feel.  We’d seen a number of properties on the net but most of them were not available for the entire 4 months or were grossly out of our league financially.  Then we ended up finding a lovely house in Valbonne, 3 bedrooms, right in the village, beautifully presented and in an 18^th century stone building.  It was perfect and we agreed the rate with the owner to move in on the 3 March.

Marco Polo Restaurant at Theole Sur Mer

Saint Paul (near Vence)

There are probably 4 standout areas for me so far.  (1) Theole Sur Mer has a restaurant called Marco Polo which is right on the beach.  As it was still winter the place was only 30% occupied on the Wednesday afternoon.  I can’t wait till March when it’s a bit warmer but before the summer rush when we will be able to take advantage of literally stepping from your table onto the sand.  (2) The next is Valbonne.  The research said that Mougins was picturesque, and the old town is, but the rest of Mougins is a bit tired.  Valbonne was the first place we went to that I actually thought represented the postcard view of a French countryside village.  It has a great square and most of the streets are closed off to vehicles.  (3) is Biot as it has some absolutely stunning little areas with 17^th century stone buildings, arches and tiny narrow streets provide the street-scape.  It also has a fantastic square and a great pub called Café de Brun.  (4) Vence and Saint Paul are just exquisite villages and a must see for anyone travelling through the area as they sit perched on a hill (especially Saint Paul),  have the most amazing little cobbled streets and historic buildings.  Vence is closed on Sundays when they respect the day of rest but Saint Paul was buzzing.  

The day to day “odd” things about France include driving on the opposite side of the road,  sitting in the opposite side of the car, stores close on Sundays and for a siesta every day between 12 and 2, restaurants typically open for dinner at 7pm and it is important to always acknowledge a person by saying bonjour.  These are just a few I have picked up and I’m sure there are many more.  So far having only been here 3 weeks I’m loving it and can’t wait for the warmer weather when the South of France comes into its own.

Yesterday was dress up day at school to celebrate carnival  http://www.nicecarnaval.com/en/  and the school breaking up for 2 weeks.  It was absolutely fabulous with the theme of Venice.  Middle and Little A made masks and wore glittery "disco" dresses (because that was the only costume Big A and I could justify spending money on).   Even every teacher dressed up and made an effort and all the kids put on a show of dance.  It was comforting to see that internationally all little ones are the same and that most parents who fork out thousands each year on dance lessons must bemoan their investment!  Middle A's first reaction when she came off the "stage" was "mum we stuffed it up completely!"  The only negative about the afternoon - no wine!   

Now we are off skiing for a week - wish me luck!

 Big A’s Perspecitive (to follow)..  After a fairly uneventful departure and a beautiful flight over a snow covered France we arrived in Nice. It must have been 10 degrees warmer in Nice…yeehaa.

We called the car agency who came to collect us and went to fill in the forms and collect the our brand new little diesel Renault Scenic -incredibly seemless and easy. ..even the GPS seemed fairly easy to operate. 
Just a word on the deal with the car....the company we went through can be found at www.ukandeuropetravel.com. We dealt with a girl called Tracey who was exceptional...very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. We had a few issues with being able to scan copies of passports etc ...a little tough when you are traveling...but in reality I can't thank them enough. I don't know the details but it seems the French government promote the use of Citroen's, Renault's and Peugeot's and are wiling to make them available for a maximum of about 6 months on a lease basis...so you get a brand spanking new car for far less than a rental company will do it...and you get to pick it up and drop it off at different destinations al over Europe....we' picked ours up at Nice Airport and are scheduled to drop it off in Rome in July. There's no way you could get a deal with a rental company for as little as we managed...overall about $25 AUD per day including insurance .....but not fuel!!!

Which reminds me.... the car had absolutely no fuel in it when we picked it up so the first stop was the gas station about 500m up the road. Whoops …no sign for diesel …apparently Gazoil is diesel. So we filled up at 1.5euros per litre and headed off.

Turning right as per the GPS I headed straight down a one-way bus lane before realizing, mounting the median strip and getting in the correct lane. Whoops!

Our next drama wasn’t far away however….we headed towards a toll booth that seemed to have pictures of everything but a man in a booth or cash. I didn’t like the look of the symbol over the first lane we headed down so reversed the car (against the traffic!) back out of one automated both and headed down another lane before realizing our Euro travel cash passport card didn’t work at the toll…nor did any of our credit cards…and we didn’t have any change at all. Luckily we only had about 5 cars behind us!

Finally somebody  came over and gave us some change and we were on our way…..slightly  shaken but not stirred. 20 minutes later we were in Mougins….yeeha…finally, time to relax.

Well our time to relax was brief indeed. We had arranged interviews at 2 schools for the day after we arrived.

One was with the Mougin International School…. we were absolutely gutted there were no places until the following September as this school was seriously good. Kids are taught using the British system and learn French for about 5 hours a week. The teaching staff were friendly, the teaching  facilities, kitchen & dining area and grounds were excellent and the children we met were so polite and friendly…I loved it and wanted to enroll myself!

However, no point shopping if theirs nothing on the shelves so we went to our 2^nd interview somewhat disheartened. EBICA is a bilingual school where the kids spend half their time being taught in French and half in English. The school is tiny…only about 6 classrooms and about 100 kids. When it comes to the outdoor facilities the differences are stark indeed….there is an outdoor play ‘pit’.  However, the admin staff and teachers were so friendly and the school had a lovely feel about it. So we signed up for a trial…the following day!

Getting the kids up for school was a serious struggle. Other than to catch the plane to Nice, we hadn’t had to get up before 9am for months! So we were late on our first day.

And what would we do with ourselves whilst the kids were at school? School goes from 8.30am to 4.30pm….Jesus…the Child Bride and I would have to entertain ourselves! Suffice it to say we arrived at school to pick the girls up an hour early….I was genuinely missing the girls arguing and fighting and was worried they were having an awful time and missed me too much…..but to our amazement both girls loved it. I can’t believe they would rather go to school than hang out with their dad!

Now we just had to find how to pay for it as at 21,000 euros a year in school fees definitely weren’t in my detailed budget of $300/day! So this meant setting up a French bank account and luckily we chose the only bank in the area that didn’t speak English. Two hours later, and after endless uncomfortable silences, Google translations, hand gestures and drawings we left believing we had initiated proceedings although unbeknownst to us we later found out we had to leave a 2000 euro balance in the account, incurred a 100 euro set up fee and an 8 euro a month account keeping fee! However, we convinced ourselves this was the right thing to do and ticked it off the ‘to do’ list.

In reality opening a bank account was a walk in the park in comparison to finding a telecoms provider and a place to live! Telecomms in France is a nightmare in comparison to Australia and the UK. 

The staff at SFR were so completely disinterested in our cause they actually sent us to one of their competitors. And the competitor they sent us to, Orange, were the most incompetent outfit I’d ever come across. Now, I am not one of those travellers that expect the world to speak English…far from it. I actually enjoy it when they don’t so the fact they didn’t speak English made it more difficult…but hey I’d just set up a bank account….surely we could set up a telecoms service…..NO!

After 6 visits, 3 different packages and about 100 euro and the threat of shoving the dongle up the managers arse we finally left the store with an ability to make calls within France for 1 hour a month, send a few text messages within france and have 3 gb of internet capacity….all this for the princely sum of 86 euro ….PER MONTH!!! Apparently Buoygons is the best provider but even the french cant pronounce the company name the name twice so what chance did we have? Pronounced something like BWYG, I don’t actually know of a another major company anywhere else in the world that has a name that is less pronouncable than this!

Anyway, another tick off the to-do list. Next was a place to stay…and once gain Big Daddy came to rescue in the form of a stunning 18^th century stone 3 bedroom house in the centre of the old village of Valbonne. Now Valbonne wasn’t my first choice, albeit a stunning village…but its full of expats. I didn’t come to France to network or to hang out with English speaking foreigners….but the Child Bride won and we sealed the deal to pay 500 euros a week. I was flying through the list now!

So onto the next ….organising a ski trip. None of the girls had ever been skiing before and the school holidays were fast approaching so choosing a resort had a few conditions - it had to be within driving distance from where we lived; it had to be beginner friendly; it had to have snow, and it had to be sunny….unfortunately my first choice Auron was fully booked so we were forced somewhat into booking Isola 2000.  I booked us in to stay at the C2A La Terraces D’Isola for 7 nights - $900 for the week; The 3 girls were all booked into ski school for 6 days - $550….and our ski rental was also completed on-line - $450 for 6 days. I wasn’t sure what ski passes the girls would need so decided to leave this until we arrived. I was on a roll….give me more item for the list…I’m a natural completer!

However, after booking the hotel I checked the small print on the confirmation email…in French naturally….and thought it said something about having to take your own linen, blankets and towels. The opening hours for the hotel reception should be in the guiness book of records…..I think only the Sadam Hussein Fan Club is open less hours than this hotel reception. Not only that but unfortunately the contact number listed for the hotel is also the number they use for credit card payments so you have a greater chance of fathering a child with Tom Cruise than getting through to someone.

Luckily the reception staff at Club Mougins helped us, making at least a dozen attempts before finally managing to confirm our booking and the fact we needed to rent linen and towels and pay for parking….another tick!

Now, before we left Australia I had taken to swimming once a week – usually around 1.5 – 2kms…..not that I’m a big swimmer but I like to convince myself I keep fit so during the 2 weeks since we arrived in Nice I had also located 2 public swimming pools in the area…although both were only 25 m pools. However, even swimming in France has its peculiarities.

I rocked up to the first pool on my list, the most expensive at 6 euros a swim,  with my towel, boardies and goggles. However, the public pool was only open to the public at certain times….2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon….and I was out of luck. The rest of the time the pool is dedicated to schools. So I left somewhat peeved and returned the following day.

The next day I got there on time and was the only patron there so I paid my fee at the reception and entered through some turnstiles into a waiting room type area consisting of a bench, shoes rack, coat rack and a solitary pair of shoes and a jacket. Wow…a change room where men and women got their kits off…these French really are liberal! So I started to peel off the layers and my boots but luckily another man entered the area…..who just took off his shoes and then entered another area. I quickly put my shoes and clothes in my bag and, like a spy on surveillance, followed the man. Finally I’d found the changing area where you get your own cubicle. Great…things were starting t come together, so I got changed and as lockers were 1 euro and I didn’t have any change I followed the other swimmer to the pool area with my exploding bag.

However, as I was just about to enter the pool area I was stopped by someone that appeared to be a cleaner and told in French that I wasn’t allowed to swim in boardies. Of course I didn’t know for sure that was what he was saying but figured it out when I noticed a solitary, tiny sign in the changing room area showing a pair of shorts with a red cross through them!

So I had to get changed again….but not my shoes and head back to the reception area to buy a pair of speedos…what size did I need…Extra Large of course…cant you see? As with most pools they had a decent array of togs for sale but naturally the sale rack didn’t have any other colour left than iridescent blue, or any size above a medium, so medium “fluro” blue it was. Returning to the changing rooms for the second time I squeezed into my new acquired bright blue, tight dick togs and headed for the pool…..wow these were brighter and more snug than I first thought, especially when I walked.

However, by this time somehow another gazillion swimmers had entered the 5 lane 25m pool - most of them bed-wetting pensioners! After 10 laps I was absolutely knackered so dragged myself out of the pool much to the admiring glances of the bed-wetters!

Weeks 8 - 10 London

Having arrived back in London we kept ourselves busy by doing extensive research for our Europe trip.  The starkest thing about Paris for me was the absolute need for the girls to have young company if our time in Europe was to be a success for all.  This meant trying to find a school in an area that we could possibly call home for the next 5 months.  We also had to go through the numbers regarding the car (buy, rent or lease) and where we could set up a base in which to explore the area.  In amongst all of this planning we did however find some time to brave the cooler (freezing) weather and get out and about in ole blighty.

Regent Street,  London

The boys decided to give Bumcyzna and I a night off (or should I say we decided to give ourselves a night off!).  We headed into town and up Regent’s Street where we ended up in Liberty a fabulous high end store with a Tudor house exterior.  It’s just off Regent’s Street, heading towards Oxford Street so keep your eye out of you might miss it.  Even when I lived in London I only went into Liberty twice as there are just too many beautiful and unusual things to temp you and £100 does not go very far at all.  I was happy to accompany Bumczyna and help her part with her hard earned cash though.  We then found this fabulous Moroccan restaurant called Momo Café in Regent Street Quarter.  Having surveyed what the packed house was ordering most of,  we followed suit with 2 tagines– I had lamb with prunes and Bumczyna had chicken with lemon – both were devine.  I so want to buy a tagine cooking pot when we get home as they are just so delicious.  

Although Big A and I desperately wanted to take the girls to see an Arsenal game we just couldn’t justify the £100 per ticket price tag.  So, thanks to Groupon’s “2 tickets for £30” offer, we were off to see Fulham v West Brom (not exactly the same but at least a premiership game).  It was a night game so we headed out at 7pm in minus 6 degrees (what were we thinking).  The first 30 minutes were fine as we stayed huddled 6 rows back from the front in the middle of the row.  At about minute 31 a little breeze came through and the next 14 minutes took a turn for the worst as the girls and I started to literally freeze.   Luckily Big A agreed to head off for home at half time – I have never been so cold in my entire life!

We took the opportunity to head off to see a couple of old friends.  Big A and Little A headed south while I headed west to see Big Knickers and her Small Boys with Middle A.  The journey was well planned.  Get the 12.20 tube to Richmond to connect with the 12.40 train to arrive in Wokingham at 1.25.  Well the tube to Richmond wasn’t working so Middle A and I got a bus with the last couple of quid we had (Big A had yet again failed to give me any cash from his UK bank account stash).  Got off at Gunnersbury because the train called in there before Richmond – but no the train overground between Gunnersbury and Richmond wasn’t working either.  Went back out to the high street to get the next bus.  Begged the driver not to charge me again (he didn’t – so one small blessing) and finally got to Wokingham at 2.05.  Anyway once we arrive it was so fantastic to see my old friend as we used to work for a global IT company in the 90s and have stayed in contact ever since.  She has become a bird and deer watcher – enough said really.  Small Boy was around at the weekend and became great friends with Middle A as they fought off Small Man to be the best at Lego construction, Mario carting and scaletrics.  This was great as it gave Big Knickers and I some time to catch up on what she’s been doing.  She handed over some spare material to make Middle A and Little A a dress for their teddies, alas even after master seamstress Big A’s attempt the teddies continue to go nude!  Big Knickers gave us a lift home which saved us about 30 mins journey time and dropped us off out front – love her to bits. 

When we all arrived back in London we joined the Storman crew and headed off to the Cinema at Westfields to see A Monster in Paris and dinner at Jamie’s Italian Kitchen.  We even managed to grab a souvenir napkin for Bumczyna (which I am sure is in the bin by now).  The food, service, price and atmosphere were all spot on.  

Since being in Vegas I was desperate to take the girls to see some theatre so I ended up taking them to see Wizard of Oz and meeting up with a dear old friend of mine Lich.  Big A decided to busy himself with a coffee and book for the 2 hours while the girls and I stayed glued to the stage to watch one of my favourite stories bought to the West End.  Michael Crawford played Oz but to be honest the standout was Dorothy (although the girls voted for Toto).  After the show we caught up with Big A and Lich and headed down to one of my old favourite restaurants Live Bait.  Unfortunately it was closed and in administration so we went to PJ’s in Covent Garden.  Lich was his normal gorgeous self and it was wonderful catching up with him and his cars, hobbies, trips and work (even though I thought he retired a few years ago!).    He’s a fantastic mind and spirit and we are so lucky to have him in our family. 

We got to take the Bumczyna and Storman out for dinner without our little people which was a real treat.  We went to J Sheekeys (another couple of napkins – thank you very much).  It was a great old restaurant with fantastic service right in the middle of Covent Garden without a tourist feeling.  Frankly we could’ve been anywhere as it was lovely having a conversation without worrying about spilt drinks, pencils running off the table, DS’ running out of batteries, etc etc.  Big A and I tried to corrupt the others into chancing our luck at a bar with a bit of a bop afterwards but they sensibly declined and we headed back home. 

Big A and I even got some time out from the children to see a film The Decedents (I loved it but Big A decided it was just another crap move with George Clooney in it) and have dinner at Mandaloun.  We would have gone into Convent Garden or Chelsea but it was so bitterly cold it was hard just getting me out of the house.  The coldness was worth it though as we stepped from our restaurant to discover snow falling.   It was so beautiful and I was like a kid in a lolly shop (that would be “ice” lolly as we waited 50 minutes for the bus back to Chiswick).

Meet Bruce

In terms of the snow, the pictures speak for themselves (just beautiful). 

We also celebrated Middle A's 9th Birthday at the Rainforest Cafe in Piccadilly Circus on Shaftsbury Avenue (see photo below).  It's the second time we've taken the girls there and the place could be great - but the service. price and quality of the food just disappoints beyond the hype.  Middle A loved it so that's what mattered.  Her birthday basically started on the Sunday and continued for the next 6 days!

View from our window

We had two lovely days in the snow with the Stormans before we had to pack up and move onto France to begin the next phase of our trip.  It was a very sad farewell for us all.

Big A’s Perspective

After returning to London after Paris I organized to catch up with some old mates.

Flash hails from Reading and although he hates to admit it, is a big Howard Jones fan. He had a meeting in London where he was making a pitch for new business for his company that from what i can make out plays games with prisoners. So we arranged to meet up and have a few beers. He was fashionably late so I had partaken in a couple by the time he arrived - in a tiny pub down an alleyway off the Strand. His meeting had apparently gone very well so he was in a jovial, boystrous mood and so wanted me to talk to another mate of ours  called Captain Colon on his mobile. Naturally when he dialed the number and passed me the phone I spoke in Farsi to the person at the other end, thinking it was Colon - then I hung up. Flash then called the him back but thought it was a bad line so kept calling out "Colon, Colon"....then hung up. A few minutes later Flash received a call back...but not from the person he though he had called..Colon....but from the guy he had just met to pitch for his business....dear oh dear...well done Flash.

So Flash took it upon himself to get me hammered. He is an astnishingly enthusiastic drinker and anyone that knows me knows that I drink very very little.So naturally after 7 pints between 3pm and 8pm I was a little worse for wear. Flash had to catch his train back to Brighton at 8 pm or so we said our slurred goodbyes and I was left to find my own way home.

Having lived in London for Over 10 years I've probably wandered home hammered hundreds of times. But this time I decided to wander around London first stopping in to various pubs for a pee. I remember being refused entry to a couple and looking up at the Post Office Tower...god knows what I was doing in that part of London!

Anyway, I finally arrived back at Stamford Brook tube station at around 10.45pm. I didn't have house keys so I sent a garbled text to the child bride telling her I was at the station. Luckily she can understand gibberish so she opened the door and waited for me. A few text messages and phone calls later I finally arrived at the door....20 minutes later. It's only 100m from the station to the house so who knows wherei went or what I did...I don't know. I laid down on the couch in all my clothes and coats and slept. Suffice it to say, I felt awful the next morning. Not only that the left side of my entire body inclduing my face was covered in black dirt. The child bride believes she has never seen me that drunk before.....thanks Flash!

The next beers I had were a week later when Storms, the Child Bride and I went to the pub to watch the Arsenal versus Man Utd match on TV. Storms is not a big football fan....he prefers watching netball, womans gymnastics, womens volleyball and women's diving! Suffice it to say The Arsenal were robbed 2-1 ...I was further disappointed that a pub in London watching a London club play could be so full of Man Utd fans...id bet that 90% of them have never even been to Manchester.....typical and appalling! I wasn't happy much to the amusement of Stroms and the Child Bride.

My next adventure was a few days later when I took Little A down with me to rural Hampshire to meet up with Furls. I had met Furls 15 years earlier when I was a mountain guide in Switzerland. He was a 'punter' that paid me and another barely capable guide to guide him around the mountain in Flims and Laax.

Little A and I arrived in the morning after navigating the London morning rush hour on the tube...that's hard work with a big bag and a little pooka in tow. Having arrived at his cottage we went straight to his mangled wreckage in the back yard. After years of what my father would call 'neglect' his beautiful and very rare BMW was written off by a woman driver that fell asleep at the wheel of an oncoming car. Luckily neither Furls nor his bride- to- be were critically hurt but all involved required hospitalization.

The car however was a write-off...so so sad.

Furls has a sailboat moored at the Hamble down on the south coast so we headed off down there. Furls had grown up on that boat and I had spent many a boozy weekend on it with him over the past 15 years. We took the tender over to the Jolly Sailor pub and met a friend of his for lunch.it was freezing but the pub is one of the nicest pubs you could ever wish to go to. It is right on the water.

We had a few pints and a couple of seafood platters and then headed back to the tender by which time it had started to rain. Jumping in his replacement classic BMW we headed back to catch up with another friend...Lord Durley and his lovely Swiss wife. We caught them in the 'garden' of their 'house' fixing the sewer...nice. Now when I say house I mean mansion...their kitchen is larger than my house! And when I say garden I mean grounds...and they could fit about 100 of my houses in it. Just wonderful.

But it gets better for when we left Lord Durley's estate we headed to an unassuming little farmhouse. We were met by a wonderful eccentric English farmer in an old woolen sweater that looked as though it just been attacked by a pack of badgers. Obviously he had the obligatory check shirt, cuff links and tie on under this sweater....so English and so wonderful. However, the wonders were only just beginning for after we had a nice cup of tea we headed off into the fields towards an old decried wooden shed. Expecting to see a pair of old gum boots, a broken rake and a tractor tyre i was actually greeted with two big heaps of blankets....thanks for that.....however, once there, blankets were removed and you cannot imagine how surprised I was to see not one but two 1920's Brescia Bugattis....one a racer and the other a tourer. He even started the racer up for me.

I am a genuine old car nut having grown up with a father that thought any car less than 30 years old was a 'new' car and having raced vintage cars with him for the last 10 years...so this was hog heaven for me.

Whilst Little A played with Farmer Bugatti's two gorgeous black Labradors we the headed to another similarly grotto shed. In this shed under some old blankets was a 1930's Bentley he had just purchased to tow the racing Bugatti (as one does thank you very much!) and not one but another two per-war Bugatti's. One in particular was an extremely rare prototype that was the ore-curser to the amazing Type 35A. By this time I had become a complete embarrassment to Furls....I was completely overwhelmed by what I'd seen....so we said our goodbyes and headed back to Furls's cottage.

Feeling like a real under-achiever Little A and I returned to Furls's cottage to lick our wounds, thaw out in front of the open fire and terrorise the cat, Mr Boots. Little A was addicted to him, poor thing...he had a nervous twitch when we left!  

Middle A's Birthday - Rainforest Cafe

We spent the next week or so visiting various museums including the British, Science and V&A which I  absolutely loved. We had planned to head to another of my favorite places London Zoo but just after purchasing cheap flights to Nice it started to snow in London...too cold for a visit to the Zoo. The girls had never seen snow and so they were in the garden playing in it for what seemed like hours. Together with Zar and Pickle Little A and Middle A built a snowman that Little A subsequently named of all things 'Bruce' ...as you do.

The Bridge that the As Built

Before we left we decided to organise a babysitter for the kids and to go out for a meal with Storms and Bumchina...to J Sheekeys...a veritable London institution. Unfortunately for Storms who hates seafood, it's a seafood restaurant so he had to settle for chicken. The ambience is very English and traditional.....I'd call it dependable Britishness. The oysters were very fresh but very expensive...I could have bought an oyster farm in Oz for the cost of these! Whilst the sea bass the Child Bride and Bumchina shared was unbelievably good my Dover sole was very rubbery and quite poor. We had a great night out and overall I'd give Sheekeys a 7/10.     

We packed our vast number of bags and headed off to the airport at around 6am. Naturally London was dark and very cold so we had said our goodbyes to the Stanormans the night before. The Child Bride had sorted out a ‘special deal’ unbeknown to me. Apparently she had uncovered a deal tat would save me a fortune….yes another bag…well we do only have 23 bags with us on this trip …but apparently we needed another Mulberry Tote!

Luckily the Mulberry store at the airport was unable to fulfill her demands in time so we had to leave without the bag….naturally I was just distraught….and although I’m not 100% sure I’m fairly confident we might just be able to get away without it.

Week 7 Paris

The Eurostar from St Pancras to Gare du Nord took just over 2 hours and while it is slower than flying, you leave from central London and arrive in central Paris so by the time we added on the time and cost of getting to airports, checking in etc the Eurostar was the best option    We caught the Metro down to Avenue Emile Zola where we headed off down the Rue Du Theatre to the Adagio City Aparthotel Paris Tour Eiffel.
The room was amazing with an incredible view of the Eiffel Tower from both the bedroom and living room.  It came with a separate bedroom, had a kitchen, was immaculately clean with modern décor.

I’d done some research and had found a great restaurant in the area called Le Court Boullion in Rue du Theatre.  The food was lovely but, as we found out over the next couple of days, hugely expensive. It was here that we discovered that the girls have an adversion to eating snails (wouldn’t even try them and that’s so not like them) but LOVE Beef Bourguignon.    

The following day we walked from our hotel to the Sacre Coeur and half way back again (12kms in total).   On the way there we popped into Galleries Layfette to get the girls (all 3 of us) some fantastic bargains absolutely necessary for our travels (although Big A would probably describe them as “more crap we have to carry”).  Shopping anywhere in January is always fantastic for picking up a bargain but it is made all the more pleasurable when it is in such a beautiful building and city.  With our Layfette bounty we headed on foot to the Sacre Coure where we sat on the steps, listened to a fantastic busker belting out numbers by the likes of 4 Non Blondes and Blink 182 numbers as well as watching a guy perform on top of one of the rails (and hanging from street lamps) with amazing flexibility and balancing skills.  Set against the backdrop of the city of Paris it is an hour I will remember forever. 

We headed off to Monmarte where the girls got their portraits sketched by Amer in the square for 40 Euros each.   

We then walked back, got the Metro half way and ate at Cafe Suffren which really busy, just delicious and not too pricey either.  The next night we chanced upon Le Volant at 13 Rue Béatrix Dussane, just down from the Duplex Metro and a short walk from the Eiffel Tower.  The girls were making a fuss looking in the mirror at Little A’s wobbly tooth and Middle A’s cold sore. Suddenly we heard a little bang and so we called them back to the table.  Between them (and the rest of the restaurant) they were discussing the mouse they’d seen.  Big A kept telling them to be quiet and keep their voices down.  I kept asking them “where, where, where?”.  It was like a sketch out of a Three Stooges movie.  The conversation was finally silenced by the kitchen staff who came and took the box that Little A had accidently tipped over whilst at the mirror complete with mouse caught in the trap inside the box.  I’d like to believe that they released the mouse out the back!   Mouse aside, the food was absolutely divine, especially the Beef Bourguignon. 

Over the next few days we took in the sights including the Louvre, went up the Eiffel Tower (all the way to the top),  walked up the Champs Elysee to the Arc De Triomphe (with Middle A complaining about being hunger the entire way) and Notre Dame.  We walked most of the time, catching the Metro only when Big A could be talked into it and on the second last day revisited the Latin Quarter. 

I have been to the Latin Quarter a few times in the past and forgot why I love it so much.  It really comes down to a few things, the fantastic book shops that, even if they are predominately in French, are just fantastic, the streets which are narrow and historical and the food which is tremendous value.  All in all we had a wonderful time in Paris but it did highlight a significant need for the girls to have other kids around to keep them happy.  We will have to figure this out.   

Other biggie for Paris was that Little A lost her first tooth.

http://www.aparisguide.com/maps/metro.htm

 

Big A’s Perspective

Wow…every fathers dream surely is to take their daughters to Paris. I love this place too…it is just so full to the brim of beautiful old buildings and streets.

And similarly to London I prefer to walk the streets rather than take a bus or a train. As you can imagine walking a few miles every day doesn’t always sit well with the Child Bride or the kids. Neither does eating only when we have actually achieved a milestone…i.e. arrived somewhere.

The Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Champs Elysee, Arc De Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, Pantheon, Latin Quarter…tick!

The Child Bride loves her restaurants and we really did enjoy some great french cuisine in Paris. I’ll happily disregard her choice of the most expensive ‘back street’ restaurant in Paris (proof that not every tip on Trip Advisor is correct!). I’ll even disregard the restaurant in which our inquisitive girls managed to uncover a trapped-but-still-live rat in the corner of the room.

From my perspective Paris was a massive success. The hotel was great. Yes it was a little intimidating to have people resembling ‘thugs’ constantly hanging around outside the entrance of the hotel that just happened to be in an underpass! However, the room itself was a great size and had a sensational view of the Eiffel Tower. We saw everything we needed to see, had fantastic meals, the Child Bride managed to shop and we still left Paris with some money in our pockets….I am truly living the dream!