We took a little while to get going on our last day in
Paris. We decided to go shopping as it
was cold and slippery outside so spending any time was going to be a bit more
difficult.
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| Montmartre scene |
It had stopped snowing when we left in the morning but there was a
lot of snow around covering cars, roofs, trees and plants, and of course the
streets and footpaths. We took the metro
to La Bonne Marché and then spent a very nice time looking at the food in the
epicerie before moving on to the designer clothes area, where I hoped to get
something that was on sale but of course all the best things were gone. There
was a of pair of very nice leather gloves with a wool lining that were not on
sale that I coveted but at a price of
around $300 even I drew a line at
spending that much. Lisa tried on a
whole lot of interesting hats that she kept finding and Bev took photos of her
in them for later publication.
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| Notre Dame Cathedral |
By mid-afternoon we were getting hungry so we decided to go
to a restaurant that had been recommended by Paul and Dany. I had the name and address plus a description
that it was next to Notre Dame. I took
that literally but as I had an inadequate map and I was cold I got lost (at
least that is my excuse). So we
literally walked completely around Notre Dame looking for this restaurant. The women were getting a little frosty toward
me as I continued in my quest for the restaurant. I was getting cold and almost ready to give
up, but Lisa took some control and off we went to finish the quest. Finally we got in the right area for the
restaurant and then voila there was the street.
The little restaurant appeared on our left, a quick look at the menu suggested that it would be right place for us
in terms of the food that I wanted to eat, and the women agreed although I
suspect it was out of sheer hunger, cold and exhaustion.
We were shown to a table by a grumpy Parisian maitre’d who
asked if we wanted an English or French menu. We wisely chose the French
menu. It took us a while to choose what
we wanted and then when ready to order no-one would go first so he stalked off
while we sorted out the etiquette for our little group. The etiquette was that Bev should have gone
first but she wanted her role models go first so that she could follow their
mastery of the French language. I wanted the women to go first. So after we had sorted all that out we called
him back and Lisa selected her dishes (escargot, boeuf bourgignon, and le
special dessert), Bev then followed (escargots, cuisse de canard confit,
tiramisu) and I finished with (escargot, magret de canard avec sauce orange,
and tarte tatin). The meals were superb,
although the desserts were probably not the best I have had, but for value it
was almost the best we have had on our trip.
The wine was Bordeaux which they probably bought for 4€
and sold to us for 19€. While we were there
three young women walked in and asked for a seat. They had a couple labels on that suggested
they were New Zealanders so Lisa turned around and asked if they were New
Zealanders and received a confirmation that yes they were and they were from
Christchurch. That was the limit of
their conversation with us. We then
overheard them ordering in English from the menu and completely deconstructing
a salad, so that she might as well have said just give us lettuce. The look of disdain on the maitre’d’s face was a picture in itself. They did not have a word of French as far as
we could tell.
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| Music by the Seine |
We had had a late lunch or early dinner as the idea was to
go back to the apartment and pack for our departure for Canada the next morning
(Sunday 20 January). On the way back in
the train Lisa befriended an Australian man who asked her to accompany him and
his two godsons for drinks. Apparently
he had overheard Bev and Lisa talking and had then engaged in
conversation. He invited Lisa to
accompany them for dinner. I am not sure
what his motivations were but Lisa decided it was OK and checked we were fine
about it (of course we were) as it meant she had something to do while we
reorganised our bags. We gave them
directions to the area they wanted to go and we headed back to the apartment,
reorganised my bag and then thought that we had better check our flights given
the snow that was around and that the morning forecast had been for more.
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| Outside Notre Dame |
Bev went on to the internet and discovered that Air France
had cancelled our flight for the next morning.
We then had a look at the Air Canada site and found that our flight to
Ottawa was still scheduled. With no
flight in the morning it meant missing the plane to Canada. Trying to go by air was not an option so I
checked Eurostar and found that in the morning they had seats on the first one
out in premier class so I booked them, finally being able to do it once I got
the credit card working. It left at
8:13am and got to London at 9:30am so I figured that was more than enough time
to get to Heathrow. At one point I
contemplated a later train but it was dearer
and there would have been no margin for error, something that would
prove to be needed later.
Lisa was escorted back to the apartment by her new friends later that evening and as it turned out it was
with some relief. The Australian (we
have no name for him) was a former hedge trader who claimed to have made his
fortune prior to the GFC and was now retired.
His wife was in Munich and reportedly drinking Montrachet. The Australian and his godsons were due to
fly back to Munich but like us that flight had been cancelled so we checked on ways
that he could get back by rail (plenty of options albeit a little slower than
had been planned). However he seemed to
be all over the place, one moment saying that rail would be a good idea,
another moment suggesting that his drunk wife would sort it out. He rarely listened but talked a lot with many
unrequested ideas for us. I think that
Lisa didn’t mind the young men but was not at all impressed with their
godfather. She said that the young men
apologised for him when he disappeared at one point. A man who was clearly very impressed with
himself. Not a good advertisement for
our cousins across the ditch according to Bev.
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