Getting an Escape Plan in Place
I hadn't planned this part very well. Getting back to Beauvais airport to catch the plane home proved to be a bigger problem than I thought. Take home message: avoid Beauvais-Tille airport. I had imagined I'd stay at a nice hotel who would be part of a shuttle bus pick up route and then I'd get picked up in the middle of the night and taken to the airport but my hotel was so bad, that didn't seem likely. (There are shuttle buses that would have picked me up from anywhere but the hotel itself didn't even seem to have a facility to look after your bags for you.) Then, plan B was to get a bus from Paris but that also had the problem of no bag drop off facility. Apparently only Gare du Nord have that and if I'm going to do that I might as well get a train from their to Beauvais, and not bother with the bus.
So in the morning I set off for Gare Du Nord and bought my train ticket, leaving at 6:05am arriving in Beauvais at 7:20. Plenty time, I thought. But when I checked about the bag drop off place there I found they only opened at 6:15. Damn.
Maybe Anna might be able to help, and that was my next destination.
So in the morning I set off for Gare Du Nord and bought my train ticket, leaving at 6:05am arriving in Beauvais at 7:20. Plenty time, I thought. But when I checked about the bag drop off place there I found they only opened at 6:15. Damn.
Maybe Anna might be able to help, and that was my next destination.
Brunch at Anna's
Anna had suggested that when I come back I should get in contact so I did.
I imagined she thought we might meet somewhere for a meal. Instead Anna, Felicity and Ahmed went to a lot of trouble to prepare the most splendid brunch I have ever had.
It exceded all expectations. First of all Felicity was there - I wasn't expecting that. She greeted me in her best Notts accent, as that's where she's studying at the moment. Also, Anna's boyfriend, Ahmed, was there - I thought he was away in Madagasgar, where he works on major civil engineering projects. Thirdly, the brunch was out of this vorld. We had a smorgasbord of delicious items and the lamb from last night wast sublime.
But the icing on the cake was that Anna was happy to look after my bag and also why not use her place as a base before setting off the the Gare du Nord on Monday morning.
All set then!
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| Gare du Nord |
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| Brunch at Anna's |
It exceded all expectations. First of all Felicity was there - I wasn't expecting that. She greeted me in her best Notts accent, as that's where she's studying at the moment. Also, Anna's boyfriend, Ahmed, was there - I thought he was away in Madagasgar, where he works on major civil engineering projects. Thirdly, the brunch was out of this vorld. We had a smorgasbord of delicious items and the lamb from last night wast sublime.
But the icing on the cake was that Anna was happy to look after my bag and also why not use her place as a base before setting off the the Gare du Nord on Monday morning.
All set then!
Sacre Coeur
After that, on Anna and Felicity's recommendation, I walked along to the magnificent cathedral on the top of a hill overlooking Paris, Sacre Coeur.
It was a very pleasant walk with the added bonus of walking past the famous Moulin Rouge. The streets are trendy and full of shops selling paintings but the cathedral itself is magnificent. I have vague memories of going there once before, many years ago, but it was largely as if I was going there for the very first time.
I had no hesitation in walking up the 300 steps in the spiral stone stair cases to reach the panoramic view from the top.
Afterwards I descended through the lovely steeped park before stopping for a beer.
It was a very pleasant walk with the added bonus of walking past the famous Moulin Rouge. The streets are trendy and full of shops selling paintings but the cathedral itself is magnificent. I have vague memories of going there once before, many years ago, but it was largely as if I was going there for the very first time.
I had no hesitation in walking up the 300 steps in the spiral stone stair cases to reach the panoramic view from the top.
Afterwards I descended through the lovely steeped park before stopping for a beer.
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During the day I'd been in touch with Dave and Graeme the Scottish guys I'd met in Marseille and the end result was that we'd agreed to meet up somewhere for drinks later.
Dave and Graeme at La Place de la Contrescarpe
I'd told to choose a time and a place, as he'd lived in Paris for a couple of years in his long career. So he chose a cute little square in the 5th arrondissement, La Place de la Contrescarpe. I found it easy enough and actually got there first where I was able to secure a table for us, albeit in an awkward corner of the square. We discuss some big things over the evening but started with football. We changed brasseries and conversation topics as the beers flowed continuously.
We ended up at a place that sells Brooklyn IPA my favourite beer in Marseille and we ended up staying there until the end. We had some pretty good chats there, notably about smoking with some locals. It's amazing how much the French smoke. At one point, I counted 13 (young) people sat at the same row of tables as us, and every single one of them were fagging it. Each to their own, but it is an amazing cultural difference. The same situation in Australia or the UK and there'd not be one person smoking.
Later we also got on to one of my favourite topics, the singularity and Ray Kurzweil, but unfortunately Graeme's not a fan. We ended up arguing about optimistic scenarios versus bad ones. I am much more optimistic going forward, I think I am not misrepresenting Graeme's views if he thinks they a very much not rosey at all.
We also had a nice chat with a very knowledgable Portuguese fan who now lives in Rio. He confidently predicted a Portugal win and told us exactly why - solid defence and attack and fast players who can score out of nothing.
After that I had a quite exciting (and a little scary) walk through Paris at 2:30am in the morning from the south to the north of the Seine, stopping for a pizza on the way. Got back, needless to say, safe and sound.
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| The Bar with Brooklyn IPA and a lot of smokers |
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| My local metro stop |
We ended up at a place that sells Brooklyn IPA my favourite beer in Marseille and we ended up staying there until the end. We had some pretty good chats there, notably about smoking with some locals. It's amazing how much the French smoke. At one point, I counted 13 (young) people sat at the same row of tables as us, and every single one of them were fagging it. Each to their own, but it is an amazing cultural difference. The same situation in Australia or the UK and there'd not be one person smoking.
Later we also got on to one of my favourite topics, the singularity and Ray Kurzweil, but unfortunately Graeme's not a fan. We ended up arguing about optimistic scenarios versus bad ones. I am much more optimistic going forward, I think I am not misrepresenting Graeme's views if he thinks they a very much not rosey at all.
We also had a nice chat with a very knowledgable Portuguese fan who now lives in Rio. He confidently predicted a Portugal win and told us exactly why - solid defence and attack and fast players who can score out of nothing.
After that I had a quite exciting (and a little scary) walk through Paris at 2:30am in the morning from the south to the north of the Seine, stopping for a pizza on the way. Got back, needless to say, safe and sound.
Aljice
Last night in Paris
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