All things French

I think I last blogged just before my birthday. My brother in law took the day off on my birthday and after we made lasagna and a granadilla cake for a games evening with friends we went to Cirencester for the day in the Cotswolds. Saw some lovely crafts and pretty Cotswolds cottages and things. On the way home we stopped in Cricklade and saw where the Thames River begins. I was briefed on how to play the game Munchkin for the evening but we ended up playing Would I Lie to You. In one of the final rounds I misread the card and so was inadvertently lying on all of them - oops.

On the Wednesday after my birthday my sister, her husband and I went to Warwick Castle. They had impressive displays of jousting, which were used to tell the War of the Roses, and falconry. My personal trainer would be chuffed that I climbed the battlements. Beth and Andrew had booked for us to also do the dungeon tour. It was quite grisly and gory and I nearly had heart failure towards the end when we were in a hall with mirrors and someone just emerged from the mirror in front of me in the dimly lit passageway. On Thursday I hopped on several buses and made my way to Streatham in London to spend the night with my good friend Pippa so I could get on the Eurostar on Friday morning. Pippa kindly helped me get an oyster card which is very useful to have and helped on my return journey.

And so my French adventure began. I found that when I attempted to speak in French everyone was very friendly and helpful - well apart from the waiters (although I did have one that was charming). I got into Paris and managed to get a passe navigo decouverte which allowed me to get on and off buses, the metro and RER trains as many times as I liked for a week. Other friends heading to the wedding in Rambouillet gave me the heads up on where to go to get the train ticket at Gare Montparnasse. I hopped on the train and caught my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower through the train window. Had a momentary panic on arriving in Rambouillet that I had gone to the wrong one (there are two) but it was all good. There was a UCT gathering as everyone assembled to catch the shuttle my friend Gail had organised. Everyone had brought something to contribute to a picnic that evening and we had a pleasant soiree drinking wine, eating cheese, cherries and nougat.

The wedding itself was lovely and we luckily had the rain hold off. Am so glad I managed to go and to have been there. The setting of the Abbaye Vaux de Cernay was a beautiful and very majestic. It was good to reconnect with people too. With the sun going down later I didn't realise how late it was and danced away until 2.30 am. There was a slight confusion with the shuttle the next day as myself and some of Gail's PhD colleagues from Switzerland didn't realise the shuttle was a large bus and couldn't fit through the abbey gates. After piling into a small car with suitcases on our laps and racing to the farm, we thought it had definitely gone without out us and were about to book a taxi when miraculously it appeared.

Had a bit of a challenge finding my Airbnb in Montreuil but when I did it was super and had everything I could need - including my own nespresso machine! The owner was very helpful although we had a slight miscommunication mid-week when I whatsapped her to tell her the lid of the loo had come loose. She thought I meant the entire toilet bowl and came rushing over. Could see the relief on her face when she saw what I meant. My time in Paris was really good. I did a fair deal of walking - the first day I walked from Chtâtelet, past Notre Dame to Les Jardins du Luxembourg and then up to the Opera House and through to Montmatre and the Sacre Couer. I think the place I enjoyed most was Monet's garden in Giverny with all the colours and feast of flowers. I met two friends of a friend back home at Les Halles and then two friends I met in Switzerland on the Youth Encounter on Sustainability course in 2008 at Republique. Was very special to see Damien and Luisanna again and meet Luisanna's family.

The only not so nice experience was that a man followed me home from the metro on my last night in Paris. I decided to do a detour into the supermarket when I realised he had followed me two blocks. He followed me into the supermarket and hovered at the end of my aisle. When he seemed to have gone I quickly went out but he was waiting outside. I managed to dash into my apartment though and lock myself inside. To counterbalance that though I had a very kind man come alongside me in the metro the next day, and pick up my suitcase along with his and carry it all the way up the stairs for me and onto the metro. (Pack light she had said to herself, there will be stairs she said - hmmm).

On returning to England I had lunch with my cousin Carly and caught up on all her news. We also had a look in the Harry Potter shop at Kings Cross Station. Also had coffee with my Cape Town house mate Wendy which was nice, before I caught the bus back to Swindon. Tomorrow I'm going with my sister and brother-in-law down to Devon. OK that was a long spiel.