I can't believe how quickly time sped by! Apart from the fact that I developed the cold from HELL on the day we left, we had a lovely time. First of all, we got the Eurostar from the new St Pancras terminal, which is actually very convenient for us and very large and lovely. The train journey is quicker than ever, and from the minute we came out of the tunnel in France, I knew we would have a white Christmas! The whole countryside was completely frozen and beautiful and white, because it had been extremely cold for ages. All the way to Paris it was like that - absolutely gorgeous. Anyway, so Paris turned out to be freezing cold too, of course, and after we'd dropped our stuff off at our hotel on the rue Monge, we went off to explore. First stop, the delicious boulangerie next door for a baguette viennoise au chocolat. We wandered up to Place de la Contrescarpe and found rue Mouffetard, where DD had to pose for a very important picture - there is a famous picture by Cartier-Bresson of a little boy holding two bottles of wine, and I made DD stand in the very same place, holding up a copy of the original photo - hehehe! We wandered around, taking lots of pictures (which we haven't uploaded to the PC yet), then to warm up we went and sat in a Chinese restaurant to have some ''nems'' and a cup of jasmine tea, near the Panthéon. We dined back at the hotel on more chinese takeaway whilst watching very bad French TV.
Next morning, still feeling rough from the cold, we had breakfast in a café next door and then got a bus down to Châtelet. We wandered around, first by the Pompidou Centre (which we also call Beaubourg, and which houses the modern art museum, see here), where we saw that the fountain was completely frozen, with chunks of ice several centimetres thick. We walked on, along to the Marais, stopping in Pylônes (see the shop here), and taking photos as we went. We finally went to pick up our hire car and drove
to my brother's place - I'm pretty proud of my driving and my navigation skills; it's a good job I learned to drive in Paris!
To cut a long story short, we were a poorly bunch of people there: with my bad cold, my sister-in-law's hepatitis, my niece's bronchitis and my nephew's tonsillitis & bronchitis, it was a sick house! My brother arrived with my mum, who is doing fantastically well, and then my Parisian sister turned up on Christmas Eve, too, for lunch. That night we packed the kids off to bed early, filled the stockings and went to bed ourselves.
Christmas Day we had a beautiful breakfast (thank you again, Joan, it was delicious and you worked way too hard), accompanied by the most gorgeous sunrise. After opening our stockings and exchanging presents, it was time to take to the roads to go up North of Paris to my little sister's place. She lives in a gorgeous old house in the country, and she'd decorated it so beautifully; Christmas always looks so traditional there. My other sister was there with her family, so the house was full, and we had a whale of a time. Once again, this year most of us made presents for each other, and it makes it that extra bit special, knowing that the other person has thought long and hard, and spent time to make something for you is so much more gratifying than receiving a shop-bought present. Having said that, my darling SIL, who reads my blog, surprised me with Jane Brockett's beautiful book (the gentle art of domesticity), and I was blown away by her generosity. It is absolutely wonderful, and I've been relishing every minute of it ever since!
This is turning out to be a huge post, but I don't want to forget anything. We made it home last night, finishing on a high note, as the guy who owns the chauffeur company we use at work offered to have us driven home in style (shiny Merc!) due to the lack of trains on our line. What a relief! The thought of dragging our heavy bags on the Tube and replacement bus service was too depressing to even contemplate.
Anyway, today I've done two loads of washing and drying; done an internet grocery shop; gone to the bank to pay some urgent bills; had a mini "Gilmore Girls" marathon with DD and now I'm off to have a hot bath before bed.
Pictures will follow...... Hope you all had as wonderful a time as we did!