Anyway - the day passed fairly uneventfully...............lovely presents and cards............packing for the weekend away........mum, Ruby and I went for lunch......and can you believe it of all the days......Noora gone to Amsterdam and I have to go and get the kids from school myself!!!!! Anyway - briefly saw Conor before he went off to a friends birthday party/sleepover (great timing so Mum only got 2 of them to cope with for 1 of the nights!!!!)....the rest of us had candles and cupcakes (think I must have used more than a whole bag of icing sugar the piped butter icing was soooo thick!!!)..........yum yum yum :-)
Shaun and I then make a quick exit to the station and jump on the train - 2 hours dierct to Paris.......superbe! Well - I think I ruined Shauns initial plans for the weekend when I promptly fell asleep on the train 10 minutes in..............I now realise just how exhausted I must have been (actually still am as Ruby got me out of bed at 5am first morning back which wiped out all my sleep gain of the weekend!!!!)......anyway made the journey go very quick for me and one and half hours laterI woke up with the sound of my phone ringing - Tessa called which was lovely to catch up (although I was aware it was extremely quiet in our carriage.....no kids in 1st class of course!!!!!).....and then we got cut off which is when Shaun got out his briefcase and produced a very ncie bottle of champagne ( with glasses!!!) and commented "bit late to open it now?!!!!!" ooops.......anyway drunk it as soon as we got to the hotel so certainly didn't go to waste!!!! Instead we spent the remainder of the journey playing a game he had conjoured up........laminated cards with prizes/numbers and everything (funnily enough now he has the skill of laminating he has made a few excuses to laminate stuff......Conor pleased enough when he came home with laminated hand-outs for his Geotopia presentation this morning!!!!!) We had a good laugh and I came away with a very favourable winners selection of prizes (thankfully avoided the booby prizes of stepladder and powerdrill!!!!!!)
Arriving in Paris felt like being back in a land of some life about!! Blimey the taxi drivers are CRAZY! could have bloody done with the champagne beforehand to blot the experience out!!! Hotel was great - lovely small boutiquey style with themed rooms!!!
Restaurant reservations had been made and great choices to boot! Friday night was in St. Germain district..........such a great place - restaurant was great atmosphere and lovely food followed by drinks outside!!!! yes can you believe it - bloody freezing - definitely minus something......but all the streets are lined with bars and hords of people sititng outside drinking (and smoking......bloody hell enough to light the whole place up!)......heaters work a treat and even I didn't feel the cold! We found a great street which was mobbed and perfect for plenty of people-watching!!!
Here is our self-portrait!!
and me after way too many glassses of champagne!
9.35am..................OMG - we've just woken up......isn't it Soooooo nice to be able to sleep sleep sleep!!!!
Fab breakfast of lots of different goodies.......although shaun did request omelette with ham/cheese/onion and got mushrooms intead???!!!!! a step better than red pepper that he was trying to flog to us!!!!! anyway it didn't matter - for me the joy was in just being able to sit and be brought food!!!!!
Galeries Lafayette was absolutely mobbed - and the complete row of window displays were at lrast 10-people deep!!! Pretty immpressive though with dancing bears, music, singing, can can ladies etc etc etc. After soaking up the atmosphere we soon departed - spent the afternoon moseying around stopping for vin chaud and coffee on route! The joy of having no agenda, no kids and feeling free........meant we could take a taxi back to the hotel mid afternoon, read, sleep, take advantage of the hotel turkish bath, sauna facilities etc etc etc...........bliss! so 7pm and we're changed, refreshed and ready to go! (and no kids to sort out and race into bed leaving the usual 10 mins for quick change and lippy!!!!!) all very civilised....is this what it use to be like pre-kids?!!! a lovely change although wouldn't be without the little loves........!
Sunday another long lie-in which meant on arriving at the Grand Palais to a 3-hour queue for the Monet exhibition - it was a no go-er! Musee D'Orsay instead for a bit of culture and we even saw sunshine today..........no doubt the grey skies in Luxembourg still prevailing!!!!! Final coffee stop at the typical brasserie before the return train journey..............and more sleep:-)
Got home and everyone was still alive and well - although my poor mum looked a bit jaded (not surprised looking after these 3 at 70!!!!....she is officially the best mum in the world :-))
Lovely weekend and so much more enjoyable without the hours on the net, researching, booking etc etc etc etc etc etc
The boy did well :-)
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