Well, after Cornwall we headed back to London and stayed with my old boss from my teaching days, Rani and her other half Graeme in Tufnell Park.
Now Rani is possibly the world's best cook and Graeme used to work at Lords. Consequently, it's always a delight staying in Tufnell Park for both the food and the back lawn. A few years back when they relaid the turf at Lords, Graeme said, "I'll have a bit of that" and their backyard now features some of the hallowed turf. Nice
Rani and Graeme were super generous as always and we were treated particularly well. Another home away from home. Got a few of those in London now.
So in our last couple of days we did a couple of things including visiting the Cabinet War Rooms. We went there in 2005 and it was pretty interesting then but now it's expanded into some sort of a shrine to Winston Churchill. Now I might cop a bit of flak about this but as far as I'm concerned the jury is still out on our Winston. He managed to stuff up quite a few things. The Gold standard comes to mind. Anyone heard of Gallipoli? Happy letting Gandhi starve to death too, didn't mind a bit of chemical warfare either.
Anyhoo, only Gallipoli got a brief mention. Very interesting nonetheless and the start of our war history focus (more on that later). Completely fascinating place, especially teh way they just walked out and closed the door at the end of the war and left it. Only decades later did people open it up again and find the place undisturbed, even down to 3 emergency sugar cubs left on one desk.
After that we headed to The Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, to catch up with one of TGT2.5:4's friends, Max, and his mum and dad who were coming to the end of their own Grand Tour.
It was another feverishly hot day in London and after a bit of a snack, we headed over to the Princess Diana memorial fountain which is a pretty ace place for kids to play in the water. When I say kids, I mean me of course. Oh yes and TGT2.5:3-5 as well. Wonderful spot. Fitting memorial seeing so many children enjoying themselves and I think Diana would still be proud.
It was back to Rani and Graeme's for a final dinner at a friend of their's restaurant and along tagged their son Nick who also works for Lords. It just happened to be the same restaurant where Rani had organised my farewell after teaching for 3 years in 2005. It was at that farewell dinner that they presented me a Lords cricket bat Graeme had grabbed off the shelf from the Lord's shop and got everyone's favourite bogan leg-spinner, Shane Warne to sign it for me. A fine gift that one. The restaurant hadn't changed at all, including the food which was sublime and the very friendly and welcoming owners. Almost as good as Rani's.
The next day we were headed to France on the Eurostar from St Pancras travelling at a very smooth 300km/h . Now the only time St Pancras station is mentioned in the same breath as Stansted airport it is usually separated by words like "thank effing god" and "nothing like that sh*thole". Given it was Stansted that was the last jumping off point for us, it was a welcome change I can tell you
Very civilised way to travel.
We caught the early afternoon train and Rani and Graeme tagged along to farewell us and due to my encouragement we all began to practice our extensive French which mostly consisted of laughing like the French (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r7dveDEv-I)
We said farewell to Ole Blighty and we arrived at Gare du Nord to begin our own Tour De France at precisely the same time as TGT2.5:2's ridiculous overestimation of my level of French fluency kicked in: "Go and order us a coffee", "Ask where the Left Bank is", "Go discuss post-modernism"
Right
Doesn't matter how many times I tell her I only studied French up to Year 9 and even that was by distance education, she never gets it.
Seriously
However, it didn't stop me having a crack. I'm sure I gave the Frogs a few giggles with my butchery of their language. "Une biere sil vous plait"
It was at this point TGT2.5:2 described me as existing in a binary state much like a computer: I am either irritatingly funny or simply irritating.
Fair enough.
Anyhoo TGT2.5:2 very sensibly booked a wonky hotel a very short walk from Gare du Nord. I love those wonky Parisian hotels. The sort where no corridor is wider than your shoulders and the corridors resemble a slalom course, with elevators built for hobbits. What I don't love so much is the public urination. Nor the fact you have to pay 80 cents to have a wee everywhere you go. Who knows, perhaps the two are related? This brings me to another controversial comment: Paris is an Asian city.
WTAF I hear you say.
Well, as we strolled the streets of the City of Lights it had the sort of street life and full-bodied aromas I usually associate with Asian cities. While the buildings are simply breathtaking, the degree that life is lived on the street makes Paris fascinating.
Now the last time we were in Paris the first thing we did was head straight to the Sewer museum. Now this has led TGT2.5:2 to be the object of many jokes in the subsequent years so I believe she was careful to not repeat.the same experience.
So instead of looking at what the Parisians do with their poo, we headed to the Musee d'Orsay to see what they did with their art. Not so much humour value there but plenty of kulcha. I do like the fact it used to be a railway station. I wonder if Seddon Station will end up like that?
So after that we headed to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysee.
We tried to capture a Beatles zebra crossing photo as the kids crossed the Champs Elysee with the Arc de Triomphe in the background with mixed success. We did almost get TGT2.5:5 run over though. So to recover we headed straight to a street crepe stall. I never thought I'd say this but there was too much Nutella in the crepe.
Before we left for TGT2.5 we asked each of the kids if there was anything, in particular, they would like to do in Europe and TGT2.5:5 said she wanted to go to a fancy restaurant in Paris. Now that was a bit of a surprise as TGT2.5:5 has a somewhat limited palate. Let's face it, she's a beige-a-tarian.
Anyhoo we headed to the Angelina cafe, frequented for many years by lots of luminaries such as Coco Chanel. So definitely a bit posh but not too posh. Now TGT2.5:2 didn't warn me that we were heading for a posh place that day (I thought we were just going for an ice cream) and I was adorned in my bright red t-shirt with "The Goodies" written on it in bright yellow letters. So obviously classy. Despite feeling particularly uncomfortable it was not me who caused the most of the embarrassment to TGT clan. It was TGT2.5:3-4 who were particularly raucous and unruly, even to the point where TGT2.5:5 asked:
"Was it a good idea to bring them?"
Ahh yes, wise words from the young one. And as for her limited diet, it was not so limited when it comes to desserts and in particular macarons so TGR2.5:5 had a good sugary feast.
The next day included a trip to Le Tour Eiffel. That's probably 5 times I've been up that cast iron pointy thing and it's still amazing after all those times. It's pretty spectacular up the top even if it gets a tad windy and wobbly which does nothing for my sensible fear of heights. Now you think the French would be a tad sensitive about their special tower and doing anything on it. So of all the members of TGT, it was a bit of a surprise it was TGT2.5:2 who wanted to fly a paper plane from the top. It was only after some shocked begging from myself that the supposedly responsible TGT2.5:2 was dissuaded from the notion. Crazy woman.
It was a boat along the Seine after that which in itself was pretty spectacular and then back after a long day to watch the French win a World Cup Semi Final.
Now that was a noisy evening.
It was then time to head north to some World War 1 battlefields and the other Tour de France, not ours.
