Just two days before we say goodbye to our Toulouse family. Fortunately they will be back in NZ early August. We have last minute shopping to do and packing, the best thing about packing is that Rachel and James will be sending back a carton of winter clothes for them to wear when they get back to NZ so we can put our heavy stuff into that and don't have to worry about the weight of our suitcases - we all learn through experience of handling heavy suitcases that the lighter you can travel the better.
My favourite thing Tuesday? Toulouse lunch at MacDonalds - they now have a 'fast order' at M's - yet more magical machines that take your order - a bit like ordering on line I guess. Rachel took control and went through the menu 'tout suite', I would have taken ages. I had a wrap, very nIce it was and a cold peach flavoured tea. We all had something different, but she got served so quickly, we had a table in Capitole square and it was most enjoyable. David took Hannah home on the bus and train and left Rach and I to shop. We did some good shoe shopping but had to get home in time to pick up the kids. Penelope had a music recital at 4.30pm along with all the other students her music teacher has. It took quite a while to get through them all, and Penelope did very well playing her piece on the piano. I guess Rachel and James will have to consider buying a piano.........
My favourite thing on Wednesday was our lovely last dinner together before we left for France, and James headed for Hamburg the next day. Rachel cooked us a lovely meal of pork chops and pineapple, and with good company and nice wine it was a very good mix for our farewell meal. To cap the evening off, Penelope and Jasper had organised a farewell concert for us.
Penelope put an advert/notice on the door to the lounge, and wrote out the tickets for each of us. The lights were dimmed and Penelope was Master of Ceremonies, she did well introducing the 'artistes',
first it was her on the piano,
then Jasper on the guitar,
then Hannah both on the piano and doing handstands, and then the grand finale where it all came together for the final bow! A great night, thanks Penelope. I think Penelope is really destined for Hollywood.
And so to Thursday, James left at "ridiculous o'clock" for Hamburg and we got up in good time to say farewell to Jasper and Penelope before Rachel took them to school. It was their last day of school before the summer holidays, so in some ways a bit of a last farewell day for them, they probably won't see their French friends again.
I think they have very mixed feelings about coming home to NZ, I am sure though that they will rekindle all their old friendships and once settled into school will be happy, especially Hannah who has had a bit of a rough ride at the hands of the French education system.
So once Rachel returned from school it was bags in the car and off we went to the airport. We had done the on line thing and had printed off our boarding passes, so all we had to do was check in our luggage. We still had to wait in line and have our bags weighed and have baggage tickets issued so I'm not sure if it really saves any time. It all went smoothly anyway and we had time to spare to have a coffee at Paul's with Rachel and Hannah, remembering that last year I lost my iPhone at this point I was careful to keep checking that I still had it close! And then all too soon we were hugging goodbye and boarding the plane for Paris.
We were travelling with Air France for the first time, and it was a nice uneventful journey, kind of different hearing all the safety instructions in French, and the 'words' from the Pilot on high just as indistinguishable in French as they are in English! Then came light refreshments - I chose a tomato juice and it came with a spoon and a small packet of celery salt, how good is that, so French to add that final touch. It took just an hour and ten minutes before we landed in Paris.
It felt good to be here and David thought our bags would be off loaded in hall 2 so we headed in that direction. Hardly anyone there and no conveyor belt going. That's ok we'll just use the toilets and wait ....... and wait. By the time we realised they weren't coming, our bags were the only two left in hall 4!!
We jumped into taxi straight away, no queues, and a nice ride into town, 4 or 5 lane highways all the way, so much traffic. The closer we got to town the more lovely buildings we noticed, tall apartments with decorative wrought iron balconies and began to remember what makes Paris Paris, from the last time we were here in 2011.
We were dropped off at our hotel, the Concord in Montparnasse, and after a few preliminaries, went up to our room, it was a corner room with a nice view over the square.
We unpacked, had a cup of tea, then went out to wander through the maze of boulevards and avenues and streets using our new found map reading skills.
We were heading for the Pantheon (thanks for the suggestion Rachel) and it looked quite close on the map. It was, but getting there meant coming across so many interesting buildings, and 'must take' photos,
and crossing the busiest highways, waiting for the lights - only Parisians born here jay walk!
Then suddenly we turned the corner and there was the Pantheon in all it's glory, I wasn't expecting it to look so grand in such a busy city setting.
It was such a hot day that stepping inside felt wonderful, like being in a cathedral, still, cool and quiet even with lots of people milling around.
Wikipedia: "The Panthéon is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve and to house the reliquary châsse containing her relics but, after many changes, now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens.
The inscription above the entrance reads AUX GRANDS HOMMES LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE ( "To the great men, the grateful homeland"). By burying its great men in the Panthéon, the Nation acknowledges the honour it received from them. As such, interment here is severely restricted and is allowed only by a parliamentary act for "National Heroes".
Voltaire
Among those buried in its necropolis are Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Louis Braille,
Jean Jaurès and Soufflot, its architect. Marie Curie is the only woman interred based on her own merits.[7]
On 30 November 2002, in an elaborate but solemn procession, six Republican Guards carried the coffin of Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870), the author of The Three Musketeers and other famous novels, to the Panthéon. Draped in a blue-velvet cloth inscribed with the Musketeers' motto: "Un pour tous, tous pour un" ("One for all, all for one,") the remains had been transported from their original interment site in the Cimetière de Villers-Cotterêts in Aisne, France. In his speech, President Jacques Chirac stated that an injustice was being corrected with the proper honoring of one of France's greatest authors.
In January 2007, President Jacques Chirac unveiled a plaque in the Panthéon to more than 2600 people recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel for saving the lives of Jews who would otherwise have been deported to concentration camps. The tribute in the Panthéon underlines the fact that around three quarters of the country's Jewish population survived the war, often thanks to ordinary people who provided help at the risk of their own life."
We came back out into the heat and business of a rush hour, horns blaring and people rushing to get somewhere else.
We made our way back to the hotel via Le Jardin du Luxembourg, it was just like walking through an 'Impressionist' painting, the dappled light, the beautiful trees, children running, adults strolling, it felt magical.
We were both hot and thirsty and I spotted a group of chairs under umbrellas in the shade of the trees, and it was a cafe/bar, so we found a table and ordered a couple of beers.
The beers may have cost (€21 or $15.30 each!) but it was so worth it, we stayed and watched people go by,
we cooled off a bit, then reluctantly made our way past the Palais du Luxembourg,
which looks so beautiful with the lake and flower gardens in front of it, all so immaculately kept, no one can play tag on any of this!
And back to our hotel.
We decided to have dinner in the Patio Restaurant at our hotel, it was quite late and then we went to bed and slept soundly.
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