Happy New Year Paris 2007

New years eve 11.59pm under the Eiffel tower, all of a sudden the hundreds of flashing lights on her body begin to sparkle and the crowd erupt, champagne bottle corks fly, and kisses all round. Happy new year from Paris.

Our week in Paris with Lockie Grace and his girlfriend Anna started as any other. Flight from London and working out the metro route to our accommodation in Vincennes about a 20 minute train ride from the main Paris sights. Vincennes gave us a fabulous base; the Paris neighbourhood gave us everything we needed with a great market opened in the main street a couple of days a week. This was the starting point of our latest eating extravaganza. Our limited French ran out in Vincennes because no one spoke English, but the locals were great, a lot of pointing and apologising. Upon Bryce asking what a particular pastry had inside it one girl working in a fresh bread stall didn’t no the English word so ran around the other stalls asking in vane what it was. He bought it anyway. Caitlin’s French in ordering pastries and bread is now down pat. Minimum requirements in Paris, 2 fruit topped pastries a day, cheese, fresh baguettes and a couple of bottles of wine per day.

Once in the city itself nutella crapes (Caitlin’s choice) were a must. The meals we ate at restaurants were the highlight though. Bofingers (one of the oldest restaurants in Paris) near the Bastille and Terminus Nord (near gard de nord train station with an angry waiter) featured the best of everything, but Bryce’s clear favourite was foie gras (the over sized liver of a force feed geese), a bit cruel but awesome. Anna’s ability to speak fluent French was a great asset, and she performed the role of restaurant host brilliantly.

We did manage to do the sights of the city between eating, walking to burn off the food. Up the Eiffel Tower (lunch in the first floor restaurant) and Arch De Triumph (the better view in our opinion), walked down Champs Elysee to the Place de la Concorde (where the guillotine was after the French revolution), down through the Tulleries garden to the Louve, then down to Notre Dame and the Parthenon and finally a train over to Sacre Cure where artists paint in a nice tourist crowded square (near Moulin rouge red light area). Went to see the Thinker at the Rodin Museum and one night did a boat cruise up and down the seine. The Catacombs (piled up bones of dead people under the city) was closed so a good excuse to go back to the city.

About half way through the week we went out to Moet & Chandon in Epernay and toured some of the 28 kilometres of cellars they have. At the end of the tour we did some champagne tasting and rose was the pick of the bunch, walked out a bit tipsy. Although the day was a bit wet the country side was a nice change from the city.

The whole trip was fantastic and clearly Bryce’s favourite city on our travels so far. Once arriving back in London we got caught up in a football hooligan riot with the police at Hammersmith tube station and since being back in London have really noticed the bad side of life here. People only really care about themselves and lately there seems to be a real negative atmosphere about the place, maybe because we have had to go back to work and the weather is no good, holiday hangover perhaps. But only three weeks till we go to another Arsenal game at the Emirates stadium and a month till we go to Turkey so plenty to look forward to. With hopefully only six months of work for the year, plenty more places to see and things to do, and of course eat at!

Happy New Year to all,
Cheers Bryce and Caitlin.

Barcelona

BARCELONA

Christmas in Barcelona was a fantastic relief from the cold weather and grey skies of London. Although it was only between 13 and 19 degrees for the four days it hopefully got our batteries recharged enough for the rest of the winter. It seemed to change our mood, it’s amazing how the sun can give you a real boost of energy. Blue skies everyday gave us the chance to walk through the streets instead of spending our time on the metro under the city going from tourist spot to tourist spot. Best views of the city were from the 1992 Olympic Diving Stadium area (were Greg Luganus hit his head the board) and also the La Sagrada Familia church. The city was vast with a ranging population of people like any big city. Everywhere people of all ages were running, blading, cycling, playing football, basketball, some tennis type game and we even stumbled upon a cricket game being played by some Indian immigrants.

With our hotel only a few hundred metres from the beach we rollerbladed (new found skill after only a couple of practise sessions around Wembley) along the paved promenade. Sights included the local nude beach which only featured older men running up a down the beach. Why do old dudes do this? Anyway gave us a laugh. Further on we bladed past surfers in the Christmas spirit wearing Santa hats and sun worshiping bikini clad tourists while the locals got around in jackets, beanies and scarves. On the outskirts of the city for some reason there were feral cats everywhere, which we found a bit of a concern for the local bird population which there seemed to be none of.

With our hotel a few kilometres out of the city centre it was good to see the way local people lived in a big city suburb, instead of just seeing the popular sites. Every apartment block featured wrought ironed balconies with washing drying on them in the sun. With it being winter and many locals and tourist not in the city because of the time of year, the streets were sometimes deserted, and gave us a chance to relax a little more than if it was summer, with more people it would have been less enjoyable. We came across a large park similar to Hyde Park with older people dancing in circles of groups of 6 plus holding hands together in the air with minimal foot movement in front of a rotunda filled with a band of jazz type musicians. What’s strange to us is totally normal for others, the way life should be, to travel and expect to see the same things is the day we wouldn’t bother. Our biggest downfall is only speaking English which at times we can tell is frustrating for locals, particularly in restaurants, but at least we have a crack at the local language, but it does make us feel a bit ignorant at times.

We tried to get tickets to see Barcelona FC and Real Madrid at the Nou Camp but at 250 euros each it was a bit out of our budget, so we watched the match at a pub with the disappointed locals as they lost one nil. The highlight for the trip for Bryce was the food. From Sangria, to Paella, Chicken croquets, spicy meatballs wrapped in mash potatoes, savoury pastries every meal was better than the one before, and all were finished off the locally made delicacy ……the chuppa chup. Apart from the chuppa chup’s Caitlin’s highlight was sunlight and a fresh food market off the La Rambla (main st), but without a doubt the happiest moment of her trip was at a coffee/pastry/chocolate shop on La Rambla which has been open since 1820. A cup of pure hot chocolate ended our Christmas in Barcelona. Gracias Spain.