Choofing Across The Channel
As you can imagine, neither of us slept too soundly last night. We woke to the phone buzzing and spent the morning in FaceTime calls to the family and replying to lots of messages. Thanks so much to everyone who has sent us a message of love and support - it’s been quite overwhelming. We are feeling very loved and supported.
We checked out of our London Hotel and our very kind doorman insisted on taking both our bags up the street for us. There was a slight confusion in that he thought we were catching a cab but we were headed for the Underground. There was an awkward compromise where he wheeled them about halfway up the street before realising he may have strayed a little far from his post, handing them back to us with a send-off salute.
By now it was just about lunchtime and we were amazed to see the huge queues forming at most cafes and lunch spots - people patiently chatting in their corporate get-up as lines snaked along the street. Maybe this happens in Sydney too and I just don’t get out enough.
We found an old church, St Mary’s of Aldermary, that had a full-blown cafe in its foyer, selling delicious baguettes and coffee. It was such a great idea and apparently all the profits go towards the church & charities it supports.
We arrived at Kings Cross-St Pancreas…er.. Pancras Station, under the iconic glass-domed roof, which unfortunately was doing its best impression of a greenhouse, keeping us all very steamy under the collar. We headed for the Eurostar terminal and had an airport style check-in. It’s still such a novelty to be able to go by train to another country. For some reason, the automatic passport scanner, where you have to stand on the designated little yellow feet, got a bit snap-happy, taking multiple pictures of me from all angles and refusing to let me through. I offered to autograph them all but the French passport officer, who sat right in front of my ten minute photo shoot, wasn’t impressed with my joke. Of course Molly sailed through with just the one pic.
The terminal was chaos, and that’s an understatement! There was absolutely no order and everyone was just sitting around on their bags in the sauna-like conditions, waiting for further instruction. We found that some of the air vents on the floor were shooting out cool air so we sat on them for some minor relief. Eventually there was an announcement that boarding was commencing and a seething mass of hot and bothered passengers scrambled to find their seats.
We giggled at the conductor with the thick cockney accent, making all the announcements on the PA. He had perfect French but when it came to “super important” he obviously didn’t know the French words and just inserted it into his sentence in English. The time went pretty quickly and before we knew it we were saying “Bonjour France!”
Before we arrived, I put in a call to Olivier, our Airbnb host, who said he was quite surprised to hear we were on our way. We’d booked for the next day. Oops! Miraculously, the apartment was free and had just been cleaned and he was happy for us to stay the extra night. Phew!
We jumped in a taxi but it was a far cry from a friendly London cab - our driver speaking perfect English but not saying a single word to us apart from asking where we were going.
Our Airbnb host, Olivier, who strangely spoke with his teeth firmly clenched together, met us at our ‘compact studio apartment’ accommodation and showed us around. The apartment is set inside a gorgeous little courtyard; once inside the huge exterior doors, it’s like stepping inside an oasis in the middle of the city. The lift is the tiniest little thing! We had to go up to the 6th floor, one at a time. From our room, if we open the big casement windows and crane our necks around to the right, we can even catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower!
France, like its neighbours across the channel, is experiencing, ‘ow you say, an “eatwave” and it was 32 degrees in the shade. We were a few blocks away from the Champs-Élysées so we took a twilight stroll along the tree-lined path, past pop-up crepe restaurants, an abundance of e-scooters and electric monocycles out and about, fountains and statues nestled in the trees. We noticed that rather than on leads, dainty French dogs get around town mostly, in backpacks, in bike baskets and peering out of handbags. We ended up at a little Italian place for dinner and then watched the sun set over the Arc de Triomphe in the distance - so beautiful!.
Now I begin my quest to find a flight home.
