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| Brigitte and her friend Bernadette in the English Garden |
The weekend in France was reasonably enjoyable - given that I was committed to go I just kept telling myself to enjoy it when I was flagging and did the nodding and smiling thing! We went by taxi to St Pancras after much careful negotiation with Mike, who always wants to go by bus and tube. However it was raining and since it was me carrying the bags I got my way. This meant we arrived at the station in plenty of time for the train and completely stress free. We joined up with the rest of the group, but had to separate on the train as the wheelchair space is in First Class! I really enjoyed the journey on Eurostar - nice and quiet with plenty of space and we were served breakfast on the way out and supper with red wine on the way back. There was also a big discount for the wheelchair and companion (my ticket said "exchangeable/refundable companion"!!) so we also travelled much more cheaply than the others. Apparently their carriages both ways were crowded and noisy. We had to make out way by RER from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon and then catch another RER to Fontainebleau both of which were very full of pushy noisy french people but eventually we arrived and were whisked off by our host to her small flat. She was a delightful lady of about 65 but she could hardly speak a word of English and we of course could only speak a tiny bit of French (dragged out of memory from schooldays!). It was very tiring as she talked a lot - she arranged for her friend to come in as she could speak a bit more but it was still quite a strain. Within an hour we were off to the evening soiree, a buffet where the hors d'oevres would have been enough. All delicious and lots of wine etc, but the downside was the "entertainment" where I had to sit through singing by both sides. I slept like a log I was so exhausted, which surprised me. The next day we had croissant and bread fresh from the bakers for breakfast and then she took us for a walk round the gardens of the chateu. The weather was quite nice that day with plenty of sunshine. Then we had a lovely lunch of fried chicken with curried rice, then she took us for a drive along the Seine. She talked constantly and I struggled to keep my eyes open in the back of the car. We ended up at the Church for the rehearsal and then the concert - I was able to do some cross stitch while they were rehearsing although I was given the job of accompanying Geoffrey up the unlit staircase to the organ loft and then bringing him down again at the appropriate moment! He thought I was wonderful when I produced a torch from my phone!
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| Mike outside Sacre Coeur |
The next day, after a similar breakfast, we went to the station for the meet time of 10 am only to find we needed to buy tickets with barely time to do so especially as there was a queue - luckily one of the french had some she could give me so I didn't have to queue. We went back to Paris and left our cases in the left luggage lockers and had about 5 hours in Paris. Mike and I went up to Sacre Coeur on the funicular and admired the view and then wandered around the tiny cobbled streets and tourist shops in the area. We couldn't get right up and into the church as there is no disabled access. We had a lovely lunch of croque monsieur with frites and a small beer. We then wandered around various bits of Paris slowly working our way back to the station. It drizzled most of the afternoon and the rain turned heavier as we set off home. We of course had to return from St Pancras by tube and bus but I didn't mind as there was no pressure to get home at a particular time.
Photo album :
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xg6zs55yg47qn5f/AAAXZwxCwav7FeUr_STimTJ9a
