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Je suis allé en France!
13 years ago
I've just come back from a two-week holiday in France! (So yeah, anyone who wondered, that's where the hell I've been...)
It was wonderful. I went out with a fairly large group of family and friends. We started by going to a small apartment block on the outskirts of Paris (which was very comfortable, if a little run-down), almost killing our car while looking for parking, and went into the city the next day. We took a train to Charles de Gaulle - Etoile station, which is right near the Arc de Triomphe (which we didn't go up, we just looked at it...), then headed towards the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre. Along the way, we stopped at a small café to get out of the rain (yeah, the weather was pretty bad that day) and I had my first continental hot chocolate in over six years, soon dubbed 'heaven in a cup'.
Sadly, the Louvre turned out to be fermé le Mardi, so we had to settle for a couple of photos and a walk to Notre Dame instead. Scary scary queues kept us out of the cathedral, so we instead had lunch next door and, yup, took more photos. Then came the pièce de résistance, la Tour Eiffel! To be honest, I wasn't expecting much (perhaps a bit cynical), but when you get up there... c'est magnifique. Absolutely amazing. There I was, nine hundred feet above the ground (almost as high as Tokyo Tower!), looking out over Paris. Incredible. And I had a cup of tea (which wasn't great, but I did it for the stereotypical-English bragging rights ) I didn't get to see Paris lit up (though the queues when we got down make me grateful that we didn't try), but we did sit on the bank of the Seine eating crèpes until dusk, at which point the tower (of course) lit up, not only with static lights but also with flashing ones for about five minutes! And then there was a somewhat confusing RER/Métro/train journey back the apartment.
The next day, we packed up what little we'd unpacked and headed South to a friend's cottage in Lupiac, a village near Cahors (somewhat North of Toulouse). The weather was far better down south - almost too hot at times - with only a few days of rain, most at the end of the two weeks. Once there, we... mainly just relaxed, actually. In retrospect, it might have been a minor waste of at least the first week. Games were played (including Pandemic, which I heartily recommend as a good, dramatic cooperative game), wine was tasted (though not by me), we explored Puy l'Évêque (a beautiful village on the Lot, which was minutes away from us). It wasn't really the right time for beachgoing, but we did some anyway (to the amusement of some pêcheurs) on a man-made beach on the side of a small lake.
We also visited an aquarium in le Bugue, somewhere to the Northwest, and the nearby Château de Bonaguil, a lovely old castle with a rich history. We did a short tabletop roleplaying campaign (Which so very nearly ended well...). In the last few days, we went to the Puy l'Évêque food festival - which was SO MUCH FUN. There was good food and very enjoyable music (plus a few excellent dress senses to admire). We also discovered a lovely little pub called L'Astrolabe, where we ate on the last night, before waking up at 4:30am for a fourteen-hour drive home with all the wine our car would hold. I got through almost an entire book on that journey, very unusual for me (It was a really good book - The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber)...
And now I'm back, and trying to readjust to home life...
Anyway, I'm done rambling on about it now.
TL;DR - C'était vraiment magnifique! I would definitely go again.
It was wonderful. I went out with a fairly large group of family and friends. We started by going to a small apartment block on the outskirts of Paris (which was very comfortable, if a little run-down), almost killing our car while looking for parking, and went into the city the next day. We took a train to Charles de Gaulle - Etoile station, which is right near the Arc de Triomphe (which we didn't go up, we just looked at it...), then headed towards the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre. Along the way, we stopped at a small café to get out of the rain (yeah, the weather was pretty bad that day) and I had my first continental hot chocolate in over six years, soon dubbed 'heaven in a cup'.
Sadly, the Louvre turned out to be fermé le Mardi, so we had to settle for a couple of photos and a walk to Notre Dame instead. Scary scary queues kept us out of the cathedral, so we instead had lunch next door and, yup, took more photos. Then came the pièce de résistance, la Tour Eiffel! To be honest, I wasn't expecting much (perhaps a bit cynical), but when you get up there... c'est magnifique. Absolutely amazing. There I was, nine hundred feet above the ground (almost as high as Tokyo Tower!), looking out over Paris. Incredible. And I had a cup of tea (which wasn't great, but I did it for the stereotypical-English bragging rights ) I didn't get to see Paris lit up (though the queues when we got down make me grateful that we didn't try), but we did sit on the bank of the Seine eating crèpes until dusk, at which point the tower (of course) lit up, not only with static lights but also with flashing ones for about five minutes! And then there was a somewhat confusing RER/Métro/train journey back the apartment.
The next day, we packed up what little we'd unpacked and headed South to a friend's cottage in Lupiac, a village near Cahors (somewhat North of Toulouse). The weather was far better down south - almost too hot at times - with only a few days of rain, most at the end of the two weeks. Once there, we... mainly just relaxed, actually. In retrospect, it might have been a minor waste of at least the first week. Games were played (including Pandemic, which I heartily recommend as a good, dramatic cooperative game), wine was tasted (though not by me), we explored Puy l'Évêque (a beautiful village on the Lot, which was minutes away from us). It wasn't really the right time for beachgoing, but we did some anyway (to the amusement of some pêcheurs) on a man-made beach on the side of a small lake.
We also visited an aquarium in le Bugue, somewhere to the Northwest, and the nearby Château de Bonaguil, a lovely old castle with a rich history. We did a short tabletop roleplaying campaign (Which so very nearly ended well...). In the last few days, we went to the Puy l'Évêque food festival - which was SO MUCH FUN. There was good food and very enjoyable music (plus a few excellent dress senses to admire). We also discovered a lovely little pub called L'Astrolabe, where we ate on the last night, before waking up at 4:30am for a fourteen-hour drive home with all the wine our car would hold. I got through almost an entire book on that journey, very unusual for me (It was a really good book - The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber)...
And now I'm back, and trying to readjust to home life...
Anyway, I'm done rambling on about it now.
TL;DR - C'était vraiment magnifique! I would definitely go again.
