Birthdays in Paris

November marks the birthdays of Jody, Shane, and Phoebe, and what better way to celebrate then spend a weekend in Paris? Incidentally, Australia and France played Rugby on the Saturday night in Paris and we had tickets to the game…

The weekend got off to a bad start at the Eurostar Train terminal in London, where Phoebe was not allowed to pick up train tickets that she had booked three months ago. Never mind that she was able to produce her Passport, Drivers Licence and several other cards as identification, but because she wasn’t carrying the credit card that she had made the booking with, they would not issue the tickets. What if her credit card had been stolen? Not good enough apparently.

So anyway, after arguing with the staff for quite some time, Phoebe and Jody were forced to purchase new tickets, and we were able to board the train. But that’s not all. The new tickets did not have seats allocated to them, and all the economy class seats on the train were full. There were however, some seats in First Class, where Phoebe and Jody sat for a while and enjoyed a free meal. They would have sat there for the whole journey, but unfortunately they were found out and relegated to the Luggage cabin. Standing. Not a good way to start your birthday weekend! :(

On arrival in Paris, we met up with Paul, Sean, and Dave, who we partied the night away with at some crazy bar we found near Moulin Rouge.

Saturday was shopping day! And did we shop! Phoebe, Jody and I spent most of the day in Galleries Lafayette and Printemps, two of the bigger department stores in Paris. So many beautiful things to buy, and so little time *sigh* and so little money *bigger sigh*

At the end of the day, we donned our yellow jerseys and crammed onto some very crowded trains for the Stade de France stadium, the biggest sports stadium I’ve ever seen! The Wallabies started off well, but in the end it was victory for France.

On Sunday we did a quick tour of the major sights, including the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, and the Latin Quarter. Not enough time to climb the Tower or wander around the Louvre, but enjoyable all the same.

Guy Fawkes (Cracker of a Night)

Ahh - the memories come flooding back. Its been a while since I have been able/allowed to experience the wonder of staging my own pyrotechnics show, but in England either the children don't blow off as many fingers or they just don't care if they do - Guy Fawkes or Cracker night is alive and well. We settled in on the roof of our house and watched the fireworks spectacular across the road on Clapham Common. The crowds were out in force for the display as well, and reports have that 20,000+ people came to Clapham to watch. And it would have been well worth the trip for anyone who made it.

Needless to say later that night, it came time for the Top Flat fireworks display, some 25 skyrockets set of in succession to the sound of Queen's "We will rock you" (Ok i made that last bit up). It had all the neighbours looking out the back window cheering us on. Either that or just making sure that we weren't blowing up the neighbourhood, as they were very loud with sound bouncing of all the brick buildings. After about a minute of brilliant colour and loud noise we were able to hold our heads high and retreat back to the house. £20 well spent.

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