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Day 29: Paris à Wellington

We were up early again to pack and start our journey to Wellington (only a short hop of about 36 hours).   We left our apartment and walked or rather dragged our bags to Place de Clichy where we caught a train to Chapelle.   I carried our bags up and down a number of stairs, (19kgs in each hand) and while they are comparatively quite small they were carrying some weight.   We had to use a ticket to get into Gare de Nord for some reason.   I tried to find a ticket machine for going our next leg to Charles De Gaulle Aeroport as it was out of zone for our ticket but there were none in sight. Rather than spend further time finding one we boarded the train and hoped we could get through at the other end.   It turned out we did need a ticket but fortunately we still had some metro tickets on hand which for some let us through.   A very weird system.   Finding British Airways check-in proved to be a bit of challenge but we eventually found it.  ...
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Day 28: Chateau de Versailles et le diner/Chateau de Versailles and dinner

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Our last full day was very busy.    We were up early, at least for us, to have breakfast (prepared by our host Pierre) and get to Versailles before the crowds.   There are two lines to Versailles and fortunately just down the road was one of the lines which would take us to Rive Droite.   This is the furthest station from the Chateau but within walking distance.   We were standing in the first queue by about 10am and then it took about 20 minutes to get into the Chateau proper.   This is my second visit to Versailles and Bev’s first.   Despite knowing what to expect, the Chateau (not Palais we were told in no uncertain terms) is extremely large for a home.   There was quite a crowd, but we were told it was not as crowded as it can get at its peak.   Two parts of the chateau were not open - the Queen’s rooms and the children’s rooms.   What we saw was a glance at the artwork (there were too many people to get anywhere near re...
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Day 27: Un coupe de cheveux et un autre concert de jazz/ A haircut and another jazz concert

Bev a décidée que elle a eu besoin de la coiffure.   Elle était inquiète qu’elle ne trouvait pas une salon de coiffure. Aussi, elle devenait perdre que quand retournant à l’appartement.   Alors, nous sommes allé chercher pour une salon de coiffure ensemble .   J’ai trouvé aussi un salon de coiffure pour homes.   Nous   avons trouvé un salon et j’ai essayé à dire la coiffeuse ce que Bev voulait faire avec elle cheveux.     Puis, je suis retourné au salon de coiffure pour hommes.   Il y avait un homme l’a coupé donc j’ai doit attendre pour 30 minutes pendant ils ont bavardé.   Puis, il a été moi.   Monsieur le barbier ne parlait pas anglais.   Il a demandé ce que j’ai voulu et entre nous, nous réussissions avec mes besoins.   Nous parlions de nos vies.   Il habitait dans les banlieues de Paris.   Il est tres soulage que Emmanuel Macron   a élu être le Président de France. Il m’a dis q...
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Day 26: Paris et le caveau de la Huchette

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The trip to Paris from somewhere in France always signals to me the beginning of the end of a holiday.   The time seems to have raced by.   We spent the morning tidying the apartment, taking the recycling and rubbish to the appropriate bins and doing a careful pack.   Our train was a local one to Saint-Pierre des Corps which is the TGV stop in Tours.   We got there on time and then I saw on the arrivals and departures board that our train was delayed by 50 minutes.   I had an app which told me that they were doing some work on the rail lines between Tours and Bordeaux which meant they had to reroute the TGV and it had to go slower.   This doubled the effect because the TGV going to Bordeaux had also been slowed.   Handbag dog Instead of an hour wait we now had a two hour one.   We found a seat in a café where we had a bite to eat and filled in our time.   Whilst there, a woman engaged me in a brief conversation – init...
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Day 25: De Saumur à Angers le chemin lentement/Saumur to Angers the slow way

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8 kms ridden - perfect day for it   I looked up the train timetables from Angers to Saumur to see what times the trains left.   The times worked well with one leaving Angers at 2:30pm and another one at 5pm.   We thought   that if we started riding at around 10am we would get to Angers in time to get the earlier one but if we didn’t then we had a backup option.   River craft The day was perfect for riding, cool to start off with but it warmed up during the day.   The route took us, for first part alongside the Loire, then we crossed the Loire and the path paralleled the main road on the levee.    It was easy riding and an occasional rise in the road was an exciting event.   At one point the path turned inland for a bit which entailed a steep climb on a country road to an off road path alongside a rather nice lake which I suspect was a reservoir.   Early in the ride Bev became concerned about a loud squeak...
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