{"id":4115,"date":"2015-09-15T09:24:02","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T08:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=4115"},"modified":"2026-05-14T05:59:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:59:04","slug":"back-in-paris-for-a-last-hurrah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2015\/09\/15\/back-in-paris-for-a-last-hurrah\/","title":{"rendered":"Back in Paris For A Last Hurrah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experience is the art of not making the same mistake too many times\u2026\u2026..<\/em><\/p>\n

\"WP_20150913_14_59_40_Pro
Julia Kevin and Rodney strolling along the Boulevard St Germain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kath, Terry, Lindy, Paul and Wendy headed off to Nevers at 8am to pick up hire cars for a trip to Spain.\u00a0 Pete and Virginia shared a taxi with us to Nevers station to catch the train back to Paris.\u00a0 They then headed over to Brittany while we dragged our bags on and off the metro, back to Kevin and Julia\u2019s apartment. We chilled out and chatted in the afternoon and then the four of us caught the metro to the Avenue des Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es.\u00a0 We wandered in to Abercrombie and Fitch, an American clothing store, which you wouldn\u2019t know was there, being hidden behind high hedges in a spectacular old mansion with two huge golden doors. It has to be one of the most beautiful shop buildings in Europe. Then we sat at a window table in Ladur\u00e9e, a perfectly Parisian tea room.\u00a0 It was exquisite and a lovely place to eat with friends in Paris on a Saturday night. With the rain easing a bit, we tried to watch a huge firework display that was going off over the river, further on down the Seine.\u00a0 Sadly, the breeze was blowing the display into the clouds and the smoke spread towards us obliterating most of the explosions, so we gave up and caught the metro back to the flat and a nice comfy bed for the night.<\/p>\n

\"Julia
Julia Laura and Kevin strolling Paris in the rain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Sunday the rain was still falling from the sky, so Kevin whipped up a tasty eggy brioche with raspberries for a very late breakfast and at 2pm we all headed off for a stroll to burn it off. We ambled across to the Hotel des Invalides and walked through the impressive centre to the far side. We wandered down the Boulevard St Germain, popped in to the Ladur\u00e9e Bonaparte caf\u00e9 for coffee and beautiful cakes and then crossed the Pont Neuf to the Notre Dame to gaze at the massive west front.\u00a0 From there, we crossed to the Ile St Louis and peeped into shop windows, along the way. We finally caught the metro back from Sully, glad that we managed to get a seat on the train because we all had very tired legs.\u00a0 Kevin managed to then stand in the kitchen and pulled out another exemplary chef performance cooking us a tasty duck dish with lots of fresh vegetables, and we spent our last evening in Paris talking about Mexico.<\/p>\n

\"Afternoon
Afternoon tea and cakes at Ladur\u00e9e Bonaparte caf\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Julia
Julia and Rodney checking out the enormous queue for the Notre Dame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Early on Monday morning our bags followed us around to Tour Mauburg metro and through to the huge Gare du Nord station for the 10am Eurostar train back to London.\u00a0 It was a long journey and we both felt a bit flat knowing that we were now nearing the end of our 2015 tour of Europe.\u00a0 Thank you so much Julia and Kevin for enabling us to have a lovely time in Paris and we look forward to seeing you again somewhere in 2016.\u00a0 The train from London to Hertford had us at back at Andy and Carole\u2019s in the early afternoon and then we picked up Eileen.\u00a0 Heading up the A1, on almost the last leg of this year\u2019s journey, \u201cCome On Eileen\u2019 sang out on the radio.\u00a0 Oh my goodness, it seemed to bring it home to us that we would soon be arriving at my brother\u2019s house in Kettering. Very soon we would be doing a final pack and bedding Eileen down for her seven-month winter stopover on my brother\u2019s driveway.\u00a0 No more pulling out the bed every night and putting it away every morning.\u00a0 No more cupboards and kitchen sink travelling behind us.\u00a0 Not until April when we will do one last trip across Europe for a couple of months \u2026\u2026. in Eileen.<\/p>\n

\"Macarons
Macarons galore!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

And finally after a couple of days getting washing done, a bit of shopping (got a lovely Max Mara grey cardigan), watching movies, lots of eating out and a last minute wander around Saville Gardens near Ascot, Neil dropped us at Heathrow Airport on Thursday for a late flight back to Sydney.\u00a0 Here we go again \u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

\"It's
I think it’s a bit too big to be rhubarb….?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"My
My Monet style version of a pond in Saville Gardens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experience is the art of not making the same mistake too many times\u2026\u2026..   Kath, Terry, Lindy, Paul and Wendy headed off to Nevers at 8am to pick up hire cars for a trip to Spain.\u00a0 Pete and Virginia shared a taxi with us to Nevers station to catch the train back to Paris.\u00a0 They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-france-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8268,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115\/revisions\/8268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}