Paris!

And so we arrive in Paris! 

Paris is the last destination on our wandering the world adventure. I was a bit worried we would all be travel weary, especially after a great couple of weeks relaxing at our two stays in rural France. 

Nothing to worry about! That first sight of the Eiffel Tour brings much excitement and Paris has so much to offer, that filling our last four days of travelling the world was very easy.                      We loved Paris. We used airbnb for our accommodation, staying in a two bedroom apartment in the 15th arrondissement. It was a 15 min metro ride into the city, which was simple. As apartments in large cities go, it was nearly large ... not spacious, but we did have two bedrooms and something that nearly passed as a kitchen. So we were very comfortable. We did get to explore our arrondissement a little, usually looking for food, and it had a lovely feel. There is even a 1.5km stretch of disused railway line that has been converted to a walking/running track, which had a lovely feeling of running in a green area so close to the city. 

The Eiffel Tower certainly has a wow factor about it. We saw it from many different angles, including  ground level, from all sides, from the water and from other view points in the city (top of Arc de Triomphe). On our final day, we did ascend it, using the lift to get right to the top. Stunning view! This is my favourite view, and photo, with the Arc de Triomphe in the centre. The Arc de Triomphe is at the top end of Champs Elysee, so it just felt fun to be in that area! We did have dinner on the Champs Elysee, but no shopping unfortunately!

We enjoyed most of the food treats ... except for the snails. None of us were game enough to try! We did however, try the crepes with chocolate sauce ... they were good! There were many ice-creams along the way too.

We loved the cafe scene and usually stopped for a coffee each morning. No takeaways in paper cups in Paris ... everyone takes the time to sit and enjoy. We gave up on cappuccinos long ago on this trip, after constantly being disappointed, so we now drink expressos with milk on the side. This was usually accompanied by a croissant ... how could we not? We loved the feeling of sitting and watching the world go by.

Some serious chatting happened!

We happened to be in Paris at the same time as our friends, the McGuigans. Kate and Michael have three children, the youngest being Sophie's best friend, Lara. Sophie has been looking forward to seeing Lara in Paris for about 4 months so it was a highly anticipated reunion! It was very sweet seeing the two girls so excited to be back together and chatting away. Lach and Olivia also loved catching up with Alex and Jesse, hearing school news and sharing travel stories, so everyone was happy!

We visited the Louvre to see Lisa; we went into Notre Dame and marvelled at architecture from the 11th century; we spent some time in Luxembourg Gardens (with the McGuigans); we did a cruise along the Seine; we did a Red Bus tour around the city which gave us a great overview and exposed us to the big highlights quickly. It was a great visit to Paris, topped off with three days of great weather and our first rainy/overcast day in the month that we've been in France. 

And now we depart. We are about to wander home - but very mud with a direction and destination in in mind. I'm writing this at Charles de Gaulle airport, as we prepare for two overnight flights and then arrival in Sydney on Wednesday morning (36 hours away). We are all excited: we are ready to come home and settle into life again. We have been so lucky. We have had amazing experiences, with all travel plans working close to perfectly. 

I shall write another blog on our arrival home, once we've settled back in. See you back in Australia!

French villages and markets

Trying to live as the French live

We are in the village of Montmaur, as shown by the green marker. It is southeast of Toulouse. The villages of  Villefranche-de-Lauragais (where our closest big supermarket is) and Revel (where the best local markets are) can both be seen on this map. 

Village of St Felix de Lauragais - about 10 mins away.

Part of the appeal of being in one place for a longer period was to get to know the area and to see how locals spend their time. Our nearest village, Montmaur, is tiny yet has a growing population. One of the markers for “village status” seems to be the presence of a boulangerie … a bakery. There isn’t one in Montmaur, yet 18 new apartments have just sold off the plan in this tiny place! Map-france.com tells me the population was 153 people in 2007! 

There appears to be great appeal to living in a small village, full of old buildings. In the case of Montmaur, the new apartments are actually in a 13th century castle! Montmaur claims to be 45 mins from Toulouse, but we suspect that its only 45 mins if you drive there at 3am in the morning, at breakneck speed! 55-60 minutes is much more realistic!

So many of the villages still maintain the old buildings. Its hard to estimate how old they are, but certainly as far back as the 16the century and earlier. The houses are just a metre or so from the road - no footpaths, yet many still squeeze pot plants and flowers into their tiny gaps. Most have shutters, as well as small windows. Colours are very much the different hues of orange - from quite pale to rich, strong terracotta colours. 

I love the pot plants squeezed onto the tiny footpath. This
is the main road through Montmaur.

Each village has a sign announcing the name of the village as you approach; then as you leave, it has another sign with a line through it to inform you that the village is finished! Most villages have a square of some sort. In Revel, it is a large square and that is where the markets are held each week. Montmaur didn't quite have a square, but it did have a "rectangle" near the centre of town.  A couple of times, we saw groups of older men playing the French game of boules there, often late in the afternoon. Made us chuckle!

Most houses still have small windows,
complete with shutters.

Moving on from Montmaur, there are several other villages that are a little bigger than Montmaour, as they have a loulangerie!  The biggest centre in the region is Revel. Revel has several boulangeries, as well as a large supermarket - a population of about 9 000.Revel is most well known for its weekly markets. The markets, held each Saturday, rate as one of the best regional food markets in france. We were lucky enough to go twice, so we stocked up on fresh food 

and french specialities - cheese, pâtes, baguettes, Toulouse sausage and plenty of seasonal fruit and vegetables. Mushroom linguine for dinner was the result of our market trip this morning!

Snails! They were very popular!

There were several food varieties available at the markets - the most distinctive being the snails! The waft of garlic hit you before you saw the snails, but they truly were snails bubbling away in this massive pot. It was a very popular stall and though we were offered a taste, we all declined ... much to the amusement of the locals!

Some of the other foods available ....

We love all the images associated with the markets as they seem to epitomise all that we’ve read about markets. Plenty of fresh food, direct from the seller; sellers who are passionate about their food and how to cook it; great instructions on how to cook it (despite me saying I don’t speak French) and the locals sitting around the edge of the square, drinking their coffees … and beer, and wine …. no need to wait until wine o'clock here... wine is drunk at any hour!

One of our highlights has been attending some local trash and treasure markets on Sunday. Known in French as 'vide grenier', which literally means emptying the attic, these were amazing. In the village of Saint-Julia, which according to map-France.com only has 117 people, this village came alive with hundreds of people coming to the stalls. You could buy everything from old typewriters, clothes (a Yves St Laurent skirt and jacket - although it was 150 euro, so a little more expensive than most other options), kitchen bits and pieces, antiques, old farm equipment plus anything else you haven't thought about in months! 

We had a very enjoyable morning wandering around this quaint village, chuckling at the variety of things available. Icecream at the end was great too!

When in the UK ... a little parkrun tourism!

We participated in a few parkruns while in the UK. 

Wormwood Scrubs

We started our parkrun tourism on 16 August at Wormwood Scrubs parkrun, which happens to be on the field behind the regional jail! Thankfully we didn't realise it at the time. It was just me who ran - Tony has a foot injury so he and the kids took on the role of cheer squad. The run was a two lap course around an oval, completely on grass. It was quite a different feeling running on grass. Time was nothing special but it was a great atmosphere with only 45 runners. The kids managed to get involved, as they often do, sorting barcodes. We joined the group for coffee in the clubrooms afterwards and met some great people and loved sharing parkrun stories. 

Sorting barcodes at Wormwood Scrubs

#DFYB at Wimbledon!

There are several junior parkruns in the UK, where the kids run a 2km course on their own. The format is exactly the same as parkrun, with all kids needing to be registered and receiving a token as they finish. On the Sunday morning, we headed to Wimbledon Park for the kids to have a go. All three ran - the first parkrun for Sophie so she was very excited! They all did a great run and had huge smiles on their faces!

Sophie and Lach at Wimbledon Park

235 tokens!

Saturday 23 August saw us over in Bristol on the west coast of England. We chose to run at Ashton Court, which must rate as one of the most difficult courses in England! The first 2.5km is uphill .... the second 2.5km is downhill! I had a great negative split on this run! About 14 mins for the first 2.5km and about 11 for the second half! Tony also ran this week - his foot felt better for the race, but he did suffer for the rest of the day, being in considerable pain!  The kids once again sorted barcodes, however for 235 runners, this was a much bigger task than they are used to! It is done while everyone enjoyed a coffee, so it kept them occupied!

Sophie at Little Stoke

Sunday morning saw us at Little Stoke for junior parkrun. Just the girls ran this week and once again, did it with great smiles and great times.

Halfway through at Southampton

By Saturday 30 August, we were down south in Southampton. There were several parkruns to chose from in the region, with most of them being very big. We ended up running at Southampton Common, which was a figure eight course in a beautiful park. Tony started .... but that on-going foot injury is still on-going. After 2kms, he was hurting badly, so withdrew and I continued. This was the biggest parkrun we experienced, with 465 runners. I felt my time was slow at 25mins, but I was still 25th female so pleased with that! This parkrun has a large university population, due to two universities in the city. Once university starts, the numbers rise and the average times drop, as the young, fit females tend to run rather fast times!

Liv at Southampton junior parkrun

Finally, we finished our parkrun tourism stint with junior parkrun at Southampton on Sunday. This was an extremely friendly group of people with some very impressive junior runners! They were fast! The fastest runner did the 2km is just less than 7 mins, but missed the course record at 6.43 mins! Tony offered his services as a volunteer marshal on the course, and got to wear a hi-viz jacket! Junior parkrun is a great concept and we hope that it can start in Australia at some stage.