Taschy Meets Gordon Blue

Day 1 - L'Arrivée

I was only thinking the other day that it must be time for a trip to Paris shortly - you see, the last couple of years, Mummy & Daddy have gone there at the end of May - when, wham!, there was frantic activity and, before I knew what was happening, my safety harness was being attached! (I have to wear this to prevent myself from falling out of Daddy's pocket and getting lost.)

This rather took me by surprise, because, according to my calculations, this is only Monday, 27 April! Never mind, I am never one to turn my nose up at the chance of a bit of foreign travel.

And no sooner than I had come to, than the taxi was arriving to take us down to the railway station, so that we could catch our train to London. Then, it was across London on the Underground, to arrive at Waterloo.

This definitely means that we are going by Eurostar! (Mummy wouldn't travel on Eurostar until last year, when Daddy & I persuaded her that it was much more convenient!)

Unlike last year, however, we had come prepared for the journey by bringing our own food and drink with us. Apart from the constant queues at the buffet car, it means that we don't have to pay the exorbitant prices that Eurostar charge.

Picture Of The Parisian Teds I should also introduce my travelling companions, who are Mumbles (he's our Chief Bear), Renoir and Bean Bum, who is a relatively new addition to our hug.

We finally arrived at the Gare Du Nord in Paris just after six o'clock. I had been beginning to worry that we wouldn't arrive in time to find ourselves an evening meal.

Never mind, though. Mummy & Daddy bought us our travel permits for the week, and, after consulting our Paris Metro map, whizzed off on the Métro (that's the Parisian Underground) to St. Michel, which is close to where our hotel - the Abbatial St. Germain - is situated.

Having trundled our wheelie trolleys along the uneven streets and pavements, we arrived, quickly checked in, and then toddled back to St. Michel to get back on the Métro.

Daddy said that we were off to Montparnasse, which can only mean one thing - crêpes! (That's pancakes to you non-French speakers! I have had a bit of trouble with my French pronunciation in the past, but I'm getting much better at it now! I shall be providing my own version of phonetic pronunciations, where appropriate, just to help those of you who have the same problems with their French that I used to.)

We have finally remembered which of the many exits (Rue d'Odessa, if you're interested) to take from this Métro station to get us to Crêperie Petit Josselin - the main Crêperie Josselin is closed on Mondays - in Rue Montparnasse.

Mummy said that, this holiday, we would not be eating in those very French, very fun, very (very) cheap restaurants, because we would be trying to find food cooked by a chef called Gordon Blue. I thought this was a bit odd, what with all these thousands of restaurants in Paris, but, that's Mummy for you!

As always, it was heaving with locals, but we found ourselves a little table for two and tucked in straight away. Mummy had a Crêpe Bertine, which is full of all sorts of stuff, whilst Daddy had a Crêpe Jambon Fromage (that's ham and cheese). This was all washed down with an entire litre of lovely Breton cider. I think that Daddy was going to forgo pudding, until I gave him a hefty nudge in the ribs, at which point he ordered us a Crêpe Pommier, which was a sort of apple ice cream and Calvados type affair. Very scrummy, whatever it was!

Picture Of Eiffel Tower Then, since we had a new travelling companion - Mumbles and Renoir had been before, but Bean Bum was new to Paris - we went on the Métro over the Bir Hakeim bridge, which gives you a lovely evening view of the famous Tour Eiffel ("tooryfell").

Once we arrived at Trocadéro, we went for a quick look at the tower, which now has a large and unsightly countdown to the Year 2000 on it, before trotting across the road to the Malakoff, one of our favourite haunts for some traditional French drinks - Kir and Ricard.

By now, it was time for bed, but not before a scenic ride home on Bus No. 63, which takes us almost to our hotel.

As always, it had been an exhausting first day, what with all that travelling, but the evening chomps and drinks had more than made up for that!

Bedtime at last!


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Created: Sunday 17th May, 1998

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