The second chapter of my Mom and Aunt Sue's autumn trip to Europe took us to London for four days. After a bit of a rushed trip to the train station (thanks French traffic and road works), we were comfortably seated aboard the high-speed Eurostar train from Paris' Gare du Nord to London's St Pancras. Even though the trip is extremely easy to make, it's only really affordable if you book well in advance (which we did), so Michael and I haven't actually done the trip yet. And it's one of those things that is so easy to do that we always assume we'll get around to it. Anyway, it took my Mom and Sue's trip as the motivating factor to get me back to London for the first time in more than 13 years. To be perfectly honest, the first time I visited London I wasn't a huge fan - my impression was that it was a big, dirty city where people lived in extremely small apartments for inordinate sums of money. Since that time, I have seen a LOT more of the world and my own perceptions of what a livable city looks and feels like have evolved. For starters, they speak English there! Big bonus compared to living in Paris as a native English speaker. It was also clear from the moment we arrived that people were generally more friendly and helpful; for example at every set of stairs, someone offered to carry my Aunt's luggage either up or down, and she was almost universally offered a seat on the tube by a younger man - the very demographic who in Paris are totally oblivious to these kinds of things. Over the course of the trip, we had the excuse of celebrating my Aunt Sue's early birthday to encourage us to indulge a bit in our dining excursions, from Shake Shack (ok, this was my choice) to pub dinners to an extremely elegant Afternoon Tea at the Oscar Wilde Bar. We also took a tour of the totally recreated Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which is a bit off the beaten path, but something I would definitely put in the not-to-miss category. If you happen to be in London during the summer months, it's worth looking into seeing a show there as well. We had just missed the window, but even just being inside the venue is still pretty spectacular for an unreformed English major. Not only did we learn a bit about Shakespeare and the theater, but my mom also found a very special "plague rat" at the gift shop, which is now in my collection as Baby Hogge's first stuffed animal. We are all very proud. The main event of the trip was Saturday evening out to see Michael Crawford in The Go Between at the Apollo in the West End. After the show, we waited with the masses for a meet and greet with the man himself. Good times had by all. On Sunday, we made a stop by the Churchill War Rooms, which is also very much worth a visit. The underground complex was the British government's command center throughout WWII, and remains pretty much in the same state it was in at the end of the war in 1945. Before heading back to Paris on Monday, our final stop was a ride on the London Eye. The weather really didn't want to cooperate, but we were lucky enough for most of the ride to have been in the sunshine. To view all of the photos of our trip to London (and Paris), visit the album.
We wrapped up my Mom and Aunt's great Parisian adventure with a jaunt up the Eiffel Tower to see the Great Iron Dame in person. Instead of waiting for who knows how long in line, we booked tickets for them to skip the line and take a guided tour - I didn't join, but they loved it and would highly recommend. After having visited the museum of all museums on Monday (the Louvre), we opted for a visit to the Musée d'Orsay later in the week to spend some time with our favorite impressionist painters. This museum is often a fan favorite, and I think it's a mixture of the art being both accessible and well know, but also because of the beauty of the building, which was once a train station set to be demolished. The audio guides at these places are key! For our last night in Paris, we put on our best fancy clothes and headed to the Palais Garnier, the beautiful Parisian Opera House, to see the opera by Cavalli, Eliogabalo. I had never heard of this particular opera, and our seats weren't the closest, but it was honestly the best opera I've seen so far here in Paris - not that there have been that many, but the music and costumes were really beautiful.
And let's be honest - it is impossible not to feel special just being in the building. Add a glass of champagne, a visit to the Phantom's box, and we walked away very happy patrons. After the Eiffel Tower, Louvre and Notre Dame, food is definitely up there as one of the top reasons to visit Paris. With my Mom and Sue, this was no exception. We started with a trip down the local market street (Rue Cler) to check out the fruits, veggies, meats and delicious stinky cheeses of France. Breakfast time? Croissants, coffee and hot chocolate! We had a special dinner out at Au Petit Tonneau, complete with a good bottle of red wine to accompany a delish entrecôte steak. Next up? Crêpes for dinner and dessert at Le Crequscule in the neighborhood. It's a good thing we did a lot of walking because we indulged in a thoroughly cheesy and delicious homemade (from a restaurant, not me!) French onion soup. Last but not least, salted caramel ice cream drizzled with caramel from Amarino... this is how to do dessert!!!
My Mom and Aunt Sue are currently staying with us in Paris for a week to visit. This is the first trip for my Mom since she visited 2 years ago, and the first ever trip for Sue to Paris, so it's exciting to have them here for a week exploring this fine city in the autumn. Although the weather has definitely turned colder in the last week, we have been pretty lucky with the weather so far. It's cold but sunny most days, which is a vast improvement to the perpetual state of Paris in the wintertime of cold, gray and rainy. We spent this past weekend on a hop-on-hop-off bus and boat tour of the city, which I would highly recommend for first-time visitors as it's a great way to get to know the landscape. Our one and only stop on Monday was to the one and only Louvre, where we walked the vast halls in search of masterpieces. Thanks to the new audio guides - which are great but honestly a bit glitchy until they get rolling - we visited the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Coronation of Napoleon I, Michelangelo's Slaves, and many more.
Since I am planning to deliver Baby Hogge in Paris, I have been warned early and often that it is important to register at a hospital as early as possible. If not, the consequence being we wouldn't get a private room in our hospital of choice.
Of course, I would not be kicked out of a hospital if push comes to shove (haha) and we weren't pre-registered before the day comes to meet baby, but it does make the experience a whole lot more pleasant, as new moms and babies stay in the hospital longer than in the US: 3-4 days on average. With this in mind, and given the fact that we have never done this before - let alone in Paris! - we have been in high information-gathering mode over the past few months, trying not to panic that we had not already decided and registered at a hospital. For the record, the options we were considering include:
A quick note to those of you who are reading this and asking yourself about how midwives play into this whole birthing thing in Paris. When we think of a midwife in the US, it is usually in the context of someone who is looking for assistance during a home birth. Here (and elsewhere in Europe), most deliveries are actually assisted by a midwife (sage femme) in a hospital or clinic - similar to how we have nurses present for most of the birth in the US, with the MD only coming in for the delivery itself. So with all of those options to choose from, we ended up sitting down this afternoon in front of a fast-talking, exuberant French nun to register at Sainte Félicité. It was a herculean effort to keep up with her in French, but we are pretty sure we have now signed all the necessary paperwork to have a private room waiting for us in February! |
AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
|