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Showing posts from September, 2018

Adventures in France - Afternoon in Paris

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After our visit to the Picasso Museum we got back on the Metro and made our way to the other side of Paris to the Parc Floral de Paris where we had been told was a collection of pelargoniums.  It was lunchtime so we went into a bar for coffee and a snack.  The Pear and Almond tart was wonderful. The Parc is situated behind the Chateau de Vincennes which is Huge! After a long trek we found the Parc and were pleased to find that on Sunday entry was free.   By trial and error we found a path lined with large pots of scented pelargoniums in a garden of edible plants. They looked magnificent, but I felt that there should be more, so we made enquiries and were directed to another part of the gardens.  Here, by the side of a woodland setting, we found more - all species.  If we had been a month or two earlier they would have been in flower.   Again, these were all growing in very large pots, so some large specimens.  The pots were mostly displayed on tall met

Adventures in France - Journey to Paris and first morning

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Saturday morning saw us both up bright and early for our journey to Paris.  We actually did not need to have been up quite so early as we found we could get a slightly shorter journey for less Euro than if we'd got the earlier train.   Two minutes past the time the train was to have left the station it had not arrived so I went to the ticket office to ask if the train was delayed, as we had a connection to make.  I was told we had to get on the bus which was in front of the station.  You should have seen us move!  Fortunately we got on the coach and made the connection. This was the very fast TGV train to Paris.  I said we should sit upstairs on the train so we could see more of the countryside.  We found a couple of seats and got comfortable for the four-hour journey with speeds of up to 300 kph.   At the next stop we were told that we were sitting in someone's seat.  It seems we were in First Class and we were unaware we had seat numbers booked for us in Second Class

Adventures in France -Chateau du Bosc, family home of Toulouse-Lautrec

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We had asked at the Information Office in Albi about visiting the Chateau du Bosc as Sandy had read there was no public transport to Naucelle, and from there to Camjac, where the Chateau is.  The very helpful member of staff suggested we might try to get a BlaBla car and showed us on his computer screen how we could order one if there was anyone travelling there and said it would be best if we checked on the morning of our proposed visit. For anyone who does not know, a BlaBla car is a service that lets you find a car with a driver going to the place you want to travel to, at a very reasonable cost. We duly checked on my iPad the next morning and found to our relief that the page could be translated to English, which helped enormously.   We put in that we wanted to go to Naucelle from Albi and found several drivers going that way.  We opted for Ophelie and who would be leaving Albi at around lunchtime which suited us.  I received a message on my mobile, in French, so went down