French Food

We visited McDonald's more in Paris than anywhere on the trip. Sounds like a travisty but it was readily available and the kids love it. The great thing about getting out into the country side is that McDonalds and Starbucks are not on every street corner. The first night in Epernay we ate in a former bank. Frank hunted for accomodation while the bank looked after me and the boys. They had fabulous French Champagnes by the glass...

Our second night we ate in an equally good restaurant and while I was trying to explain to the non English speaking waitress that Frank wanted his steak well done (ne tartare pas)a lady at the table next to us helped me. We ended up having dinner dinner together (and actually sat near each other at the bank the previous night). Grazyna was a lovely lady who just started working for family who owns a number of French Champagne houses. After a great evening we planned to meet Grazyna at her work place the next day.

We tried some lovely champagnes with Grazyna and then had to decide to either go to one of the family's champagne houses in Reims or to a Champagne castle with Grazyna. The Chateau was 2 hours drive from Epernay and as we had had to drop the car off in Reims we decided to go there. We were hosted by Manu at Le Maison de Martel.

Dropping the car back at the Hertz was a whole other adventure (finding your way back into a major city where they drive on the other side of the road and the road rules are quite different). We opted to drop it off without filling it up first as we couldn't handle the stress of trying to find a petrol station; we were charged a hefty penalty for this. We have now been in Reims a couple of days - the first day spent visiting Champagne houses:

Who needs a wine rack?

Europe can be exhausting. Especially without a plan...yesterday we decided, over breakfast with a man from Germany, to go to Berlin instead of Brussels. While we can do this without a fixed plan it means finding a new route and accomodation etc.

Today has been a recharge day - doing nothing! This morning I put on the washing and went out to get breakfast. It was lovely! I had to speak French and everyone tried to help me at the bakery and the coffee place. It was 8:00am and in the coffee place I pointed to empty champagne glasses and asked if people usually have champagne with breakfast. I was told 'ofcourse' so when in Rome...

Pop...Le Champagne

It is no secret that my friends and I like a drop of the sparkling...Frank insisted we come to the home of Champagne. We caught the French express train, TGV, to Reims.

Moet was closed

Many Champagne houses in Reims are closed at this time of year, Europe's winter, so we left Reim's and headed to Epernay seeing some beautiful French country side along the way. We hired a car - I thought the Tower of Terror at Disney was scary; hiring a car in Europe is way more hairy (it's okay getting out of the city it's trying to find your way back in).

Rocco finally got to kick his soccer ball Rocco finally got to kick his soccer ball

We managed to find a Champagne house open in Epernay and asked where we should go next. We were advised to see Ambonnay and the aptly named, Bouzy. Next morning we followed what we thought was a tourist bus, thinking we could jump in on their tour, turns out it was the French equivalent of Transperth and all the passengers were laughing because they knew we were following them. And no champagne! Just when you think everything has turned to crap you happen upon a oasis in the middle of the desert...Phillipe!

I stumbled into Laurent Perrier tired and thirsty for Champagne. Enter Phillipe...Frank was entertaining the boys in the car park ie. trying to stop them from breaking 1000 year old statues. I asked if they had a tasting...real French women (ie. not Parisian's) debated animatedly about the possibly and oui...c'est possible. Then voila enter Phillipe - so well dressed and he says you would like a tour and I indicate out the window to Frank and boys, grappling a century old statue and Phillipe says, 'please bring them up'. What followed defies description, Phillipe gives us a private tour of of the cellars of Laurent -Perrier.

Phillipe left us with a fabulous book and other memoirs of our visit. Other tours followed...among them Taittinger, Pommery - quite commercial. Disappointing was Roederer - I have long thought of Cristal as my favourite Champagne -but they were not hospitable. The staff wanted to know our connection in the industry but in a way that is really up themselves. 'Laurent-Perrier' is my new favourite Champagne!

5 top lessons in Paris

Since my last visit I have lived a whole life and so has Paris. I had two children; Paris has had many children from all over the world. Paris is the Angelina Jolie of capital cities.

At Dinner, after Disney, our waiter was a lovely French speaking Cambodian. We told him we had just been in Siem Reap and it was amazing to think so many people from distant lands have made Paris home.

So here are our five top lessons in Paris: 1. You can come from any where as long as you speak French

2. Black is the best colour (or non colour) of anything except meat - then red is the way to go

3. There can never be too many hair dressing salons in one street (Frank went to get his number 2 cut to number zero and was offered a shampoo and blowdry)

4. Eating carbs and drinking Champagne all day will not make you gain weight (and if it does you won't care you will just wear more black)

5. Do not wait for the little man at the traffic lights to turn green before you walk across (people in black always have right of way over traffic).

Disneyland Paris

We left our hotel at about 8:45am (it was still dark) planning to be at Disneyland when it opened at 10am. For Frank and the boys it was a first Disney trip.

Having lived in Tokyo and the U.S., I have been to Disneyland a few times and was expecting a full day with long lines and lots of walking. But, there is nothing so special as seeing Disneyland through your children's eyes. As an experienced Disney goer I coached Frank and the boys that it was best to run from ride to ride and not talk or take photos until you're in line for the next ride.

Frank was more impressed with the first rides, Peter Pan and Pirates of the Carribean, than the boys were. Rocco said, 'I thought you said it was fast and scary'. Well sorrrry...

We then discovered there is now a fast pass where you can wait in a long line for a ticket gives you a time to return to the ride and wait in another long line (somehow shortening your overall wait time). We tried to out smart the system by getting more than one fast pass at a time, but this wasn't possible. I was excited to show the kids my favourite ride, the haunted house, but it was closed due to a 'technical malfunction'. It finally opened and I explained to the boys how awesome the ride would be and way scary. I was surprised to find it a little less scary than I remembered and the boys stirred me up about this. It was time to up the ante and move onto rides that would scare the hell out of my delightful children. Exit Disneyland and enter Disney Studios (the Disney equivalent of Movie World or Universal Studios). But first lunch at Ratatouille's restaurant.

Lunch was a buffet and I was incredibly impressed when Ratatouille came out of the kitchen and entertained the guests. After lunch we headed to Aerosmith's Rock and Roller Coaster, a ride which was not recommended for anyone with a heart condition or who suffered from motion sickness (me) and had a minimum height requirement of 1.2 metres. Yeah, not a great idea right after lunch.

The closer to the ride we got the more we realised this was a bad idea. Especially when we saw the ride take off - a bullet train was counting down to takeoff where it shot into a blackened tunnel. I said, 'I'm not doing that'. Frank said, 'It only lasts thirty seconds'. It was the longest thirty seconds of my life. Rocco was next to me and as we are being spun upside down at 200 km's an hour he says, 'yeah, bring it on...it's okay mum'. I was totally silent and had my eyes closed most of the time; praying for it to end. After that experience, we went on Crusher's Coaster, which closed down after we had already been in line for thirty minutes. We decided to wait...

It was an Australian themed ride and though scary it was quite fun. We watched a show about the magic of Cinema, which was fantastic, and then Frank and the boys went on the Tower of Terror - an elevator which plunges 13 stories. I opted out of this one - I had no lunch left to give. Rocco and Sam say it was the most awesome ride of all.

It was a very full day and we were all exhausted on the train ride back to the hotel. It was standing room only and the kids were falling asleep standing up, literally using our bags (manbag in Frank's case) as pillows. Two young guys were laughing on seats next to us...totally oblivious to our situation. We (me and the boys) have been offered seats on public transport, by mostly older gentlemen, often. We have rarely taken it up and the boys and I have offered our seats to older people. At a time when we really needed it people seemed not to care. They were mostly in there early twenties...it was a single incident but it did test our natural faith in the younger generation. Thankfully the events that followed, in Reims, have more than restored our faith in human kind.

Bonne Annee 2012

It sounds glamourous - New Year's Eve in Paris! It started out pretty well...

We headed into Trocadero (a great vantage point from which to see the Eiffel Tower). It was about 4:30pm and the Metro was packed as you would expect. We arrived at Trocadero and the Eiffel was stunning. She knows how to turn it on; flirtateously playing with the crowd with an impressive lighting display. We didn't stop to enjoy it too long, walking from there to the Arc De Triomphe and along the Champs Elysees with many of the quickly growing throng. We stopped for a quick dinner at Leon's of Brussels.

There was a massive contingent of police and emergency services. We laughed. Some things are universal; big event equals emergency services en masse. Our laughter was premature and niave. When we arrived at the Palais De la Concorde and with feet aching, we deviated from the original plan which was to walk back to the hotel from there. In the moment, on local police advice, we headed back to the Eiffel (planning to leave Trocadero from there and head back to the hotel).

This is where the plan turned to to s--t. By now it was about 9:15pm and we headed toward the Eiffel along the banks of the Seine. Several shady characters on the walk tried to sell us bottles of wine and champagne (our as yet unopened bottle sat in Frank's manbag). We got caught up in the movement of the people and found ourselves underneath the Eiffel Tower, in the middle of a hundred thousand strong crowd. All sounds okay right? Until you realise a large proportion of the crowd is very drunk and rowdy and you are trying to keep your grip on your kids and your bag (manbag in Frank's case). Because we were in the middle of the lights of the Eiffel, which was like being on a stage, all around us was very dark, except for camera flashes. We argued about the direction of the Trocadero and finally agreed where it was based on the height and distance of the camera flashes. Extracting yourself and your kids from a heaving, excited crowd, moving in the opposite direction, is no mean feat given the yelling, the pushing and the shoving (much of that from us).

Police were directing the momentum of the crowd. We rushed against them toward Trocadero. Finally reaching the top of the momument, it was raining and we turned back for a look at the Eiffel - glorious and scary. I daren't take a photo because I would have been sans iPhone in an instant. By now it was 10:30pm and it was such a feeling of relief to know that we were close to the Metro and would beat the crowd back home to a safe, warm bed.

Imagine our horror when on reaching Trocadero station it was roped off with danger tape. We asked the police what was going on and got no response except that the nearest open metro station was 400 metres away. We quickly agreed to get a cab and get out of there. To my amazement we found one in minutes and ten minutes later were safely back in our hotel room. That 10 Euro cab fare (about $12.50 AUD) is the best money I have ever spent. We turned on the telly, cracked the champagne and watched New Year's celebrations from around the world (Dubai looked good, as did Hong Kong - no doubt better from our bed). At 11:45pm, the four of us walked out onto the street. A restaurant next door to our hotel was having a nice, initimate soiree -yes, we agreed, we should have done that. Then it stuck midnight, car horns beeped and the air was full of Bonne Annee's. We all kissed and had a grateful family hug before heading back to our room. It didn't turn out quite as expected but if it did we wouldn't be in Paris would we. Tomorrow we are off to Disneyland, much to the boys delight. Then we'll hire a car and given the parking situation in Paris the aim is to head into the French country side.