Holiday to Paris and England 2016

 Holiday to Paris and England June 2016    23/6/16

28th May-- Easy Jet to Paris on a Saturday that BG airport was very empty and we heard a lot of French spoken there.  I sat next to David Goldman said his father was Polish and mother Tunisian and he was in Israel for a family bar mitzvah. He studied hotel management  and had worked in the States and opened a lunch restaurant that is only open during the 5 week days. The Petit Salidier.
Stayed the night at the CDG -- Citizen M. This hotel room has an enormous bed and a shower cubicle that includes the toilet interesting design of room and TV lights all works from an IPad. Fun place to stay --hi tech hotel.
29th May  Took the RER B to San Michelle  and walked to our acomodation which was a studio apartment on the 3rd floor.  What is weird is that flats have no numbers or names on the doors and they never gave us the building number so you have to remember what the floor mat looks like.  Except for paying a deposit by credit card the rest we paid in cash so it seems that they evade tax. The 2 guys we dealt with were a pleasant couple. The studio was very cozy and well-designed but should have had a table that you could pull down from the wall instead of eating from a coffee table. If they build studio apartments in Israel they could solve the housing shortage for young couples without kids.
Today in France the new generation can all speak English and I was surprised to find that most signs in French we could figure out what they said even though we don’t understand one spoken French word.
We walked to Notre Dame where there is an organ concert on Sundays but could not get in.  Instead there was a marque with an exhibition on the French baker and the best baguette.  We took a long walk to see the Pantheon.
That evening we met relatives, Bruno and Carmella, at a restaurant in Montmartre where we enjoyed an excellent French dinner.  They no longer own a car as they live in the center of the city and use public transport but when necessary hire an electric car which you take and return to another point where you can plug it in.  We were shown the road where Woody Allen filmed Midnight in Paris and are aware that the French are great lovers of his movies. We also saw the house where a few of the impressionists lived. They drove us to the Eiffel Tower exactly in time for it to light up and Astrid took photos of that and we had a night time tour of the city.
30th May Because of the rain we to the on/off bus and went the whole route to get the feeling of the city which is certainly grander and more glorious than London. You have earphones which give you a commentary of what you are seeing. I made the mistake of blasting the volume on Astrid's connection and she jumped a foot in the air before retaliating! The rain kept falling and we had our winter thermals to keep us warm.
The Champs Elyse means Elysian Fields and the circle around the Arch de Triumph has 10 streets leading to it so they say it is not surprising that cars get dented there. We got back to Notre Dame and close by is the Shakespeare which is an English pub, coffee bar and bookshop in a house that could be from Shakespearean times. We dried off there before going back to our flat.
31st May Walked in the Latin Quarter Rue Mouffetard to the open market and saw stalls of food that the French buy the display of fish and sea food as well as the fresh meats and variety of cheeses.  We went for an organized walking tour part of the on/off bus and this took us from Notre Dame and got an explanation of how that was built with buttresses. The book Notre Dame de Paris(The Hunchback) was written by Victor Hugo at a time when the cathedral was neglected and it encouraged the Paris authorities to renovate the building. Walked past the Palace of Justice which was a palace turned into the supreme court and it has one of the oldest clocks on it. From there we walked to the Louvre and had an explanation on the construction of the building. Our guide gave us a vivid description of how the French were better at torture than the Brits --I felt faint and Astrid had to give water and a candy! She was most amused.
We then went to the Invalides which was an enormous residence and hospital built by Napoleon for veteran soldiers but today it is a war museum as well as the tomb of Napoleon. We had a tasty lunch at their cafe.
1st June took the Metro to Gare de Nord from where we got the Eurostar to St. Pancreas. The Eurostar is a far nicer way of travelling than the plane, it goes from the center of Paris to the center of London and cost the same as a plane and you save the cost of travel to the airports. Went to Fulham where we stayed at the Malthouse.  This is a big pub and restaurant where we had a 5 star dinner. It has  6 rooms (modern with bathrooms) above and each with a different name Barley, Baker, Copper, Hops, Kiln, Malting.  That night we went to a play called "People, Things and Places" at the Wyndham  theater, this was an excellent play on a terrible subject drug addiction and it used noise and lighting to give the feeling what a addict suffers in "cold turkey"
2nd June --Thursday visited Brenda and Frank in Oxford and they took us to the Plough pub restaurant for lunch.  Brenda and Frank had to get to London as a plumber was coming the next day so we traveled back to London with them.
3rd June Friday we visited Brenda and Frank in London and from there walked to the coach station for a bus to Cheltenham in the Cotswold’s.
The journey takes you through beautiful country and luxurious forest on the side of the road. The only problem was that there was a howling kid on the bus the whole journey.
Walked from the town centre to our hotel the Cheltenham Town House which was in a area call Pittville Park a housing estate developed in the 1830 and near it is Gustav Holtz the musicians house.  From the hotel we had a 25 minute walk to the famous Cheltenham Race Course where the music festival was. The next day we were able to take the bus there, but it was a pleasant walk past parks. At the gate they check that you don't bring in alcohol, there is beer/spirits on sale inside.
Of the many groups we liked the Hummingbirds from Liverpool as their style sounded like the Beatles. There was the Water Boys an American group started 1983. Also a terrific Irish singer by the name of Kate Bushby and the final day of the show there was the standup artist and singer, Bill Baily, on the main stage. We were lucky that the weather was dry the whole time. The other thing interesting at this festival was that Waterstone's were promoting children’s books and they had authors talking about their works to children.  These authors seem to be very good kindergarten or elementary school teachers, by telling stories and drawing pictures and had the kids enthralled.
This hotel/guesthouse really gave a 5 star breakfast and I ate scrambled egg on toast with smoked salmon every day all 3 days we were there.

6th June Monday Walked through the city to the coach stop from where we went to London and transferred directly to the Brigton coach. This took us through parts of south London that we have never seen passed the Battersea Power Station which is being turned into blocks of flats but the façade is being preserved. Drove through Vauxhall, Brixton and finally after we reached Sutton did we see countryside. Then to Gatwick Airport and finally Brighton.  In Brighton we walked along the beach road and then walked up the hill to the Montpelier area where our B+B was. Had supper in a nearby pub called the Lion . I had fish while Astrid had sea food.

7th June Tuesday met Fred Daily at the Brighton Royal Pavilion, while we were waiting a seagull swooped down and took a sandwich off a person’s plate. Then there was a thunder storm so we left for shelter while the open air coffee shop folded up all their chairs and tables. We went to an enclosed coffee shop with Fred and Hedva. After that Fred took us for a walk around the area.  The Royal Pavilion is from George IV and the Regency period and is Indian architecture very different from the building around. We walked to the Brighton Pier and landmark one knows from the movies.  The whole city is designed for holiday makers and is on holiday the whole year round. It has a pebble beach and there is a place that once had a fish market and there is the Fishing Museum.
Fred and Hedva took us for a drive along the coast Brighton then becomes Hove and we went inland  to Devils Dyke.  This is a hill with remnants of Neolithic settlement some of the oldest residents in England. We had supper at the pub on the hill and then went for a walk around and you could look down into the valley where there were 2 cricket matches taking place till the last of the twilight.

8th June Wed.  Took a long walk through Brighton and Astrid did shopping for the grandsons at BHS one of an enormous chain of clothing shop which is about to close and was full of bargains, I waited outside for her where a brass jazz band was playing and read my book. We walked through the Lanes which are crowded with shops and there is a section of jewelry  shops with narrow passages between them and a variety new and used books, clothes. Had lunch at a vegan/ vegetarian restaurant and take-away, which was very busy with mostly young people.  In the evening we met up with Fred and Heddy for a walk on the promenade and a pub dinner.

9th June Thur. We had to run to get to the coach station as we were kept waiting to pay at our B and B. We got to London and arrived at our family, Lionel and Minne Fry.  Went to see the play ,the Deep Blue Sea,  by the writer of "The Winslow Boy", at the National Theater --a 1952 story of relationships in that period for example a doctor was struck off the role for being homosexual.

10th June Fri. We woke up late and Astrid helped Minne set up her IPad with Kindle and books she was interested in reading. Went to Waterstone's for lunch and had scones and tea. Astrid did shopping for the Cheddar cheese we were schlepping back to Israel. Had supper with Lionel, Minne, Kathy and Zachary came to join us.
11th June. Sat. We had breakfast and later tea and cheesecake in the garden to celebrate Shavuot.  In the street the neighbors were setting out the street party with food and bunting for the Queens 90th birthday and we left for Luton before it rained which I think must have washed out the party. Spent the night at the Citizen M at the Charles de Gaul where the guy in charge recognized us and asked us about our holiday
12th June We were supposed to fly out at the crack of dawn but the plane was postponed till 1pm Luckily we had arrived by plane to CDG as the French railways were on strike. It was the end of Shavuot so Ben Gurion Airport was empty.
Thus ended another fun and eventful holiday planned by my better half. If you want to hear the story about my jeans you will need to ask Astrid--- everyone thought it hilarious!