T Stands for The (Almost) Missing Day!

 Hi everyone, things are slowly returning to normal around here! We are taking our car in tomorrow to have the wing mirror repaired and on Thursday I am meeting up with friends for lunch! 

The weekend saw us celebrating hubby's 70th birthday - he requested a visit to the area near our old caravan and we had a wonderful time and even managed to surprise him with the two eldest boys and families turning up! 

More of that another time, now we are off to Paris again!

As I mentioned the next day was craft show day - Version Scrap Paris!

We woke up to snow falling gently past our bedroom window - it was only when we got home that we realised that neither of us had taken photos of it! It snowed on and off all day too!

I took this photo as we walked through the park to the show - it was really cold and didn't want to stop.

I took a few photos of the show....

You can see hubby here looking for Carabelle Studio stencils

We caught the Navette back to the Metro.

This Wisteria is usually much bigger but we did visit earlier this year!

So these are just about the only photos I took that day and hubby didn't take any at all! 

The next day we set off on a sunny but cold day! We passed the nearby park. There was a Tai Chi lesson taking part.

I will be coming back here to show you the posters another time.

As we had taken our time our first priority was lunch

We came to Petit Boullion and it is here that I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T Stands For Tuesday. 

A very basic looking interior but busy and amazing food!

Quite typically Blogger has these out of order! The starters are in the second photo.

Hubby had Salade Parisienne, I had leek quiche to start.

Hubby had a fish pie as his main I had a vegetable lasagne.

Hubby likes a Cafe Gourmande for his dessert - a selection of small desserts. I just had a cafe noisette(espresso with dash of milk)

We also had water of course!

We set off for the Montparnasse Tower - hoping to go up to the restaurant, only to find that it now closes at the weekends - but not to worry as that was only one place we were headed that afternoon

I took this photo from the Jardin Atlantique. Access to it is by steps leading up from Platform 1 at Montparnasse station.

There were children playing here so I had to wait for this shot.

The garden is surrounded by high buildings which gave some shelter from the cold wind and we sat here a while (in our coats) enjoying the sun!

I hope that you can see that this garden is built on top of Montparnasse station - that is train at a platform through the wire 

There are tennis courts and table tennis tables too

I think you may agree that this is one of Paris's best secrets!

Thanks for looking, Chris

 

The Answer...

 Hi everyone, just popping in quickly before going out to celebrate hubby's 70th birthday!

I made this page over a couple of days, in between making his card. He kept popping his head round the door.

I am of course joining in at Art Journal Journey for Alison (Craftytrog)'s theme 'Play It Again Sam' 

I have been listening to a lot of old music and when I heard this song it reminded me of how many times I used to hear it back when it was first released in the 60's

The song was written by Bob Dylan but I must confess to liking Joan Baez's version more

The main image is by Katzelcraft and I added a grungy stamp that I bought many years ago! Lots of spattering too! 

The answer of course is 42!

I'll be back soon

Thanks for looking, Chris

T Stands for travelling out of Paris

Hi everyone, you may have already read that our trip Paris was not as successful as any other trip we have had there! 

We had seen weather forecasts that warned us that it was going to colder than usual for the time of year until part way through out trip(we also knew that it was going to be colder in the UK too)

We opted for taking layers but hadn't taken hats, although fortunately had gloves and I had a couple of scarves.

It was cold when we left home and the journey to London to catch Eurostar should have been our warning! We were part of a small minority wearing face masks and the coffee machine on the train was broken. When we got to London we took the short walk to St Pancras station and the wind was very cold.

We did however have a very nice meal before we went to the Eurostar terminal.

We bought salad and sandwiches to eat on the train before we reached Paris and had a lovely welcome at our usual hotel before a comfortable night's sleep! 

The next morning there was a beautiful sunrise over the rooftops.

By the time we were ready to leave the hotel the sun had disappeared. We had a plan to visit Coulommiers where hubby, when in his teens, had done some restoration work on the Commanderie in Coulommiers.

After receiving some assistance from an SNCF employee we had our tickets and boarded the train. A super modern train!

 

When the door opened the ceiling light changed colour.

Coulommiers was very quiet and very cold......

...but an attractive looking town

We were too late for coffee so we started to look for a place to eat. We had already passed one restaurant on our way from the station but confident that there would be lots more in the town centre we headed that way. 

We did come to one but it only seemed to be serving beef or veal(no thank you)

The next place looked promising but on walking in there were lots of men around a bar and a couple more at a table eating - I didn't feel so comfortable with that so we finally settled on Italian

The tuna and tomato pasta was comforting and delicious...and huge!

It is here that I will join Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T Stands for Tuesday.

Hubby had Cola and I had Tonic water.

I was willing the couple sitting here to leave before us.

The restaurant was quite full when we arrived but as it was warm we took our time!

By this time it had been raining!

We went to the tourist office to find which bus we needed to catch, only to find that the Commanderie was closed. Time to get back into Paris we thought. We spotted a church and thought we would take a look before heading back to the station.

Lots of Mistletoe in the trees - it must have been a good year for this parasite plant - there are lots in the UK too

Back in Paris - we had a little walk before going to a restaurant for a  starter and dessert.

On our way back to the hotel we walked through this beautiful gallery.

A disappointing first day - but the next day there was a craft show to visit!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Note - blogger has had me scrolling up and down for ages putting gaps where I didn't want them and not allowing me to place photos where I wanted!