Two days in Paris and 3 in London was very short and sweet, but fit for purpose. I said goodbye to my tour group at the train station in Montparnasse Paris and they headed to Charles de Gaulle airport for their long flights back to New Zealand and for Charles, back to Edinburgh.
I have my second tour of the year in Turkey starting on the 17th June and before catching the Eurostar to London I have 2 days in Saint Germain Paris, sadly in the pouring rain!! It wasn’t essential to walk Paris this time anyway. I was happy sitting people watching in the corner restaurant below my friends Jacques and Anny’s apartment in the evening, eating steak and chips and drinking a good red wine from the Loire. They returned to Paris for my last day and there is nothing better than going for a walk to the market streets with a local. Jacques was very keen to show me the price of whole sole at 25 E a kilo. ($50) The markets operate 4 days a week and fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese, meat and fish are in abundance here.
I have never travelled on the Eurostar before and always felt rather uncomfortable about a train traveling in a tunnel under the sea. They seem to depart on the hour from Garde Nord station and since my train was late in the afternoon it was full of business people that looked like they had commuted from London for the day. It’s certainly a great way to travel but a nightmare with luggage. If the very small storage racks are full as we also found out from St Malo to Paris, lifting several 20kg+ suitcases up to the overhead rack is no fun.
My London friends Susan and Tom spoilt me once again for a very lovely 3-day stopover. Having time to relax, chat and even do the boring job of washing was a treat along with the customary visit to the Islington Ottolenghi and an afternoon in a few shops!!
But my highlight had to be our day trip to Great Dixter. The original 15th century house was added onto several times and was the original family home of gardener and gardening writer Christopher Lloyd. After the death of his parents he continued to develop the garden and write books and articles for over 40 years. It is now managed by Fergus Garrett and the Great Dixter Charitable Trust. We even have a New Zealander heading the kitchen garden. Many years ago I heard Christopher speak in Dunedin and it was a dream come true to visit his garden. The extent of the wild meadows surprised me as did the tall flowering yellow plants in many of the borders, which we found out are flowering parsnips. So there you go, even seeded vegetables can be stunning. Young people come from all over the world to work here and they were very happy to chat and answer our questions. It’s not often I would go to a garden nursery and come away with nothing and at least Susan and her lovely neighbour Kriseulla could be tempted.
I took myself off by bus and train to Kew Garden for my last day in London town. We visited here in 1995 as a family with three small children and I vividly remember taking Hannah’s photo, then aged 3 in drifts of daffodils. Today it was all about roses and the flowering huge herbaceous borders. But, everything is huge here, from the sheer size of Kew itself to the enormous trees, acres of grass and extensive plant collections. There were thousands of people and many groups of children, walking, picnicking or visiting the newly refurbished largest Victorian glasshouse in the world which is home to a collection rare and threatened temperate zone plants.
Obviously two days in Paris and three in London is not nearly enough, but I had an excellent time and feel rested and ready for my Turkish tour starting in Istanbul.