Mont St Michel to Paris to LondonNov 18, 2011
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| So a little known fact about France. Gas stations are few and far between, so if you see one, top off. We didn't do that. We left Mont St Michel (MSM) around 8, knowing that the first thing we needed to do was to get gas. And coffee. No coffee in the room, continental breakfast (coffee and rolls) at the hotel was 14 EU each, so we decided to wait and get coffee at the gas station. I don't do well without coffee. It was raining and David was stressed to begin with about driving a stick shift in France - throw in rain and no gas and it was not a good omen. We finally saw a sign for gas when the red light in the car went on and only had to pray that we could hang on for 20 more kilometers. We were pretty much coasting on fumes and old memories when we finally got to the station. Spent about 50 dollars for about 5 gallons of gas and got coffee and rolls and all was well. The drive from MSM back to Rouen was about 3 hours of rain, traffic, big trucks and stress. We finally got there and circled the train station for a while trying to figure out where to park the car, but we made it. David was exhausted. My teeth hurt from clenching them. We wrere done with the driving portion of our trip and damn glad about it. We were also Croque Madame (bread, bechemel, ham, gruyere, bechemel, bread, tons of gruyere, under the broiler until the cheese melts and becomes brown and bubbly. Top with fried egg. It was also the release date for Nouveau Beaujolais which is the nastiest wine in the world and I have sworn I would never drink it again and David made me. Still the nastiest wine in the world. I will not drink it ever again and NOBODY can make me. Back to the train station, train to Rouen, metro and train to hotel, off to dinner. We had Moroccan food for dinner - I had tangine of chicken with preserved lemons and olives. It was great - the salty olives and sweet lemons with the chicken was perfect. David had couscous with vegtables in a stew and a kabob and meatball and chicken - it was amazing. I also got French macarons which are wonderful - I had gotten one at Harrod's, but they are better in France. Metro back to hotel (steps steps steps) and to bed. Got up this morning and packed. We had gotten a bottle of champagne the night before and left it in the hotel fridge. At breakfast, we gathered up some rolls and cheese and salami and headed out to Gare du Nord train station. We have all of our bags now and are dragging them all over these old cobblestone streets, but we made it and got on the Eurostar train from Paris to London. About 2 and 1/2 hour trip and we enjoyed the champagne and sandwiches from breakfast as we went under the English channel through the chunnel. When we got to Kings Cross, we dragged ourselves and our bags over to the Picadilly line to take the tube to Heathrow - we're staying at the Sofitel at Terminal 5 these last two nights. As we're waiting for the train, we're all advised that there is a mechanical problem on the tracks and the line is closed for the immediate future. So we dragged ourselves and our bags (steps steps steps) over to the Hammersmith line and caught a tube to Paddington where we caught the express to the airport. We are about to leave to go on the champagne tour of the London Eye, then we'll walk over to Charing Cross and see Driving Miss Daisy with Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones. We're pretty excited about that. Tomorrow we will do the Hop on, hop off bus because it's been years since we've done that and then get ready to go. Home on Sunday. Work on Monday. Ought to be interesting. |
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