Plan B

Plan A today was for a very long walk across the moors with a pub lunch at the end, however torrential rain and the constant whinging of a 14 year old boy meant that we switched to Plan B.
Plan B involved calling at Woody's on Ecclesall Road in Sheffield for a Full Monty breakfast sandwich and a quick read of the Sunday papers before deciding that the rain had stopped enough for a quick stroll up to the Botanical Gardens.
We parked on Sharrow Vale Road - which is my favorite area in Sheffield - I'll do you a tour before Christmas. It has some of the greatest little shops, charity shops, Cafes, restaurants etc and has quite a villagey feel about it. We called in here for cupcakes to take home for tea.

We then walked via Ecclesall road and called in here for sweets.

They have the most fabulous little room upstairs called the Butterfly Boudoir where you can partake in hot chocolate, cakes, etc.

We then walked through to the recently restored Victorian Botanical Gardens

We wandered through the Pavilions,

where the exotic plants added much needed colour on this grey day.

I admired a mosaic on the wall.

By this time, the sun had actually popped out briefly and illuminated the lovely Autumnal colours.

The grounds house the fine Victorian bear pit. Apparently, this was closed down after a small child fell in and was mauled to death by the bear.

We recreated this most terrible disaster for you using the whinging 14 year old.

Ive said before that blogging makes me look at things in more detail. The statue of Pan in the gardens has some fantastic detailing around it.

Then it was back to spend the afternoon watching my latest Play.com purchase. I hadn't caught this when it was in the cinema and after my recent visit to Versailles, I was interested to watch it. I have to say that it was a delicious feast for the eyes. Beautiful costumes, jewellery, flowers, cakes, colours and scenery. And yes - we ate cake.

Bonfire night

I hate to say this, but I really don't like Bonfire Night. I think this stems from 2 incidents from my childhood that are still crystal clear in my memory.
The first was when I was about 5 years old and I had vomitted big style all over my favorite doll which was a proper Rag Doll called "Snotty Lottie". Try as she may, my mother could not get rid of the smell of the vom from Lottie, and so she thought it would be a great idea to use her as a Guy Folks on the bonfire!! I don't think she got her parenting skills from Spock - I think they were all her making! I'm not still traumatised by the image of my best bedtime buddy going up in smoke - but I still can see her to this day!
A few years later, I (just me on my own) had been invited to sleep over at the home of the "wealthy" branch of the family who were having a bonfire party. My mum kitted me out in a new hand knitted (very itchy - she only ever used cheap wool) pullover, and she treated me to a beautiful pair of brown suede shoes that I couldn't wear until I went to the wealthy cousins house. All was going well. They had a very tasteful "workmans brazier" instead of a fire (I told you they were posh!) and they were cooking potatoes in the fire which were delicious, but then someone lit a firework too close to me and a spark fell on my shoe and burned straight through to my foot. Now I was in pain from this ever so tiny burn, but I felt sick with fear thinking what my mums reaction was going to be to the hole in the brand new shoe. I couldn't sleep that night, and my uncle ended up taking me home - because of the burn, he thought, but it was in fact to get the wrath of my mum over and done with!! Fortunately, I didn't get the blame, but I did have to wear the shoe with its hole in, until it didn't fit me anymore.

When I had kids, I didn't want to transfer my fears onto them, but too many bonfire nights spent with friends/relatives pyromaniac hubby's, and a couple of organised displays that didn't go as well as they should, means that my bonfire nights now are rather tame affairs. We will be holding a Bonfire Barbecue on Sunday (the rain was too torrential last night) and I will make do with watching others fireworks from the relative safety of my garden.

I thought my photo looked slightly like fireworks, but it was actually an attempt to take a picture of the Arc de Triumph whilst crossing the road at twilight. It didn't turn out how I thought it would, but I quite like it.

Graffiti

One of the best things about holidaying with older teenagers is that you get to see things that you would have otherwise missed. Strolling down the Champs Elysee, the kids noticed a mega Addidas shop - not somewhere you would ever find me under normal conditions. However, this being Paris, the shop was quite spectacular. They were expecting Lionel Messi - who I am assured is "the next best thing" when it comes to football - competition for Christian Ronaldo by all accounts (means nothing to me!). The media production that was happening in the store because of the visit was amazing to watch, camera men riding up and down the escalators shooting things at crazy angles etc. Whilst the kids went in search of essential items to spend my money on (the worst thing about holidaying with older teenagers!!!) I had a good look at the "props" around the store and fell in love with these graffiti chairs.

They would look so cool in our "multi media" room (spare bedroom that houses the Playstation, books, DVDs etc aka the "Playroom").

This other piece of Graffiti artwork was covering up building work and had been commissioned by Disney to promote their Halloween spectacular. I would have walked straight passed it had it not been for the dancing queen.

By the way Rosie - forgot to tell you that the Carousel in Amelie can still be found at the bottom of the steps near the Sacre Couer.

Let them eat cake!

Whilst Louis X1V's policies, spending habits and treatment of his people were undoubtably wrong on every level, he did however manage to leave France and the world one of the best man made tourist attractions ever (I'm sure that there is a lesson in there somewhere!!!). I had imagined that the palace of Versaille would be something like Chatsworth, but on a grander scale. I wasn't prepared for just how enormous the scale was and how this extended to the town or the gardens. Words and pictures can never convey the grandeur and the opulance and the sheer "WOW!!!" of the place. If you have been, you'll know what I mean - if you haven't - just go.



The Opera house which is attached to the palace hosts concerts on a regular basis - the next time I visit, I shall make sure that I catch one of these.

We decided that we would not have time to visit the interior of the Palace as the queues for tickets were enormous - so next time, I will book these in advance. However it was far too nice a day to spend indoors and there were other parts of the estate I really wanted to visit.

All the flower borders had been emptied but the autumnal colours of the trees were beautiful.

Marie Antoinette's "Play area's" were off the scale. I had read about the Grand and Petite Trianon's and the farm when I was at school and had earmarked these as the places I would like to look around.

The little theatre where she staged her own plays (it was too dark to photograph) was the sweetest thing I had ever seen - apart from...........

the hamlet and farm that she had built to play in.

We parked for free, it only cost 10 euros each for hubby and I to visit the Trianons and farm, and like most of the attractions in Paris, kids under 18 go free - so all in all a truly marvelous and inexpensive day out.

Another one of my favorite parts of the day was wandering around the town of Versaille when it got dark and having a good nosey in at all the wonderful apartments lit up for the evening. So simple and elegant and so shabby chic.

Paris - Part 2

Our second full day in Paris was equally as energetic as the first. I lured the kids into walking again by promising them a stop off in the shopping district, but I really only wanted to catch a glimpse of the beautiful dome inside the famous Galleries Lafayette. It was very stunning.

After a quick look around, we headed off up the hill to Montmatre. I know its very touristy, and in places a bit tacky, but it is great fun - however the kids didn't think the climb up was much fun!

I heard several accordion's playing which added to the atmosphere, and the mime artist was funny.

I would have loved to step back in time to see the original artists and Bohemian's when they lived here. I tried to find the Cafe and fruit and veg stall from Amelie, but I failed.

We finally made it to Sacre Couer - simply stunning against the blue sky.

The view down the hill is amazing and the haze made it very atmospheric.

After a look in the Sacre Couer (and a touch of the Virgin Mary's foot!! we just did it because everybody else was doing it - if you know why, please enlighten me!), it was off back down the hill and back to have a look in the Louvre.

My daughter tells me that it would take you 3 full weeks to look around everything in the Louvre, and she should know as she is a bit of an expert on the place. I was puzzled as to how she knew her way around the place so well - she knew exactly where the Mona Lisa was! She told me that she has played on "Playstation 2 Davinci Code" so many times, she even knows the short cuts!! and they say that computer games are not educational!!

We didn't get chance to have an in depth look around, and it was very busy in parts, but I loved what I saw. It would be a great place to explore even without the art.

Ans so concluded our last full day in the city centre. Tomorrow I'm taking you to Versailles which I have to say totally bowled me over.

AuRevoir for now mes amies xxxxxxxx

Paris - part 1

Bonjour!!

We have just returned from a romantic week for four in Paris - which was part of hubby and I's joint birthday trip (he is 50 in March). We didn't think that we would be able to get away for our birthdays as I keep getting emails etc at work threatening redundancy and with the general way the "credit crunch" is panning out, but in true Diane fashion, I was able to find us a fabulous deal - thanks to the French love of "Le Camping"!! We stayed on a campsite on an island in the middle of the Seine in the affluent suburb of Maisons Laffitte courtesy of Eurocamp in a lovely little static caravan (well equipped and spotlessly clean, but don't bring your cat to swing!!)that cost £200 all in, including the ferry from Dover to Calais!! I reckon that the savings made on wine brought back more than pays for this jaunt!!
Maisons Laffitte was lovely complete with its own Chateau in the middle of town and a handy 20 minute train ride which dropped us off right outside the Arc de Triumphe. I won't bore you with the several hundred photo's that I took, but to get the general flavour:
The Chateau in Maisons Laffitte - the area is famous for Horse Racing (apparently) and several horses were being exercised in the park when we looked around. The houses were all stunning and the little school looked like the one in "Madeleine". It is a lovley area and I would stay there again without hesitation.
We emerged from the train by the side of the Arc de Triomphe. We explored around here - I had forgotten about the eternal flame at the Tomb of the unknown soldier, and this brought a tear to my eye.

From the top, we were able to see the the Grande Arche at La Defence - amazing.

We walked down the Champs Elysee (which took forever as the kids could not resist a look around the amazing shops on here) - we crossed at the Place de la Concorde and ended up at the Louvre. I had forgotten the immense scale of the old building and the architecture and stone masonry were so spectacular. We didn't go in on this day , but we did the day after - more of that later.

We bobbed across to the Isle de la Cite and visited Notre Dame. As you can see, we had the best weather ever - it was sunny and very hot!

We sat for a while in Notre Dame. I had decided that the only way to get around was to walk so we didn't use the Metro at all.

One of the highlights of the trip was when they switched on the twinkly lights on the Eiffel Tower, just as we were catching our breath. Priceless and a perfect end to the first full day in Paris.