Dec 11

SATURDAY DECEMBER 11TH: IEPER TO PARIS

 
Today we leave this place a town that has become such a crucial part of the whole Connecting Spirits story. I love Ieper not just for the connections we have to it but also because of its classic elegance and easy living. At this time of the year it is especially pretty with all of the Xmas decorations in the town square and on the buildings. It is truly magical. Saturday is market day and the whole town square was full of stalls with food, clothes and many other bits and pieces. Considering the amount of excess luggage I was accumulating it was just as well that we had to leave without time to trawl through it all! By ten o’clock we were on the road to Paris and the last part of our journey. The journey takes about three hours so it was a time for chilling back listening to the iPod and then dozing. Richard played the CD’s we gave him so Elton John finally had a rest. I enjoyed this time to just reflect on the experiences of the last few weeks and knew it would take some time to digest it all. When we got to Paris, Richard took us to the main sites for the kids to get photos and parked the bus so we could walk them across to the Eiffel Tower not to go up but just so they could say they had been under it. The crowds and traffic was crazy and negotiating it all was again something he did with relative ease. On request he took the bus through the really narrow archway that leads into the Louvre…..centimetre perfect. And of course the compulsory lap or two around the Arc de Triomphe!!! Just love the squeals of delight, fear and sheer terror that accompany this experience; and that was just me! So with our brief look at the Paris sites including a sweep down the red light district of Montmartre (sex supermarkets with shopping trolleys if you please!!!!!!) our kids had a bit of a taste of this wonderful place. Checked into the hotel and had a bit of down time. Dinner was at the hotel and then Richard took us out again so the kids could see the lights show on the Eiffel Tower from the location of the Trocadero.
We arrived in plenty of time for the 9.00 pm show then soon it was back on the bus and time for bed. Tomorrow would be our final day together and it would be at Mickey Mouse land Paris Disney. I dreaded it as it was my turn to take the kids but tomorrow would prove to quite a different experience for me…..one that would take me by surprise!

To December 12th