Saturday, April 9, 2011
London, England to Paris, Fance
At 7:00am, Jonathan drove Jan and I and Tara to St Pancras station, where we will catch the Eurostar to Paris. This was a most kind and generous gesture, and was so much appreciated by all of us.
At the station we met Leanne, who was packed and ready and there even earlier than us, and had just finished doing a bit of food shopping for the train trip. We had a coffee together, then headed to passport control, then luggage inspection, then sat and waited for a half hour or so. Finally the track number was posted for the Eurostar, and we headed up the escalator, found our track number, then our carriage number, and finally our seat number, the four of us sitting together facing each other across a table. Across the aisle, one of Leanne's running mates, Thera, plopped down with her sister and mother (Breeny and Kathleen) in tow. Thera has been working in London for a few years but is from Vancouver originally, and her mother and sister had just come over a couple of days before to cheer her on at the Marathon. The third runner in the group, Ruth, will be coming from London tomorrow.
We all chattered away for the whole journey to Paris, including the Chunnel crossing, arriving at Paris Gare du Nord terminal at 12:47pm. It was a two hour passage, as advertised, but Paris is one hour ahead of London on the clock. We took taxis to our Paris apartment, 20 Rue de Louvre, and waited and lunched across the street while Leanne and Thera got the apartment keys, then they joined us for lunch also with Breeny and Kathleen. We are not staying in a hotel, but rather Leanne and Thera arranged accomodation through a Paris apartment rental agency, who rent units from owners who are not in the city.
After parking our gear in the room, Leanne and Thera went to sign in at the Marathon site and pick up thier race package, bibs, etc. Jan and Tara and I, together with Thiera's mother and sister, walked the two blocks to the Seine, just past the back of the Louvre itself, and turned left toward the Pont Neuf and beyond to the cathedral Notre Dame.
There we met with Shane and Sonja, who were here to support Leanne in her marathon run as well. They had been here a couple of days, and had done the Montmartre visit and other essentials, though they are both seasoned travellers and are no strangers to Paris visits. Next, Shane and Sonja and Jan and I and Tara headed off for some wine and beer, and were joined later by Leanne, Thera, Breeny and Kathleen.
Jan and I had been pondering for a while about how to make ourselves visible to Leanne during the run, so that she could know that we were there watching her. Various ways came up, but we kept coming back to the notion of a balloon filled with helium, perhaps in the form of a Canadian flag. But we hadn't done anything about it in Canada, because we couldn't bring it on the plane with us. As we were sitting, wine-ing and chatting, we saw a woman go by with a little girl who was holding a helium balloon on a long string. Sonja popped up and asked the woman where she got the balloon, and the woman said "Luxembourg Gardens". We consulted our map, found it, and soon Jan, Tara, Shane, Sonja, and I went off to walk there. Across the street, dodging traffic, then up a long hill right beside the Sorbonne, (the University of Paris), a right turn, down and across a bunch of streets, and finally, a large beautiful park. Into the park, crowded with Parisiennes basking in the sun on the grass and around a lovely large fountain and pool, then ahead a concession selling the helium balloons. We selected two large and colorful blue and green fish balloons, very distinctive, with double lengths of strings. Tara became the fishmeister, holding them as we walked along heading back toward the Louvre and home for the night.
We got lost along the way, heading in the wrong direction, but eventually got pointed correctly though we wound up having to ride the Paris subway to get to our destination. Tired but happy with our balloons, we then tried to decide what to do about dinner. Shane had a great idea to get to a store and buy wine, beer, and groceries and have a picnic. We found a small store just off Rue du Rivoli, bought our supplies, and took them back to the apartment where the five of us, Shane, Sonja, Tara, Jan, and I had our picnic.
Leanne and David joined us for a while, David having just arrived late via the Eurostar. Soon everyone headed off to their respective hotels for bed, as it is race day tomorrow and we have to look after our star runners.
