Last days in Paris, and on the Eurostar!

On our last full day in Paris we explored around our own backyard, going up to Sacre Coeur church.  They sky was blue and clear (and cold - I'm wearing full thermals these days!), there was also plenty of clouds and it was a bit smoggy, so no great views.  We resisted the temptation to have our portrait drawn in Montmartre. Well Greg did anyway.  I was close to succumbing, but we moved on!  I had to drag Liam from the young French African guy who was trying to tie a friendship string around his wrist - another scam! - they always like to prey on the people they perceive as more vulnerable.  But he escaped unscathed!  We wandered through Pigalle to the Anvers metro station and down to the Marais to visit the Musee Carnavalet, one of those rare things in Paris, a free museum!  It is the history of Paris from its origins to present day, and we possibly would have got more from the tour if I could read more than the odd word of French.  And I thought my reading was better than my speaking!  Even Greg, with his fluent Franglaise (yes, he corrected me, it was not Frenglish!) could not translate the descriptions!  There was some nice art, and interesting things like an entire art deco room complete with mosaic floor.  We took the metro from St Pauls to the Tuileries for our picnic lunch.  As we ate, shivering, even Greg admitted to feeling a bit cold! Oh l'horreur!
Our plan was to visit the Musee de L'Orangerie and we had bought a combo ticket at the Musee D'Orsay the other day.  Just as well we did, as there was an enormous queue - even for those who had tickets!  This was because there was a temporary exhibition on Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.  It was PACKED so we squeezed though and then enjoyed the rest of the permanent exhibition with a bit more room to move.  Our last stop for the day was the Christmas markets on the Champs Elysee, and of course my first stop was to buy some vin chaud (aka mulled wine, aka ghulewien) - well I was damn cold and I needed to warm up!  We bought dinner here too.  I opted for l'onion soup, and it was pretty good for a street stall meal!
Yesterday dawned sunny and clear.  Bella and I went down to the Post Office with a pile of rubbish - oops, I mean souvenirs - and some unneeded clothing.  Bella has promised to pay more attention to my packing suggestions in future.  It's not all about looking cute you know!  I won't comment on how much it cost to post, only to note that it makes the souvenirs a LOT more costly than they initially appeared...back at the apartment, we loaded up our packs and set off to the Metro.  We seriously under estimated how tough it would be to walk down hill all laden up to the Abbess Metro, transfer to Pigalle, then onto Paris Nord, walking about 5kms, up and down a few stairs, finally reaching the Eurostar check in - we were very hot and sweaty!  A reminder of Darwin!! It was a big relief to get onto the Eurostar train (even though we were all dreading lugging all our stuff again the other end).   The trip was very quick and I tried not to feel too panicky when we were in the actual tunnel.  I'm sure they fix any leaks straight away, and how unlucky would we be to be in the first train to be drowned in the tunnel??  I'm really not keen on being under all that water.  Anyway we survived :-)
And arrived into a grey and drizzling London.  And that is all we have to look forward too according to the weather forecast!  We had bought our "oyster" train tickets (which you have to put credit onto as you go) on the Eurostar so only had to load up again, and trek our way through the odd few kilometres to finally reach the Victoria line underground, to go three stops to the Seven Sisters, and then walk another km or so to reach our London accommodation.  What a relief to get here!  The apartment is clean and tidy, with two bedrooms and a living area/kitchen.  The area is interesting - we are in Beaconsfield Road in Haringey in North London.  It appears to be a largely Jamaican area and Greg was amazed to find no less than 9 hairdressers between our house and the tube station!!  No problem if Bella or I want to get our hair straightened or braided!
We unpacked and had showers and went to the South Tottenham Train station so we could meet up with our friends Susie and Brian.  Greg & I met Susie and Brian when we worked at the Imperial pub in Leicester St back in 1986!  Susie came to visit us a long time ago - before Lachie came along! - and we have kept in semi-regular contact ever since, with Susie making each of the kids gorgeous patchwork quilts to celebrate their births, which we have cherished.  We had a lovely night with lots of laughs and great food and wine!
Today Bella, Liam and I went to the London Zoo - the world's oldest scientific zoo.  We got there just after 10am, when it opened, and went flat out until it closed at 4pm - when we hadn't seen it all, but managed to see everything we'd judged MUST be seen. We were watching the penguin show when the announcer said that anyone who got poo-ed on by the seagulls circling overhead had to come forward and get a sticker which said "I was poo-ed on at the Zoo" - she'd barely said the words when Bella shrieked.  Yes, she had been the recipient of a decent glob of seagull shit. She was not impressed, especially at Liam and I laughed (secretly thrilled it wasn't us!).  Bella got her sticker though! It was raining on and off all day, but it didn't affect our enjoyment of the day. We loved seeing sloths in action (slow mo, of course!), armadillos, otters, and lots of cheeky monkeys. We spent a little bit of time at the Camden markets before tubing back to North London.  Back at the house, Greg had made us pasta with mussels - delicious!