Paris Holiday – part 1
Bonjour! Je m’appelle Matthew!!
Last weekend Sam and I ventured to Paris to celebrate – for me – 12 months of awesomeness, and for Sam, 12 months of putting up with me! It was good. The mushy stuff I will spare you, but it was good!!
Was a mildly stressful week leading up to the trip. My Christmas digestive problems returned for an “aftershock” – I was ill and off work again on Tuesday and Wednesday, and my leave began on Thursday, with the train early on Friday morning. In intense pain on Tuesday evening I didn’t think we could make it. Sam wasn’t faring much better herself – she has a long standing toothache which is awaiting treatment at my Christmas residence, and right on top came a stinking week-long migraine. Together we were trying to remain optimistic whilst really feeling the worst for wear.
Friday morning came – we were booked on the 0802 Eurostar out of St Pancras, and aiming to get to the station an hour ahead of the train meant we had a very early alarm call. We packed – or thought we had – everything we needed and finally got to bed the night before at about 11pm. A few hours later the grim sound of Sam’s alarm (“Animato Tone.mp3 on a Samsung S8300 if you’re interested – it’s a noise I associate with misery) went off, we dressed and decamped onto a stupidly packed 164 bus (it was 0545!) to Morden, and straight onto a direct Mill Hill East train (typical) for the journey to Kings Cross St Pancras (changing at Stockwell of course, we’re all over it).
Anyway, long story short, we arrived at our hotel – the magnificent Magic Circus in Magny-le-Hongre (take the RER B from Gare du Nord to Châtelet les Halles, change cross platform there for the RER A all the way to Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy where you can get a free shuttle bus, only first time round we didn’t as we didn’t know it existed so walked!) in the early afternoon, having had an interesting time trying to order food at the Gare du Nord (“parlez-vous Anglais?”, “non”, “oh, er, je voudrais une burger”) and buy a ticket for the RER journey – the ticket machine may have a choice of languages but that doesn;t make them any easier to understand! We spent the rest of the day checking out the hotel facilities – venturing to the restaurant we knew would be expensive only to find it was way more expensive than we ever thought possible (half our holiday budget would have gone in one meal in there!), before retiring to bed with plans aplenty for the next day.
We made devastating use of the free bus to the RER station the next morning – only after what became a trademark walk into the lobby to see the bus departing (only 15 minutes to the next one though). Plan was to tour Paris, but we ended up not doing – Sam spied the Stade de France on the métro map and suddenyl a stadium tour was on the agenda. But before we got there, we needed the Parisien equivalent of a one day travelcard to buy. They are really nice and helpful to tourists – every station has a poster or sticker on the machine in english recommending the Paris Visité pass – an expensive ticket to say the least. I remembered having a conversation with a member of métro ticket office staff when Steve Karahan and I were in Paris last year (non-romantic, was a bit of rail geekery that didn’t come good) where we asked what the difference between a “mobilis” and the Paris visité was – the answer was “the price”, so we invested in mobilis-es (a jeune version for those young enough 
), saved a packet, and decamped off to St Denis…
What an awesome stadium it is too! The tour was cheap as chips and entirely in french, although to his credit the guide took us aside as we walked between areas to give an overview in English – which was really nice and well appreciated. But the ground is magnificent – did you know the seats move back when they are running athletics events (to fit in the track without compromising the view when not, unlike at Brighton :/), and that the French national football side use the away dressing room as that is what they were allocated for the World Cup Final when they won it in 1998? Well now you do!!
Afterwards we were starving so I proceeded to order a whole takeaway in French – skills me – and by this time it was getting late so we packed off back to the hotel to have a quick exercise – in the pool and gym you dirty buggers – and freshen up for a meal out to celebrate our 1 year of togetherness. Remember how I said I had packed everything? I faced a posh meal out with no shoes (only trainers) – still at home in the living room. Still there now actually. And my posh going out shirt requires cufflinks. On the shelf in the living room. Were then, still are now. I was also running short of clean underwear, but you don’t need to know that. I felt I had ruined everything but I like to say I brushed up well (Sam, can you confirm?) and we went out for our meal. The staff in our restaurant were mega-racist but we didn’t care. We got a bottle of wine on the way home (no corkscrew though, d’oh), and we went to sleep enjoying the holiday that was now halfway gone already…
Did the letter about the staff at WRU get posted….! I know you told me I probably shouldn’t read your blog… but…. I couldn’t resist… Geek
P
Not yet, went to Post Office for some stamps but the queue was so long I’d still be there now…
Welcome back! I am all over this shit dawg!
I’m impressed with the BBC so far as well for the most part
The worst part of the team in my mind is EJ, his interview with Bernie in Malaysia was just cringeworthy!
The best bit… has to be The Chain being back
And you’re right about the muppet, his blog is really good, he certainly is coming across better than when he was getting too excited behind the microphone!
Awww, you’re so sweet
)
Well, of course it will rain, as it always does when we actually get some time off together and make plans, don’t you just hate that guy called sod!!! Grrr! xx
Can’t wait, June is gonna be a fantastic month
D yay xx
:’( stupid depressing survival Sunday :’(
Why have you tagged Sheffied Untied… who are they? ;o)
Sorted
Woah…. a posting!!!!
You shouldn’t need any more things to keep you focussed, if you aren’t focussed now then you never will be….
It looks like Turkish coffee. If you’d called it that, everyone’d think you were very cultured.
YOU think oystercards are annoying…. try bloody working with the damn things then you will realise the TRUE extent of their annoyance
Was amazing, got better the further and further forward we got. Song of the night was either “Return of the White Rabbit” or “Girl From Mars” for me, or “Kung Fu” for that matter, on sheer crowd reaction alone
It worried me slightly when the person behind the glass at Gloucester Road rubbed the oyster card on the reader for several second when registering it…
I thought that your paper travel card was far better than anything with a chip in it
Of course it’s a valid hobby. When I went to that very 1st Z1 one day I really didn’t know what to expect and thought it would almost certainly be my 1st and last challenge. I wasn’t expecting to fit in at all or that people would talk to me. I couldn’t have been more wrong, everyone was friendly and chatty and of course the full network talk cropped up. I looked rather terrified at a tube map commenting “I wouldn’t know where to begin” It just looked so daunting, scary and impossible. Pete Lupton (Fat Buoy) said he had a route and would go around with me Amersham – Upminster. It never actually happened and it seems crazy looking back but it wasn’t even going to be a record attempt, just a “we will get around all the stations” which at the time just seemed impossible. The thought of ever doing this for a world record just didn’t seem a remote possibility, it’s madness this person I saw on the tube; Geoff Marshall is brilliant how could we ever even try for a GWR?
We supported Ric Brackenbury, David Scard and John Stark on a full network challenge visiting parts of the network we had never been near before and did a food drop for Peter Miller and his brother on our way to the start of the inaugral “snake challenge”. I can’t remember how the discussion came about to team the Browns up with John Stark and he came up with a full network route one lunch hour and we thought he was brilliant. Wow we have a route to do full the network this is amazing, this must be the only realistic possible route.
So we went out and did it on for children in need in November 2006, we hadn’t even run it through Transport for London journey planner but who cared, who knew we had a route!!
Since then Matt has teamed up with the Browns, Antony and his son Phil and my 2 boys Jamie and Ryan. We have spent many hours route planning at “headquarters” being the Air New Zealand office at Radius Park….
Wow actually there are hundreds of possible full network routes, Geoff Marshall isn’t so great after all, the time is not impossible to beat I have routes over an hour inside that!
So moving to the present day I have 2 world records, neither in great times and neither that satisfying or pleasing. Matt is incredibly unlucky also not to have 2 world records. The time has come down greatly and route planning, strategy and fitness have dramatically improved.
The alternative challenges and other events such as Zone 1 day, The random 15 championships and tube olympics are fantastic get togethers where we have met and made true and great friends. The social side after these events is also great fun with darts at the pub, a darts league and also social drinking and darts days without any tube challenging!
Yes it is indeed a valid hobby
So much for team spirit eh
Olly Olly Olly, oi oi oi, Olly Olly Olly, oi oi oi, Olly, Oi, Olly, oi, Olly Olly Olly, oi oi oi!
You know nothing
Ick.. I know someone with Crohn’s disease (a particularly complicated and tricky case as far as I know, though). It does not look fun.. :S
I don’t know much about it, they assure me it is manageable if indeed I do have it, but I’ll be tested further in due course. It’s wait and see time, taking it in steps – I am back at work tomorrow for the first time in a month and feel vaguely healthy for the first time in over a month, so these are good things
660-1 I get for that. Fancy a quid on it?
Don’t forget to also make a weekend trip to Schloss Wizbit um Deutsch zu sprechen
good luck wiv that he deserves more than most reminds me of July 8th 2008 i was determined that Sara would get her reward for all her hard work.
Hard Work? What hard work? Following you around
lol