God, our week has flown in. Last night I made a lovely meal on board and then we relaxed with our books and the radio. There is a good radio station called Nostalgie that plays excellent UK records and some classic French music too, like Edith Piaf.
Today, the sun was warm and shining and the sky was blue, why couldn’t you have done this earlier in the week! We spent the day cleaning the boat inside and out and making sure everything was ok for our early departure (6am) tomorrow to the train station.
We have had a lovely week, it has been so nice to be back in France and on the boat again, sailing. The weather could have been sunnier, but hey ho, you can’t have everything.
We headed out at 5pm for a couple of beers and then at 6pm, we went to Le Shalimar for a Friday night curry, French style! We were so early for dinner, their tandoori oven still needed 15 minutes to heat up! We ordered a 50cl pichet of red and white wine and pondered the very extensive menu. We plumped for a starter between us of prawn pakora which was served on a hot griddle with freshly sliced tomatoes, lettuce and mango chutney, raita and a hot pickle. It was absolutely gorgeous, better than the Shish Mahal in Park Road and that was saying something! We then had Lamb Vindaloo, Chicken Punjabi, 2 garlic naan breads and some Pilau Rice with fried onions through it. Everything was really excellent, especially the garlic naans. Jim’s Vindaloo made his head leak as usual, so it must have been hot enough! We rounded the meal off nicely with a Coupe Colonel (Lemon Sorbet with a measure of vodka over it) and Coupe Normandie (Pear Sorbet with Williams Poire Liquer over it). Again, both were first class and I think the waiter poured extra measures for us as it was very potent.
We then waddled back leisurely across the bridge to the marina and relaxed before having an early night due to the early start tomorrow.
Saturday
We were up early this morning at 5.30am, washed, and out for 6.15am for the 20 minute walk to the train station at Chalon. The train was on time, we validated our tickets and settled into our pre-booked seats, 2 ½ hours later, after nodding off for most of the journey, we arrived at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. We decided to check if the buses to the airport were running properly so that we were well prepared if there was going to be a problem like last Saturday. And yes, the buses were under pressure due to manifestations again, and by the time they were leaving Montparnasse, they were full and not calling at the Gare de Lyon. Zut Alors again! As the trains to Charles de Gaulle were not running either, we shared a taxi with a French couple and it had us there in 30 minutes and cost 22 euros per couple, identical to what the bus price was anyway! Not like last week and the nightmare 2 hours plus journey at 80 euros, and missing the train. The only negative side of this was, we were at the airport early and had to hang around for the flight, but we would rather be on the flight than run the risk of spending some time in Paris and then missing the flight. We arrived safely home at 4.30pm with the flight on time.
We will be back in France on the 19th of November for 10 days., looking forward to it already!
Au revoir!
Irene & Jim xx
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