28/7/17 Our first day in Paris. We arrived at 8am, and the first word I read on a French sign was ‘sortie’. Not an exit, but an entrance though, as I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be in sweet, divine and classy Paris. We first tried our hand at getting a French phone and then navigating the metro system, to reach Sarah and Leila’s place in the 7 th District, close to Ecole Militaire. It is a 10 minute walk to the Eiffel tower, so after having a delicious lunch of vegetable soup and escargot, we ventured out on the town. We visited the Eiffel Tower, walked along the Seine River, Saw Diana’s memorial, visited the Arc De Triomphe and the Champs Elysse, the Modern Art Museum, the Grand and Little Palace, the Ecole Militaire, UNESCO and had the most extraordinary ice creams. We came back and went out shopping for dinner, taking many photographs of fleurs and boulangeries, and seeing the chocolate that David bought us back from Paris at Carrefour. We met with Sar...
26-27 June 2017 Every new adventure starts with a feeling of anticipation. Saying goodbye to everyone doesn’t feel real until you step into the airport and you’re faced with an onslaught of things to do and places to navigate. There wasn’t too much kerfuffle at the airport, only donating a tube of toothpaste at customs and grabbing some antioxidant rich juice before our flight. The dinner on the plane was excellent, some very tender beef rice and veggies which we supplemented with the classic - fruit and nut mix. But we were so over the moon (almost, but not quite), when we discovered that we had TWO vacant seats next to us! Before you could say Beijing, I was snoozing on the floor and Dad had 4 seats to lie down on! I awoke about an hour and a half before we landed, and I had a dream that I remembered on the plane about already arriving in Beijing and our names being on those green and white road signs that you often see. I think that dream was a sign of g...