h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, I got back on Monday afternoon, but have not yet managed to write about the weekend in here, so here goes!

Met part of the UK contingent at Waterloo (Polly Tunnel, jont, Bex, sheena, Urban Yokel) on Friday lunchtime and we travelled together on the Eurostar, arriving in Paris at about 5pm. As a French speaker, I felt slightly responsible for looking after them (but only slightly - I'm all for 'deep end' language learning!), so I made sure they had Metro tickets before making my way to the cafe where I was meeting the friend in whose flat I was staying - literally just round the corner from the Gare du Nord.

When she got back from work we caught up on news, then went out to eat pizza (I know, I know - but it was very good, genuine Italian pizza!) at a little place in Montmartre. Then we continued up the hill to the Sacre Coeur and admired the view over Paris.

Saturday: took the Metro part of the way to the restaurant, then walked through the flower market near Notre Dame - full of camellias. The restaurant was on the corner of a street full of very chic shops - and the office of the French Communist Party! I enjoyed the juxtaposition, and E.Yore told me later that the RPR (conservative) office is just round the corner.

The lunch was magnificent, and is well-documented in Mustardland, with photos in the Lockin: http://groups.msn.com/TheArchersTBULockin/mlparismeet.msnw

In the afternoon we had planned to take the Batobus, but the first one that arrived was completely full, so rather than wait for another 20+ minutes, I joined the group going on a mini-walking tour of the Marais district with E.Yore, who was a brilliant guide (trained as an art historian and very knowledgeable about the architecture). We had a well-earned rest and a cup of tea before meeting most of the others (some had had to leave) at the hotel to go for yet more food in the Latin Quarter. I could only manage a salad, so I don't know how some people managed to scoff starters *and* kebabs etc!

Sunday: went to meet one of the students from the college where I work, who is currently on her Year Abroad, working in a translation agency. We had coffee, caught up on the gossip, and browsed round some of the tourist shops near the Centre Pompidou, where we bumped into jont and Hebe.

My next stop was the Musee Jacquemart Andre, a beautiful mansion full of paintings and objets d'art, collected by the couple who lived there. Had lunch in the restaurant, which is one of the richly decorated rooms in the museum. The weather for the whole weekend was quite changeable: some heavy (but mercifully short) showers, and lovely *warm* sunshine. While it was sunny, I headed for the river again and caught the Batobus from the Port des Champs Elysees down to the Jardin des Plantes. The ticket lets you hop on and off, so I had a little walk at this point, and then got on the boat again back to the Hotel de Ville, where I got the Metro back to my friend's flat. We went out again in the evening (Japanese food this time!).

I had a few hours for shopping on Monday before getting the lunchtime Eurostar and spent most of the time in the Forum des Halles, browsing in the FNAC (huge book/music/photo shop). Bought a French-French dictionary, le Petit Robert de poche (but actually quite a bit bigger than the standard pocket dictionary) for only 7.40 euros! Also a couple of detective novels by Fred Vargas.

And that was it ... the 13.04 Eurostar was on time, I made it from Waterloo to Kings Cross in under half an hour, and was home by 5pm. A very satisfactory ending to a brilliant weekend. My only regret was that with 20 of us at the lunch on Saturday, there wasn't really time to talk to everybody. Apparently there's a rumour that we might be going to Bruges next year though!