Ah Paris...

The trip on the eurostar went smoothly, we all met as arranged and were met at this end, again as arranged by a lovely young man who not only loaded us and all our gear into his mini van but unloaded us and helped get it all upstairs to our apartment.  We were met by Karina, also as arranged at the fabulous apartment with fresh flowers, bottle of wine and large bag of croissants and brioche.  Wow, the apartment is amazing with views to die for from all windows.  Sacre Coeur is truly next door.  We are on the third floor with one of those tiny French lifts that are big enough for 2 people or 2 suitcases but not both.  We have 3 large bedrooms - 2 bathrooms and an incredibly well equipped kitchen.

We had not booked a seat for Alice on the train as at that stage were unsure if Richard was joining us or not, so decided to book for Richard and if he couldnt come, it would be Alice's seat.  So that left Alice without one.  As it turned out there were spare in the carriage, but upon arriving at the train, Alice realised she had been the bunny who missed out and pushed her mother determindly out of hers to occupy it. She immediately grabbed for the magazine in the seat pocket and began browsing to show that she was very comfortable being in the right place.

The view from my bedroom window.
Richard cooked us atlantic salmon on a bed of mash with asparagus beautifully presented and gratefully eaten by all after a lovely array of cheeses and crisp bread as an entre. Thomas wanted to know what was for dessert and was most dissappointed to know there wasnt one.  I am cooking a peach cafloutis tonight for dessert to be eaten after a risotto.  Exploring the local supermarket was interesting, trying to find the items and then trying to decipher whether the flour was plain or self raising - the packets appear to refer to the type of wheat grain and where it is grown and I couldnt see any reference to a raising agent on all the many and varied coloured packets.  As I wanted plain flour, it probably doesnt matter what I got.  I found out when I got to the till that I should have weighed my own loose veg but as the only such item I had was an endive to add to the lambs lettuce salad with cherry tomatoes and avocardo I let it go and we will be endive less.  I couldn't find a cucumber for love or money but did find the packets of cooked beetroot that Sue told me about.