Hey everyone!
We are safe and sound back on English soil after a fantastic ten days on the continent. We did and saw so much that I’m sure I’m missing important details, but I’m going to give a recap a go!
PARIS
Day 1: We didn’t realize just how far Luton airport is from London. We were sitting in our flat taking our sweet time packing and cleaning (as our friend Chelsey from Burlington was staying in our flat while we were away) when we had the bright idea to look up how long it was going to take us to get there. After seeing that it was going to take us two hours, we realized we needed to leave in 15 minutes. Anyways, we made it with time to spare. I’d just like to say that Blackfriars Underground and National Rail building might actually have the best view of London. The building extends out over the Thames, and from one side you can see Big Ben and the Eye, and from the other side you can see Tower Bridge. It’s almost unfortunate that London-area commuters see the most of it. Luton is in the middle of no where and there aren’t any direct shuttles or train services. If you have to choose between Stansted or Luton, go with Luton, but otherwise we don’t recommend it.
Our flight was a bit turbulent but arrived on time. We left sunny London for wet and freezing Paris. We had pre-booked a shuttle bus to get us to within a 10 minute walk of the apartment we’d let in Paris. When we got to Charles de Gaulle airport, there was supposed to be a 10 minute wait for the next bus. Unfortunately, that bus broke down right outside the airport, so we ended up having to wait nearly an hour before we could get another one. The poor woman we were letting the apartment from waited for us the whole time, we felt awful. And it was raining so hard, harder than I’ve seen it rain in London, we were soaked down to our undies by the time we got there.
The apartment was nice and cozy though. Small bedroom with a desk and lots of storage, with a toilet directly across the hall and a kitchen/shower a few doors down the hall. Fabulous view of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe, and 5-10 minute walk to the metro. Great location and the landlady was very helpful, she left us lots of maps and information about how to get to and from the airports.
Day 2: So we got to the apartment around midnight and just slept. The next day we got up and had the best pain au chocolats ever, walked to the Arc de Triomphe (where Chris famously lost all of his photos on his last European tour), walked down the Champs Elysees (where Chris famously recovered all his photos), had lunch, walked to the Eiffel Tower and went up to the top, got crepes at a street stall on the Seine. On our way back to the metro to go home, it started raining sideways. If possible, we were even more soaked than we were the night before. My umbrella was utterly useless, everyone took cover up against the sides of buildings, and it lasted no more than five minutes. We hopped on the metro and were in for the night.
Day 3: The following day we again had the best pain au chocolats ever, followed by a train ride to Versailles. I had visited Versailles once before but didn’t get to see the town then. It’s small and very cute with the palace on one edge. To our surprise, it was free! Museums in Paris are free on Sundays, but we didn’t think Versailles qualified, so we were happily surprised. We toured the inside including Marie Antoinette’s bedroom and the hall of mirrors, and then headed to the jardins. The gardens really are the most magnificent part of Versailles. We were there at a bit of an odd time of year, so the flowers weren’t abounding but the leaves were gorgeous and many of the fountains were still running. We spent the afternoon wandering around the property and had a great time. Once we arrived back in Paris we went to Notre Dame and then walked to the Louvre. It started to rain towards the end of our time at the Louvre so we headed back to the apartment.
Day 4: I had a school trip this day. A group of ten students from UCL’s MA in Publishing got to spend the morning meeting with the head of rights at Le Seuil at a place called Labo de l’edition. She spoke to us about how the publishing industry works in France and the differences between the industry in France and the UK. Labo de l’edition is a lab where anyone can go and use the facilities there whenever they choose (mostly computers equipped with desktop publishing software), but they also run a program where start-ups can live-in there for one year while they try to get their publishing-related business off the ground. It’s a government-funded operation. In the afternoon Roland Barthes’ niece took us on a walking tour of the “publishing” arrondissement in Paris. We visited Gertrude Stein’s favourite hangout and visited many unconventional bookstores and publishers (did you know Hermes and Louis Vuitton run their own publishing houses?). While I was doing this, Chris visited the Louvre again. Then we headed off to Orly airport for our flight to Geneva.
GENEVA
We landed in Geneva with no real plan about how to get to the apartment from the airport. To be fair, we also didn’t have a good plan on how to get to Orly from Paris but that worked out just fine. I was a little disappointed we didn’t get Swiss stamps in our passports to be honest. But we made it to the apartment in Geneva successfully, and luckily no one had to wait at the apartment for us this time. We got in without incident. The apartment was lovely. It was a one-bedroom (image!!!) with an entirely separate living room. This blew our minds. It even had a 3D TV. I was enamoured already.
Day 5: We walked from our apartment, which was a little south of Cologny, through Parc de grange-canal along Lac Leman to “downtown” Geneva where we grabbed some lunch and did a currency exchange. Swiss Franc coins are all the same colour and similar sizes making them difficult for us foreigners used to colourful money, but they have five-franc coins! And their bills are far more colourful than Canada’s. Also, I didn’t think anywhere in the world could be MORE expensive than London but damn, Geneva (or Switzerland maybe?) takes the cake when it comes to food and beverage. Anyways, after lunch we walked to the other side of Lac Leman and headed to see the UN. Unfortunately it was really cold (about 0 degrees C and we had not brought hats or mitts or winter coats) and it poured rain all day long. The UN isn’t exactly in Geneva, but we decided to walk anyways. Along the way we stopped in at a blown glass museum that was beautiful. We made it to the UN just in time for the last tour of the day. It was really cool, and the frozen hands and wet jeans were totally worth it. After the UN tour we took a tram back into Geneva and went to Basilique Notre Dame and had dinner, followed by an early night.
Day 6: We walked to the Martin Bodmer Foundation, about a 20 minute walk further (in some more rain) out of the city, through Swiss countryside. It was about 11 am when we arrived, and they didn’t open until 2 pm. We were bummed. It’s a museum that chronicles the life of writing starting with drawings on cave walls. We left the Foundation and found ourself in this little town (I don’t think we ever learned its name) that was the stereotypical Swiss town: Swiss cottages with old iron gates and brick walls keeping all the homes secure, with mountains all around. It was beautiful. We walked down to Plage Geneve to catch a bus into the city. Once there we went to Old Geneva that has cobblestone roads and narrow streets. First we went to the church there, St. Pierre’s. There’s an archaeological museum in its basement that we passed up because we wanted to go to Maison Tavel. Maison Tavel is a free museum that boasts housing the oldest Swiss artefacts. It was really cool.
Our main activity for the day, however, was to go to telepherique du Saleve. It’s a gondola-type ride up le Saleve mountain. So we hopped on a city bus that dropped us 100 metres from the French border. We walked over it (surprisingly easy) towards the base of the mountain. We got inside the building to get tickets, and were informed that the telepherique only runs on weekends in the fall. I’d checked the website the night before to make sure it was open, and it said it was, so we were really disappointed. It was still cool to stand at the bottom of the mountain though. So we hopped a bus back to Geneva and went back to St. Pierre’s to buy tickets to go up the bell towers. It was hundreds of narrow, stone steps up to the south tower, and then more up to the north tower. The view was incredible from the top. We had a panoramic view of the whole city and the mountains around it. After descending the perilous steps, we did some window shopping, had dinner and headed back to the apartment to pack up and sleep.
NICE
Day 7: We got up at 5 am to head back to the airport. We flew over the Alps into Nice. We grabbed our bus in Nice that dropped us off right outside the apartment. Sadly, we couldn’t get in to the apartment to drop off our luggage until 12:30 pm, and we arrived outside of it at about 10 am. So we grabbed some breakfast and just sat in Garibaldi square enjoying the sun and the people. The landlord came and let us in, and we promptly napped. This apartment was nice but painfully small. There was a loft that Chris hit his head on continually, and when the bed was pulled out it literally took up all of the floor space. We could not stand in the kitchen/living area without standing on the pulled out bed. But, luckily we didn’t plan on spending much time there. When we woke up we took a stroll through Vieux Nice to find the best gelateria in the world. To Chris’ dismay and heartbreak, the place he’s long claimed as the best gelateria in the world was closed for the season, so we had to settle for some other place. Then we walked along the beach where we stayed to watch the sunset. Then we started walking back towards the apartment but got distracted by pretty much everything. Nice has this boulevard that runs like a really wide median along the major street in Nice. It’s filled with various art installations and playgrounds and greenspace; it’s wonderful. We grabbed a dinner at a little restaurant on this street, then headed off along a pedestrian shopping street. After wandering around for a long time, we headed back to the apartment for the night.
Day 8: We got up and walked through Vieux Nice again (the apartment was located in the northernmost part of Vieux Nice, which was absolutely perfect), through the Saleya flower market, and then along Promenade des Anglaises by the water. We stopped for some Nicoise thin-crusted pizza, and then walked to the Musee des beaux arts. It was a gallery showcasing 19th and 20th century artists from the Nice-area. After that we walked through a pedestrian-only restaurant and shopping area, then went back to the apartment for a little rest. We grabbed some dinner, and then we met up with our friend Adam. We went to Glendon with Adam, and then while Adam was doing his MA at UofT we were neighbours in downtown Toronto. He’s in Barcelona doing an MBA right now. Sadly he was in London while we were in Paris and Geneva, but he came to Nice for the last two days of our trip, and he brought along his friend Annika. So they arrived in Nice from the airport, and we all went out to celebrate our reunion.
Day 9: The four of us went to the water and then went up this big hill thing (?) that overlooks the Mediterranean with a great view. At the top there is a beautiful park and a panoramic view of Nice and the sea. There was a couple having their wedding photos taken by the waterfall at the top, it was lovely. We then walked through the port and back towards our apartments, followed by the train station. We walked to the train station and took a train to Monaco for the evening. It was about a 15 minute ride down the coast. There was a carnival going on right in the port in Monte Carlo, so we took a stroll through it and grabbed some coffees. Then we went in search of some dinner, and found the Monte Carlo casino. Having never been to a casino before I have little to compare it to, but it was neat. Sadly (and understandably), no pictures allowed. We then walked back down the hill into the port, got some churros at the carnival, then went to the train station to grab a train back to Nice.
Day 10: We walked a bit out of Nice to go to an archaeological site that houses ancient Nice. There’s a free museum on site (free museums in Europe are the best) and we could go outside and walk among some ancient bits of Nice that had been unearthed. Then we walked back into Nice, grabbed our luggage and walked to the beach where we sat for awhile just relaxing. Annika and Adam had to head to the airport, and when they did we went in search of some dinner before our own flight. From the moment we arrived at the airport, things got a bit messy.
When we were in the baggage drop-off line, we were informed that our flight was delayed. No one seemed to know why or have any idea how long the delay would be, but we assumed it wouldn’t be too long since the found vouchers WestJet gave us were only for 4.50 euros. We were wrong. So we had to get to gate B, which was through customs. No big deal, we thought, we’ll go through customs and then use our vouchers to grab a snack or a coffee. Again, wrong. We went through customs, and on the other side (in gate B, where MOST of the international flights land at and depart from), there was one cafe. And that cafe was out of food, and that cafe’s coffee machine was broken. It was a Sunday night at 8 pm, so I had little hope for it getting fixed in the foreseeable future. I could SEE a Costa Coffee from where we were in gate B, but alas, no one was allowed back through customs.
So we sat and we sat and we sat. Our flight was supposed to take off at 9:05 pm, and around 11 pm we finally got an update and some information. We were informed that our flight would depart at midnight. Our plane was supposed to go from London to Nice to Brussels back to Nice (to get us) to London. But when it was coming to Nice the first time, it was so windy the plane couldn’t land, so it landed in Genoa. Everyone on the plane had to get off there, then our empty plane went to Brussels, picked up those passengers, and then came back to Nice. There was another flight to London Gatwick that was scheduled to leave at 9:25 pm, and it left on time, and we were unimpressed. We tried to get on it but the people directly in front of us in the baggage line snagged the last two seats on it.
Anywho, our flight took off around 12:30 am, and we landed around 1:45 am (but it felt like 2:45 am. Time zones, I tell ya). By the time we got our bag and through border patrol (the UK border agency really loves taking finger prints), it was 2:15 in the morning. There was no way to get from Stansted, even further from London than Luton, to London at that time of the morning. The next bus to London was leaving at 3 am. So we got tickets for it. It took an hour and a half to get from Stansted to Victoria tube station (and it was a direct bus, in the middle of the night). When we got to Victoria, we watched the night bus we needed drive away before we could get to the stop. The next bus wasn’t due until an hour later, so we bit the bullet and took a taxi from there. We got into our flat about 5:30 am, and it felt like 6:30 am. We slept until about 10 am. The ordeal was over.
We had a great time. Paris is so beautiful, the mountains in Geneva were humbling, and the sun and sea in Nice was perfect. It was great to see Adam and meet Annika. We were sad to be back in little old London.
Since getting back, Chris has landed a new job (woo!) working on an update that’s going on at Bank underground station. Soon the Wheeler name will be synonymous with transit planning (as if it isn’t already). The Ts are crossed, the Is are dotted and Chris starts on Monday. Our friend Chelsey has been in England for almost two weeks now, and she stayed here a few nights while were gone. And then Wednesday night she came back to London from Norwich and stayed with us Wednesday and last night. Yesterday while I was in class Chris and Chels did some sightseeing, and I met up with them and continued the adventure after classes. Today the three of us went to a Christmas market on Southbank which was wonderful, and then Chels had to head out, she is on her way to Amsterdam next.
We have had some roommates move out, some new ones move in, and one sort of move back in? It’s a weird time here in this flat but it’s good. Chris is staying here over Christmas, but I’ll be home from December 17th until January 10th!
I feel like there is so much more to say, but it’s picture uploading time!
Special thanks to our pal Joyce who’s living in Paris right now and who gave us Paris tips, and our girl Michelle who lived in Geneva for a year who gave us some great ideas for things to see in Geneva.
What’s new with you guys?!
Love, Meg
P.S. McDonald’s in France and Switzerland have McCafe’s that are separate from the restaurant part that sell lattes and cappuccinos and macaroons!
View from Paris apartment on the night we arrived: 
View the next morning:
Arc de Triomphe:
Champs Elysees:
Eiffel Tower:
Sadly, I’m going to have to leave the photos there for now. Bed beckons, but I’ll upload the rest tomorrow! Probably for the best since it’ll give me a chance to remember all the details I’ve forgotten.
Bags of Milk 