Christmas in Paris

We celebrated the birth of Christ in Paris this year. Although that may sound like an exotic holiday, traveling to Chicago from Appleton is further than Paris is from Oxford. Since we have no family nearby, we thought that we would take advantage of the winter travel deals. We purchased the holiday from Thomas Cook and got three nights for the price of two (breakfasts included) and a Eurostar train ride from London to Paris with a return trip.

http://www.oxfordtube.com/

Here comes our ride.

St. Pancras Station is huge!

We woke up early on the 23rd, Lori's birthday, and drove to the nearby park and ride to catch the Oxford Tube coach to London. We were the first in line so Matthew claimed the front seats on the upper deck. Due to the early hour, traffic was light and we made good time to the Marble Arch in London. A short ride on the underground (with 1 transfer) took us to St. Pancras rail station.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pancras_railway_station

The massive train station was built in the 1800's but is well kept; clean and modern. We ate breakfast and waited patiently for our departure time. Even though the Eurostar carries more people to continental Europe than all airlines combined, we passed through security, border control, and found our seats pretty quickly. Our seats were in club configuration, two pairs of seats facing each other over a table. We shared our table with a young french lady who quietly read and slept the entire journey.

182 MPH across France.

What a comfortable ride.

The ride through the tunnel only took 20 minutes and was anticlimactic. It did not seem as if we were 100 metres below sea level under the English Channel. The train traveled 186 mph and only took about 2.5 hours to make the journey. What a smooth ride!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurostar

Gare du Nord. Welcome to Paris. This is the same rail station that we saw in Mr. Bean's Holiday.

Gare du Nord, the train station in Paris, was the exact opposite of the station in London. It was dirty, people begging throughout, the concrete was crumbling; in Lori's words, "It is not as posh as I was expecting!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_du_Nord

We purchased Paris Metro ticket to ride the underground to our hotel. The Metro was also dirty, the train cars old, and the signage poor. We made one wrong turn at our connecting stop which made us backtrack up and down at least 8 sets of stairs; carrying our suitcases. I think that everyone rides the Metro. We saw ladies in furs carrying bags from designer stores, families, and homeless people. We were the only people on our train with suitcases. The ride was quick and our Metro stop a very short walk from the hotel.

http://www.paris-tourist-information.co.uk/images/maps/paris-metro-map.pdf

Our hotel, Hotel Rochester, was very nice. If you look at their website (link below), our room was on the third floor next to the sign. The concierge made us dinner reservations at a nearby restaurant. We wanted to eat at 6:30 (Lori hoped for 5:30) but the restaurant didn't open until 7:30 so we settled for 8:00. We were tired when we arrived and the chef's specialty was foie gras! Lori and I had the Chateaubriand and Matthew ate a Caesar salad with prawns on top. We experienced some authentic French indignation when we told the waiter that we did not want dessert. He huffed, snatched our menus, and stomped off! Welcome to Paris - can we go home now?

Matthew in the lobby of our hotel.

http://www.hrochester.com/en/
http://www.boudoirparis.fr/fr/plan-et-acces.html

Matthew in the lobby of our hotel.

Waking up late, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the hotel consisting of eggs, sausage, bacon, breads, cheese, as well as many types of fish (that we didn't try). Matthew had hot chocolate and dill pickles all three mornings with his other breakfast foods.

Hot chocolate and pickles, yum!

We walked up Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe and bought 2 day tickets on Les Cars Rouge, a double-decker tour bus service that allows customers to hop on and hop off at the sights. We rode as far as the Tour Eiffel and decided to visit. We rode to the second floor on the elevator and enjoyed the view in all directions. 

Waiting for our bus.

An impressive 1,086 feet tall. When it was built, it was the tallest structure in the world. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champs-%C3%89lys%C3%A9es

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe
http://www.carsrouges.com/
http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/

The Seine as seen from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

After the tower, we rode the bus around to see the Louvre Museum, the church of Notre Dame, and many other sights. The entire route took a little over 2 hours when the traffic was light. We noticed that the traffic gets heavier as the sun goes down. Paris must be an evening town. After dark, we rode the bus again to see the city lights.

Paris is beautiful at night.

On Christmas morning, we wished the staff Joyeux Noel, ate breakfast, and read the story of Christ's birth from the book of Luke. We rode the bus to Notre Dame to hear the organist play Christmas songs on the pipe organ and visited the Paris Christmas Market on Champs Elysses. We found a locally made Christmas bauble for our U.K. adventure tree.

Notre Dame.

French Matthew on one of our many bus trips.

The trip home consisted of taking the metro back to Gare du Nord. We had premium club seats on the way home so the staff served us a hot meal with china, sliver, and real glasses. I think I prefer the train over air travel. We arrived back in London on Boxing Day, one of the biggest shopping days of the year, only to find the underground workers on strike. Our tube ride to Victoria Station was extremely full of people. Paris was fun, but it was good to be home.

The Metro ride back to the train station was much more pleasant. We even had live music (see the accordion player in the background?).

French Matthew back at Gare du Nord.

Oxford Castle, Christmas Market, and C.S. Lewis

Since the weather is getting colder and rain was in the forecast, we stayed close to home this weekend. On Saturday, we rode the red double-decker bus (the green buses are operated by the same company, run the same routes, but have different policies re: our bus pass card) to Oxford city centre. Our mission was to explore Oxford Castle and visit the Christmas market.

We like to sit in the top front but the best seats were taken so Matthew sat in the very back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Castle

Oxford Castle was started around 1071 by the Norman's (William the Conqueror was from Normandy, France) to guard the west side of the city of Oxford. Our tour guide was dressed like Daniel Harris, the 18th century governor of the prison. We climbed the oldest part of the castle, the Norman tower that was a civil war prison, and visited the crypt underneath the oldest prison wing (the prison was built over an ancient church). The prison has a history of disease and cruelty. The newest section is 19th century (Victorian) and was use as the local prison until 1996. The majority of the buildings are now a luxury hotel (but the main entrance is the place of past hanging executions - yuck.)

The tour guides are all in character.

http://www.oxfordcastleunlocked.co.uk/
http://www.oxfordcastle.com/oxford_castle_malmaison.html

Looking though an archer's firing position on the top of the tower.

View of the city of Oxford from the top of the tower.

After the tour, we visited the German Christmas market on the castle grounds. We saw a jazz band, some actors performing among the crowd, many stalls of homemade products, and ate an authentic German bratwurst (with grilled onions; no sauerkraut). We even saw Father Christmas (Santa) walking briskly to his stall. I bought Lori a hand-made Cossack-style hat to keep her fashionable and warm during the damp, cold U.K. winters.

Matthew with a display of all of the restraints used when the castle was a prison.

Matthew in a 18th century cell. 15 prisoners lived here at any one time.

http://www.oxfordcastle.com/christmas_at_oxford_castle.html

Our heroes on the castle mound.

Matthew and the Christmas market (Lori is shopping in the background)

We ended the day with a delicious Italian meal at Prezzo, also at the castle.

http://www.prezzorestaurants.co.uk/

On Sunday, we attended church at Oxford Bible Church, as usual. Pastor Derek taught a brilliant sermon on Psalm 8 and several people were healed at the end of the service. What a great way to start the day - praising God! We then went on a C.S. Lewis outing. His grave is only 2 miles from church and his house, The Kilns, is less than a mile from there. The old church was surrounded by many graves and signs pointed us toward his grave. Mr. Lewis promised to take care of his best friend Paddy Moore's mother and he kept his word. (story here - http://www.cslewis.org/resources/chronocsl.html) We found her grave also.

We found the grave of C.S. Lewis.

The Kilns - home of C.S. Lewis.

After a traditional English roast at the neighborhood pub, we drove across the busy ring road (which wasn't there when Lewis was alive) to see his house, The Kilns. It is still used as a place for scholarly research so we could only see it from the road. Wow, our new home town is chock full of historical sites!

Two Weekends in Oxford and Oxfordshire

Last weekend, we spent our time exploring our home city of Oxford. On Saturday, we rode the red double-decked bus to city centre. Our first stop was the University of Oxford Ashmoleon Museum of Art and Archaeology. We had read online that the museum has the lantern of Guy Fawkes on display. The lantern was our first stop. In a previous blog, I described the recently celebrated Guy Fawkes day. He was one of the conspirators who tried to blow up Parliament and King James I in 1606.

Fawkes was carrying this lantern when he was caught with the gun powder under Parliament in 1606.

Another permanent exhibit has coins from every corner of the world and from every era.  Matthew and I played an old English penny game. Matthew was able to handle some ancient coins and even a gold coin with a picture of Queen Victoria at a table staffed by pleasant and informative volunteers.

Matthew likes coins. His favorite was a gold coin with a picture of Queen Victoria on it.

The museum currently has a temporary exhibit featuring Egyptian artifacts, including mummies and sarcophaguses. One sarcophagus held the body of a child. A 3D CT scan was displayed next to the sarcophagus so we could see both the inside and the outside. Volunteers helped Matthew build a paper sarcophagus. We stopped into the education centre where Matthew made an Egyptian hat.

Matthew making a paper sarcophagus.

Walking like an Egyptian...

The museum is next to Debenham's so we made a shopping stop. Lori picked up a cross-body purse for our Christmas trip to Paris and I bought a belt for my suit. (I didn't think that I would need a suit and tie when we left Wisconsin.)

After church on Sunday, we erected our tree. It didn't take long as it is pre-decorated and just the right size for our apartment living room. Lori made some finger food which made our first U.K. decorating party very much like home. Everything here is the same; just smaller.

This Friday, we made the bus trip to city centre for the Christmas light parade and ceremony with our American neighbors, Troy, Alyssa and their boys. The St. Giles area was blocked to traffic; rides and bandstands were erected on the street. There were so many people at the intersection of Magdalene and Broad Streets that no one could move. We were all in a literal gridlock of people; shoulder to shoulder, front and back. We saw the tops of the parade lights as they went by. After the parade, we attempted to make our way to the Fire and Stone restaurant to make our 7 pm reservations. The crowd was pressing against each other so hard that someone easily could have been crushed. One man burst between Troy and Matthew, having a panic attack! Someone pushed open a barrier near us and we escaped the crowd by walking along the traffic of buses and taxis to safety.

The white objects are the lanterns of the parade.

During the parade BEFORE the crowd reached gridlock. Notice some room between us.

After dinner, we walked to the German Christmas market at the Oxford Castle. We arrived as some of the stands were closing but were still able to enjoy the decorations and look at all of the vendors wares displayed outside. I would like to visit again before Christmas and take the tour of the castle, too. On the way back to the bus, we stopped to watch some people (gypsies?) dance. The boys joined in too.

Saturday we set out for Witney to pick up our Christmas trip tickets from the travel agent. We also shopped at Lakeland, where we bought some pie tins so we can make traditional pies at home (think meat & vegetable pies). High Street was lined with vendors stands selling all sorts of products as potential gifts. Matthew and I bought leather shoulder bags to use in lieu of backpacks during our outings so we don't look so much like tourists.

Appleton was our next stop. Only 9 miles from home, a local farm, the Appleton Christmas Barn, sells trees and all sorts of decorations. Matthew tried to visit with the sheep, but, just like at Blenheim Palace, they ran away in panic when he approached.

The barn is in the background.

Welcome to Appleton!

Dinner was at a nice French restaurant back in Witney. The food was good and the experience good practice for our upcoming trip to Paris. Our waitress had difficulty understanding my accent. I learned to say "cafe" when I want coffee.

Cheers!

Wedding and Robin Hood

On Friday night, we rode the bus the 2 miles to Oxford City Centre to Brown's Restaurant. The place was busy and got busier as we ate. We arrived early; 7 pm. Many restaurants don't open until 6 or 7 and 8-9 pm seem to be prime eating hours. Lori felt under-dressed as most of the female patrons were in dresses and heels or boots. I didn't feel under-dressed because most men were more casual in oxford shirts. I had a steak, Lori had stuffed peppers, and Matthew had fancy mac & cheese. Delicious!

http://www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/locations/oxford/

Saturday morning, we started on our 2.5 hour trip north to Sheffield for the wedding of my co-worker, Rakesh. The wedding was held at Sheffield Town Hall with a reception at a nearby hotel where we had reservations. We met many relatives of Mary, the bride, some of who traveled from India to attend the wedding. After many photos, the civil ceremony was brief but the official explained both the moral and legal obligations of marriage. Once she pronounced the couple husband and wife, Rakesh had the biggest smile I have ever seen that lasted until we said goodnight after the reception.

View Larger Map

Town Hall.

The very happy couple.

The reception was held in the restaurant area of the Rutland Hotel. Rakesh managed to get all of the guests on the dance floor; no small feat considering half of the guests were reserved Brits. Mary's family members were excellent hosts / hostesses. I think all of them, male and female, were medical doctors.

The groom with the young men.

A rose (the bride) between...

The other happy couple. It was our anniversary too.

We stayed at the Rutland Hotel. The hotel is a conglomeration of 3-4 old homes connected by bridges and walkways. The floors in the hall were creaky and uneven. Our room had 4 steps down to a landing next to which was our shower room. The staff was friendly, the room clean and comfortable, and the full English breakfast was delicious (we skipped the black pudding again though). 

http://www.rutlandhotel-sheffield.com/

Sunday, on the way home, we discovered we were near the city Nottingham and Sherwood Forest, home of Robin Hood. We drove to the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre and explored the preserved section of the forest.  The stories of Robin and his men state that he lived among the large oaks and, wow, we found some huge oaks! The visitor centre had a free movie about Robin and the forest, a series of dioramas to walk through, and several shops. The weather was cool but comfortable for walking. Many people were out in their wool and wellies, walking about; many with their dogs. We saw several labs that made us think of, and miss, our chocolate lab, Fudge.

Lori, Matthew and a giant oak. Some people believe that this tree is 1000+ years old.

Yes, Matthew got another hat.
Is the real Robin Hood in the foreground  or background?

The major oak story. 

After Sherwood, we needed tea! Fortunately, Lori's favorite tea rooms, Thomas Oken, in Warwick, was along the route home.

English breakfast tea with milk, giant scone, clotted cream, and jelly - yum. 

Settling In

Two weeks have passed since my last blog post. Our tourist experiences are decreasing as we settle into our new day-to-day life as temporary Brits. Our days are become more routine and we feel quite at home here now.

Last weekend, we visited nearby Witney (10 miles west of our flat) to run some errands. We looked in Next and H&M for a winter coat for Matthew. Neither store carried clothes in his size. The largest boys sizes were age 8 (yes, kid's sizes are by age). He is big enough to wear a men's small but the prices were extremely high for a coat he may only wear one winter. Witney is a quaint village with shops on the streets and in several markets (that look like alleys to me). We window shopped, had lunch, and made reservations for a Christmas holiday. We found a fabric shop on High Street and Lori bought some Irish wool yarn to crochet a hat  to complement her coat.

http://www.witneyshopping.co.uk/witney-map

The cinema (movie theatre) next to Debenham's was showing the new film, Tin Tin. The stories were written in the 1930's in Belgium and Matthew has the complete set. Since the only showing was only 45 minutes later, we stayed to see it. What a great adventure (especially for a 10 year old boy) and the animation was so realistic that I often felt as if I were watching live actors.

Tin Tin as he appears in the books.

Tin Tin from the movie.

On Sunday morning, we went to Oxford Bible Church and afterward headed to Woodstock. The Oxfordshire Museum has a new exhibit named Children and War. Since we saw the Churchill's Britain at War Museum in London, we thought that this may be a good follow-up learning activity. We wanted pasties for lunch and the museum cafe had only 3 left; just for us. I had never tried a pork pasty before but it was pretty good. The museum exhibit was small so we looked at the Roman artifact exhibit too. The museum has several floors so we will need to make a return trip (it's free, too).

http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/public-site/oxfordshire-museum

The week was relatively routine. My workdays here are typically 12 hours long so our evenings are short. Matthew is working hard on his 5th grade (year 6 here) curriculum. He is also learning some basic french. On Fridays, Lori and Matthew walk to a local bookstore, Barefoot Books, where the Oxford Rhythm Centre teaches African drumming classes. Matthew is the oldest student and has some natural ability, so he gets the more complicated rhythms of the arrangements.

Barefoot Books - 1/2 mile from the flat.

http://www.rhythmcentre.co.uk/Percussion_and_African_drumming_workshops/Welcome.html

An unfortunate part of our week was the breakdown of the washing machine on Wednesday. Since the capacity is so small, we need to wash daily. Without the machine, our dirty clothes are piling up and it will take 2 weeks to catch up! Fortunately, the engineer (repairman; everyone who handles a tool is called an engineer here) will be on site Monday morning. We are praying that he can fix it without having to order (and wait) for parts.

This Saturday, we set out to Bicester (pronounced Bister) Village which is a large "chic" (think expensive) outlet mall only 10 miles from home. When we arrived, the traffic was so bad that we parked in the overflow lot and took the shuttle bus. The place was packed with shoppers from all over the world. There were many coaches (buses) that shuttled people from central London to shop here. We walked through the stores pretending that we were really thinking of buying the over-priced designer products from Gucci, Prada, Thomas Pink, Brooks Brothers, Tag Heuer, etc... All three of us bought shoes from the Clarks store. Even with the exchange rate, the deals were too good to pass up. Lori bought some black leather boots so she fits in here (all the women wear boots). Lori also picked up a LeCreuset pie plate so we can have home made desserts.

http://www.bicestervillage.com/

Saturday was Guy Fawkes day so we have had fireworks every night this weekend in celebration of his failed plot to kill King James I. I think it's a little odd to have a day to remember a criminal. I would have given the memorial of the event a more positive twist. Now I know why men are sometimes referred to as "guys" (it was originally a derogatory term).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes

At church on Sunday, Matthew was invited to visit Lego Land with a home-schooled boy and to a birthday party next weekend for one of the girl's who is turning 12. His social diary (calendar) is filling up. After church, we drove to Oxford City centre and window shopped. We thought that the colder weather (only 10 degrees C) would keep people at home, but we were wrong. We found gloves at Debenham's (my new favorite store; similar to Macy's). We had cream tea at the Ashmolean Museum's rooftop restaurant. Later, we walked to Mamma Mia's Pizzeria in Summertown for an authentic Italian meal - yum. I like living in Oxford. There are so many things to do within walking distance of home.

We like our cream tea (tea, scones, clotted cream, and jam)

http://www.ashmolean.org/

That'sa good pizza! (spicy too)

I think we are now set for another routine week in Oxford followed by an authentic Indian wedding next Saturday. God bless you for joining us on this part of our adventure...