Homeward Bound
Cases to pack, presents to buy
7 September 2007
After all the excitement of yesterday we now had to face the sad reality of getting ready to come home.
It wasn't going to be rushed though as we had the best part of the day to ourselves before an evening flight directly back to Paris.
There were still a few photographs that I wanted to take out on the streets and I also needed to get a few last minute gifts. Thus for the last time we walked down Yonge Street as far as Dundas and the Eaton Centre. I was looking for some music for the future DVD but never managed to find just what I was looking for. JJ found some things he liked.
Inside the greenhouse
For a moment I was tempted to go looking for some books - perhaps Candada would be ahead of the UK for the sequels of those I like. There again, all those misspellings would drive me crazy so I didn't bother. JJ found some things that he liked.
There was no point either in looking at DVDs because of course they would all be Region 1 and our machine wont play them. JJ found some things he liked.
That just about summed it up. I came back with my photos and sore feet and JJ found some things that he liked.
We had been allowed to keep the room up until lunchtime so we packed the last items and put everything in the consigne whilst we went out to get lunch.
We had found ourselves eating quite regularly at a restaurant called Richtree's. It is rather like a French market place with food stalls and your meal is prepared in front of you with fresh ingredients.
On entering they give you a swipe card and you present that each time you buy something. On the way out they read the card and you pay for your meal.
Each table has a swing card to mark it as vacant or taken; we could find a place and then go back for our meals or wander off looking for other things. JJ had tried shark one lunchtime whilst I had settled for paella, the small bowl of which was larger than I would normally serve for dinner.
I really enjoyed all of their fruit juice cocktails made with fresh ingredients but had only twice managed to eat a desert; despite never taking a starter.
We finished our meal and sat in one of the small parks near the botanic house. All around us the black squirrels were coming and going with about as much fear of humans as pigeons. Rather like pigeons they also had a healthy respect for dogs. The hour drifted by and we reckoned that we had enough time for a final pint in Hoop's before heading for the Airport Express.
The opening match for the Rugby World Cup was taking place and France were in the process of being beaten by Argentina. It wouldn't have been the end of the world apart from some blue and white striped Argentinian supporters glued to another screen behind us.
Although the end looked obvious we decided to leave whilst France were having a better moment. We needed to be on our way in any case but were damned if we were going to leave immediately after the Pumas had scored again.
One last photo to take. The barber's shop in our hotel was called: Jimmy's Barber Shop, and from the very first moment that we saw the signs all JJ and I could think about was having your hair done with a chainsaw.
Au revoir Toronto
Totem Pole
We walked the block down to the bus stop and caught our bus. An hour later I remarked to JJ that if we had walked down Yonge Street we could probably have caught at least one bus before that which were on. The traffic was dire.
When we finally made it out onto the autoroute it was packed. We were moving but only in third and I could see us being strapped for time to get booked in.
After a few kilometres of traffic jam our Express turned off and the speed picked up. My fears were not quite unfounded but we had sufficient time to check in and pick up the all important Maple syrup.
Some Canadians had brought me a can of syrup over during the summer and it was really good as it wasn't too sweet. The shop next door to our hotel in Québec sold it but we didn't want to be carrying round tins at that stage. Of course once we got to Toronto we couldn't find any tins and had to make do with fancy bottles instead.
Our aircraft for the return home was an Airbus 333 and we were in one of the central rows of four seats. JJ went in first and we laughed that he would probably have some great fat person sitting next to him. How he laughed until the two next to him arrived. They weren't enormous but he didn't have a great deal of room for the rest of the journey.
All ready to go - the plane was delayed. Two people had checked in but had failed to get on board. We would therefore have to unload their luggage. This meant we would miss our take off slot. We would be half an hour late.
For the next eight hours all I had on my mind was the fact that once we arrived at Charles de Gaulle we would have about an hour to get our cases, pass through the controls, get out of the airport and reach the TGV Station for our train.
Folklore in the family tells of a famous evening at Paddington when unwitting elders were thrust from one end of the station to the other at a speed which threatened to ignite any papers foolish enough to be lying in our wake. Jean-Jacques can now recount how he failed to keep up at Charles de Gaulle as I pushed the caddie with the cases through three terminals and down to the TGV ramp.
Actually he had the tickets in his backpack, but there again I thought he was going to keep up. It would seem that I took the heels off that stewardess for nothing. Never mind. It's always nice to know that you can still do these things.
Our TGV arrived and it was a flash one with an upstairs and that's where we were. Forty minutes later we were in Arras. By Via Rail standards that means Arras is at the other end of the airport runway.
In Arras Sandra and Peter were the happy familiar faces paying for our first decent coffee in a week.
Good holiday - nice to be home again.
See also