Furthermore: October 2007

October 30, 2007

Paris with Children

I thought I’d write a bit about our experience of staying in Paris with our two young daughters (now 6 and nearly 3) as it was the first time we’d taken them abroad and we didn’t know how it would work out.

We went on Eurostar and I think it was the right choice - you can turn up less than an hour before the train goes, and despite saying you can only take two bags each (although that was plenty) they don’t seem to enforce that rigidly. There was no problem getting the push chair on, and there’s enough room that the girls could draw and play with toys in their seats. Taxis were no problem at Gare du Nord.

We rented an apartment in the 16th, just off Rue de Passy. I found it on paris.craigslist.com, and it was just what we needed. The street was nice and quiet, the area similar, and we were right near a supermarket and a chinese takeaway, so dinner was sorted. Rue de Passy also has loads of shops, including some toyshops, which L and E both love (of course), and we were able to get L some nice boots, which she was very pleased with.

We did try going out one evening, but it wasn’t ideal - restaurants were happy to accomodate children, but few places were open before 7.30 by which time both girls are flagging (particularly after a day out). Eating out at lunch generally worked better. In the evenings we just ate picnic style, and the girls watched Mary Poppins before bedtime.

We were quite close to two metro stations and the RER. We found ourselves using the RER most often as it went along the river, and also out to Versailles. Mrs Furthermore and I both bought Cartes Orange for unlimited travel. We bought a carnet of half-fares for L and E is still young enough to ride free.

So where did we go - I think I mentioned Versailles. We only went round the gardens (and we didn’t do nearly all of that) - the queue for tickets to the Palace was still gigantic, even in October, and I don’t think the girls would have enjoyed a long tour. They liked the gardens and statues though, and we found a nice open-air cafe in the grounds for lunch.

The Eiffel Tower was close enough to the apartment that we could walk there, so we got the view across the river from the Trocadero as we approached. We didn’t go up - again big queues and neither L nor E were particularly keen. We took the Batobus (L decided the scenery en route was of no interest compared to the leaflet she’d found) from there to Notre Dame to get some lunch, and then looked at Sainte Chapelle.

As for more child-oriented activities - we went to the Jardin d’Acclimatation in the Bois du Boulogne which was great. There’s a miniature railway to take you in, and there are loads of things to do - a little fair, lots of slides and climbing frames. There are quite a few cafes, but we found everything was full when we went on Sunday - I think we just arrived at a bad time, and also the weather was good and everyone had come out for the day.

We also went to the menagerie in the Jardin des Plantes. It’s a good little zoo, although a bit expensive to get in. The reptiles and spiders were a particular favourite. Nearer to home, we found a little park near Muette with a playground (with a train exactly like the one in the Jesus Green playground here in Cambridge). There were also slides and climbing frames in the park at Place des Vosges, which was quite welcome as it meant we could admire the Place and the girls could have fun.

Overall it was nice to have a holiday which was a bit more of a balance between what Mrs F and I enjoy, and what the girls like, and there are still loads more things we didn’t get to see in Paris. The travelling was more stressful - particularly the journey back as we did it all in one day, and the girls got very overtired. The overall cost was also much higher than staying in the UK, mainly because of the cost of Eurostar tickets (where we’d otherwise just have driven within the UK). I recommend the apartment, both for the facilities and the location - if we go back to Paris, I’d certainly consider staying there again.

teh quick

I managed my run in 25.53 this morning, thus smashing through the 26 minute barrier in style. Seems quite strange to me, as I haven’t really been making much progress for ages, and even seemed to be getting slower before I went on holiday. That’s about 7m30 mile pace, so I’m pleased with that.

I’m aiming to get down to 25 minutes, then I’ll maybe extend the run out a bit.

October 26, 2007

Do Gooder

I went to the Cambridge City Amnesty letter writing meeting in The Castle (Castle Hill one) last night. It was pretty well attended as these thing go, and I think we did about 30 or so letters. I brought some on Shi Tao who I also campaigned for when I did the London Marathon. There’s an AI page on him here if you’d like to help - basically he wrote an email which the Chinese authorities didn’t like, and Yahoo shopped him so now he’s doing 10 years in prison.


The other thing I’ve been following is the campaign to get asylum for Iraqi employees of British forces (some of whom may be being Black-and-Deckered to death even as we speak). The pressure on the government does seem to have had some effect, but the current position is apparently that Iraqis have to show 12 months continuous employment to be eligible for any help. So more letters to MPs are required. David Howarth has been pretty good on this so far, but if you feel moved to help, check out Dan Hardie’s latest post.

October 25, 2007

Running to Catch Up

I’ve done 3 runs since we got back from holiday - all on the same shortish circuit round Cherry Hinton. Saturday I think I did about 27.50, Tuesday it was 27.25, and today I got it back down to 26.40. I can’t remember what my best time was so far - somewhere around 26 mins I think, so still a way to go to get back there. I was pleased with 26.40 though - I didn’t feel like I’d really run faster than I did on Tuesday (plus I had to stop for a cyclist), and I had the minor triumph of getting past the Cherry Hinton level crossing just before the barrier warning started going. It’s a right pain if you have to wait for the train to pass.

October 24, 2007

O Superman

I was playing an ancient compilation tape in the car this morning, and I heard Laurie Anderson’s O Superman for the first time in many years. It obviously made some impression on me before or I wouldn’t have taped it, but hearing it again it seemed much more powerful than I remember it. Partly I suppose I can now hear the influence of people like Glass on the music so the repetition doesn’t seem so weird, but whatever the reason I found it quite moving.

October 20, 2007

General Catch up

I see I haven’t written anything for ages. Well, let’s see:

The kitchen is finally finished and it looks really good. Induction hob, dishwasher (originally against my better judgement, but I’ve come round to it), and all drawers and cupboards have soft-close, which always seems like magic to me. More cupboard space than we had before, although perhaps not quite as much more as we anticipated. Anyway, I’m very happy and I’m happy to recommend the guys who worked on it (with one exception). Feel free to get in touch if you want phone numbers etc.

We’ve been away on holiday to Paris. I’m going to post on that separately so I won’t say much here, except that it was fun, but it seems to have left me completely tired out all this week. That may have been the drive home, which was rather stressful, as we missed the turn from Mrs F’s parent’s house onto the M25 and ended up travelling a long way down the A3 heading further and further away from home.

Haven’t done much running - I did one shortish run in Paris, which was fun, and then nothing last week until today, when I did my normal early-morning circuit (3.5ish miles) as a way of easing back into the routine. Next week hopefully back to normal.

I’ve finally finished Gene Wolfe’s The Wizard which I have rather mixed feelings about. I’ll try to post about that separately too. I see I’m now two books behind Wolfe again - the long awaited Soldier of Sidon is available, and there’s also the shiny new Pirate Freedom (of which I again hear mixed reports).

We’re meeting some friends for lunch a bit later - it’s L’s 6th birthday, so she’s very excited today.