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This chateau is a bed and breakfast place so we go down at 8:00 for the breakfast. There is a Korean couple there ahead of us. They are nice people.
A small shot of the variety of foods on display, immaculate presentationThe breakfast was varied and very good
The kids came in from Paris late last night. They indicate that they want to be on the road early tomorrow to go back to Paris. Julie is ready to go by around 8:15, they all eventually don’t get away until after 10:30.
I had a chicken roll left over from the first night. There was tons of chicken still left.
Emma drove off in her car for the day leaving me alone with the maid who was cleaning the room vacated by the Korean couple. The maid tried to talk with me but she knew no English and I knew very little French. She did clean up after my lunch and chicken deboning. When she finished and departed I was all alone in the Chateau.
The Chateau from the frontLooking the other directionLooking to the absolute front of the castle from the courtyard
Over time, suburbia had moved into the area overwhelming the castle. Parts of the castle were taken by the neighbours.
The Gable from the Kids room
We had ordered food from a relatively new cook and delivery service which Emma had been closely aligned with. The idea is that your order the food online, they cook it and bring it hot to your place in a short time. Emma had helped me order since my PC was acting up. Delivery was to be 7:00 PM.
Julie arrived back around 6:30. The delivery guy showed up about 5 past 7:00, which was OK. Finally, shortly after the delivery guy had left, Emma returned home
Julie ordered an extra large saladHot Leek and Potato Soup with ravioliThe ravioli and chunks of leek and potato in the soupJulie heated up the rest of the chicken to end up with a chicken saladHot veal with a pearl barley risotto
I had ordered way too much food and could only eat about half of the veal. We also ordered a spicy tapenade of air dried tomatoes and a bottle of French wine which we got into once we finished the other French one we had opened earlier.
Thursday, 18 October, 2018 – Drizzling but who cares, we are leaving
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Julie is up early and again goes to the local shop and buys important supplies: Bread rolls, Coffee for her, fresh squeezed Orange Juice, water.
Once again Cold Duck for BreakfastJulie has a smoked salmon and apple roll, just for a changeThe Seats we were in next to the strip Club last night
I had forgotten to comment upon the airplane traffic as we are relatively close to Charles De Gaulle (CDG) airport. On the first few days, it sounded like there were fighter jets going straight over the top of us as well as the normal CDG takeoffs and landing. Then after the celebrations were over there were no more fighter jets and the wind had changed directions so it was not anywhere near as airplane noisy as before.
We walk to the train station with the Kids pushing suitcases. As usual, we have left way too early. It is drizzling but not heavily wet. We are able to board the train early and settle in, our first class carriage is about half full. I move across the aisle to spread out for more room.
The Guys settled in
It is around a 2.5 hour ride to Paris. There are two stops along the way to pick up passengers and at the last stop the carriage fills up so I am thrown out of my seat.
We arrive at Paris Gare de le Est 3 minutes late, what’s the matter with you guys? Then there is a real shemozzle finding our taxi. We had been told by our Hostess to go straight out to the front of the station to meet our van there because he could not park. We did that. Julie saw a van off to the right, that wasn’t it either. Instead a replacement driver has parked off to the left and went looking for us. Finally he finds me and then we have to drag the cases all the way back through the station to the parked van.
The trip out through traffic et al was long but uneventful. The weather is good and we arrive at our destination an old Castle called
No photos from me today but there are good pictures in the link above.
Thus commences a magical 4 days outside of Versailles. We meet Emma (Emmanuel) and she is an absolute delight. She show us to our rooms, our is on the second floor, the Kids up another flight of stairs. Ryan carries all the suitcases up, taking a while obviously.
Emma tell us there is no restaurant available in the town, the one is closed for the Winter. The Kids get on a train back to Paris. Julie goes prancing and eventually brings back a Chicken and a baguette plus other supplies as it has been a while since we last ate.
Julie’s Chicken ShareReady for a picnicJulie and her friend
There two dogs and a black cat. The other dog, when he smelled the chicken, was all over us, scavenging anything that dropped on the ground, trying to eat little bits of my lap etc.
Julie made a chicken salad, I had a chicken roll. It was quite good. Julie took some stuff in and was gone for quite a while. When she came back she said that she was cleaning up because another couple were staying in the third room. By then it was getting quite cool so we went in and drank some more wine / Whiskey (Julie). The world is good.
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Julie is up early and again goes to the local shop and buys important supplies: Bread rolls, Coffee for her, fresh squeezed Orange Juice, water. Today I have Ham that Julie bought for me with the bread roll for breakfast and Julie has a roll with Smoked Salmon and apple.
I manage to get my PC working in the room by tethering it to the phone so I can work in the room for most of the day. Hence, a lot of the photos come from Julie.
Pastries and BreadsBread with Lots of SeedsPumpkins and Squashesand more VegiesVarious Condiments from the car bootLots of VegiesLook at all of those TubersInteresting artwork statues
Eventually I was ejected from the room by the cleaner who was a very nice young girl who could speak English well. I moved downstairs to the attached café and settled in for a while. Our friend is just leaving for the day.
The Kids have decided to join us for dinner at the Asian place at the end of the street. We go up there at 5:30 but it does not open until 6:00. So we wander down the street and the girls disappear into various shops, arghh. Ryan and I settle into a (not so) high class place, part of a strip joint but we are sitting out on the street with a red wine each. When Julie eventually joins us the waitress assumes that she is another hooker on the street until we say she is OK. There was a fight on the street across the way and the volunteer Police show up to quell it and drag one guy away. The wine we had was not that good.
Selfie outside the high class night club i.e. strip joint
Finally, Ryan and I finish our (not so) great wine and go up to the Asian place target for the night. Who knows where the girls were. Eventually they join us.
Not very crowded tonightTanika creates an interesting main course out of 3 entrees. The Gyozas look especially goodJulie’s Miso SoupJulie’s Chicken Salad MainRyan’s Spicy ChickenMy Duck with Green Curry sauce and vegies, again – so goodThe Kids departed but Julie had an Irish Coffee
We leave for France tomorrow so it is a good idea to hit the sack, jack.
An alternative title for this Post could be Slim Dusty Part 3 as the restaurant was also Muslim and did not sell alcohol of any kind.
Old Billy the blacksmith, first time in his life
Has gone home cold sober, to his darling wife
He walks in the kitchen, she says your early my dear
But he breaks down and tells her, the pubs got no beer
Tuesday, 16 October, 2018 – Very good, low 20s
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Julie is up early and again goes to the local shop and buys important supplies: Bread rolls, Coffee for her, fresh squeezed Orange Juice, water. I again have Cold Duck for breakfast and Julie has a roll with Smoked Salmon and apple.
We have decided we will do a City tour with the Kids on a jump on/off train. The first thing I note is that all of the people that were in the windows and bars are gone, confirming to me that my theory on the public holiday yesterday was correct. Julie buys tickets for a bus to get us to the Train. The Kids will meet us at a likely hop off place where they had been yesterday.
We ride the bus to the place that the ticket seller had recommended in the old town. This meant we had to walk back to the place where we were to meet the Kids.
Walking through the Old Town
However, when we go to the place to sign up, we are told that the Green Train does not stop here, this is for Red Bus Hop On/Off. So we have to walk back to where we were before and then quite a distance after wards to get to its ticket sellers / starting point.
The Green “Train”Our route including the starting placeSelfie of me on the Train
Once the motor is started on the Train, the vocabulary starts. There is a choice of 7 different languages and English is only number 4. The speakers are a real Luxenburgian, who spoke perfect English and his young daughter. They did tell us lots of interesting facts on the tour such as Luxenb0urgh had “just” had its millennial anniversary in 1983 since it was originally founded in AD 983. Their story very much reminded me of Eastern Europe Georgia which we visited a few years ago of all of the various civilisations that had invaded them over the years and their resilience and “fight back”. We did see a changing of the guard ceremony where volunteer Policemen / Soldiers are protecting the realm with machine guns.
I did’t take any photos on the tour, that ain’t food or wine. We catch a bus directly back to the Central Station and walk back to the apartment.
Last night Ryan had set-up my Internet access with global roaming through my phone and access to the Net through the phone using Blue Tooth. It worked great in the room. This morning, it did not work at all. So I go down stairs into the café. We had made friends with the manager of the café and he shows me to the “smokers corner” outside where I am able to directly access the Net. I get lots done.
A poobah parking and checking-in, taken from the smoker’s corner
When our friend comes out for a smoke, he asks if I am English, I explain that we are Australian. He really warms up then, saying he is from the Punjab, is hoping to become a Luxembourg citizen and travel to the USA, England and Australia.
Julie comes back and we decide to have dinner there, again. I ask for some wine or beer – no way, they are Muslim and alcohol free. Hence, the reference to Slim Dusty Part 3.
I ordered a pizza with chicken satays, turned out to be a chicken rollLots of meat, lots of chicken, very fillingJulie asked our friend for extra salad before he left to which Julie added Smoked Salmon
Our friend left early but ensured we got what we wanted and at a good price.
Much quieter night outside than the previous two. Good stuff. I did have a reflux attack in the night probably due to too much food.
Loyal followers of this Blog. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot see the photos and / or the captions or alignments are messed up, please go to http://www.beauperi.com directly and all those problems should go away.
Julie is up early and goes to the local shop, as she does every morning, and buys important supplies: Bread rolls, Coffee for her, fresh squeezed Orange Juice, water.
Cold Duck for breakfastSmoked Salmon and apple for Julie with her coffee from the shopWe walk down the street to the train stationThe Station BoardWalking back up the street from the station, our Hotel is on the left
Notice the Hotel Zurich on the right, as time went by every window was filled by loud people partying, as were the other windows of residences, other hotels and restaurants across the street.
The previous night we had found a free city wifi that had worked well in the restaurant. In our room it did not work at all. So we went downstairs and turned right into a restaurant / takeaway shop which is sort of attached to the Hotel. We sit down at a table near the door and my free wifi works well but Julie who is sitting next to me wifi doesn’t work at all. The restaurant fills up with people for the lunch trade.
Eventually, I spend most of the day there quietly working on the Blog. However, the noise from across the street continues to grow. We decide to have dinner in that café.
Julie had a fish saladChicken fillet and chips with spicy sauce for me, Julie scored the salad
The end of a quiet day for me but not quiet at all outside. I eventually worked out that this must have been a large public holiday in Luxembourg which was the special event that the travel agent had told us about. The window being closed helped keep some of the noise out but not all.
