The Beginning of the End - Beauvais, Portugal, Paris shopping spree, and musings on heading home (and another video)

 

Yes Sportsfans, you read right.  We're heading home!  After a lot of discussion the last month, we're sticking with our original plan to head home on 19th January.  We are so filled up with adventure, amazed at our colourful and textured journey, proud of the edges we've pushed, and lightened up with experiences and life. We are really happy to come home, and it feels great.  As I sit here typing in our cute little cottage in Beauvais (an hour out of Paris) after having a deeply satisfying restful break since I got back from Portugal, I marvel at the joyful intensity and craziness of our last 7 months.  And all good things come to end, it's time for us now to enjoy our last month unwinding, eating great food, living the French dream, and integrating our experiences.  We head off tomorrow to meet up with family in Paris, and as they head to Italy for skiing, we'll stay in Paris for Christmas and then in the New Year come back here to our lovely little cottage in Beauvais, which has become a cosy little home for us, and live locally until we head off.  We are able to leave our bikes and gear here, and I can hear Mike upstairs packing up his stuff as I type.  The pic above, is me in Portugal, in the gorgeous fishing village of Ericeira, near where my Brazilian sister, Ally, lives with her family.  It represents how I feel about this adventure and how I feel about coming home - open and joyful.  I love this pic.  Which brings me to the real reason for this blog, an update...so read on Sportsfans...

Beauvais

Beauvais is a pretty cool spot, 75km north of Paris, with a population of around 55,000 people - big enough and small enough for us.  The reason we're here is because the flight to Portugal and back and went in and out of Beauvais, so we booked there for 6 nights for me to go and see Ally, and Mike to chill for a bit.  We've been here now 2 weeks!  And booked in another two weeks in the new year.  We love it.  It has a train station with trains going into Gare du Nord in Paris - easy peasy.  So, let me tell the story in pics...

We left Bayeux on the 8am train - boy it was cold and wet (and dark), but wow look at those squeaky clean bikes!

We got to Paris, into Montparnasse station after three train changes (Sunday rail work on the main line) - we arrived at 12pm and had to get 5km through Paris to Gare du Nord to get our 2pm train.  Plenty of time to walk, right?, well with the craziness of the place, and the rain, it all got a little tight for time - you see sometimes I like to walk rather than ride so I can see everything and also not have to face all the chaos of riding in the middle of a big city I haven't cycled in before.  So, we had no choice but to hop on the bikes and just go for it.  AND WE DID.  It was the craziest 5km of my life.  So many people, it was crazy, so many cars coming in all sorts of directions, and so many cyclists coming in all sorts of directions, and rain.  INSANE.  And to top it off, some streets were closed off for some reason, so drivers were out of their car arguing with police, and cars were banked up...it was terrifying.  AND WE DID IT!  Mike even got time to stop and take a pic of me trying to smile as we waited for the lights to change over the Seine.

As you can see, we made our train, and were really happy to arrive in Beauvais.  As we walked from the station to find our new home, we crossed through the main town square where of course the Christmas Fair was in full swing...

And then we walked a little further past the most incredible cathedral - like it just hit us out of the blue as we came out of the town square...

 

And next to the cathedral is the princess castle!  We couldn't stop laughing.  We thought we were coming to an airport town!

10 minutes out of the main square and we found our little green door that opened onto this...and our cottage is at the back, and behind that a little stream runs past.  So freaking cute.

We walked back into town to experience more of the Christmas Market and found the light show celebrating the Cathedral's 800th birthday.  Complete with organ music soundtrack.  Beautiful. 

And we saw the carousel all lit up.  It made me cry. We were bowled over by Beauvais.

Portugal & Blue Sky!

Monday morning and I'm up and on my way to the airport for my dodgy RyanAir flight to Portugal. AND IT WAS SO WORTH IT!  

Just for some perspective, I tracked down a pic of Ally and I back in 1988 when I was an exchange student in Brazil - this is us at Octoberfest in Santa Catarina - what a hoot!  37 years ago.

Here we are again when Ally came to visit in Sydney in 1996 I think.  29 years ago.

Yes, that's Mike on the left!  What a spunk!

And here we are now.  A few days ago.

So, now you have perspective.  I've been back to Brazil many times to visit, and to Portugal a few times to visit her there - we have stayed connected for all this time.  But we last saw each other 14 years ago, so it was great to reconnect and see her son, Gui, as a teenager - I last saw him when he was 2 years old!  

So, the gang picked me up from the airport and took me straight to their fave Lisbon restaurant for Bacalhau (salt cod).  OMG SOOOOOOO GOOD.  SOOOOO MUCH GARLIC.  SOOOOOOOO DELICIOUS.

And then we were off for dessert at their fave Pastel de Nata (Portuguese tart) place for, you guessed it, those delicious morsels of heaven...

Then back to their place, where Ally brought out my favourite Brazilian dessert, Pudim de Leite - it literally translates as "milk pudding", but that's just not right, it's like a creme caramel with about 30 times more flavour and a creamy denser texture...OMG THIS ONE WAS DIVINE!!

I even videod the unveiling...

And this is what I woke up to the next morning for breakfast.  Crikey.  Life suddenly got fancier and even more decicious!

And then we were off exploring - Ally took me to her local little areas - this is Ericeira, a cute fishing village with gorgeous old buildings, lots of blue sky, and a feeling of lightness and salty air.  It's about 30 minutes by car out of Lisbon.

And we stopped for the local bakery treat - Ouriços (sea anemones) - the area is famous for its sea anemones, they come in all colours, and this little baked good is named after them, and they are DELICIOUS!

And we stopped by one of the oldest bakeries, still in its original shop, to buy their famous biscuits.  OMG.  They only sell 3 biscuits - all shortbreads - a cinnamon one, a plain butter one, and another one that I don't know what it had in it - I got a mixture of all three to bring back to Mike.  We had devoured them in 3 days!

Wednesday Ally took me to the citadel at Óbidos.  All decked out in Christmas decorations, so beautiful to wander around, have an incredible lunch, and even a spot of shopping (now we've stopped riding, I can actually buy things - sooooooo exciting!).

And that night, all of us, Ally and her hubby, Gui and I all headed first to see their local Mafra area's Christmas decorations in front of the palace.  

Then we headed into Lisbon central to check out the giant Christmas tree and Christmas Market.  No words.  Just glorious .  It's been 15 years since I was in Lisbon last, and the city was glowing, it just looks radiant.

Ally, me and Gui inside the tree.

Ally, her hubby, and me inside the tree. 

Dinner was a stop at the local steak sambo place.  YUM!

I had a late flight out on Thursday night, so Thursday involved writing down recipes and cooking tips (Ally's cooking is FANTASTIC), and measuring up Pudim pans!

Then we headed to one of their fave local seafood restaurants - this was my lunch...and WOW, best fish I've ever eaten.  So simple.  So tasty.  So fresh.

And when I got home to Beauvais, someone was very happy to receive their carton of Pasteis de Nata I'd bought home with me!

Paris Shopping Day

I rested on the Friday after I got back from Portugal (and ate more tarts of course), and on Saturday we decided to hit Paris for a spot of shopping.  Oh the freedom of not having to fit everything into panniers on the bike!  Woohooo!  So, we got the early train in hoping to avoid the crowds, and of course all we had the whole day was CROWDS!  Galleries Lafayette was INSANE, but amazing, but INSANE, so after a good look around and a few pics of their giant glittery Christmas tree that had its own light show, we headed over to Printemps which was a bit calmer and did some damage on the old credit card!

But before we hit the shops we stopped for some brekkie - coffee and beautiful GINGERBREAD cake.  No words.

Galleries Lafayette

Lunch - we shared a croque monsieur and Boeuf Bourguignonne.  Just wow.

My splurge - sneakers!!!!

And of course when we were back in Beauvais we wandered past the rocking Christmas Market and had to stop for hot chocolates and supper.  Bloody great day.

Beauvais Part 2

So, here we are, we've come full circle.  We've been hanging out in this sweet town, being local, cooking for ourselves, and testing out local boulangeries and a few restaurants, having haircuts, and getting ourselves organised for Paris, and for returning home.  It's really lovely here, calm, quiet, and so French.

One of my fave finds - butter with chunks of sea salt throughout. Where has this been all my life?

A typical brekkie bakery run.

Lunch yesterday at a local spot - duck shepherd's pie.  I love France.

And there you have it.  That's where we're at.  It's now getting dark outside.  Mike's back from another bakery run so we can have eggs on toast for dinner.  We have another month of this glorious life, so stay tuned for our final adventures and MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR! (just in case I don't blog again until the new year)!