~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEWIS~ Lew turns 26 today!! I think we should just stop celebrating birthdays as we both edge closer to 30! Don't get me wrong our multiple mums and dads across the world (for those who don't know we have another adoptive mum and dad in Colorado, Pat & Joe who have had us to stay multiple times) you can still send us presents! We just want to forget our age.

We were woken up by the sound of the doorbell. For the past two days we had been waiting for Lews sleeping bag to arrive. The morning we left NZ no one was able to find it so we had to leave it behind. Averill found it later that morning and posted it straight to us in London. So I ran downstairs in my PJs to accept the parcel. Finally! They had tried to deliver it the other day at 5.30am but none of us woke up.

Once we were both having breakfast I gave Lew the present I had brought for him back when we were still at home. It was a bike tour by Fat Tire Tours that we were supposed to be doing today but since we were getting in later to Paris I postponed it to tomorrow morning. My parents had also given Lew and I some tickets to the show Moulin Rouge for Monday night when we had our final family dinner back home. From his own parents Averill and Paul he was given some money towards booking this cool accomodation built into rocks in the Loire Valley. We had booked that ages ago though. We spent the morning packing for our trip to Paris as we were leaving on the Eurostar at 4.30pm. Since we had a tiny Citroen C3 we were driving around Europe in we decided just to take the one large bag and our back packs. That way hopefully everything can fit in the boot and be covered. This did however mean that we had to cut out a lot of stuff from our previous trip. Once again we were packing for both summer and winter temperatures so we had a lot of stuff. The rest of it we packed into my small blue suitcase and the other large Osprey bag as Erlita had agreed to store them for us whilst we were away. Once we had been through all our stuff we tried to pack it into the bag. We had it all zipped up ready to go when we looked back onto the bed and realised we had missed a huge amount of stuff. I decided that perhaps I had too many clothes so set about going through each packing cell to reduce it. How many pairs of shorts does a girl need after all? Lews always great at helping me get rid of stuff "Na get rid of that, havnt seen you wear it once so far" he was talking about a long sleeve top and if you have been following our blogs you would know that we have been in temperatures 25+ since leaving NZ. But other than that he's pretty helpful. After cutting a good amount of things we were able to repack the bag successfully with everything included this time. The bag was chocka block and we still had to carry our backpacks and a sleeping bag each. No doubt we will drag these sleeping bags all across Europe and won't even use them! We backed up the computers which took awhile since mine hadn't been done since we left Auckland a month ago. During this time we ate left over nachoes for lunch.

Erlita also made us some steamed brussel sprouts - I have absolutely no idea why but they were tasty! Didn't quite go with Mexican but a healthy addition. We dragged our bags down to the basement where Erlita showed us one of her three lockers where we could leave them. I was a tad worried when she said lockers how big they would be since our bag weighed a lot and was rather massive. But the lockers were huge also and we easily fitted everything in. She wanted to show us the garden but it was already 1.30pm which was when she told us to leave by so I had to gently remind her of this or we might be late. We quickly brushed our teeth and double checked we had everything. We gave Erlita the bottle of Sauvignon Blanc we had brought and said our goodbyes. I really wanted a photos but we had no one to take it for us. Oh well I wasn't about to even try take a selfie with an 88 yr old women ! We headed to the subway pleased with how we had fitted everything in. Goodness knows how we will get it all back to London though especially since we will have to fly from Lyon. Never mind we shall deal with that in a couple of months when no doubt we have gathered souvenirs, possibly more clothes and tonnes of memories. Taking the train could have been easier as the stations have a lot of steps which Lew had to lug the very heavy bag up and down. It is also very hot in the underground and when you have multiple jackets on it's rather uncomfortable. Whilst we were waiting for the train I attached my fanny pack! It was brown and squishy and felt similar to what I would imagine having a colostomy bag would be like (google it all you non medical peps 😜). Any how Lew forced me to shove it down the front of my pants, it looked awful and reminded me of those unfortunate women with the apron of fat at the front bulging in there trousers. Yea I know you have all seen that before! It was also going to be strange when I needed the passports I would have to get into my own pants? We made it successfully to St Pancras which is combined with Kings Cross Station. We were so early we couldn't check in for another half an hour. We played around with our seat selection and managed to swap from our windowless seats to ones facing each other with a window and a table - score! We also had a quick shop for some snacks at Marks and Spencer's before getting in the line for security. They scan your bags but don't seem fussed by liquids like international flying. We passed through border control and had to wait to board the train anyways. There are multiple escalators to different platforms and they don't tell you what platform your train will be at until they allow you to board. We demolished some salt and vinegar chips plus a lemonade before heading to the bathroom. I knew as soon as I went they would commence boarding and it's a bit of a mad rush to the train it seems. Sure enough as I was in the middle of using the bathroom the boarding announcement came through . I ran back and luckily saw the back end of our sleeping bags attached to our bag in the crowd and Lew was heading towards the escalator. He had such faith in me I would return before he got onto it! He had his backpack on and then mine as a front pack which looked very funny. They don't seem to care how large or heavy your bag is which is fantastic and we just walked into what we though was carriage two. We found our seat number and were disappointed we wernt facing each other like we had chosen. Then I realised we were in carriage one instead of two, problem averted ! There was plenty of space for our bag on the bag rack and the set up was so nice, far better than going to the airport!

We left about 10 minutes after boarding. I was facing backwards and lew forwards. The train went so fast and deep into the ground you had to keep unblocking your ears. We reached the coast pretty quickly and before we knew it we were 75m under the English Channel travelling at about 300km/hr. The tunnel itself is 50.44km long and once through it we popped up above ground in France!! Crazy!! The French country side sped along side of us whilst we snacked on the NZ apples we had brought from Marks. I edited some blogs and we also caught up on our expenses since we have been using 5 different cards to make it super confusing. Our credit cards which we were planning to use only in emergency has actually become what we put most things on.  We were hoping to put everything on my UK card but that hasn't arrived yet. We checked Mapsme again and we were on the outskirts of Paris already! Sooo much easier than catching a plane! They should just have fast trains connecting the world 😁. We parked up at at Gare Du Nord the train station and began unloading. It was a huge station with gunned policemen standing around and multiple trains offloading people. It was easy enough to book an Uber to the Air BnB accomodation we were staying at in the 17th arrondissement. It cost us $18NZD.

It was such a strange feeling walking out into a the streets of Paris! Lew said it's much like London but with more culture. It was a short 15 minute drive to the place and the Uber had a glass roof so you could look up at all the beautiful buildings. It's not like staying at a hotel as we got dropped off outside some random door with 13 on it. We followed the instructions we had been sent to get in and the large two story door opened up into a courtyard with buildings all around. Each window has a small balcony, some with white shutters and some without. Vines climbed up all aspects of the building and it was just like Paris in the movies. We walked up the narrow spiral staircase to the third floor, poor Lew having to carry with 30kg bag on his birthday! Knocking on this door our host Julien answered the door and let us into this super chic and totally French looking flat. It was the kind of place Lew and I would love to live in if you ignored the peeling paint and general oldness of the building. Julian introduced us to his friends, flatmate and their fat cat! I think perhaps it is fat as it's stuck in the third floor and can't go out roaming! He then showed us to the room down the corridor which looked just like the photos. We dumped all our stuff and came back into the living room for a drink and for him to write down a place for dinner he recommended. It was 5 minutes down the road and called The Bouchon de Batignolles or LeBBs. He said it would be busy but if they didn't have a place tell them your a guest of his and they will find your a spot. We grabbed some stuff and headed back out into the street. Julien and his friends were heading out to town so they showed us how to get back in as the wouldn't be there. Such trust with Airbnb, they have met us for no more than five minutes and you get left in their house full of stuff. Likewise with us! We just leave everything in our unlocked room.

Back on the street we went left and left again and came across a street with lots of restaurants on it and figured it was the one. It didn't seem like there were any locals there at all and everything was in French. The menus on the doors of these places were rather expensive when you double it to get the amount in NZD! But since it was lews Birthday and we had no idea where else to go we took the plunge and opened the door. It was 9pm at night so it wasn't overly busy and they squeezed us into a small table between a large group and another couple. The menu was entirely on French and everyone was speaking French around us. We just laughed as we had no clue what to do. One of the waiters brought the menu board close to us as we were struggling to read it but it's not like that translated it for us. I was in contact with my mum at that stage and sent her a photo of Lew looking very perplexed at the menu. Thank goodness the couple beside us could tell we were struggling and translated it for us. Goodness knows how I'm ever going to find dairy free stuff to eat on this trip! Erlita was right perhaps I will starve or just live off bread. From the translation we decided to order the burger, some chips and ceviche. We had been told by Julian that you will probably need to order at least two things to eat as the dishes are small. Since Lews burger was about €16 we figured it would be rather large. We also got a beer and I thought I would try a rose wine hoping it would be lovely and sweet. The burger was a decent size and Lew said it had a very French taste to it. Iv never had ceviche before but this was with coconut cream, basil and mint and was absolutely amazing. Well the fries were rather boring but the other option were duck spring rolls and I really thought we would end up ordering them to eat anyways based on the advice. But they gave us a basket of bread so we really didn't need the extra dish. The wine tasted much more like a sav that a rose but I'm not exactly a wine fanatic. Basically it wasn't sweet enough, plus I'm usually a two sips kind of person so I was feeling rather sleepy when we left. There were armed officers pacing the street which Lew and I were rather alarmed by. The people next to us who helped us order told us that this is now normal for Paris since they had a new Prime Minister elected he insists on this. It's the same 6 guys each night apparently. Over all the meal was rather expensive at €44 ($72 NZD) but it was a good experience for our first night and Lews birthday.

We walked up the street and of course Lew was looking for somewhere to buy an icecream. Instead we came across a creperie and since he had never tried one I convince him to get that instead. He chose a nutella flavoured one for €3 ($5NZD). Walking back to the accomodation eating the crepe we were still in awe of the fact we were in Paris itself. Julien was still out when we got back so we were able to take our time sussing our the bathroom. And by that I mean the toilet paper is pink and the toilet is like one off a plane. The shower also has no curtain and the shower head was resting on the taps for the bath. Did you sit down and shower? Do you stand and the entire bathroom gets wet? Hmmm. But the water pressure wasn't that strong that it went everywhere but it was nice to have a hot shower at night. The bed was just as small as the one at Erlitas but more comfortable and despite how hot it was we managed to sleep. We did have to open the windows which even from the third floor Lew was concerned someone would get in haha.