A week has gone by very quickly.  We are back on the railway station and off to Amiens.  Discovered SNCF's mobile app for managing tickets - no need for a printer. The guard scans the iphone quite successfully. 

Mouy is a delightful town. So many contrasts to Australia.

Read more »

Day 3 of Intensive Language.  With Chantal's help we stumble through wide ranging conversations in French over breakfast.  She is very good at helping insert the missing word in our Vocab so the conversation doesn't stall (can't quite say flows!).  We have also been sorting out time related things: depuis, il y a, jusq'à and when to use de and le with dates.

Read more »

Beauvais is 'just around the corner' from Mouy. Chantal had an appointment there, so took us to the cathedral: firstly to look, and secondly to inspire a homework piece about writing a story and using time descriptions properly.  The Cathederal has a long heritage and a special horloge astronomique (clock, calendar, sun chart, moon chart, Bible story ...)  Before going inside we stood in awe in front of the cathederal.

Read more »

After a day exploring some more corners of Montmatre, we wandered back down the hill, with bags in tow to Gare du Nord.  A bit nervous about buying SNCF tickets on line we arrived early and bought our tickets at the machine.  It was on the RER to Clermont d'Oise, where Chantal, our language teacher was to pick us up. 

We were then reminded of 2 things: there aren't many places to sit at Gare du Nord, so arriving early has its downsides, and they don't tell you which platform until just before the train leaves.  So finding a spot, mid station, so you can go either way, when the platform is posted, was the aim.  Fortunately we found a seat for the last 40 min or so of waiting!!  Turns out the train to Amiens (which we were on) is pretty popular on Sunday afternoon. So when the platform popped up on the screen there was a surge to Platform 10.

It all worked out, the surge of people didn't have large bags so we found spots on the luggage racks, and a seat each and waited for the gentle way trains pull out of a station.  So different to aeroplanes!. It's less than an hour's trip and everything is well labelled, but there is still a bit of tension arriving at an unfamiliar platform.

Chantal and Stephan met us at the train - my greyiing beard and Gail's hair probably made us easy to spot on the station!.  Mouy is a small town (6,000 people, Aussies call that substantial for a country town). But everything is close by, shops, supermarkets, beautiful walks along the stream... and of course language tuition.

Chantal welcomed us with a delightful, simple salad for tea and we sorted out arrangements for tomorrow.