Paris

Our first taste of Paris was a whirlwind one night, arriving on the Eurostar, before we went to Corsica for the week. We stayed in my friend Gareth's apartment on Rue de Turennes - just around the corner from the Place des Vosges. We caught up with him and his wife Diva and 4 year old son Eliot for dinner that night. It was late for the kids - Zoe and Harvey had had a sleep in the afternoon so they were ok after a couple of Sprites and played with Eliot but Amelia was falling asleep at the table!

It was then great to get back to Paris and do it properly after Corsica. We had 3 nights and two full days, renting an apartment in the Marais, which is a lively area, right in the thick of it. We arrived on Friday night and the neighbourhood was humming. The apartment was tiny - Bill could hardly stand up on the top mezzanine floor and certainly there were no cats being swung around in there -  Zoe practising her gym in the top bedroom and almost breaking the lamp resulted in us both having conniptions and much admonishment.

We went out for dinner that  night -  although I really struggled to get my bearings and managed to get us lost within a small radius around the Centre Pompidou. The kids enjoyed the coke/raspberries, the carbonara and the story of the french revolution :

On Saturday we got up early and I went for a run to get my bearings and to source stuff for breakfast. We were staying just behind the Rue de Rivoli near the Hotel de Ville so once we got out and about it was easy to get the metro from there to the Eiffel Tower. At Trocadero, the kids got their first glimpse of it and we snapped a lot of photos and quickly got accosted by the peddlers of mini Eiffel Towers.

It was good to get in early as the crowds are massive - slight hiccup when Harv forgot that he had put his Corsican knife in the backpack - which meant we had to hide it near the ticket office before ascending the tower, but managed to retrieve it later. We took the stairs as far as you can go to the second floor, then took the elevator from there. It's much further up than you think - and a brilliant way to see the layout of the city.

After that we got the obligatory souvenirs (including Harv's selfie stick which - despite all abuse - has been a winner) - then walked to Charles de Gaulle Etoile and the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysees which was looking every bit as grand as I remember it.  The kids were immediately wowed by the shops and Harv by the flash cars - he was keen to take a ride in a Lamborghini for 100 euros but Bill was not so keen. We lunched at one of the tourist traps and the kids enjoyed the most expensive hot chocolate money can buy - but were excited that they each had their own jug of it -  it was pretty good!

french hot dogs

Then we all got drawn in by Zara and H & A ended up with styley euro puffer jackets and Zoe a pair of cool ripped jeans:

That afternoon we met Gareth and his family and Nath and her family at la Cite des Sciences where the kids all did an interactive session exploring a whole lot of cool stuff. Despite not speaking each others' languages, it took no time for our girls and Nath's girls to be flying around having fun together - Zoe pulled out quite a few "voilas"..

                                                           Amelia, Eliot, Zoe, Elisa, Diana and Harvey

Thanks to the selfie stick..

Then drinks and back to Gareth's awesome new refurbished apartment for pizza and red wine - great spot and such a lovely catch up with my old Parisian amis. So funny to get the kids together after all these years. Once again amazing hospitality - thanks so much Gareth and family and Nath and family for making such a huge effort to welcome us.

The girls with baby Rosa 

Eliot  (who speaks English, French and Spanish) and Harv 

We had a lovely chilled Sunday morning - it was a stunning day and Bill and I went running early along the river to Notre Dame (barely a soul was there) and over to the Ile St Louis then had un petit cafe in the neighbourhood. Paris is very calm and surreal in the mornings as the french are pretty slow to get moving at the best of times, especially on a Sunday. Then we walked with the kids along past the Hotel de Ville to the Palais de Louvre  - where the girls cartwheeled it up with gay abandon and gazed at the hordes taking their selfies....we carried on through the Tuileries gardens - the kids were pleased to see that Halloween was alive and well in Paris - there were lots of people dressed up in costumes and giving away lollies.

We went to the Orangerie galley and saw Monet's amazing oval rooms with the water lillies... and some other paintings by some guys called Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso etc

Then we walked back towards the Musee D'Orsay on the left bank to have lunch - and then chocolate crepes near St Michel, which Zoe managed to have all over her face by the time we got to Notre Dame

To top it off we had icecreams from Berthillon and then dinner in the Marais, which was buzzing even more on a Sunday than it was on Friday night. Did somebody say kilos? Paris, that's a wrap!

Harvey says:  I love the hustle and bustle of Paris and also the cosy apartments. I would like to have had our apartment a bit bigger though. Paris is an amazing place full of many tourist attractions including the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. I loved hanging out with Eliot and going to the Science museum and dragon slide with him. Paris has really good carbonara! Here's some of my photos:

Zoe says: In Paris we saw a lot of  homeless people on the streets with some of their children - they looked so sad. I loved the Eiffel Tower. We had a nice crepe - I got it on my legs!

Amelia says :  Paris has great meals - one time I got wok fried noodles, they were divine. The Eiffel Tower was amazing, when we got up to the top I felt like I was flying. When we went to the Science museum with Eliot and Elisa and Diana I saw lots of cool experiments and things to do. It was so fun - I especially liked when we went down the dragon slide afterwards. Paris is great and I hope I get to go there again with my kids.

La Corse

Ahhhh Corsica. It was so lovely to get down there and to soak up the heat of the fading summer on the Med. We were grateful for 7 nights here to relax into the rhythm of the holiday, growl the kids into submission (slightly) and have a bit of down time after busy days in London, a delayed eurostar journey and a whistle stop through Paris for one night only.

There is a rustic, real life feel to the place - especially in late October when the busy tourist season has finished - it has its beauty but there is a sense of real life being lived not far from the shiny surface. Porto Vecchio where we stayed swells to huge numbers during the high season and has a beautiful old town high above the Port, which is also pretty, but a very ordinary centre commercial not far away as we discovered on our morning runs.

The kids were disappointed because the apartment where we stayed had an amazing pool but it was "closed" after the summer. Luckily though the weather was warm and we had 3 beautiful beach days where the temperatures were perfect and we would not have wanted it hotter. There was high excitement as we broke out the summer threads and hit the beach

We hit Plage de Palombaggia the first day and were amazed at how warm the water was.

B 

Bill and I did not take long to get into the local drop (Pietra) which was not bad.

Our favourite beach was Santa Giulia where the water was aqua blue and the kids loved the pedal boats which we hired both days, turning ourselves quite quickly into a ship of fools.

Zoe (la petite) continued with her love of croissants and requested them constantly :

 Although we did branch out one night to get some "tart n meringue" as a throwback to Uncle Robbie. The boulangeries did not disappoint:

We mainly ate out for lunch and had dinner in our apartment. It has to be said that despite being told the Coriscan wine was very good, lacking any further direction, many of our purchases were epic fails, resulting in a lot of terrible wine being poured down the sink!! 

Other than the beaches, we explored the amazing town of Bonifacio one day which is the southernmost tip of the island, perched on the precipice between the Med and the Thyrrhenian sea and  is just as much italian as it is french. It has seen many battles from its Bastion walls given its strategic location. We went down and up the steps of the King of Aragon carved right into the side of the cliff, where the kids abused me for being paranoid about "health & safety" (which was marginal).

We also went up to the mountain village of Ospedale and did a walk in the hills from there - the centre of Corsica is very mountainous - we weren't very high but there are amazing tramps and bike rides which go from one coast to the other and everywhere in between. Zoe (aka "wild homes") started doggy howling as soon as we got into the bush and managed to attract 3 puppy friends who followed us on the whole walk and did not want to leave us, despite us trying to take them home several times. We spent a bit of time outlining the reasons why we couldn't take them home with us..

On the way back, we stopped for a drink and the kids walked home while we had a second aperol...

On the last day we drove around the west of the island taking in for the last time the light, the heat and the simplicity of the place, as well as a few photos:

We drove back to Ajaccio, the birthplace of Napoleon (Boney-Parts) which was a lovely town with a gorgeous beach right on its edge. We had a last lunch soaking up the heat knowing that it was probably our last for 2 months. Then it was a mad scramble to the airport which was touch and go due to the shemozzle of "le colis Bill Willis" which is another story.

Zoe says: I love Corisca because it is hot and we go to the beach a lot. The boulangerie is my favourite food shop. When we went walking we found 3 puppies, One was called "shy guy" one was called "Sica" and the other was called "Determined". One of them had fleas. They kept following us. Dad had to shoo them away and they nearly got run over!

Amelia says: Corsica was amazing and hot, I loved going to all the beaches because two times we got to hire a pedal boat and we went out to sea and swam off it. When Zoe was being a fake dog, she howled and some dogs came running to us.They were very adorable - we think they were beagles but we're not sure. I love Corsica.

Harvey says: Corsica was an amazing place it was full of barking, splashing, pedalling, travelling, tanning and much much more. I loved the Corsica lolly shop and the Corsican boat chips we ate at the beach. Our apartment was amazing too.My favourite beach was Santa Giulia it had lots of peddal boats. The view from our apartment was amazing too. Wish you were here! Here's some of my photos: