{"id":1221,"date":"2011-09-06T15:10:20","date_gmt":"2011-09-06T14:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackwidows.co.uk\/iad\/?p=1221"},"modified":"2011-09-07T17:17:05","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T16:17:05","slug":"the-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackwidows.co.uk\/iad\/2011\/09\/the-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"The Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes – this blog has been neglected. I really need to establish a regular blogging routine… Busy summer, though — punctuated by a week in France which was really nice. <\/p>\n

We went over for my niece’s 21st birthday (my brother lives in Azincourt<\/a> which is about halfway between Calais and Arras) and stayed in the rural town of Hesdin<\/a>. As luck would have it, we were there for the town’s annual fete which lasted all week and ended with a spectacular show in the town square on the last night.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We also added a day in Paris to either side of the trip. The sightseeing didn’t go quite as planned (mainly because we were all too tired to do much) but we did manage to get to the Eiffel Tower – which was at the top of K’s wishlist. <\/p>\n

We arrived there is early evening whilst it was still quite light but stayed long enough to see all of the lights come on – which was really cool. We didn’t actually go up the Tower. The queues were huge<\/strong>! But we did get to ride back through Paris at night in a tuk-tuk<\/a> which was great fun. <\/p>\n

What did we learn? <\/p>\n

Rural French town aren’t terribly wheelchair friendly — all cobblestones and really high pavements — but the people are lovely.<\/p>\n

Paris gets really hot and sticky in summer.<\/p>\n

And Mum remembers far more of her school French than she would have thought possible. On the downside, this did mean that she had to act as translator for everyone else…<\/p>\n