Paris - Finally - Monday 19th April

Getting out of UK has proved to be a bit of an ordeal. The volcano in Iceland has stopped all flights in and out of the UK - and most of Europe, and it's the end of the UK and European school holidays to make things worse.

This has meant that all those on holidays in UK from as far afield as Aus and US and South America and middle east have all been trying to get back to their homes and lives. UK being an island has limited avenues with no air services. Where it's not usually a problem just turning up at a ferry port and getting on the next one - they're now booked up solid for foot traffic from Dover to Calais and any other French port until at least Wednesday (well that was the situation as of 2 days ago). There were some ferries available if you had a car, and I'm sure a number of people hired cars to take advantage of that, but even so, the demand has meant that prices for fares and all are higher than normal.

So I was very surprised when I found that it was quite easy to get a ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg. This did mean a 2-hour train ride to Portsmouth from London, followed by a 5 hour ferry ride on the slow one to Cherbourg, and then another 3-hour train ride on to Paris. That's possibly because the generally air-traveling public who hadn't been able to get their flights, didn't consider there may be cross-channel transport anywhere other than the most-used Dover to Calais route.

Anyway - got to the ferry port having realised en route that I'd actually booked for the next day, and ended up managing to swap my ticket for that day and get on a fast ferry at 3:15pm. In the end it didn't end up leaving until nearly 3:45 due to the volume of passengers disembarking from the earlier ferries and embarking on other ferries. Poor terminal staff had never had to handle that many people at once I think.

Luckily, I met up with a delightful lady who is now living in France - on the Normandy coast and we got chatting all the way across on the ferry. She got her husband who was at home in France to check up train times for me from Cherbourg to Paris, but unfortunately we found the last one left Cherbourg AFTER the last ferry came in - great bit of organisation that.

So she offered to put me up in their b&b. It's never ceased to amaze me how sometimes the oddest of sets of circumstances can lead to the most wonderful encounters.

I ended up staying in the most beautiful 200-year old, fully renovated French cottage, in a completely picturesque setting and spent time with two of the most wonderfully warm and generous people you could ever hope to come across.

If it hadn't been for the volcano in Iceland and me booking the ferry for the wrong day, then turning up at the ferry port to find I could take the fast ferry rather than the slower one (which I opted to do) so long as I didn't mind waiting 4 hours - and if I hadn't decided I was going to stealth my way into the boarding queue ahead of the horde of school kids and their teachers instead of my usual wait and let them all get out of the way - I'd never have spoken to Joanne, and not have had one of the best experiences you can have on a holiday/trip.

All I can say is - anyone looking for a great place to spend a relaxing Normandy holiday - give Joanne and Allan a call and book a room or two at Le Trebuchet.

This morning, J and A then took me to the delightful fishing port of Granville on the Normandy coast and we wandered through both the new (relative term really) and the old (the High Town) parts of the town. Beautiful old stone buildings and fairytale houses surrounding a wonderful old Norman church. All laid out along a coast that today had the most glorious aqua crystal sea lapping the wall. If it wasn't for the combination of sea haze and volcano detritus that hazed the horizon, you'd have been able to see all the way around a huge bay. The sun was out, I was in delightful company in a picturesque little old sea port - who could ask for more. Even more so as it was completely serendipitous.

Caught the train from Granville to Paris and finally got to the Hotel Darcet. It's a good thing they're getting used to people having difficulties getting into and out of Europe, they've been very patient with me as I'd expected to be there last night, and rang them late - when I got to J and A's place to let them know about the missed train.

Coming into Paris on the train - the Eifel Tower sticks out all on it's own - it's really Paris I'm in. Taxi ride from the train station to the hotel took me past so much of what I've only ever read or heard about.

Tomorrow it's the start of exploration. Meeting up with Cheops at lunch time and setting out to see Paris in spring time. Might have to do the view from the top of the Eifel depending on whether the haze from the volcano is still around in a few days.