Little French Shrug

As I've stayed at home today sleeping off this horrible cold I don't have any explorations to write about. Thought I would mention the Belgian Hot Chocolate.

Decided that as I was in the home of chocolate I should try the hot liquid version. Once I got started it was pretty difficult to stop. Johnny started trying to take sneaky pics of me lifting a mug to my mouth. A couple of examples below.

And then there is the language thing. I thought that it was going to be quite difficult. Actually, it hasn't been too bad.

Adrie got me started on Dutch. Only learnt enough to make polite remarks like 'thank you' - dankjewel. However, this elicited some surprising results. For example, as I was leaving my hotel in Spijkenisse, I said dankjewel to two of the housekeeping staff in the corridor. They immediately began speaking back to me in Dutch and I didn't have a clue what they were saying. Had to explain that I had just used up all my Dutch. We all burst out laughing because their English was fantastic.

So I got through Holland and Belgium without any difficulty. Then we arrived in France. I thought this was going to be the tricky language but actually you can just about get by here with body language.

Our first encounter with the French was in Lille. At the railway station as we were getting into a lift to take us down to our departure platform, a man ran for the doors at the last minute. There was Johnny and me and two other men in the lift. The latecomer looked as me as he squeezed in (because our luggage was taking up quite a bit of space) and gave me the French Shrug. I gave him one back and then I said to John, "I've just done my first French Shrug". The three strangers in in the lift obviously understood English because they all cracked a grin

and did little French Shrugs.

We have been merci beaucoup ing and s'il vous plait ing and Bonjour ing ourselves all over the place. However, we have found that the Parisians are having a little difficulty understanding John's French, they can't figure out where he comes from but they think my French accent is English. We are surprised at that.

Since arriving in Paris I have had the lyrics of Ralph McTell's 'Nanna's Song' going through my head. As I sit in a taxi, wander through a back street, go to sleep at night or wake up in the morning, I keep hearing the lovely ballad:

“Ice cream and candy bars, a Paris moon and Paris stars
Can you count the times that we heard the chimes of Notre Dame
Across the Seine to remind us sadly once again,
Time just like the river was swiftly passing by.”

(That's just the second verse).

It has helped to dispel the gloom of these grey cold days. However, the weather hasn't spoiled this beautiful city for us. We both agree that we would like to come back here one day. Possibly in the spring time. Our six days haven't been enough to absorb everything Paris

has to offer.