Lisa in Ottawa
500+ Posts
Oxford, Day 1
OMG, I’m in love! After a horrendous drive to CDG from the Loire, 2 planes and 1 car hire later we arrived at our home for 3 months. To clarify. The entire drive to CDG wasn’t horrible. Just the bits where signage changed or disappeared. Or where we were stuck at an automated ticket machine on the A 10 because we didn’t have 90 centimes and the machine wouldn’t take cc or make change. That was fun! Cars and trucks waiting while we scrambled to figure out what to do. Then someone else got stuck and we were behind them. Merdre now I know why it takes so long to get to the airport. The traffic was beyond belief terrible. But we made it.
We arrived at our apartment around 9pm and were met by our next door neighbour, a kindly woman of about 85. We’re on the 3rd and top floor of a building built in 1972. We have 2 bedrooms. 1 is the master and the other a spare with a child’s bed and a desk. We have 2 bathrooms. 1 with a bath and shower and loo. The other with a loo and shower only. The kitchen is a good size with seating for 2. The real attraction is the dining/living room combo. Very spacious and bright. Flooded with light. The furniture is Danish modern. Quite attractive.
Today we had lots to do in order to settle. I can’t believe what we accomplished! We invested in 2 bikes complete with baskets, lights and helmets. We rode them home this afternoon. They’re beauties. Now on top of wanting to go on rambles in the Cotswolds, we have to figure out where we’re going to ride our bikes besides the city. We got new sims for our phones with a company called 3. Unlimited data, 3000 texts and 300 mins of phone anywhere in the UK. It came to about $25 CDN a month. Honestly that’s got to be the best deal going. Now we’re broke but set up.
A beautifully sunny day. Lots of folks out and about. So many cafes. We had breakfast at a lovely outdoor one attached to a hotel, I believe. The Parsonage. And there seem to be a lot of little shops selling cheese and veggies and good bread. Although we did have to go to a Tescos for basic supplies. It wasn’t too bad.
After the bike deal and the sim card deal, we needed to eat. So we returned to a café we had walked by previously The Natural Bread Company and shared a lovely goat cheese sandwich filled with veggies. Mmm I missed cafes like this in rural France.
We walked around the most amazing fair. The St. Giles Fair has been happening since the early 1600s and takes place on Sept 8 and 9th once a year. We were really lucky to see it. It’s an old time fair like something out of the 1950s with all the rides us oldsters would remember. All the old classic ones.Cup and saucer, haunted house, merry go round, bumper cars etc. It is beautiful and colorful and fun. People were out in droves.
Now we have to rest before getting on our wheels and riding to Christchurch for dinner with a colleague of Ron’s.
OMG, I’m in love! After a horrendous drive to CDG from the Loire, 2 planes and 1 car hire later we arrived at our home for 3 months. To clarify. The entire drive to CDG wasn’t horrible. Just the bits where signage changed or disappeared. Or where we were stuck at an automated ticket machine on the A 10 because we didn’t have 90 centimes and the machine wouldn’t take cc or make change. That was fun! Cars and trucks waiting while we scrambled to figure out what to do. Then someone else got stuck and we were behind them. Merdre now I know why it takes so long to get to the airport. The traffic was beyond belief terrible. But we made it.
We arrived at our apartment around 9pm and were met by our next door neighbour, a kindly woman of about 85. We’re on the 3rd and top floor of a building built in 1972. We have 2 bedrooms. 1 is the master and the other a spare with a child’s bed and a desk. We have 2 bathrooms. 1 with a bath and shower and loo. The other with a loo and shower only. The kitchen is a good size with seating for 2. The real attraction is the dining/living room combo. Very spacious and bright. Flooded with light. The furniture is Danish modern. Quite attractive.
Today we had lots to do in order to settle. I can’t believe what we accomplished! We invested in 2 bikes complete with baskets, lights and helmets. We rode them home this afternoon. They’re beauties. Now on top of wanting to go on rambles in the Cotswolds, we have to figure out where we’re going to ride our bikes besides the city. We got new sims for our phones with a company called 3. Unlimited data, 3000 texts and 300 mins of phone anywhere in the UK. It came to about $25 CDN a month. Honestly that’s got to be the best deal going. Now we’re broke but set up.
A beautifully sunny day. Lots of folks out and about. So many cafes. We had breakfast at a lovely outdoor one attached to a hotel, I believe. The Parsonage. And there seem to be a lot of little shops selling cheese and veggies and good bread. Although we did have to go to a Tescos for basic supplies. It wasn’t too bad.
After the bike deal and the sim card deal, we needed to eat. So we returned to a café we had walked by previously The Natural Bread Company and shared a lovely goat cheese sandwich filled with veggies. Mmm I missed cafes like this in rural France.
We walked around the most amazing fair. The St. Giles Fair has been happening since the early 1600s and takes place on Sept 8 and 9th once a year. We were really lucky to see it. It’s an old time fair like something out of the 1950s with all the rides us oldsters would remember. All the old classic ones.Cup and saucer, haunted house, merry go round, bumper cars etc. It is beautiful and colorful and fun. People were out in droves.
Now we have to rest before getting on our wheels and riding to Christchurch for dinner with a colleague of Ron’s.
