Monday, June 5, 2023

Booking

France is not too far away. 

I look at the list. 

  • Airline ticked booked and paid for
  • Writer's retreat booked and half-paid for. 
  • Travel insurance bought
  • Itinerary before and after the Writer's retreat is underway. 
  • The two nights before the retreat are booked in Paris
Decisions have been made. 

We get back to Paris on the 15th of October, after five days in Provence. (Yeah, hard life) I'll need to book a room in Paris for that night. 

The next job here is to get into contact with Reindert. He lives in Colorado, but is originally from the Netherlands, where his aging parents still live. We're looking to meet up in Paris after the retreat.  The plan is to meet up, grab a hire car and have a bit of a drive around Normandy and Brittany for a few days before I make my way home - a 31-hour journey from Charles de Gaulle, to Helsinki, to Hong Kong, to Sydney then on to Melbourne - that last leg was not what I ordered...

Then there's the London bit to get organised. I've got it in my head I want to spend the first night in a hotel - bomb myself out on a sleeping tablet and hopefully meet a friend for lunch the following day in the centre of the city. There's another friend who's already offered me a bed for a couple of nights just out of the M25. And there's another mate who I'd love to catch up with in deepest, darkest Essex.

On the 4th of October, I'll make my way to Paris, taking the Eurostar - something I've always wanted to do. I've booked a room at the hotel in which we're staying for the retreat - but this is a single room, on the retreat I'll be sharing with a mate. 

Things are falling into place. 

It's the organising which is exciting. 

My feelings about going back to London are a little more difficult to un pack. But that's a topic for another post on another day. 


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