Friday 28 March 2014

Sorted!

Posted by Rosie

The Reading Residence
sorted
ˈsɔːtɪd/
adjective
  Brit.informal

organized, arranged, or dealt with satisfactorily.




A bit of history:

A couple of years ago the following conversation took place in our house:

Simon, "Rosie, would you like to go to Rome to celebrate our wedding anniversary?"
Rosie, "and pray tell which teams will be playing rugby at the same time as our trip?"
Simon, "Damn!"

You see Simon likes rugby but I don't.

This year, as once again we near our wedding anniversary there is a rugby match Simon would like to see, in Paris so knowing that the wool could not be pulled over my eyes, he came up with Plan B.  He suggested we could go with 2 friends and whilst the blokes went off to watch the rugby we girls could do something else.  I know that all sounds rather sexist but that would actually make 4 poeple very happy ... except for the slight problem of our friends not being able to come. Foiled.

Plan C was needed.  "We could go with the boys!"  I suggested.  Simon and Tom, who also likes watching rugby, could go the match on the Friday night whilst Ben and I could do our own thing and then we could have a weekend "en famille" in Paris.  Yup - that would work.  However, living on a smallholding with lots of animals and having a gite means that for all four of us to go away together some detailed planning would be needed.

1. Animals - luckily a neighbour had recently said that she would be happy to pop over and feed the farm animals and cats.  Sorted!

The Louvre
2.  Find accommodation - Simon set to trawling hotel booking sites without too much success and rather a lot of groaning at the prices when I had a lightbulb moment. We have recently listed the gite on AirBnB* and wondered if we could find something suitable on there.  The map feature made it easy to locate places near the rugby stadium and we sent off a couple of emails.  One person got back saying his place was not available and another never got back.  However 3rd time lucky we found and booked a very nice looking apartment just 1km from the stadium. It was cheaper than any hotel Simon looked at and has free parking, a kitchen so we can eat in on the first night and being an apartment will just be a whole lot easier than a hotel when travelling with the boys.  Sorted!

3.  Book rugby tickets -  I left Simon doing this and after much grumbling and occasional swearing he managed to get tickets booked AND printed (Printer was playing silly whatsits!). Sorted!

4.  Dogs - our animal sitter can't look after the dogs however a couple of phone calls later and this was also sorted.  Ironically the dogs are going to the friends who cannot come to the rugby for the weekend.  Sorted!

5.  Get the boys out of school early - Hopefully Ben's teacher won't mind if he leaves an hour early (i am yet to ask) and Tom luckily has a free period last thing on a Friday so can leave early anyway. Half sorted! 

Notre Dame
6.  Itinerary - with only a weekend to visit and one evening taken up with rugby we need to organise what we want to do in Paris before we go.  To date this is still at a list stage but high up on this agenda are a trip to the Catacombs and a bus or boat ride around the main tourist sites. We can't book a trip up the Eiffel Tower this late and don't want to queue for several hours and I have been outvoted on going to Versailles (sulk) ... so as I type this part of the trip isn't quite sorted but will with luck be finalised at the weekend. To be sorted!

With several changes of plan, loads of telephone calls and much sorting we may actually be fairly close to getting a family trip away.  It is a bit of a rare event for us all to go away together and as you can see needs much sorting.  That said, Simon and I did manage a trip to Paris two years ago when the boys had a school trip away.  It was then we had the photo of us below taken - but can anyone tell us the significance of the steps?


Parisian steps.

* You can view our AirBnB listing here if you want but if you do want to book a holiday with us you are better coming direct to save the paying the AirBnB booking fee!

16 comments :

  1. Most important thing is making sure you have really comfortable shoes for walking, as Paris pavements are hard ;-) I recommend a quick trip to the Victor Hugo museum, as it is right by the beautiful Place des Vosges gardens (and free as I recall) He was one of the first people to use photos, so there are some good ones. And the bed he died on is there, which always seems to attract children's attention!

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    1. Thank you - I'll look up about the Museum ... and will pack decent shoes - I remember that from our last visit.

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  2. Son would request for us to go to Disneyland every morning every time he wakes up =P

    Not in our budget but someday. SO while we cant really go anywhere that involves a plane its nice to read about some other family's plans =)

    #wotw

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    1. LOL - luckily our boys aren't really in to Disney #phew

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  3. Wow a lot of effort went into that Rosie! I hope you all have a lovely break. #WotW

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    1. Such is what happens when you live on a smallholding - makes trips away all the more special though!

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  4. Oh wow Rosie, what a post. I love how Simon was foiled of his master plan so speedily! It will be awesome getting away together and having fun. Lovely post :)

    Thank you for your comment btw, I have a like button at the bottom of the post :)

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    1. We have been married too long for me to not to fall for a trick like that!
      And I have pressed that Like button - thank you.

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  5. Ohh sounds like it's all coming together and it will be a fab trip x

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    1. Final details are being made right now - tickets for various attractions being bought online, restaurants searched for and maps downloaded. #excited

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  6. He sounds like my other half who cannot plan a thing unless it coincides with a football match! To be fair I do love football too so we've had a few funny trips to odd places just to visit new grounds

    AliceMegan

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  7. Exciting! So pleased it's all getting sorted. I love Paris. My favourite place is the Musee D'Orsay - just love it in there. But just strolling around is beautiful, isn't it? Look forward to hearing all about it! Thanks for sharing with #WotW x

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    1. We have nearly planned out itinerary ... but you will have to wait until we have been to hear about where we went!

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  8. Amazing how much planning a bit of a trip can take. We nearly booked a spare of the moment couple of days away the other day... then we remembered there was nobody to look after the dog at short notice. Your plans sound very exciting though :)

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    1. Our dogs were the hardest thing to arrange - not sure what we would have done had our friends who are looking after them had been able to come with us!

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