Alarm went off at 04:20 <groan> and I rang Joy with her wake up call, Joy sounded very bright and jolly.
So 05:30 coach to Baker Street then breakfast in St Pancreas International had a very indulgent breakfast of warm croissant with Gruyere and a warm Belgian waffle with a *lot* of white chocolate sauce. Clearly we were too relaxed as I suddenly realised it was 08:00 and we were supposed to be checking in on the Eurostar!
So onto Eurostar and we dozed ourway to Paris, first glitch was at Gard du Nord when my ticket wouldn't work in the metro gate reader so tail gated and off we went to the Tullieries for a stroll and lunch.
Leisurely lunch took a LOT of effort to get the bill, if it hadn't appeared at the third time of asking and some twenty minutes, walked to Place de la Concorde and caught the metro, had to exchange my metro tickets as apparently my phone had nuked the magnetic stripe (!)
So onto Bercy where we had a coupe de Champagne.
It was lovely being there again and once again we had excellent seats.
The stadium was less than half full, the performance itself was a lot more of a crowd pleaser then the first show back in 2007,
For me the SRS stood head and shoulders above the other three schools:-
I liked le Cadre Noir when doing the long reining quadrille but in general I do not get the feeling of partnership and joy from the Cadre Noir that I feel stands out with the SRS, The Real Escuela exude joie de vivre and as always R Soto played to the audience and just looked to be having a thoroughly excellent time.
It was a shame that Rubi did not make the advertised appearance
We had to leg it as soon as the four schools had taken their final salute to get back to Gare du Nord to check in and go first through French passport control and the more passport control with the UK Border Agency some 10 metres further on. Why?
Grabbed a bottle of Champagne and a tube of Pringles and had a pleasant journey back to St Pancreas toasting horses we have owned or just owe a debt of gratitude to.
Crawled into bed at 23:30.
Another day that wonderful memories are made of
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