Henry viii's Wives...

I originally wrote this post on our last night in England and saved it in 'Drafts'. It is now our last night in Paris as tomorrow we fly to Hong Kong on our way home. Today at the Musee les Invalides, I found some French versions of the felt Christmas Tree decorations that I bought in England. So travelling home with me will be Marie Antoniette, Louis xiv ( they didn't have the xvi),Napoleon and Josephine.  Without further ado, here is the post I wrote in London last week.

Last time we visited the UK I bought some felt Christmas decorations which seemed to be on sale in every tourist shop. Even though it was an indulgence in money terms, those decorations have become a much loved part of our Christmas traditions.  In 2008 I decided not to buy all 6 of Henry's wives but over the years I wished I had! Lol :-) so I decided that on this holiday I would buy the other 5. 

In this photo, Henry had Katherine of Aragon on his left...the only wife I bought.

The day we visited the Tower of London, I bought some. Then I found some more of the missing 5 in another shop...

In that second shop (Windsor Castle) I was trying to remember whether it was Anne of Cleves or Kateryn Parr I still needed to buy...I chose the latter.

Then back at the B&B I was checking out all the Queens, I'd bought...

Hmmmm...even though they are both a slightly different shade of purple, the two on the ends are both Kateryn Parr. Too easy! I would buy the missing Anne of Cleves somewhere on our drive around the UK. Wrong...we checked out so many places and today, after we dropped off the hire car, we caught a train to Tower Hill and went to the Tower of London gift shop...and finally I have all 6 queens. 

This queen is beautifully dressed in lace with lashings of gold braid...very smart. 

I mentioned returning the hire car...hmmm...not so good news. Obviously the head office of Europcar does not communicate with the franchisees. It's a long story...a story with my wonderful DH refusing to sign a document saying he was liable for the damage. A long story where a customer service person at head office denied ever saying that we would not have to pay the excess...thank goodness that all phone conversations are recorded. A long story which saw us paying the £1000 (not quite $2000AUD) and now we start the long process of recovering money via our travel insurance. My DH won't give up without a fight and unfortunately dealing with insurance companies does sometimes entail a bit of a battle :-(.