Paris Day 3

Nicole arrived bright and early with all her luggage as her Contiki tour finished. She moved into the front lounge room and was happy to be able to spread out and unpack.

We went to the nearest train station got a map and tried to work out the Paris train system. It looked as bad as the London one but Nicole had used it a few times so she was our tour guide. Our first stop was to the Arc de Triomphe. This is much bigger than it looks (it's 50 m high) and sits in the middle of a huge roundabout. This roundabout has 12 avenues of traffic feeding into it and definately no road rules! We croosed the roads to the Arc in an underground pass.

We then climbed the 284 steps to the top for another great view over Paris.

And up the Champs Elysee...

We then made our way to the Louvre (worlds largest museum and is 700m long). We had some lunch first and Nicole wandered around while we went to find the Mona Lisa painting and Venus statue (she had already seen them on tour).

It was very busy and this is what we were faced with trying to see the Mona Lisa which is the tiny painting on the far wall...

Janelle and Sarah eventually got to the front...

After some crepes for afternoon tea we caught the train to Montmartre We spent some time inside the Sacre Coeur basilica and lit candles to mark the 13 years since Mums death. We also sat for a while on the grassed area with the great view of Paris.

and wandered the pretty strrets and staircases...

Then we had a characture sketch done...

Followed by a lovely meal...

On the way back to our apartment we stopped off at the Moulin Rouge to take a few photos...

The light was right as it was just on dusk which made the red stand out.

We were all tired but decided to go up the Eiffel tower for a look at Paris lights...

Another great day!

Paris day 2

We all had a bit of a lie in this morning. Then I tackled the washing in the machine with all the instructions in french. I got it going and we hung everything around the apartment. While doing this Janelle had gone for a jog around the Eiffel Tower grounds. (view from our front window)

We walked over the bridge and got tickets for the hop on hop off boat.

It was nice cruising up the Seine River. We got off at Notre Dame and queued up to have a look inside...We then went wandering and found a nice cafe for some lunch which was followed by icecream with so many flavours to choose from....

We also found the restaurant which we have a picture of that has been hanging in our dining area for a number of years...

We looked at the Place de la Concorde, unfortunately the fountains weren't going as they were setting up for a function and then went to Tuileries Gardens and had a rest in a nice shady spot.

Then walked over to St-Germain des Pres area. This is a fairly posh part of Paris and I had read a bit about a cafe called The Deux Magots so we found it and decided just to have a drink which was just as well as a coke was over $10! The waiters were all smartly dressed...

My water was very nicely presented...

The girls and I did a spot of window shopping in the cheap shop right next door...

We then found a Laduree shop which sell all sorts of tarts, cakes and biscuits.

We couldn't resist (despite also being very expensive) and Sarah came ot with a delicious tart while Janelle and I went for Macaroons...

We caught the boat back to our area and got some baguettes and picnic food. Nicole decided not to go to a cabaret show with her tour group and came and spent the evening with us. We sat next the the tower and enjoyed the lovely warm evening...

The world cup soccer finals were on and a big screen had been set up near the tower. Spain won tonight and there were thousands and thousands of fans. It was a great atmosphere with lots of noise. The girls went a watched a bit, Peter and I walked through to the Tracadero and took some photos...Then we had to make our way back through the crowds to find the girls

then it was time for another crepe!

Farewell London, Hello Paris!

We were all a bit sad to leave London. After having mixed reactions from people whether they liked London or not we didn't really know what to expect. But we loved the place and would have liked more time as there is so much more to see and do.

We waited outside with all our luggage and our taxi man was a bit late and traffic terrible but he got us just in time to St Pancras International Train Station. We had to go through customs just like at an airport. We were travelling on the Eurostar from London to Paris with 20mins of the trip under the English Channel.

It was a good trip and the French countryside was very pretty. Another man was waiting for us at the Gare du Nord train station and he took us to our appartment.

This was our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower...

We then waited for another man to let us in. It was a huge appartment with one little windowless and ventless toilet. After settling in and doing a bit of unpacking we ventured out to check out the tower and find some food.

We found a market and and stocked up on some fruit and a few other essentials. We had dinner in a patiserrie under our appartment. Then did a bit more wandering over the bridge from the tower. Also had our first Paris crepes.

We weren't expecting to see Nicole until Wednesday (when her Contiki tour finished) but she decided to track us down very late that night so we met her under the Eiffel Tower. It was great to finally see her again after all her trekking around Europe. She then caught a taxi back to her motel near Montmartre.