The anticipation for our first market day experience was high. It is only once a week here on a Friday and we've been waiting all week. We did a smallish shop for the basics at the local supermarket but left most of the fresh stuff for Friday. We even set our alarm to get up quite a few hours earlier than the recent 11am wakenings. We were a bit anxious it might not be on given it was Good Friday but was reassured by all the traffic noise on waking and people scurrying along the streets with their carts and baskets. The range and displays of food were impressive. Especially the seafood and cheeses. Most of the seafood looked like it came straight from the water - huge whole fish, all kinds of shellfish in their ... read more

Another smooth series of flights although tiring - leaving hotel in New York 2pm and arriving Vendome 5pm next day with only an hour or so of sleep snatched in bits. We flew to Paris via London then scary taxi ride to train station for trip to Vendome. I wish I knew French to say "we're not in a hurry". The taxi driver was weaving in and out of the lanes at about 130 kmh expecting the huge trucks to move over and make way. Then through town was scary for pedestrians who dared cross at their crossings. It was lucky I (G) brought a book in Ak as the TV screen did not work, hopefully I will finish this before I return. I had a moment of panic on boarding the Air France flight to Paris ... read more

The number and range of shops here is incredible. None of us have had enough of looking at them yet. Today we checked out east village and soho. East village was quite grungy and a little scary.  It was the first time since being here I've noticed dodgy people on the streets.  Being Sunday a lot of businesses were closed with their graffitied roller doors down which didn't help the feel of the place.   Soho was much more upmarket and only a shortish walk away.  The natural history museum was very very impressive starting with the two huge dinosaur skeletons in the foyer before even paying to go in.  Normally displays of stuffed animals would be boring but the realistic settings and poses of the huge range from every continent was enlightening.  It was better ... read more

Our second sunny day so we made the most of checking out all the outside stuff. First up was the United Nations as was handy to the hotel. Olivia impressed us with her flag knowledge. We headed up 5th Avenue for more shopping (and more Forever 21), heading for the Guggenheim building which I was happy just to see the outside of. We had lunch in Central Park. Interesting to see all the school sports activities happening here – I guess they don’t have their own grounds. We also saw the Alice in Wonderland statue, Strawberry Fields, and lots of ratty looking squirrels. After lunch we went to the Top of the Rock (observation deck above Rockefeller Centre). It was freezing, but the views were awesome. Was amazing to be able to see where we’d had ... read more

Another cold misty day so we headed to MOMA which I’d been looking forward to for ages. As with most things with high expectations, I was a little disappointed – mainly as not so much really modern stuff. It was still interesting and enjoyable though. I was surprised at the size of Monets water lily painting (bigger than expected) and Warhols Marilyn Munroe (smaller) Most of the day was spent shopping with the highlights for the girls, the M&M shop (Sophia) and Forever 21- Dotti style clothes really cheap. As with most things in America they were huge. M&M shop was 3 floors high, and Forever 21 would have been bigger than the whole of Centre City. Luckily it was open till 1am as we were still shopping after tea. ... read more