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DAY TWENTY TWO
Today we all had different things planned. Robyn, Peter and Jenny were all going to the Louvre, but as I have already been twice I decided to hire a bike and ride around the city. Robyn and Pete set off early to start their exploring day and Jenny and I went to organise the bike. They have a great system in Paris where you can hire a bike off an electronic stand, ride the bike and then drop it off anywhere you like, but it took us about 45 minutes to work out what to do! We put all the information in but couldn't get the bike off the rack but finally we managed to do it and viola there I was with my bike. It was great fun and my scooter riding has prepared me for riding on the busy streets of Paris, so Jenny was off to the Louvre and I was riding around with Clarkee as my trusty navigator!! I had a great morning riding around and just looking at things, I went on a bit of a mission to find an antique store on the bike, which I did but it was closed, so
I stopped for a yummy coffee and then set off again. I was meeting Jenny at lunch time with a picnic lunch which we were going to have in the gardens near the Louvre so I set off looking for supplies. I took a wrong turn here and there and ended up on a road heading out of Paris, not sure how I did it but I knew I was going the wrong way when the road started heading up hill! I stopped someone and asked directions to the Louvre and she laughed and said I was heading out of town and had to go back the way I had come. I had been having such a good time looking around that I didn't realise I was well and truly lost! Anyway by about 3.00 I made it back to the Louvre with my picnic and we sat by a large pond watching the children play with yachts. It had been a lovely day for both of us as Jenny had enjoyed walking around the Louvre and investigating the many rooms and exhibitions.
Meanwhile Robyn and Peter had seen the Louvre and then went on their own little walking
tour of Paris, Robyn said it was bigger than the one we did in Rome. But they came back to the apartment tired, happy and with a couple of shopping parcels!! Jenny and I went back to the apartment too after our lovely lunch and then we all had to get ready for our cruise on the Seine and the Paris by night tour.
We had a wonderful night, dinner on the boat as we cruised along the Seine was good and probably a good place to be as it was raining again, but we were happy as it was a good meal and very relaxing after our busy day. When we had finished the boat cruise we went on a double decker bus and saw Paris by night which was absolutely fantastic! We sat up the top, the rain had stopped and all the great sights we had seen by day we then saw at night and it was amazing. Unfortunately none of our cameras show how great the sights were but at least we have the memories.
DAY TWENTY THREE
Today is our last full day in Paris, and we had arranged to tour the Eiffel
Tower at 7.00pm. Robyn and I really wanted to visit the Flea Markets and so we all decided to use the Metro for the day and make our way around Paris to two flea markets at different ends of the town. Jenny and Pete decided to skip the first one and wanted to go and visit the catacombs which was near the first market. So we set off on the Metro which is really easy to use and fast. Robyn and I found the first market and had a lovely walk along looking at all the antiques and bric a brac, with me wishing I could take home lots of things, but alas we could not. We found a creperie and had our breakfast and had a lovely time. The sun was shining in Paris and everything was wonderful. Pete and Jenny had found the catacombs but the line was way too long and so they ended up going and sitting in the sun waiting for us. Robyn and I finished our stroll and met up with Pete and Jenny and headed to the next market via the Metro. Wow, this was really a big market 2500 stalls!! Robyn and
I were in shopping heaven...... We decided to split up and meet later to go to the Eiffel Tower and we spent a pleasant couple of hours walking around looking at new and old stuff, oh and buying a couple of things of course!!
We all met back at the apartment and got rugged up and ready to go to the Eiffel Tower, off again on the Met, we are really good now at finding our way around and you never have to wait more than 2 minutes for a train it is a great system. All was good when we got to the Tower, Clarkee is afraid of heights so I decided to stay with him on the ground (the things you have to do!!) so off went Robyn, Peter and Jenny on the lift up to the top of the Tower, while Clarkee and I wandered the gardens below, visited a rock concert and had a lovely time. Next think I know Robyn and Jenny have texted me saying they have lost Pete. How can you lose someone on the Eiffel Tower I wonder?? Still I met them at the bottom and sure enough Pete is nowhere
to be found. We sat and waited at the bottom thinking he may have been caught up getting photo's for an hour, but still no Pete. We got to see the tower light up which was pretty amazing, but we were a bit worried where was Pete?? Next Robyn's phone went off and Pete was at home he had lost us and decided to make his way home to see if we were there. Well we were glad he was safe and as we were cold we decided to hop in a little tuk tuk (like in Thailand) and make our way home. We all decided our last night had been an eventful one, had a late dinner and got ready to leave Paris the next day and off to Burgundy. All a bit sad about leaving Paris could spend lots more time here exploring and eating yummy pastries and bread.
DAY TWENTY FOUR
Beautiful sunny day for us to leave Paris. We left the apartment about 9.30am and caught the RER to the airport where after a bit of searching we found the Europcar terminal and picked up our car for the next part of our adventure -
off to Burgundy staying at Beaunne. We must be getting good at finding our way around so Jenny says (I think it is because the road signs in France are much better than those in Italy). Anyway we found our way onto the motorway quickly and were off to Burgundy, the weather was good, we had a picnic in the car and in no time we arrived to the quaint little village (town) called Beaunne. We found our hotel which was wonderful and quickly checked in to our rooms. Robyn and Pete scored well and got a suite which just meant their room was the meeting place and place for the welcome drink! Still driving and moving around does tend to wear you out, or maybe we are just getting old, but we all felt a bit weary by about 4.00 so we had a bit of a siesta and then went out for dinner. I am sure when I read back over this blog it is going to be all about eating and drinking our way around Italy and France, but even if it is we have had a fabulous time and we are sort of glad the volcano
happened because we all feel these extra days in Burgundy are a real treat. It is amazing how the food changes with every place we stay, we now are leaving the pizza's and pasta behind for the Beef Burgundy and snails!! One thing never changes and that is the red wine, well it does change from Chianti to Beaujolais (not sure of the spelling but they taste good - and that's coming from someone who never drank red wine, I am converted!!). After the nap out to discover the town and we found one place to stop for dinner that looked good. We sat down and waited and waited, in the end we moved on as we felt we were intruding on the locals and they were never going to serve us! We found another place around the corner and we had a great meal. We were so full we had to go for a walk to walk it off and decided we needed water so we looked around until we found a service station that was open - not like our service station it had a bar in it and the locals were sitting there having a drink playing
lotto! It has been amazing seeing the way life is lived here, really rather civilised - shops open around 10.00am, close at 1.00 until 2.30 and then reopen until about 6.00pm. Well, some of them do, you never can quite tell when they are going to open. We arrived on a Sunday and hardly anything was open, and even on the Monday some shops didn't open, still they enjoy their long lunch breaks with all the family getting together and having a hot meal and at night it is more like a snack. We found that we were having the big lunch because it just seemed the thing to do, and then in the evening still had a big dinner because that is what we are used to! We have got the knack of it now but still tend to have a lighter lunch of bread cheese and salami and then try something new for dinner! What a great time we are having!!
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chris malcolm
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eating and drinking through europe ??? Nah
clarkee really gets around....................hes now a sort of sophisticated aussi platapuss !!!!!! really really like the ultimate tourist photo.....................P.S....please dont forget to come back....chris