Last Day of Paris

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Hi, Apologies for the limited blogs posts, been having a good time in general and Blogs were at the low end of the priority list and Mary was making very very regular face book posts (apologies to those that are not 'friends' with Mary, I am not!!!). We are in the last afternoon of our Paris stay. Being the cultural aware person I am, not that impressed with Paris, crowded, dirty, and all waiters appear to be rude. The important sites were as expected with the cues going on forever. To be fair I have enjoyed staying in the out of the way (tourist) and going to the range of supermarkets, including Asian and a little fruit and veg at the corner etc. Over the last couple of days have got he hang of the metro, it works very well and at E1.80 per trip anywhere in Paris good value and very fast. Even down loaded the app and used the map. All you have to do is remember which side and direction on the subway you went down and then come up to get home. Thankfully some locals have seen us looking at the map and helped out. This has also happened in the supermarket aisles when the checkout lady has been telling me something that I have no idea what it means.

Was great to have lunch with our friends the Sigantos on day one here. Did the hop on hop off bus for two days all though not the same service as Budapest.

Has been quite hot with 40c on Wednesday. Today walked to a park not far from here near a hospital and followed the school kids on a walking excersion. Mary had her first crossiont in France. And then caught the metro to go shopping, no purchases. Bags are already full.

Peter has had to take a break! Gone to post some postcards to the kids from Paris and wearing his new Bamberg Germany t shirt. So proud of the way he uses his cute little French words and phrases! Perhaps showing off a little!! He so does not like crowds and having to wait to buy a ticket to go anywhere! Under sufferance he came with me to see Mona Lisa and nearly ran out of the Louvre museum to get away from the crowds,(kept calling it Notre Dame!)then I wanted a photo of me at the glass pyramid outside and he took it so quickly he missed me, actually took 2 and got my shadow in one of them! After that we qued up to go part of the way up the Eiffel Tower. Didn't bother about queing up again to go all the way to the top!! We had a great view of Paris from up there, took a few pics then walked down the stairs, had a meal at 5pm, then as I realised he had missed me in the Louvre photo his penance was to go back into the grounds and try again!! This time he missed the pyramid! No just joking, got a bit of it in.

Our apartment here is on the 6th floor so a bit of exercise after a big hot day out is to climb the stairs! The lift is so old and tiny and a bit scary, we couldn't both fit in it with our suitcases, so am not complaining. It only goes to the 5 th floor anyway. There seem to be lots of homeless people living on the streets here and there are 2 not far outside our entrance. One each side and they seem to share when one side is sunnier and hotter than the other. They have bread cigarettes and wine though and company of the pigeons eating the left overs. Very sad. We tried to go to some street markets this morning on the way to the metro but they were so crowded we didn't get far then could hardly get out of them! You could buy a bra for a euro!

Exciting news for Peter is that he finally purchased a new Samsung phone in Amsterdam and so has had a new toy to play with for the past few days to occupy any spare time. Hope you are all well . Xx

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