Paris, Paris and back to London

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July 20th 2009

Published: July 20th 2009

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Donel

Notre Dame

It's been 2 days in a whirlwind visit to Paris. Hop on Hop off tour thru the entire city on day 2 followed by the full day tour to the Palace of Versailles on day 3.
Today (day 4) was a travel day that started with shopping on the Champs Elysees ( ok Elke was doing the shopping while I was watching and avoiding the gypsies).
Now I don't know if anyone else who has travelled thru Paris has come across them or if this is a new phenomenon but OMG you can't believe how many times you will get approached and asked for money. To the point where I was actually telling them quite loudly to go away and leave me alone. Elke threatened to use her cell phone and call the gendarmes.
OK enough of that.
What a beautiful city! Something to take a picture of everywhere we turned both during the day and at night. Unlike the other big cities that we have visited, Paris comes alive at night (around 9:00). A lot of restaurants are packed at 10:00 and the Latin quarter was just jumping - and that was on a Sunday night!
Points of interest-
Notre

Gypsy

Takedown assisted by Elke

Dame Cathedral - magnificent although very crowded was a sight to behold.
La Tour de Eiffel - Could not get a reservation in the La Jules Verne restaurant (2 months) and would not wait for 4 hours to get on the elevator but no matter - still worth the visit and just standing under it takes your breath away.
Seine river cruise & Illumination tour followed by dinner at Chez Clement on the Champs Elysees. Dinner started at 11:00 & got back to the hotel at 2:00.

Now then - The Palace of Versaille...... We had the good fortune of taking this all day trip in a small group - 6 people and a fabulous guide named Claire. She answered any and all questions and took us through all of the buildings. 3 course lunch with wine and best of all picked up and dropped off at the hotel.
This is something that I would recommend to everyone - you will have to see this to really believe it.
We got back to our hotel and actually had to have a 2 hour nap before staring out for the Latin quarter.
After several stops for crepes and chesses and

Gypsy

BUSTED!

of course more wine we mad it back again at 2:00.

Caught the Chunnel train back to London, then cab to Paddington Stn, Heathrow connect train to the airport and a Hotel Hoppa bus to the Sheraton at 7:30. We got a large room with air conditioning ( brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it).

Tomorrow we are headed Home.

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