24: And now for Paris

Off we go to Paris c/- "Easy Jet" - line up, have your passports open at the right page, onto the plane and find a seat you like - none of that seat allocation stuff - and arrive at Charles de Gaulle about 90 mins later - it was easy!  Caught the bus into the city - just one stop and it let is off at "Opera" right near where we are staying - a bit of map orientation (ie walking in the wrong direction) till we find the right street and Francois waiting out the front of our apartment to let us in.  As Joe described, 'petite' on room size, but clean and comfortable, has all we need and is close to the centre of the city. 

We nipped downstairs and to the Marche Prix (supermarket) for some things for dinner, breakky, drinks etc - all quite reasonable - then stopped for a drink at the cafe/bar downstairs for the apartment and were quite shocked by the prices.  Found another little place next to the boulangerie where we wanted to buy some bread, only to find it was shut.  Lucky though, the baker was in the bar and had two baguettes under his arm and gave us one for free!  

Back to the apartment to make dinner (spag bol) in the 'kitchen in a cupboard'.

Thursday 29/9/11

Joey back to the boulangerie this morning for an almond croissant (my favourite), raisin snail, chocolate/pistachio snail, and some brown sourdough bread.  Sampled a little of all for breakfast (packed the rest up to snack on during the day), then headed off to see the sights.  First stop is the Louvre, only about a 10 min walk from our apartment, then the Arc de Triumphe via the Champs Elysees.  We then headed down to the Seine and to the Eiffel Tower.  We can't believe how big and impressive everything is - but the queues....

The queue to get the lift up the tower went forever so we decided to take the stairs instead - I almost made it to the first level before the fear of heights thing kicked in, so I came down and Joey climbed on up to the second level, then took the lift to the top.  His pics of the views were very impressive, but the smog made it hard to see too far.

From there we caught the river bus (hop on, hop off) down to Notre Dame - what a fabulous cathedral - I loved all the gargoyles - wish you could buy copies of these to take back home, back on the boatbus to get us a bit closer to home (getting tired). 

The final bit of the walk home was though a great 'foodie' street Joe had found on his morning walk.   Got a few more veggies to add to our leftovers, ogled things that are not good for the waistline, then home for dinner.  A BIG day's sightseeing!!!

Friday 30/9/11

Paid the lovely Francois the rest of our rent money this morning, then we head off to Montmatre.  Caught a bus part of the way there, then walked the rest of the way up the hill to Sacre-Coeur.  Another impressive building at the highest point of Paris and we were lucky to be there while a mass was taking place.  It's nice being able to go into the French churches without having to pay the exhorbitant entry fees that you have to pay in England.  We had a bit of a walk around the artists area and thought we'd stop for a cuppa until we looked at the menu's and saw that a coffee was 5.50 euros!!  Wandered further down towards the city (on a seach for cheaper coffee) till we found another great street will great florists, fishmongers, deli's, butchers, and a hot meat shop where we bought a sausage as a snack (a bit rich for our liking), and finally stopped for coffee - hang the cost. 

We went past Moulin Rouge, and stopped in at the Galleria L'affayette - a very impressive (and expensive) department store - well more of a shopping centre really - and checked out the home store building (no purchases made).   From there back to the apartment to collect our laundry and find a laundromat.  Of course in Paris you can find a very nice bar to have a drink in and relax while you wait for the clothes to wash/dry. 

Very pleased to have clean clothes again, we caught the Metro over the Republique to meet up with Pete, Mandy, Narelle, Lyn and Des - their apartment rather grander than ours - we have the inner city pad while they have the surburban 3 bedder.  P+M+N had come across from Engand on the Eurostar which Pete clocked on his garmin as going 300 km/hr.  Lots of stories to exchange before we headed home.