Yesterday we'd enjoyed looking through the interior of Notre Dame but thought it would be fun to climb up to the belfry for the view over the surrounding area. Also because obviously the movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" had such a scary impact on Fred when he saw it as a child that he still remembers many of the details and had a rather macabre fascination with visiting the belltower. Viewings don't open till 10.00 am and the queue moves very slowly as there is only one way up and the same way down, plus they can only deal with small numbers and each group takes quite a long time, so even though we were there at 9.30 it was an hour improving our suntans in the queue before we were in the door. The view from the top did give a great perspective of the area and Fred got much closer to the gargoyles and the huge bell, so all worth the wait in the end.
Our next visit was to Saint Chapelle the chapel attached to the palace in Saint Louis' time and which is just a short walk away across the river. Another long queue but in the shade this time and much quicker moving. This chapel is renowned for its spectacular stained glass windows and we were really glad we'd chosen it as one of the places to visit; it really is fantastic and we spent a long time enjoying the beauty and trying to work out the stories and significance of the depictions.
Next door (another part of the old palace) is the Concierge which was the hideous rat infested, water logged prison from where so many thousands of prisoners ended up taking the short walk to the guillotine. While used as a prison for ages,it had it's highest use at the time of the revolution. The display is done well with good information about conditions, people who were prisoers here and recreations of cells including that of Marie Antoinette.
All in all that added up to a pretty full on morning and neither of us felt we could do justice to any more history so decided the afternoon activity should be the favourite French pastime of window shopping, which apparently in French is 'faire du leche-vitrines'/'licking the windows'! And what better place to go looking than Le Grande Epicure de Paris at Le Bon Marche! A fabulous department store devoting a whole large shop to the Grande Epicure, the most fascinating food hall bulging with every imaginable French staple and delicacy. A simply wonderful place to spend an hour or so!
Meantime we'd been in contact during the day with Bruce and Diana who, settled into their very nice hotel, were gradually recovering from the harrowing delivery of the hire car to Paris airport yesterday 6.00 pm. Great driving, great interpreting of Gretels navigating; well done!
We'd planned to meet up tonight and perhaps have dinner together, so we hopped on the Metro again (have certainly had our money's worth out of our 5 day pass!) and over to their place for a drink. We'd heard that the soccer semifinal Spain/Germany was to be broadcast on a big screen under the Eiffel Tower so we all decided that would be fun to be part of, so off we went, snatching takeaways en route.
It certainly was fun! A beautiful warm, still evening, sitting in a lovely park on the bank behind the Tower watching, with thousands of fans, an exciting game, as the sky grew darker and the tower lit up. Having been in Spain so recently we were of course backing the Spanish and immediately armed ourselves with a Spanish flag and a while later felt we needed to add to the cacophony with a trumpet too. Can you imagine the mayhem of Spanish celebration at the conclusion of the game! Cars racing round and round with horns blaring, fans yahooing and the red and yellow flags streaming behind while groups of happy supporters wrapped in flags wove their way through the streets - loudly encouraged by our trumpet as we wandered back past the tower and over the river to the Metro.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
July 9th Musee d'Orsay and home
To be packed and checked out by 10.00 am with a whole day to spend in Paris where we expected temperatures to reach mid thirties, but with over 30 hours travel leaving 9.45 tonight and an arrival to NZ winter, was something of a conundrum. However, the hotel was happy for us to leave our bags with them and to make a room available for us to change later in the day before we headed to the airport, so by 10.15 we were on the town in our lightest weight gear.
Along with our entry to Le Louvre, we'd also purchased entry to Musee d'Orsay, the gallery which exhibits early modern art works - impressionist, art nouveau etc; so this is where we headed. With ticket in hand we totally by passed the queue and were immediately inside this fantastically light, airy, modern art gallery which once upon a time was the Paris railway station! We both found this a very "user friendly" gallery and loved the more modern works exhibited here. It was very exciting to see the originals of works from artists such as Renoir, Monet, Gauguin and Picasso which we see so often as faded prints, here they were fresh and glowing - and great too to see some of their lesser known works. Engrossed for several hours, the day passed rapidly and to remind ourselves of some of the beaut stuff we'd seen here we bought a souvenir book which I'm looking forward to reading.
With just an hour or so to fill I was keen to spend some time outdoors as we'd soon enough be inside planes for many hours, so we walked across the river to enjoy the shade in the lovely Tuilleries garden before returning to the hotel to change into our travel clothes.
We'd booked the train to take us from Paris out to Charles de Gaulle airport so it was just a short Metro ride to the train connection. With a 7.00 o'clock check in time we'd left the hotel at 5.00 o'clock which was perfect timing for the route to be covered, but certainly not perfect timing for lugging suitcases through the underground or for fighting one's way on to a train. Pushing our way into the crush of bodies lining the platform, we weren't quite able to make it into the front of the pack, which was very unfortunate, as it meant that Fred and his suitcase managed to shove their way on board, but I didn't stand a chance. Luckily, before the door closed and the train pulled away, Fred managed to peer back from the centre of the carriage and realise I was left behind, giving me a chance to mouth "I'll catch the next one"!
All ended well I was at the front of the pack for the next train and a man inside the train hauled my case on as I fought to hold my place, so half an hour late we were both safely at the airport and checking in.
Checking in was the next drama! On our travels I'd bought a little bottle of truffle oil and one of walnut oil and to keep them easily accessible to show MAF as we entered NZ I'd popped them in the carry on luggage, forgetting that the walnut oil was bigger than 100mls and so inadmissable in carry on luggage. I'd asked Fred to take them as I didn't want them in the same bag as my netpad just in case there was a leak. What a kerfuffle as the French official tried to explain to Fred that he could take it as checked in luggage and Fred tried to explain that his luggage was already checked in and gone. Eventually we reached some level of understanding and the chap took Fred back and found a lady who spent ages wrapping it in layer after layer of bubble wrap and bags so that it would survive the journey checked in as a parcel; "this is far to good to waste" she kept telling him.
Took off at 9.45. An eight hour flight saw dinner, one movie and a sleep before we landed in Dubai for a three hour stopover (hard to stay awake here - for us it was still the middle of the night). On to the next leg and this time the Airbus, so it was good to have the noise level reduced and the leg room increased, though it was a long time before I could sensibly fall asleep again. Eventually, 13 hours later in to Auckland and no worries about the truffle and walnut oil which had survived it's trip.
Finally home at 5.30 and there was John to pick us up in the limo, plus Pauline and John to welcome us. Then Dan and the chidren turned up and home we went to find Andrea there. They had dinner cooking and the drapes closed, the fire roaring and the electric blankets on so we had dinner together with Emily and Anna popping in to see us too. What a lovely welcome home and what a great sleep! It's been a fantastic trip and we've loved every bit of it, but home is always great too!
Along with our entry to Le Louvre, we'd also purchased entry to Musee d'Orsay, the gallery which exhibits early modern art works - impressionist, art nouveau etc; so this is where we headed. With ticket in hand we totally by passed the queue and were immediately inside this fantastically light, airy, modern art gallery which once upon a time was the Paris railway station! We both found this a very "user friendly" gallery and loved the more modern works exhibited here. It was very exciting to see the originals of works from artists such as Renoir, Monet, Gauguin and Picasso which we see so often as faded prints, here they were fresh and glowing - and great too to see some of their lesser known works. Engrossed for several hours, the day passed rapidly and to remind ourselves of some of the beaut stuff we'd seen here we bought a souvenir book which I'm looking forward to reading.
With just an hour or so to fill I was keen to spend some time outdoors as we'd soon enough be inside planes for many hours, so we walked across the river to enjoy the shade in the lovely Tuilleries garden before returning to the hotel to change into our travel clothes.
We'd booked the train to take us from Paris out to Charles de Gaulle airport so it was just a short Metro ride to the train connection. With a 7.00 o'clock check in time we'd left the hotel at 5.00 o'clock which was perfect timing for the route to be covered, but certainly not perfect timing for lugging suitcases through the underground or for fighting one's way on to a train. Pushing our way into the crush of bodies lining the platform, we weren't quite able to make it into the front of the pack, which was very unfortunate, as it meant that Fred and his suitcase managed to shove their way on board, but I didn't stand a chance. Luckily, before the door closed and the train pulled away, Fred managed to peer back from the centre of the carriage and realise I was left behind, giving me a chance to mouth "I'll catch the next one"!
All ended well I was at the front of the pack for the next train and a man inside the train hauled my case on as I fought to hold my place, so half an hour late we were both safely at the airport and checking in.
Checking in was the next drama! On our travels I'd bought a little bottle of truffle oil and one of walnut oil and to keep them easily accessible to show MAF as we entered NZ I'd popped them in the carry on luggage, forgetting that the walnut oil was bigger than 100mls and so inadmissable in carry on luggage. I'd asked Fred to take them as I didn't want them in the same bag as my netpad just in case there was a leak. What a kerfuffle as the French official tried to explain to Fred that he could take it as checked in luggage and Fred tried to explain that his luggage was already checked in and gone. Eventually we reached some level of understanding and the chap took Fred back and found a lady who spent ages wrapping it in layer after layer of bubble wrap and bags so that it would survive the journey checked in as a parcel; "this is far to good to waste" she kept telling him.
Took off at 9.45. An eight hour flight saw dinner, one movie and a sleep before we landed in Dubai for a three hour stopover (hard to stay awake here - for us it was still the middle of the night). On to the next leg and this time the Airbus, so it was good to have the noise level reduced and the leg room increased, though it was a long time before I could sensibly fall asleep again. Eventually, 13 hours later in to Auckland and no worries about the truffle and walnut oil which had survived it's trip.
Finally home at 5.30 and there was John to pick us up in the limo, plus Pauline and John to welcome us. Then Dan and the chidren turned up and home we went to find Andrea there. They had dinner cooking and the drapes closed, the fire roaring and the electric blankets on so we had dinner together with Emily and Anna popping in to see us too. What a lovely welcome home and what a great sleep! It's been a fantastic trip and we've loved every bit of it, but home is always great too!
July 8th Thursday LeLouvre and Arc de Triomphe
Our last complete day in Paris and Le Louvre was Number One on the list today. Entry here is very efficient and it seemed we were admitted in no time at all. Russell and Mary had kindly passed on their floor plan and we realised what a huge place this is so had already decided that we’d concentrate on the exhibition of paintings. Four hours later we had seen a simply amazing number of original paintings – Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch and more. Mind boggling and wonderful to see “the real thing” of so many paintings.
Yesterday’s stair climbing, plus the heat (34 degrees) and our late night had caught up with us at this stage so a siesta was called for before we climbed the Arc de Triomphe to enjoy the wonderful view of the avenues, the seething traffic and greater Paris. There is some good information here with great pictures of earlier times and when we came back down we were lucky enough to coincide with the daily ceremony at the flame of the unknown soldier.
We had a great discovery tonight of a really great little lane of typical Parisienne restaurants very close to our hotel and were enough to find a table without waiting too long. Surrounded by locals and enjoying another top quality French dining experience was a really nice way to spend our last evening in Paris
Yesterday’s stair climbing, plus the heat (34 degrees) and our late night had caught up with us at this stage so a siesta was called for before we climbed the Arc de Triomphe to enjoy the wonderful view of the avenues, the seething traffic and greater Paris. There is some good information here with great pictures of earlier times and when we came back down we were lucky enough to coincide with the daily ceremony at the flame of the unknown soldier.
We had a great discovery tonight of a really great little lane of typical Parisienne restaurants very close to our hotel and were enough to find a table without waiting too long. Surrounded by locals and enjoying another top quality French dining experience was a really nice way to spend our last evening in Paris
Friday, July 9, 2010
Paris!!
Well I've fizzled on my last couple of updates - just too crazy here in Paris. Flying out 10.00 tonight and have four hours to fill in Dubai, so maybe I'll get the last couple of days done for you somewhere in that time, otherwise I'll see some of you before you hear anymore!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
July 6th Tuesday Notre Dame, Pantheon, Gardens, Sacre Coeur
We were at the Notre Dame early this morning to beat the crowds and had a great look through this magnificent Cathedral. What an awesome façade – I just love those portals, and the stained glass windows are glorious. We also went round the back Lincoln and checked out the flying buttresses! When you were biking in Spain I remember you telling us about a church you passed which is supposed to have the biggest flying buttresses in the world! See what an impact that information must have had on me, I still watch out for flying buttresses!
From here we headed over on to the left bank of the Seine and walked down past the Sorbonne with all the students out and about in the streets. Then around the next corner was our destination the Pantheon. What a fascinating building with its square cross shape flooplan and fabulous dome, built in a totally revolutionary way and what a chequered history it has had swinging between religious and republican use since day one. An example of this is the huge pendulum which hangs from the centre of the dome and so perfectly demonstrates the earth’s rotation. Our timing was perfect to join a group going right up to the top of the dome…… wonderful views of the interior on the ascent and great views all round over the City once outside at the top.
Once outside again we followed the students to a great little patisserie and got our best baguette to date which we quickly carried to the nearby gardens and devoured, plastered with a gooey camembert, cherry tomatoes and French radishes. Mmmmm. The gardens we were in surround the Palace of Luxembourg which used to be the Royal Palace but now houses the French Senate. It has a large area of mature trees with park benches and moveable chairs. There are plus statues, manicured lawns, formal flower gardens, petanque and tennis courts, a great and frenetically busy children’s playground and even a huge pond with solid wooden toy yachts children can hire for E2.00 per 30minutes. It’s a great leisure haven for locals and well used and respected.
From here we took the Metro across town to visit the Basilique de Sacre Coeur. This gleaming, white, domed cathedral sits on top of a hill, so we took the funicular railcar to reach the steps to save ourselves for the climb up this dome! I’m not that keen on getting too far off the ground, but on the other hand I like to get the views, so I’ve done very well getting to the top of all these domes on this trip! 300 steps up an ever narrowing circular staircase was pretty claustrophobic, but great 360 degree views when we got there and a really different perspective on things from here. The viewing through the interior was also very worthwhile. I thought the perfectly round shape of the altar area and interior dome and the glowing colours of the dome frescoe with Christ dominant were really striking.
Home tonight for the Soccer finals which has been great for me to catch up here.
From here we headed over on to the left bank of the Seine and walked down past the Sorbonne with all the students out and about in the streets. Then around the next corner was our destination the Pantheon. What a fascinating building with its square cross shape flooplan and fabulous dome, built in a totally revolutionary way and what a chequered history it has had swinging between religious and republican use since day one. An example of this is the huge pendulum which hangs from the centre of the dome and so perfectly demonstrates the earth’s rotation. Our timing was perfect to join a group going right up to the top of the dome…… wonderful views of the interior on the ascent and great views all round over the City once outside at the top.
Once outside again we followed the students to a great little patisserie and got our best baguette to date which we quickly carried to the nearby gardens and devoured, plastered with a gooey camembert, cherry tomatoes and French radishes. Mmmmm. The gardens we were in surround the Palace of Luxembourg which used to be the Royal Palace but now houses the French Senate. It has a large area of mature trees with park benches and moveable chairs. There are plus statues, manicured lawns, formal flower gardens, petanque and tennis courts, a great and frenetically busy children’s playground and even a huge pond with solid wooden toy yachts children can hire for E2.00 per 30minutes. It’s a great leisure haven for locals and well used and respected.
From here we took the Metro across town to visit the Basilique de Sacre Coeur. This gleaming, white, domed cathedral sits on top of a hill, so we took the funicular railcar to reach the steps to save ourselves for the climb up this dome! I’m not that keen on getting too far off the ground, but on the other hand I like to get the views, so I’ve done very well getting to the top of all these domes on this trip! 300 steps up an ever narrowing circular staircase was pretty claustrophobic, but great 360 degree views when we got there and a really different perspective on things from here. The viewing through the interior was also very worthwhile. I thought the perfectly round shape of the altar area and interior dome and the glowing colours of the dome frescoe with Christ dominant were really striking.
Home tonight for the Soccer finals which has been great for me to catch up here.
July 54h Monday Paris Orientation
Orientation was our first project for today so we’d decided that we’d take a tour on the Hop on Hop Off Bus. Fred had done quite a bit of research about routes etc before we left so armed with his printouts we headed across to Notre Dame where we tracked down a bus stop.
All in all we took three of the four routes which gave us a fabulous over view of the city. What an easy way to take a ride down the Champs Elysees, around the Arc de Triomph, over the bridges on the Seine, past the Obelique de la Concorde, the Eiffel Tower, the Sorbonne and the Pantheon plus a narrow squeeze for the bus through the arch in the wall surrounding the Louvre and through the grounds there; all with a really good commentary. It was a really pleasant sunny day with enough breeze so that we weren’t stifled with heat and by the end of the day we felt quite well orientated and we’d confirmed various places we knew we wanted to go back to explore more thoroughly.
Our final trip was timed to end at the Eiffel Tower about 8.00 o’clock so that hopefully we could go up the tower and have both daylight views of the City and then views of the City lights. What an awesome structure! Fred would have liked to have gone right to the top but unfortunately for him that floor was closed. However, the view even from the second level where we went is pretty jolly spectacular and we spent ages identifying places we’d driven past in the day and watching the sun set in the West and the lights on the Tower brighten in the twilight until finally at 10.30 darkness fell and slowly but surely the buildings all over the City lit up; spectacular! The Eiffel Tower is lit from twilight and then, for 10 minutes on the hour, it has extra white lights which flash so that it sparkles as well. We were up the Tower for the 10.00 sparkles and on the footbridge crossing the Seine for the 11.00 sparkles; both views equally thrilling!
While we’ve been away, Fred has tackled the conquest of transport routes with determination and enthusiasm – everything from road routes to confirm or complement the GPS, to the vaporetto system in Venice, the trains in Spain and the Metros in Rome and Paris. (I did mention to him that perhaps he was thinking of a job as a tour operator here, but he said he’d be a bit worried about learning French.) He’s done really well and it’s really helped us group visits and activities together for efficiency. Of course when we’re with Bruce and Diana they have a lot of knowledge to add to the planning mix too which is great.
All in all we took three of the four routes which gave us a fabulous over view of the city. What an easy way to take a ride down the Champs Elysees, around the Arc de Triomph, over the bridges on the Seine, past the Obelique de la Concorde, the Eiffel Tower, the Sorbonne and the Pantheon plus a narrow squeeze for the bus through the arch in the wall surrounding the Louvre and through the grounds there; all with a really good commentary. It was a really pleasant sunny day with enough breeze so that we weren’t stifled with heat and by the end of the day we felt quite well orientated and we’d confirmed various places we knew we wanted to go back to explore more thoroughly.
Our final trip was timed to end at the Eiffel Tower about 8.00 o’clock so that hopefully we could go up the tower and have both daylight views of the City and then views of the City lights. What an awesome structure! Fred would have liked to have gone right to the top but unfortunately for him that floor was closed. However, the view even from the second level where we went is pretty jolly spectacular and we spent ages identifying places we’d driven past in the day and watching the sun set in the West and the lights on the Tower brighten in the twilight until finally at 10.30 darkness fell and slowly but surely the buildings all over the City lit up; spectacular! The Eiffel Tower is lit from twilight and then, for 10 minutes on the hour, it has extra white lights which flash so that it sparkles as well. We were up the Tower for the 10.00 sparkles and on the footbridge crossing the Seine for the 11.00 sparkles; both views equally thrilling!
While we’ve been away, Fred has tackled the conquest of transport routes with determination and enthusiasm – everything from road routes to confirm or complement the GPS, to the vaporetto system in Venice, the trains in Spain and the Metros in Rome and Paris. (I did mention to him that perhaps he was thinking of a job as a tour operator here, but he said he’d be a bit worried about learning French.) He’s done really well and it’s really helped us group visits and activities together for efficiency. Of course when we’re with Bruce and Diana they have a lot of knowledge to add to the planning mix too which is great.
July 4th Sunday Bayeux to Paris
I’m starting today’s diary on the train between Bayeux and Paris, hurtling along to our final, but very exciting destination. We’ve had a wonderful day in and around Bayeux, Caen and the Normandy Beaches today.
Popped into town after breakfast with a visit to see the Bayeux Tapestry top of my list. With Summer and the school holidays having started here and the festival bringing crowds of participants and onlookers to town, the tourist season is well underway and we were pleased to be early enough to miss the huge queue we saw later. Some information I read about the tapestry describes it as a “comic strip” which was displayed to tell the people of the time the events of the Norman Conquest. That’s a really good description in a way as the amazing work tells the story in pictures so well, with incredible detail such as posture and expression portraying even little nuances of deception, embarrassment, excitement, etc; remarkable! The complimentary audio guide was fantastic; explaining how the tapestry is telling the story and pointing out the significance of quirky little things you could easily miss. 70 metres takes on a whole new meaning when you see it telling a story in 57 consecutive scenes stitched 1000 years ago in wool on linen and the colours still as good as new.
On our exit from the Tapestry display we struck a real bonus, being just in time to watch the medieval parade, one of the highlights of the annual festival. It was along the lines of Nelson’s Mask Parade, with community groups taking part dressed in all manner of medieval costumes and regalia and with plenty of lively music and slapstick humour. (I think you would have liked dressing up to be part of this parade Yasmina, Andre, Isabelle and Hannah – lots of princesses and knights!)
You couldn’t come to Bayeux without taking a trip out to the D Day Beaches to get a picture of the location and the area involved and try to get some idea of the scale and magnitude of the operation and the human cost involved, so that was our tour for the afternoon and now, here we are having fare welled Bruce and Diana again and speeding toward Paris for our next discoveries and adventures.
Later Sunday:
An interesting trip on the train with lots of Parisienne families with little children returning from a weekend out of town, mixing formula, heating baby food (the trains have electric plugs available) and trying to keep tired scratchy toddlers calm. I've never seen so many children with dummies as over here, in fact it's unusual to see any baby or toddler in a buggy without a dummy!
Countryside gave way to urban views and suddenly we were at the seething station, dragging our bags to the ticket office for Metro tickets. We've seen a few armed police around in both Italy and France so it wasn't too much suprise to see police here with holsters strapped on, but we did wonder why there needed to be the stoneyfaced swivel headed ones slinking about with their AK47s. Anyway, no worries for us so, with a 5 day pass in hand, a call to our hotel for connection instructions and we were diving into the underground. Everyone had told us how efficient and user friendly the Paris Metro is and we would certainly agree. With one change we were at our hotel and checked in to our room.
Our hotel is old and very French - dark and mysterious with dark wood, wild pink, red and gold decor and furnishings, but comfy and superbly located in the Hotel de Ville area just across the Seine from the Notre Dame. Popping next door for a beer and glass of wine to celebrate our arrival was an expensive exercise costing E14.70 so needless to say we moved further away for dinner! I had a fried camembert which was fabulous and Fred is going to recreate his dish for lunch next time you come Em as it was a magnificent French version of cheese on toast and you two are the cheese on toast makers!
Popped into town after breakfast with a visit to see the Bayeux Tapestry top of my list. With Summer and the school holidays having started here and the festival bringing crowds of participants and onlookers to town, the tourist season is well underway and we were pleased to be early enough to miss the huge queue we saw later. Some information I read about the tapestry describes it as a “comic strip” which was displayed to tell the people of the time the events of the Norman Conquest. That’s a really good description in a way as the amazing work tells the story in pictures so well, with incredible detail such as posture and expression portraying even little nuances of deception, embarrassment, excitement, etc; remarkable! The complimentary audio guide was fantastic; explaining how the tapestry is telling the story and pointing out the significance of quirky little things you could easily miss. 70 metres takes on a whole new meaning when you see it telling a story in 57 consecutive scenes stitched 1000 years ago in wool on linen and the colours still as good as new.
On our exit from the Tapestry display we struck a real bonus, being just in time to watch the medieval parade, one of the highlights of the annual festival. It was along the lines of Nelson’s Mask Parade, with community groups taking part dressed in all manner of medieval costumes and regalia and with plenty of lively music and slapstick humour. (I think you would have liked dressing up to be part of this parade Yasmina, Andre, Isabelle and Hannah – lots of princesses and knights!)
You couldn’t come to Bayeux without taking a trip out to the D Day Beaches to get a picture of the location and the area involved and try to get some idea of the scale and magnitude of the operation and the human cost involved, so that was our tour for the afternoon and now, here we are having fare welled Bruce and Diana again and speeding toward Paris for our next discoveries and adventures.
Later Sunday:
An interesting trip on the train with lots of Parisienne families with little children returning from a weekend out of town, mixing formula, heating baby food (the trains have electric plugs available) and trying to keep tired scratchy toddlers calm. I've never seen so many children with dummies as over here, in fact it's unusual to see any baby or toddler in a buggy without a dummy!
Countryside gave way to urban views and suddenly we were at the seething station, dragging our bags to the ticket office for Metro tickets. We've seen a few armed police around in both Italy and France so it wasn't too much suprise to see police here with holsters strapped on, but we did wonder why there needed to be the stoneyfaced swivel headed ones slinking about with their AK47s. Anyway, no worries for us so, with a 5 day pass in hand, a call to our hotel for connection instructions and we were diving into the underground. Everyone had told us how efficient and user friendly the Paris Metro is and we would certainly agree. With one change we were at our hotel and checked in to our room.
Our hotel is old and very French - dark and mysterious with dark wood, wild pink, red and gold decor and furnishings, but comfy and superbly located in the Hotel de Ville area just across the Seine from the Notre Dame. Popping next door for a beer and glass of wine to celebrate our arrival was an expensive exercise costing E14.70 so needless to say we moved further away for dinner! I had a fried camembert which was fabulous and Fred is going to recreate his dish for lunch next time you come Em as it was a magnificent French version of cheese on toast and you two are the cheese on toast makers!
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