Paris

Oh how I love Paris. The architecture, the cafes, the people.

We arrived early into Paris and got our luggage. Bikes arrived safely. Of course trying to get them through the dots was.a challenge. The french have very narrow doorways and stairwells.

A man came and said her had a van and could take us into the city so we jumped at that. Of course their idea of a van and ours was a little different. He took us to a station wagon which had a baby seat in the back and after a lot of shuffling around we all fitted and I went to get into the car and saw the driving wheel there. Oh yes the other side of the road!!!

Had a hairy ride into our place in town and the cab driver helped us out with the bikes and when we opened the door to our apartment here were lots of stairs and a very narrow staircase with a tight turn at the top. Of course we were on the second floor.

We got ourselves in and just laughed. What else could we do!!!

Shower first and change of clothes and we were out into gay Paree. The sun was shining and it was warm. Headed off in the direction of the seine and with so many cafes and bistros on the way we decided to stop in at a lot on the way so we bar hopped down to the seine.

I love the french cafes with all their chairs facing out to the street.

We had a glass of rose at them all and moved on.

Got to the Notre dame. What an exquisite site. Lots of buskers and we sat down and watched these roller skaters that were doing slalom around a row of plastic cups, jumping over high ropes and generally very entertaining.

We then walked over the road to the Shakespeare book shop. One of my favourite spots. Inside someone was playing the piano, the resident cat was lying on someone’s lap and all very relaxed.

We went around the corner and found another cafe and had a drink and across the road was this little cobblestone street with lots of people and cafes and shops and things happening so after we had finished our drinks we headed of down this alleyway that led us to a whole new world. Shops and cafes and we just wandered. I think we were in the Latin quarter but how do you tell. I just loved it all. Of course we stopped for wine and eventually for dinner in this very cute restaurant.

It was about 10.30ish by this time and jet lag had set in. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and it was time to head back to our little air Bnb.

Vaguely remember making my way home as I was very tired. Got home cleaned my teeth and was asleep in 5 seconds and didn’t hear anything until 7am this morning.

Today has been interesting!!!!

Got up and decided to put our bikes together. Well that was more difficult than we remember. They had taken off the derailer from our bike and that wasn’t in the video so we couldn’t get it back on on both our bikes. I put my front wheel on and the tire was rubbing against the frame and my front wheel wouldn’t turn around. Decided to worry about it later and headed off to meet up with our group at the designated coffee shop.

Ran into Ross and Isla as we wandered down the road and headed to the cafe. Had a very yummy croissant with a cup of tea as the coffee here is terrible. Everyone turned up and we did the exchange of phone numbers and set up a WhatsApp group then Jane and I headed off to the bike shop.

Found another fabulous part of Paris on the way with markets and the smells of baguette and croissants was overpowering.

Found the bike shop and spoke to the guy who luckily spoke a bit of English and he told us to bring the bike back and he would fix them.

We set off back to our place and it was sunny and hot and we walked down quaint streets and got home did a quick change and took the bikes back.

To cut a long story short he said he could fix them but probably not until 4pm tomorrow. We are supposed to be on a train at 10am tomorrow. There was nothing we could do so we went off to Montparnasse to see about changing our ticket and getting a later train straight to Dinan. This took a while and next thing it is 3pm we are very thirsty and hungry.

We jumped on a train and went to the Eiffel Tower and what a mess. The security is such here now that you have to have a bag check it is all fenced off and you have to buy a ticket to get past the security.

All too much so we walked and found a lovely cafe and had a few g&ts and a cheese and meet platter then headed off to the champs élysées walked right up it and again there were police everywhere with machine guns lining the centre of the road all the way up to the l’arc de triomphe. Then again security was such that it was all roped off and couldn’t get to stand under it and again it was ticketed.

We were tired and needed to sit down so we headed back to the Marias area and we are now sitting in a cafe facing the street having a glass of wine as you do in France.

So mon amies until tomorrow

Bob nuit and au revoir

M