A walk around the City of Love - Paris!

Decided to explore the areas close to us as suggest by Gail. So glad we did. Strolled through the streets of the Marais district and explored the Place des Vosages (first photo below) with lovely trees, grassed areas and a meeting place for many especially gays and Jews.

The Village of St Paul (above) is in the oldest part of Paris and you can even see the wall remains of the original fortification now with a modern playground (see below) made from a synthetic all weather surface which looks like sand. There was even a three-lane 60m straight running track and a long jump pit. This is probably part of the school that is nearby.

For lunch we sampled the best falafel sandwiches in the world (reputedly) and were lucky to get a seat in the restaurant. The meals were certainly very good and we didn't need a big meal later! There were people lined up down the street to get takeaways.

The place over the street sold the same but had no customers! Also took in a photo exhibition which was superb.

Oh to be able to take photos like that. One was contrived black and white shots of a beautiful girl using great lighting set up. The other was of war torn or disaster areas which captured the moment but the lighting effects added in later in the studio.

Then on to a strange building called the Centre Pompidou named after a previous president. It is completely out of sync with the style of building in Paris and stands out like a sore thumb. The photos paint the picture if you can excuse the pun. It is a National Art Museum mostly the more modern rather than the classics. Saw a travelling Matisse exhibition which happened to be on at this time and more of his works in the permanent collection along with Picasso and Brague. Modern art doesn't do much for us though. However, well worth the visit as it does house a lot of art.

Could not complete the whole tour...too long and tiring. The sky was blue (for a change) and its was hot so made our way back to the Notre Dame again for better photos and another sampling of some superb ice cream from Berthillons close by.

Tried a few shops. The streets were full of people, bars were full after work and the shops were finally open so we were able to more than window shop.

Before getting back to the apartment we stopped to rest our weary feet after 12 hours walking and had a great Belgian beer!

Tomorrow we use the hop-on hop-off bus to get around the other main sights.

To Paris & 5kg jars of Nutella!

Another rainy day! Thank goodness it was spent on a high speed (up to 300 km/hr) and comfortable train heading to Paris through beautifully green and tidy rolling hills with fantastic villages and houses tucked into hillsides and valleys everywhere.

It was a chance to look over our travel plans and decide what we may do over the next three days. We are really looking forward to catching up with Theo and his family on Saturday. Theo's father has kindly offered to pick us up from Paris on Saturday morning and take us to their home in St Quentin, about one-and-a-half hours north of Paris.We will then be able to stay for Theo's 18th birthday party with all his friends and family and no doubt enjoying the local champagne! They will then take us to the airport the next morning to fly home.

Arrived at the station and had to queue for a taxi which was longer than the taxi ride. The apartment is someone's own and she took great pleasure in showing us everything about it and where things are including a tour of the local area.

Strolled around the local area including taking in outside views of  Notre Dame but cloudy skies made it difficult to photograph.

Also went on the Metro system to two large shopping complexes - Lafayette's and Printemps. Not that impressed with some parts as they have a lot of selection of different brands but very little stock on offer from any of them.The glass dome of Lafayette's is impressive.

We found the local shops had great stock so there is no need for the big shopping complexes! Tomorrow promises to be very busy and we can see tired feet coming up!

Oh yes - and the Nutella!

Rainy day in Provence

Aghhhhh... Another rainy day! Gail has been coming here for 15 years and only ever experienced rain on one day before. We get a decade's worth in a few days.

We were meant to be taken to Mt Ventoux in the 'mothership' [no no, not the van below!] and start a good long ride from the top descending 22km through wonderful countryside and gorges etc. We completed it via the van but it was not the same. Maybe we just have to come back. Consequently, not too many photos to add today.

Now, it is time for Jeff to come clean on his ride up Mt Ventoux. Jeff only rode the last 6km to the top!!!! We did not have enough time to do the whole climb but it would be easy enough to do so as it is very steady on good roads. The TdF riders do another 130km plus on top of the 22km uphill portion which makes it so hard. It was still great to do even this bit as he needed the exercise.

Way too much eating and drinking going on!