Day 71 to 74 London to Paris

Bonjour

Well sorry we have been out of touch but internet access is difficult - as well as being very expensive when you can find it! So to catch up on last 4 days.

Day 71 – In London

Well it was not much fun today! Decided a day to relax and work on our assignments was required along with completing a number of emails we owed! So indoor all days.

But  then a walk at tea time down to the Docks – Canary Wharf and met Shabnam and Ian, and had some tea in an resturant with noodle dishes on offer.

Then home to watch Englands inglorious draw in the World Cup! Not very inspiring for the red and whites!

Day 72 – London to Paris

Up at 5.30! and left Shabnam and Ian at 6 am – they very generously got up to say farewell – no doubt back to bed as soon as we left!

 Very little traffic through the very middle of London and would have made heathrow in 45 minutes if Sally hadn’t taken a wrong turn and we got on some strange street – within sight of the airport! I suspect a wrong address had been inputted. (and not by Shona)  After a few minutes redirecting we got there okay and returned our faithful car – after about 2000 miles – doublings it’s mileage!

A long wait at the airport and a study of the duty free shops. An uneventful but late flight on BA – including a wait at the other end because no one had organised a way for us to get off the plane!!!! Then a long long queue for passport control – which took about 5 seconds to go through when they stamped our passports! – there must be a better way!

Off to an hours drive to the hotel which is on the River Seine (well sort of it has 3 roads between it and us) and about 5 blocks from the Eiffel Tower.

After a settle in it was a very cold walk to the Tower just to say we had been there – a very quick lesson in French restaurant prices when I ordered a SMALL coke and paid more for that than Shona paid for her small wine - $10NZ for a small glass of coke – really. Won’t do that again – and no doubt someone won’t forget to remind me!

An early night gaining strength for walks etc tomorrow.

Day 73 – Visiting Paris

After a slow start and a fairly average breakfast which cost us mega bucks!! It was off for a very long walk around neighbouring Paris. Maybe a map drawing would be best! We walked back to the Eiffel Tower again, and then we had a long walk to the Arc de Triomphe – and walked across to it (by tunnel) but decided not to go up – will save the height for Eiffel tower one day when it is a but warmer than today!

 Then a long walk down the Avenue Des Champs Elysees – me reminiscing and reminding Shona about the Tour de France last day race all the way down

 – ( I got a comment on every bend!!-Shona)  strangely she didn’t seem very interested – and was more interested in all the shops – even I might add this neat car sale shop which had his neat bike!!!!

 We also ventured into a sports shop and found there was at least one New Zealander on display.

 After lots more walking we crossed this river Seine yet again again. Kept seeing bikes you can borrow for free or for a small payment but didn’t succumb to the temptation!

 Went to Hotel des Invalides – but I believe we go inside on our tour, so decided to skip this. We saw lots and lots of big flash buildings! Finally stopped for a bit to eat – I decided not to order anything to drink!!!

 Back to the hotel and switched on the TV to find the NZ/Italy game on so was even allowed to watch – and Shona went to get something from downstairs since it was too tense!! Hopefully some at home stayed up to watch it was certainly a tense game right up to the last seconds! Glad I’m not in Italy at present, and apparently the French team has gone on strike today so didn’t hear anything about them down town at all!

Well a long day all be it cold – hopefully a bit warmer tomorrow but the weather forecast is not promising – so much for visiting France in their summer!

Day 74 – Visiting Paris Day 2.

Another long day of walking. Decided to walk to the Latin Quarter. Half way there we discovered the 51 floor building which allows you to go to the top (for a cost of course!)

 However gave great 360 views across all of Paris – lots of photos taken!!!!!

 Also then visited the Luxembourg Gardens and Palace and sat a listened to a performing group.

The gardens there were fantastic.

 Then on through the Latin Quarter and I succumbed to buying a Tour de France hat and t-shirt. Different atmosphere there. Lots of great eating places.

 Then a long walk back along the Seine looking at the Notre Dam

 and Lourve ( but not going into either). 

 It seemed strange a lot of shops were closed so not sure if that was because it was Monday or whether they had  a siesta – since some shops seem to open later?

 It doesn’t sound like we did much above, but we DID. We were on our feet for about 7 hours so we have rather tired legs. Maybe I can convince Shona to take the bikes tomorrow! It was a great day though. We both really enjoyed walking around Paris and taking in the atmosphere.

Day 75 – In Paris

Well finally it is fine and blue skies! Decided on a more sedate walk today but still covered a fair distance and ended up on the other side of the Avenue Des Champs Elysees and we saw how the other half live!

I took this photo of a type of lift moving furniture up to the top floors. Then looked closer at the “house/apartments” and saw lots of doormen and in front there was lined up about 9 cars – with no exaggeration there was 3 Lamborghinis, 1 Massarati, 3 Mercedes and 2 Audis – decided the people living here weren’t teachers! Also went past a block were there were police everywhere and it looked like a meeting of about 20 people in suits in the park obviously setting up something – not sure what was going on but obviously some important things going on!!

 After having some food sitting below the Eiffel Tower it was back home to get this web site up to date and to meet our new tour group – which starts tonight for 11 days.