Our 4 days in paris is now over and we are on the way back up to Amsterdam to meet up with our cruise boat to take us down the Rhine to Budapest.
Paris is a fabulously city with streets lined with open air cafes and restaurants everywhere. The bread served here with every meal is absolutely delightful and I have made a pact with myself to not eat any bread whilst on the boat!!! We’ll see! I have eaten more bread in the past 4 days than I think I have for a month – that being said, not one piece of it was the stodgy old supermarket loaf bread, it’s all baguettes and french sticks and all freshly made each day – yum! And of course Kemm and I have indulged in the odd bottle of wine or 2 – but hey, this is Paris and what more need we say!

Spent the first 2 nights in a Novotel Hotel very near to the Eiffel Tower so we did that area back to front. I went right to the top one morning but have to say the views from half way up were clearer and more condusive to photo-taking. Only found out yesterday though that there had been a bomb threat there a few days before we arrived and the whole 2000 people on the towere at the time had to be evacuated – pleased I hadn’t known about that first!!!

Transferred hotels 2 days later to meet up with our tour group for the start of our actual tour phase – 2 days in Paris, transfer up to Amsterdam and on to the cruise. Had a meet and greet welcome drink at our hotel for an hour or so – 36 people on this tour so a little more crowded and even now haven’t managed to meet everyone. Did a sight-seeing bus tour of Paris the other morning and went past all the famous spots but the photos taken were all from the bus as we didn’t get to stop anywhere – except at the Eiffel Towere where the group were herded up to the 2nd floor. I had known this was to happen but really wanted to go to the top so did that the day before.

As soon as we had returned from our sight-seeing tour, Kemm and I decided to jump in a cab and head up to “Sacre-Coeur”, the highest point in Paris – too k my photos then we had a wander through the art markets and found ourselves one of those typical little French cafes under the grape vines with a cellist playing outside and of course we had a delightful lunch – and another bottle of wine!! But that’s what Kemm and I do well.

Had the obligatory afternoon snooze that day then we had a welcome dinner at a nearby restaurant – was expecting an ‘ordinary’ meal but we were both pleasantly surprised at the food quality at that particular restaurant considering it appeared to be a ‘group tours’ restaurant.

On to the following day we had been offered a tour up to Sacre Coeur and a river cruise but we had done both those in the knowledge that we wanted to visit the Louvre on our own which we headed out to do. We spent the next 4 hours roaming the inner of the Louvre – it’s the world’s largest museum. The works there are just beyond belief and if I never visit another museum in my life I won’t be dissapointed as visiting The Louvre is the epitome of museums – you just can’t beat it. We had rented a small headphone set to tour ourselves around and that was the best 6 Euros I’ve spent as it was a great source of information. We visited the room holding The Mona Lisa of course – a much smaller piece of artwork than I had imagined and with a hundred odd people clamouring to view it, it became a matter of just slowly pushing my way to the fron. The painting is now encased in glass following a supposed attempt at throwing paint at it a couple of years ago.

Also viewed “Aphrodite” or the Venus de Milo, The Lacemaker, The Blind Slave, Cupid (am I good or what??) – anyway as said it was a magnificent museum. The outer walls of it cover 7kms in length so it’s not something anyone could fully visit in even 3 days so it took us a bit of working out what to see and what to skip. However I am so pleased we did visit the Museum.

So that was yesterday, apart from our wander and another little cafe meal last night.

Highlights of Paris?? Sidewalk cafes, bread, cheese, bordeaux wines, the beautiful and historical buildings, the Louvre and of course The Eiffel Tower twinkling! Would I come again? In a flash!

Currently on the bus heading up to Amsterdam – once again through this very flat and green land – more next time!