Sunday 22 September - Paris

Silke and Jean Claude met us for breakfast at our hotel at 9 am and then we set off for some more of Paris' delights.

It's 2.15 am on Monday morning, and I've just finished yesterday's blog - so this will be a very quick post - till I get to update it later.


We went to Saint Lazare, Havre Caumartin and Trocadero - to the Eiffel Tower, and the Invalides Hotel  We went up the Tour Montparnasse - a building with 360 degree views.  We took three trains to the Galleria Lafeyette but it was closed - Sundays, Paris shops are closed - it brought back memories of decades ago in Melbourne and it warmed my heart somewhat.

Spectacular views from the top of Monparnasse

So we headed to the Opera House and had lunch at the Opera restaurant.  Roast lamb again - who's missing home?!

Silke and Jean Claude left at 4.30 pm to return home to Belgium.  What a wonderful time we've had with them - and how generous of them to come to Paris to show us the sights.  We feel very blessed.

We made our way back to our hotel and encountered a huge 'flock' of inline skaters who had taken over the street - there were hundreds of them, and then tagging along at the back were probably 50 cyclists.  Shame we didn't know about this - it would be the safest way to cycle the streets of Paris.

We ventured out again at 9 pm and headed for the Arc de Triomphe via the met.  It was a long, long way up the spiral staircase, but we made it and the effort was totally worthwhile. 

The spiral staircase of the Arc de Triomphe

Magnificent night views of Paris greeting us - and the Eiffel Tower was even more spectacular than during the day.

Eiffel Tower all sparkling

The Eiffel Tower is lit up with lights for ten minutes every hour - how fortunate we got to see it.

(We overheard some people speaking about pickpockets and we mentioned how we'd been pickpocketed earlier.  A young girl from Washington State, Megan, told us how she'd been caught a few days ago and lost 400 Euros.  She was clearly still shaken from the experience. The scam is from the same young people; this time they ask you to sign a piece of paper, like a petition, then while you're filling in your details, and you're concentrating on that, they ask for money.  When your wallet is open, they make their move and steal your money.  Megan realised what had happened, but another girl had already moved in to take the money away.  Megan yelled out and some French people came to help her, but the urchin threw an empty bottle on the ground as a signal for her accomplices to come to support her.  They created a huge diversion and they got away.  If you come to Europe, just be aware that these are the ways they try to trap you.  We've asked why the police don't do something about cleaning it up, and we've been told, "there are too many of them"!  Such a shame.)

We are thoroughly enjoying Paris - it's a stunning city, and simply beautiful.