Alexandra Ibis Paris

... nothing because I don't speak or read French. That's not entirely true actually. I found a great picture pook about polar bears, but Annie wouldn't let me buy it.

By then it was getting chilly later in the day and so we sought refuge in a coffee shop called Autour de la terre. It was this really hysterical cafe with a vietnamese owner who offered dozens of types of coffees, hot chocolates, fruit drinks, etc...from ...

The plan on the Tuesday was to get up early to go and meet Cathy and Katrina to see the Bastille Day parade. The getting up early bit happened, the rest didn't. Matt wasn’t well so they were running late and so Steven and I went on a toothpaste search while we waited for them. We finally got going and headed to the Arc de Triomphe where we saw all the military equipment etc as ...

... berets and moustaches....much to the amusements of the locals. After a day of doing nothing but eating we headed to a restaurant for tea, brilliant. I finally got to try Frogs legs which surprise surprise taste like chicken. I actually quite liked them but they are just fiddley to eat as the bones are so tiny. The only thing that put me off them were the tiny little 'toes'. Day 4 consisted of more mooching and a visit to the very eerie catacombs...they were definately cool but ...

... would be available to get back once we finished at the parks. At the station all ticket offices were closed and the gates were all open so we made good value of the tickets from the morning and hopped on the waiting train, which left shortly thereafter. All other connections followed smoothly and it looked as though services were back to normal by the time we got back to Gare du Nord. Friday was our first proper day in Paris and with the Eiffel Tower already done we ...

... displayed lots of art work and furniture from the period.  After traveling through these rooms, we worked our way up stairs and walked down the first of many hall ways that displayed busts and sculptures of various french royalty.  This eventually led to a series of other rooms that contained the beds of various figures in history like Louis 14th and 16th as well as Marie Antoinette.     Avoiding the garish Jeff Koons work, we ...

Allo le monde, Hier, on est allé luncher avec Pierre à la Défense. C'est un coin de Paris où ils ont bâti des gros édifices pour faire des bureaux pour plusieurs compagnies. Par exemple, la Société Générale, une banque, a ses bureaux là. Ils ont trois tours. C'est immense. Moi, ce qui m'impressionnait et que je trouvais beau, c'était la bâtisse de la Défense, la bâtisse carrée, fait comme un bloc d'enfant, ......c'est carrée, c'est simple, je trouve ça beau ...

Friday 5 October Our last bus trip over!!!! Good because no more loooong bus trips!!!! Bad because its our last bus trip which means that our trip is almost over :( This trip was a long one too, 13 hours in total and the stops were terrible! Only one stop for 40 min, all the rest were only 20. When we did get ito Paris though they did a bit of a ticky tour and we got to see the sites at night which was good. We also went for a circle around the Arc di Triomphe, which is ...

... so I didn't want to order any more food there. We sat there for a while and then headed back to the room. Josh is asleep right now. He was quite the trooper during all that girlie shopping. I'm proud of him for behaving so nicely. I will wake him a little later so we can grab some dinner. Food stands are open pretty late here. Restaurants close down midday, so we have been eating later than usual.

... the hotel appeared exactly as it had seemed on the web site. The place was clean and well appointed. The other guests looked to be normal tourist-types, not the nere-do-well vagrants I'd been imaging for the last six blocks. And the room was perfectly nice with shutters on the windows that opened to afford a lovely view westward as the city sprawled out beyond. It lacked a shower curtain, of course, but by now I'd become somewhat adept at not completely saturating the bathroom ...

... the complex is a Hilton Hotel with rooms overlooking the indoor shopping precinct. We finally arrive at La Grande Arche. It is so huge you could stand the whole of Notre Dame Cathedral inside it. It is not just a monument, but is in fact a remarkable office building. Unfortunately the lifts are not working. According to our voluble friend, they have been out of action for weeks, and only the official lifts for staff and residents ...