Citadines Paris Tour Eiffel

... pretty far gone anyway. We later reckon it was leftover from some tourist who had ordered the whole bottle and hadn't drunk it all, as it was ice cold. Our banana split was great and we began anticipating the final total on the bill as we had also eaten the bread that they put on the table and it was a tourist trap area. To our amazement, they only charged us for what we had ordered and not a cent more, so the red wine was indeed complimentary. We never thought we'd see the day we got a ...

... fun, waiting for the luggage didn't display any nodding off sessions just yet to which I am thankful, cause having two hours of sleep on the plane meant I went about almost 40 hours on two hours alone.... that part when it finally caught up with me was not fun.


Alas I have claimed my backpack, , while muttering under my breath the whole time.... 'please dont let it be lost, PPppplease dont let it be lost!!!!!!'

I found a bus for a ...

... and got ready in the bathrooms there with the group...and headed off for our FAIRWELL DINNER :(:(:(:(:( It was sad.....but DELICIOUS. We got to chose from escargot, french onion soup (although they just call it onion soup haha), or this vegetable pate ****...it was gross...but i chose the SOUP and it was incredble. The the main course we chose from fish, beef or duck l'orange (leg of duck in a herbed orange sauce with potatoes, stuffed tomato, and spinach)...i took the duck ...

... interesting sights. We returned to the apartment to meet Thierry at 6:00. He was a good host, answered all of our questions and made sure we knew how everything worked. We rested for a little while and then decided we should go out for a "real meal" because we had been snacking on small meals for two days. I was still feeling overwhelmed and nervous but less so and I really didn't want to cook (because then we'd still have to go buy things ...

... at the Pasteur Institute and they have this adorable apartment which they are letting us take over for a couple of days.  They are so sweet -- they even had Christmas stockings for Ronan and Mimi ! Meghan is having a baby in February, and she is the cutest, most chic Clevelander-Parisian pregnant lady ! After naps, we ventured out (on foot--they live right in the middle of everything !) to ...

... a lifetime in IT I'm a fairly fast touch typist, but this was useless with a keyboard that clearly wasn't qwerty. With the van restored to us we moved on, following the coast westwards. Aigues-Mortes, a huge walled town, is definitely worth a repeat visit, and we also took in Arles, with its old Roman Colosseum. We arrived in Marseilles on a Sunday. In the morning we had driven into the town from a camp site about 30 miles away, on roads that were elevated above the ...

... up at the Mona Lisa. It always amuses me that it draws such big crowds !!! Is it the real one ??? Compared to the last time I was here, Madonna on the Rocks was now surrounded by people as well. Realistically, more people watch movies than read books, so it's amazing how a movie can change the popularity of a painting !!! This time, I did not get lost, and I made it back to watch Lucy skate. **** I'm good sometimes !!! Then it ...

... up at her. Darby describes it as amaaaazing! Paris is grande! Much less traffic than London, maybe because many Parisians are on holiday during July and August. Streets seem wider and more easily navigable, plus there are 15,000 cafes to choose from in Paris. So much to see, appreciate and absorb! We must go repos now because we have early matin visite touristique!

... to gather directly underneath the tower, chanting and jumping around. The police lined up on on side of the tower and charged through the crowd, batons pounding on shield. The crowd scattered, some heading straight for us. I grabbed Jen and turned her away from the crowd. They passed us without harm. They gathered again under the tower and again the police charged. By this time we had found a relatively safe place to watch all this ...

Allo Allo (wasn't that a TV program - Dad's time I think). Let me begin by asking for everyone's patience. Some of the keys on these Parisian keyboards are in a different position to what we are used to making this a very slow and tedious process. We caught the Euro Star at around 3pm yesterday. It is a very large, fast and comfortable train. From inside it felt as if we were on a plane minus the turbulence ...