Noctuel Hotel - Fleury-Merogis

... with claviers in hand, on a bridge.  The reason we saw the woman on the bridge was because we had taken a nice long pause there on a bench.  Yes, yes, I have become quite comfortable with the benches, they are my friends.  Why? As my friend Kim pointed out, they are free.... And that is why park bench #3 and I will get along so very well!

... The staff were friendly & extremely obliging. They offered us a coffee in the dining room & helped us plan our itinerary for our two days in Paris. We wandered out into the streets & headed for one of Paris famous monuments the Arc De Triomphe, it was only 10mins walk from our hotel. We lagged as I remembered our last trip to Paris 9 years ago, (wow has it really been that long) & we joined other travelers in running ...

... But - his team, Silence-Lotto, is much weaker than Sastre's team CSC Saxo Bank, and under those challenging circumstances, Cadel did great. The final ceremony was the "loop of honour", with every team slowly going around the Champs one more time, with one last chance for the crowd to cheer them on, and for the riders to thank the crowd who supported them. The riders were preceded by... hundreds of children from all over France - including my neighbour's son! It was very sweet to ...

Wow; this week has gone by quite quick....guess it must be the good life here lol. This time around in Paris I've tried to stay off the beaten tourist path and explored the neighbourhoods instead...except for the O'rsay and the cemetary at Montmarte...you have to go to ONE museum at least while here. Thanks to Alexis for not taking my no's for an ...

... from further away, your eyes bled the colours together automatically to form purple.. it was definitely a new concept for me and the longer I spent looking at them, the more it grew on me. Apart from the water lilies, they also had a small collection of other paintings by Renoir, Picasso and Cezanne downstairs. This was the first time we had actually seen works done by these other painters, so it was interesting to see what style they had. So after about ...

Ah, our last day in Paris. We enjoyed our croissants before heading to the Musee D'Orsay to view the Impressionists. The museum is a former railway station, with some rooms being in the grand hotel and some in the actual station itself. The art here dates from 1848-1914, picking up where the Louvre leaves off. We had our last Parisian coffee and dove into the art. Around noon we left the museum and headed to Les Invalides ...

... place for many famous French people. Descartes, both Curries, Voltaire, Braille, etc. are buried there, and in most cases you can go right up to the coffins. There are great descriptions of the lives of everyone buried there (in French, which Chris deciphered) as well as a history of the building and all it's uses. It's well worth a visit. That evening, the return of the rains, and my first overnight train.

... Montmarte...the famous artist and bohemian area of Paris (think the movie Moulin Rouge) where our hostel was situated.. We checked in and climbed the longest spiral staircase l have ever seen to our room (7 stories up!). But the climb was worth it, we had two small windows in our triple room overlooking Paris! It was lovely to look out at the lights below as l fell asleep that night. We dumped our bags into the luggage storage and set out to explore Paris. Our first stop and one of my ...

... me to look at while I am eating. Please insert your own funny comment here, I am still speechless. That late afternoon I went to one of the worlds first department stores. It was huge, and if I hadn't known that I was in Paris, I would have thought I was in a Tokyo or Hong Kong mall. I saw very few asian people anywhere in Paris, and then all of a sudden the whole store is about 80% asian. Thousands and thousands of them. Who ...

... the Gore Du Nord station in Paris is about 2.5 hrs. We paid 69 quid for our return ticket on the Eurostar. The train was pretty comfortable & it travelled very fast too! Aunty Tracy booked our seats on the carriage which had tables, so that we could eat & I could write my memoirs! lol! While I was writing my memoirs, I was constantly distracted by the view outside. & NO!!! I wasn't admiring the French babes outside( that's a story for another time!... haha ...