Suite Hotel Pte De Montreuil Paris

... streets taking detours through private courtyards where the old architecture is better seen. There are a lot of these in Paris. From the street you see just two big doors, but when you go through the doors a whole new world opens up. Many have big formal gardens. In one area was a small, block long section of the original wall which fortified the city hundreds of years ago. There is another section of wall under the Louvre. Most of the walls were ...

... of the Revolution? The building was already ancient then. Who lived there, what were their lives like? Were the 19th century inhabitants just as confused about what was going on politically as I was when I took 19th century French history? So many unanswered questions. The neighbourhood is fantastic. It's basically all pedestrianized, and I'm on a tiny little street that ends in a little courtyard square things were the local kids play soccer. One of ...

... not have been evident when I first booked it. From Charles De Gaul Airport - I have to arrange transfers to Paris (which I haven't done yet). We then navigate the Metro to Port Royal (our Metro Stop). I have to meet our Landlord at 2030 hours - so here's hoping our timings are accurate. I initially had to pay a bond of 600 Euro for the apartment (which I wasn't keen on) but when I spoke to him recently he let me off paying that bond - which is good - it's a ...

... in the Louvre. Classic. On the bus to the Notre Dame, very impressive. Off to L'Opera (where they only do ballets now days) and La Fayette department store. Manic.Back to the Euro Star and now for something completely different the Tube home. What a day. Probably needed another to do Paris justice - Sacre Cour/ Montmatre and another gander at the Arc. But we packed a fair bit in. Home at midnight.

... gentil les spectacles! Ce qu'il faudrait, c'est une révolution sociale, une vraie de vraie (je suis soûle et il est tard). Il dit : Ah ouais, et tu crois qu'on y a pas pensé avant! On rit bien. Mais tout nous sépare et on le sait. Ce genre de rencontre ne peut pas se maintenir plus que 15 minutes, c'est trop tendu malgré tous les efforts. Il se sent comme un oiseau pris en cage avec nous, on l'examine trop. Alors il part en lançant « Allez, à bientôt la famille! ».

... floor are Brazilian and German, and the one French girl who has a room here actually lives with her boyfriend and I've only seen her once. So besides for my teacher and the people at grocery stores and on the Metro and at restaurants, I've really not had much contact with French at all, and the contact I do have is kind of peripheral; I'm "around" them, but not "with" them, if that makes sense. I guess I probably won't be, which was kind ...

... I attempted to jump over a wall and a bush down into the garden and hesitated at the last minute and tried to stand on the bush which didn't work so now I'm scraped up and my leg hurts! :) But, we got a picture of it so it was all worth it. We stayed the night in Chartres and saw the cathedral all lit up. They had a light show on the cathedral ...

... RER train that we were going to catch to Noisiel, where our hotel was, was not easy to access, so they led us underground past all kinds of pipes and dirt and concrete, to emerge in the middle of Paris at a bus stop where we were to wait to go to the Gare de Lyon. The image of tiny French porter carrying Neil's 20kg back-pack will stay with me forever! They stayed with us until the bus arrived (in this we ...

... He started off with paintings then went through the development of his cubist style all the while also developing a special collage technique and then started sculpting too in his later years. There's so much stuff he did that I believe there is another museum in Barcelona with his works and there's plenty more in art museums around the world. Then it was the Lourve. There is to much to do in the Lourve for a mere mortals like ourselves to sincerley take in in 8 ...

On our last full day in Paris, we visited the Musee d'Orsay. Even with our passes, we stood in the longest line we've ever seen! Luckily the weather was sunny. We loved the building - a converted train station - which made for some excellent pictures. The impressionist art was also great as expected. Nancy particularly liked seeing some VanGogh paintings: the colours were incredibly vibrant compared to ...