Rainy Paris

Have spent a wet and rainy day mosey-ing around Paris. Started the day at another market which we found by accident not far from our hotel. Bought some yummy danishes and bananas for breakfast using our very limited French. Have found most Parisians to be quite accommodating - most will speak english when they realise how hopeless our French is!

Notre Dame in the rain

Keeping with the food theme, next we visited Place de la Madeleine which is home to some of Paris' most famous gourmet food shops. Spent at least an hour wandering from shop to shop checking out all the food - caviar, wine, seafood, truffles (at 1800Euro - about Au$3000/kg), chocolates, candied fruit, teas, coffees, lots of different condiments and the most interesting, all sorts of animal products in jars, bottles and cans eg. canned snails, tins of duck and goose foie gras. Apparently the French term for 'window shopping' literally translates to 'window licking' - we can see why.

Have spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the very quaint latin quarter of Paris. Bevan bought a cigar and I bought some gorgeous French chocolates. The window display of the shop was beautiful - christmas trees and reindeer all made of chocolat.

Have been heaps of police sirens and cars zooming around the city since lunchtime. Not sure if it will make the news at home but a parcel bomb exploded, killing 1 person and injuring 5 others. Seems it was targeted at a law firm.

Well time to head out for dinner shortly so must dash. Tomorrow we leave for Strasbourg.