A tale of 5 cities - Paris

We have come to "bring the baby back!!".
Great to see Bonnie, looking healthy, and confident.

Until you are here you really don't understand what a great spot Bonnies apartment is in. 

It really is only 1 block from the Louvre
then through the Louvre

 over the Pont Change where the lovers put padlocks professing their love, to the Uni at the other side

turn right and 50m there is the front of her Uni.
The uni has a great chapel with a very large bronze of a man on a horse and on the wall behind is paintings to the ceiling. and Anish Kapoor art (that looks like toothpaste piles in the chapel)

And all the conforts of home close - pattiserie next door, laundry across the road, restaurents and cafe's everywhere, supermarket around the corner.

Instead of visiting the usual sights, which we saw in 2008, we are experiencing Bonnie's Paris.

Tuesday. Started with Macaroons which we ate in the garden of a church near Bonnies uni, Bon Marche food shops , lunch in a cafe on way back to the Seine,

then after a snooze went to a local bar with the girls where I nearly fell asleep in my beer!.

Wednesday. Off to Angelina's for Hot Chocolate - very swish

 stroll up the Champs Elysse to see Anish Kapoor - Leviathain - in Grande Palace

 which you can walk into

 and around and almost fills the area (look it up it is massive).

 Then on to the Bastille - all that is left is a statue -

 and into large art show there which covers end of the bridge and both sides of the canal to the next bridge.

One memorable piece of art was a head made with stacked crushed beer cans - might try that when I get home!).
Lunch in a cafe overlooking the Bastille statue (sorry no photo!) then on to Monmarte past the Sacre Coer looking for some shop for Jilly. Drinks in a little cafe then I had a beer in a bar while the girls looked at shops. Back to the apartment as Jilly starting to feel Fluey.

Thursday. Jilly is very crook today, so Bonnie and I left her and walked to Invalides to see the tomb of Napolean.

Here they give good cannon

and howitzer

Napolean's tomb is in the dom at the rear and it is a massive place with the crypt the width of the dome and Napolean's tomb is also massive say 2m wide by 5m long. We recon he could be just sideays in there.

We also viewed part of the museum where there is lots of guns and hats etc, and we tried to pick the best hat.

Walked back along the Seine and past Willy

and where do you put your car in Paris, on your boat of course

After lunch at Chez Katy - Morrocon - we walked to Luxembourg gardens , a favourite hangout for Bonnie and chums after Uni, lovely gardens with Palace, where the girls had an iecream, and then next door is the panthenon which was huge

We did a river cruise to see the sights, as it was a lovely day. There must have been 400 people on the boat!

Here are the parisiennes doing what they do best - playing/eating/lounging by the Seine

And here is a sepcial segment in the blog - the BALD SPOT view

Friday - last day in Paris - so the girls packed up Bonnies stuff, sent 2 more boxes back home, put a large sutcase in storage.

While they did that I went to see the catacombes. Thought I would get there at 10am at opening tme and the queue short. After 140 minutes waiting in queue I got in! Interesting walk through the subterrainian world, and millions of bones! 
We had lunch at Bonnies Pizza place - like the knives!!

The girls went shopping so I went and walked around the Notre Dame as it was packed to get in and I had been there. Here is a gargoyle that took my interest.

Afterwards I met the girls at a bar near Forum De Halles - a very scary shopping centre. 
I called up Dave Laspina and had a couple of drinks with him. He was full of the flu, but getting over it.
Jilly has now lost her voice - Yippee!!


Saturday. We dropped the cases off in Gard de Nord in the luggage lockers (that was easy to do, once you found where they were in the station) and went out for a few hours. 
Bonnie took us to 4th District - Jewish and Gay, where I bought a couple of very flash shirts, and then we had lunch in a nice little restaurent where I ate Andouilette De Troyes AAAAA - a local delicacy made of the meat from pigs stomach and put in a sausage - not minced, just pieces.  A little offel like, but edible.

The girls went shopping so I stayed and had six very nice beers!

Then back to Gard de Nord and off to airport for Nice.