Paris Day 2

As expected, we were up late this morning! Made it down for breakfast 2 mins before 10 (parently breakfast shut at 10, we thought it was 10:30) The lady looking after the breakfast started yelling at us in French – no idea what she was saying… then a couple more people came in after us and she just started yelling at everyone and turned the lights off! Twas quite funny… but we got some croissants and coffee which was the main thing!

Spent most of today just wandering around… took the Metro over to Galleries Laffeyette… planned to do some shopping but with the Euro : Pound exchange rate… it was really too expensive… above the shopping centre was Tour Montparnasse – a 200m tall tower with a viewing platform on the roof. We went up, but unfortunately the cloud was quite low so it was quite difficult to make a lot of things out… but Matt managed to make out a bike stand just round the corner…

Can’t remember the last time I rode a bike… cept in the gym… but they just stay still… but after an extremely wobbly first 50m I was alright… First thing we had to do was cross 4 lanes of traffic! The bike system in Paris is excellent. You pay 1 Euro for a 24hr pass and you can pick up a bike from one stand (there are stands everywhere) and drop it off wherever you end up. Don’t have to worry about locking it up or anything. It just automatically locks itself on the stand… Really handy and a great way to see the city.

From Montparnasse, we rode up near the Champs Elysees and had a coffee (should have had a hot chocolate) and a yummy choc brownie from a Chocalatier.. spensive but had to be done! Had a wander up to the Arc de Triomphe and went to the top…. Great view from up there… don’t know if it was cause the weather had lifted, but it was a much better view from there than Montparnasse.. It was right on 6 o’clock too so we were up there for the sunset. They also stopped the traffic for a procession to walk up to the Arc de Triomphe…. It was quite funny to watch the traffic once they let everyone go… the policemen had to run for their lives! Everyone was going everywhere….

But still no accidents… we were up there for quite a while and didn’t see one – but apparently there’s an accident every 15 mins on average…

We were heading down to the Seine for our River cruise… but stopped off for dinner at one of the bistros… food was quite yummy.. and the service surprisingly good! Matt had some escargot (I don’t get the fuss really!). So with full stomachs we went on the cruise – the view was great, pity it was FREEZING!!