Paris

We arrived here on Tuesday 21st September for 4 nights after a 3 hour flight from Marrakesh..yes everything is so close here...even Africa.
The change is a bit af a shock to the system but we are coping.....it is Paris after all!

Montmartre

Ben found us a cheap hotel online in a great spot just near a metro station in Montmartre so we are right in the middle of things. This is such a great area, well Picasso,Van Gogh,Renoir and Tolouse-Lautrec had it right...elegant apartment blocks line the steep streets, tree lined squares and lovely small shops selling the most exquisite pastries, fruit,cheese.wine and bread...what more could you want!

The French,despite what I had been told, are very friendly and generous and so so polite....it is a pleasure to be here amongst them....The language is not too  much of a problem as most speak a little English and are very accomodating.
So far we have been to the Louvre (it is enormous),Musee D'orsay and Musee Rodin and have glimpsed the Eiffel Tower on several occasions (hope to actually get to it today) and spotted the Arc de Triumph in the distance. It is such an elegant city with very grand boulevards and opulent public buildings and gardens. It is much more spread out than I expected but the metro is extensive (over 200 stations) and very very efficient.

We visited THE booksop on the left-bank opposite Notre-Dame....what a treat...great shop, great staff....

The downside to all this is that Ben has not been all that well since Granada and yesterday we had a dramatic exit from the Louvre in a French ambulance(nothing but praise for the French health system and the Louvre staff) as he was on the verge of collapse....a chronic stomach problem that needs to be addressed when he gets back to the UK...he has been pushing himself and has been told to rest...so he is stuck in the hotel until we leave tomorrow by train to London. So it has not been as easy as it seems ......

Kath