We are surprised just how warm it is in Paris since our arrival on Saturday. As we are not able to get the television to tune into anything like news we really don’t know what the temperature is. Our flights were great and we would have no problems recommending Etihad airlines. We left Sydney on time, arrived and left Abu Dhabi on time and arrived in Paris on time. This has got to be a first when it comes to international travel for us. The food and service was excellent and the seats, for cattle class, were We arrived at the apartment too early, the cleaner hadn’t been, so left our luggage inside and went off to have some breakfast, not that we needed more food and saw some young fellows in military uniform so wandered over to the Invalides (military building) to see what was going on. We watched some sort of ceremony happening. All very formal however have no idea what it was about. By the time we wandered back down through the markets picking up some food for lunch, the apartment had been serviced. Neither of us were going to have a sleep however we both managed to have a nap for half an hour or so. Ian decided to go for a walk and I thought I would go off looking for something to photograph late in the afternoon. Both of us walked far further than we planned so were completely exhausted and had a quick dinner before hitting the bed for a huge nights sleep.


Sunday: We caught the Metro to Bastille and had some lunch near St Martins Pont before going off on a barge along the old cargo canal for 4.5 kilometres. The first half of the canal is underground and then there are six double locks which all took time to fill as we travelled up to Place d Arsenal. The commentary was great and great and the names given to the bridges, ponts etc all have some historic stories. Dead Man’s Bridge. This is where there was a huge gallow where 60 people could be hung at the same time. We past the Hotel du Nord which was where the film by the same name was made. Obviously this is a well known movie as the French passengers all looked very keen to get a photo as we went by. Back via the metro to Invalides which is only a short walk from the apartment.

Monday: Ian went off early to see the Turner Exhibition (last day). I rested at home my feet are huge so thought I should keep them up a bit today.  I went off shopping and picked up some cheese, pate etc for lunch.  We decided to go off to the Grande Palace which was opened today (it is a public holiday but no one seems to be able to tell us why except that it is some religous day!!!  The palace was originally built for the 1900 world expo and has recently been renovated and is now used for expos and other such things.  It is empty at present.  The next thing is a Russian Exibition later in June.   After that we went up to the Champs Eleyees which was closed off to traffic today and turned into a Natural area with all sorts of crops in great tubs.  There were hundreds of people milling and looking at the various displays.  It was just so hot.  We made our way half way along and decided to call it quits and walk back home.  Our Sydney landlords visited us this evening.