Been looking forward to today's trip since arriving in France, off to Champagne. Our fellow travellers are a group of US 20 something's who from step one got on the wrong side of the tour guide by being late (apparently they didn't double check the pickup time with the tour company when booking on line). First stop is Reims about 90mins down the road (and not the Starbucks just down the road that the USers wanted). Walked around the Reims Cathedral, scene of the ...

Just had a walk around locally as we are off to Fontainebleau this afternoon, finally found a very nice coffee shop in Passage Jouffroy (Le Valentin) and looked in the shops that were closed yesterday. One of them was a little girls dream, full of dolls houses and all the bits to build them. Good to get onto a smaller tour and enjoyed getting into the country side. Fontainebleau might not be as impressive at first sight as Versailles but it didn't have the thou...

Second part of our Grand Tour today started off with looking at a couple of the passage arcades (Passage Jouffroy) of course being Sunday the shops were mostly shut. We then aimed to hit the Place Vendome but ended up at the Place des Victoires which didn't matter as it brought us out to the back of the Louvre. Onto Notre Dame and and the garden and pet markets. Buy this time the shops had opened and it was interesting to see the row of pet stores along the Quai ...

Had to say goodbye to Carol and Carl as they were off home (shame we didn't have longer with them, especially cruising). Today we started our own Grand Tour of Paris, taking in the Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Trocadero, Place de la Concorde, Dianna's Memorial and the Opera. Had lunch on the Champs-Élysées and was very impressed at the price given what we had paid for 2 coffees the other day. (not at George V but another cafe a bit closer t...

Before we talk but Monet's Garden, last night we did the Moulin Rouge. Whilst the costumes and sets were pretty impressive I'm not sure if that and the scantily clad girls make up for the cramped seating and average food and wine. That said the "dance" that one of the girls did in a pool full of snakes was one of the highlights, especially the fact that they had a large, deep, clear tank rise out of the stage. Most agreed though that the support acts we perhaps ...