Saturday 28 July - Aix-en-Provence to Paris - 23C.

This morning we finished packing and went to the TGV station to catch the fast train to Paris. The train was full and 3 hours later we arrived in Paris. We took the Metro to our hotel which proved a little challenging as we needed to change trains and there were no lifts at the crossover. Google GPS on the phone once again proved useful and quickly led us to our hotel.

We are staying at the Hotel Petit Belloy where the word Petit is quite literal and adequately describes the lift, the room and the bed. However we are staying in Saint-Germain and surrounded by interesting shops and restaurants. After squeezing our bags into the room we took a walk around the streets to stretch our legs and see a few sights nearby.

We had a celebration farewell/birthday dinner with our friends we have been with over the last week at a restaurant called La Coupola which is a large Brasserie that specialises in seafood platters and Crepe Suzette. It reminded us of the Paragon cafe at Katoomba but much larger and very busy. The tables were closely packed and it had a wonderful atmosphere and very enjoyable.

After dinner we walked to a viewing point near Ecole Militaire to see the Eiffel Tower at 11pm displaying it's twinkling lights. It was very crowded with lots of tour buses lined up for the display. The temperature had dropped and it was quite cool but very exciting when the lights began to twinkle. A lovely way to end the day and say good-bye to our Texas friends.