Sunday 29 July - Paris - 20C.

We waved our friends goodbye after breakfast and decided to spend the morning in the shops until the day warmed up. Crossed the river, walked past the Louvre and up Avenue de la Opera only to discover that no stores are open on Sunday in Paris, we should have known.

It was a lovely walk seeing the beautiful buildings of Paris once again. The sun came and went as we passed Place de la Concorde, and back across the river to the left bank. The left bank had some very interesting little shops as we peered through the windows.

This afternoon we went to the Luxembourg Gardens on the Left Bank and watched the children play with model boats on the lake. The gardens were in full bloom in very pretty yellow and cream flowers and looked fantastic. It was very crowded (obviously full of people who wanted to go shopping but couldn't) there were groups having picnics and people out jogging while others just sat and watched the crowds.

At one of the Rotunda’s there was music playing (stereo system) and about 40 people up dancing to it, from little toddlers to very mature couples and lots in between.

They were jiving, waltzing and line dancing so we stopped and watched them for a while. There are seats set up all around the park and it had a great community feel, however the rain started to fall so we headed back to the hotel just a block away.