Sunday 03 June

We flew Santiago. - Madrid - Paris.

Louise & Neil flew from the UK.

Lots of, drinks, food, food, drinks.

Good start to our Paris mini break together!

Monday 04 June

Leisurely start with hotel breakfast - not bad.

Caught a cab to the Eiffel Tower to board our scenic lunch cruise. It was excellent and so was the food. Saw many of the city highlights from the Seine river.

Far too much to eat and drink so back to hotel for siesta and some tennis watching.

Drinks and dinner at a local cafe. We really have picked a great area to stay in. Full of locals, slightly “boho”.

We are staying at Les Matins De Paris, 3 Rue Clauzel, 75009.

Tuesday 05 June

We decided to do The Musee D’Orsey today. I booked tickets for entry online - haha - thinking we could walk straight in and do the 1130 tour! It was a wet day so what do tourists do in a city on a wet day - go to the museums! The queue moved pretty quickly, but we missed the 1130 tour. Instead we got the self guided audio and guided ourselves around. It was awesome - WOW!

I went for a wander around the local area and ended up by the Moulin Rouge. Quite seedie around there so took some pics and headed back to our digs.

Another siesta followed by more drinks and dinner around our local area.

Wednesday 06 June

TENNIS - the day has arrived and the whole reason we decided to come to Paris to attend the French Open.

When tickets went on sale in March I was ready with visa in hand to book tickets. We thought a couple of days for us and Louise and Neil keen for a day.

I found the Roland Garros website so antiquated and slow. After finally sorting a blocking problem the only tickets available were €400 each. So I had resigned myself that we wouldn’t be going. It did frustrate me though, so I continued to search.

I ended up booking tickets through Viagogo. We were nervous as I remember hearing a story in NZ about bogus tickets that didn’t work at a concert.

Anyway - ours did work and we had our day at RG18!

Maria Sharapova lost to Gabine Muguruzu then Rafa Nadal - our first time watching him. He lost the first set to Diego Schwartzman. And then was making a come back in the second when the heavens opened. They finally called the end of days play at 7.30pm.

It was still a brilliant day and we feel content we our RG18 experience.

A long train ride back (peak hours) and out for our final dinner in Europe. A small local around from our hotel.

Louise & Neil returned home today. It was a great catch up.

Tomorrow we catch up with Mike’s Uncle Robbie for breakfast (he lives in Melbourne and is visiting/helping a friend out for a month), then we catch the Eurostar to London.

Paris summary- it is an iconic city and it is so lovely to return. The area we stayed in was very cool and I would recommend it.

It is very expensive and Mike’s sum up “great place but stuck up”. This has to be in comparison to our experience in Northern Spain - that is so cheap and very relaxed.

Je t'aime Paris.