Monday 25 July 2011

Today Kevin has been counting steps! He counted every step we went up or down outside of our apartment. Guess how many there were? I said 750, Jane said 1022 and Paul won with 1200 because he was nearest – the total was 1385!!! Today was meant to be a quiet day sitting on a bus but it certainly did not turn out that way!

Our plan was to meet up with the hop on, hop off bus. We headed for Notre Dame because we thought we would do a tour there before we took the bus and there was supposed to be a stop nearby. Unfortunately the queue for Notre Dame was miles long - which was a bit off-putting, so we made a team decision to try again tomorrow but get there a lot earlier and beat the crowds!

So we went looking for the bus stop. The first one we came to had a queue a mile long but we patiently waited only to find out that it was a different bus company and the driver had no idea where our bus left from???!! We saw our bus coming and decided to follow it which was not so easy as it was able to travel a lot quicker than we could. Whilst we were walking, police were stopping the traffic and along came a film crew with a car in tow on a special rig and two cameras mounted on the bonnet together with a set of bright lights. All of the crew were on the back of the towing truck and there were about eight of them. The four guys in the car were just sitting there and the driver was pretending to drive but the front wheels were off the ground held up in this special rig. Traffic was banked up for miles. Fun though! Eventually we found someone who directed us to the stop and we were able to line up once again. By this time we had walked around a fairly large block and were panting for a drink! However we eventually boarded our bus, plugged in our headphones and set off. We drove alongside the Seine, past the Musee Dorsay and across Pont Alexandra to the Obelisk, down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe where we got off. I was persuaded I could do the climb to the top and unconvinced I lined up with the rest trying to think of a way to get out of doing it. Eventually we got to the ticket box and Kevin had my ticket bought before I could think and we were on our way. The girl at the bottom offered us the use of the lift if we wanted but I decided I would rather walk! Two hundred and eighty two steps later we were on the roof with the most amazing view of a very beautiful city. Climbing up was not as bad as I had imagined as the stairwell was wide and we were able to take our time. Near the top was a large room with items of interest concerning the building of the Arc de Triomphe together with a beautiful model of same. We were very lucky because it has been an amazingly fine and warm day and as I said the view from the top is quite spectacular. Coming down again was easy and we headed for a cold beer and a salad – to a local brasserie. An hour or so later we were ready to resume our ride.

The afternoon route took us past the Trocidero, across the river to the Eiffel Tower did a circuit around the Tower and then headed down along the Avenue de la Bourdonnais and around the Hotel de Invalide and the Dome of St Louis. We then changed buses to an Orange bus (same company different route) and headed back along level with the Seine but further inland – probably about 2 blocks back – along the Boulevarde St Germain. This meandered through beautiful areas of apartments, shopping and points of interest like Rodin Musee, Luxemborg Gardens, La Sorbonne and along towards the Tour Montparnasse which is a huge glass tower that rises above the Montparnasse station. We were just contemplating whether to get off at this stop when the bus driver came along and said we would all have to get off because the bus had broken down so that decided things for us. We duly made our way off the bus, found a Metro station and headed home. It was about 4.15pm by this time so we were coming to the end of our energy for the day anyway.

More grocery shopping at the Marche – bread, juice, fruit and of course wine and then we headed home to put our feet up. Can't believe we walked so far and climbed so many steps.