Greetings from France!

I'm sitting here in my friends apartment on a sunday afternoon having just woken up... am having a lazy day, we were out late last night riding around on bikes!
They have this cool bike system here in Paris whereby you can hire a bike from a special station (there's usually 10-20 bikes at each one) and you purchase a ticket for 1 euro and unlock the bike, ride it to wherever your destination is, providing they have another station, and return it. There's stations *everywhere*. It's a great idea if you're out late and need to get home... people use them to get to work in the morning, and tourists have a way of getting around too but I wouldn't recommend it if you're new to the city because the roads are frantic and drivers super aggressive! one look at the great traffic circulation around the Arc d'Triomphe puts you off right away. There's an access tunnel under the road for those on foot... which I used when I visited the Arch the other day .. it has amazing views of Paris.

So a part from two nights of cajoling around on bikes under the parisian moon... I've simply been exploring Paris on foot each day.. with no planned itinerary. That is easy enough to do here as you needn't walk 5 metres before you're surprised or delighted by something! yesterday I explored the hilly Latin Quarter on the right bank (the left and right banks are divided by the famous river Seine) with it's little narrow cobblestone roads, the student area with the university but also home to the beautiful huge domed Pantheon... it's so huge and and once inside, wow... what can I say.. incredible.... I even visited the crypts underneath to see Victor Hugo's tomb. I like the basilicas and structures of this design because they're built symmetrically, theres a nice flow through the building. I went to see Notre Dame the day before which is a gothic design, and blimmin stunning to behold as well.. with it's knobbly spyres and crazy arch ways and intricate stonework designs, the building is kind of beautiful but horrific at the same time. It's so cool though, and inside is breath taking..
I've visited a few big cathedrals and churches in the last 3 days, and I'm equally impressed by all of them... so words like 'incredible' and 'beautiful' get well used! I went up the hill to the Montmatre district to the famous Basilique Sacre Coeur... it's like this huge white taj mahal over Paris, when you get a view of it from the Arch. Once i'd seen it I made a beeline over there on the metro (under ground train) and trudged up the hill.. not before getting lost in Pigalle, Paris's red light-type district which is at the bottom.
It was around 6pm when I got to the basilique and sat in a pew to have a breather and relax for awhile when some nuns appeared to take mass... so I joined in and it was so nice to hear the french voices singing.
I can't get over how awe inspiring the churches are.. so grand in scale.. you feel so over powered by the size of them, and the designs. It has a lasting effect. I guess that's to be expected since they are the house of god, so to speak. And they are built specifically to make you feel that way.

Having strolled around the city itself and being gastro orientated I've noticed just how many cafe's and restaurants there are here too. millions... you get a lot of street corner places where people sit outside for lunch with wine on little round chequered tables. You get patisseries every few metres down little streets selling scrumptious baguettes.. and even the smallest shops, a crack in the wall with someone in a miniature kitchen handing out panini's through a tiny window.
I was walking over the Seine the other day home wards and a small jazz trio were busking on the bridge, a guy with a double bass, a guy behind a little rickety piano and a singer... out in the sun... oh and the weather has been great too, cloudless blue skies and heaps of sun.Which I'm grateful for.
This place oozes charm... every little part of it. There's just so much lifestyle going on.. and so many places to explore.

My friend Anne-Catherine has a cool apartment in one of the oldest parts of town, and very central. it's more sort of one big room with a mezzanine floor as a bedroom. The two big windows open into a court yard, where you can look across into the other apartments. I even heard a guy belting out some opera in his place above us... he was singing, that is ^_^

I'll be here in Paris for another 3 days, where I plan to delve into the Louvre.
Then I'm catching a train down to Lourdes, in the Pyrenees region... I've always been curious about the place... and it looks very beautiful. The holy Sanctuary will be quite fascinating. Then I am going to Marseilles for 3 days, before flying back to London.
So there you go...