Day 104, 16 October 2012, Saint-Chapelle, O Chateau, Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees (Second day of six day Paris Pass extravaganza) - We were both moving vewry, vewry, slowly (I think I'm quoting Elmer Fudd there.) A good solid 8 eights of dead to the world sleep had been achieved however so we saddled up and left the hotel. Always a good start. There was a local market literally on our doorstep this morning, seafood, fruit and vege, clothes, honey. Bought some grapes and felt very local. Meandered to our stop and metroed to the Saint-Chapelle on the Ile de Cite. Built in the 13th century it is a small church made almost entirely out of stained glass. The weather was up and down all day, but we were fortunate that the sun was shining when we were there. It made it feel like we were standing inside a rainbow when we were in the upper chapel. From Saint Chapelle we jumped on Les Cars Rouges - one of the squillions of hop on/hop off bus tours in Paris. We were rugged up against the cold but the entire loop took almost 2 hours and the driver stopped for 10 minutes or so at several of the 8 stops. Great to see all the monuments from the top deck in the fresh air - especially as we drove along the Champs Elysee. Our next stop was a bit of a treat - part of the pass was a one hour wine tasting at O-Chateau Wine Bar. Awesome way to spend an hour or so learning about the wine regions whilst tasting a Sancerre (sauv. blanc) a rose and a red from Bordeaux. The sommelier was from Reunion Island and super knowledgeable - even knew that places like California and Australia made wines! What was really interesting was that France lost all it's vines in the 1800s to phyloxera / root rot. So all the vines currently in France were sourced from rot free/resistant varieties from places like.... California, South Africa etc. Where they'd been taken by immigrants as far back as 1500. He did say not to tell anyone. Whoops. Don't want the world to know that French wine is from American vines. We then hit the Musee des Arts Decoratifs for an hour or so before they closed. We know Paris and the French generally are supposed to be fabulous lovers. But it's got us bamboozled how anyone's ever found the time given the sheer volumes of ART in this country. They have a huge exhibition on right now with over 500 pieces of jewellery from Van Cleef & Arpels. It's galling, but that special exhibition isn't included in the Museum/Paris pass. I might have to actually pay to see it. Sigh.... Having given up on the concept of using the red bus as actual transport as it was seemingly a magnet for red traffic lights, we jumped back onto the metro and nipped down to the Arc de Triomphe. Then not so much nipped, but slogged, huffed and puffed up 260 odd spiralling stairs to get to the top. Well worth it for the view over the city, from the Obelisk to the Arc all the way to the new arch at La Defense. Made us realise how fast and efficient the Metro is - it's easy to forget distances when it's only five minutes from one spot to the next. We used the down elevator (up elevator is on the blink. Obviously) and came out just in time to see the nightly rekindling of the eternal flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Each night one of France's 900+ veterans associations undertakes to do this - very moving. Then off for walk down the Champs Elysees - peering into the windows at Cartier, marvelling at the window displays of Louis Vuitton and being astonished at the prices for a simple coffee.... even at that particularly French institution.... Le Starbucks. Home time saw us back in the tres-cosmopolitan 20th arrondissement, Menilmontant, with prune and almond tagine and assorted other hot lovely food for dinner for less than €20. Value from our great Paris Pass purchase today.... €175 (remember - just have to beat the cost price of €60 per day). Going well. Musee D'Orsay, the Paris Opera House and the Orangerie tomorrow. Nice. Warm. Indoors. Whatever makes Paris in the Springtime a pleasure, it's done it's dash by Autumn that's for sure!