Au revoir Aix en Provence!

I began the day lugging a large bag of my France purchases to the Post Office where I packaged them off and happily lightened my load for the remainder of my trip. YAY! Practice pack tonight with time for another trip to the post office tomorrow if necessary... hee hee!

Then I headed into Aix for probably my last visit where I took a bunch of photos of various places I have frequented during my time here. My first stop was a little cafe with free wifi where I chatted happily to my sister-in-law (belle soeur) and another friend on skype. When the waiter came over for me to pay my bill (1 euro 50 for the coffee) I thought he might ask me to leave - they were setting the tables for lunch... However, he made my day by merely saying “vous etes tres joli!” which translates as “You are very pretty”... we was about 60 years old - I am certainly making an impact on the older chaps over here!!

I met the few remaining school friends for lunch - I revisited le cote sud, which again failed to disappoint - yummo! twelve euros for escalopes of pork and delicious little roast potato chips (wiht herbs), a glass of wine and garpaccio de ananas - basically thin slices of pineapple - delish!! and of course the obligatory bread - oh how I will miss the bread!!

It was also great to chatter away in french with my little school pals - there has been a bit too much english in recent weeks, but I managed ok. I am really keen to get back into it when I get home to Aus.

Gorge de Verdon, Castellane and Moustiers Saint Marie

Today was my last excusion here in France, and what a winner!! While there was a huge amount of driving (thankyou Becky!!) We didn’t really notice it because the roads and scenary are so beautiful and interesting. The last hour of driving on the autoroute was challenging but we knew we were heading back for dinner at our favourite local restaurant so it was worth it!!

We headed north east from Aix to the national park of the Gorge de Verdon, or the grand canyon of provence. It is pretty spectacular. We arrived in Castellane and booked in for our white water rafting after lunch! This is a beautiful little town in the hills with a chapel on a cliff top above the town and lots of small winding streets. Eclair chocolat encore!

We met the group for the rafting and wearing nothing but swimmers and running shoes headed down to the river. Happily they then provided us with extremely attractive wet suits, to the knee and elbow, life jackets and yellow helmets! Sadly, there are no photographs to record this occasion as there was no way to keep them dry.

It was a lovely couple of hours heading down river, the water clear and pale blue tumbling over the rocks and the cliffs towering above us on either side. We had a few exciting rapids, and one of the girls fell overboard at one stage. I’ll never forget our guide yelling instructions in french and then english, “aller avant, forWARD!” sometimes as we were heading straight for rocks. We would of course then hit the rocks and he would cry out, “aaagh aaahh!”. It all added to the excitement of the trip. hee hee

We got out of the raft a couple of times and floated down some of the rapids feet first, it was absolutely lovely in the water although the parts uncovered by wetsuit were soon very cold! Some of the other guides (and there were a number of other boats on the river) carefully dumped their whole crew out of the boat of a couple of occasions. We would pretty much sail past using our oars, not for forward momentum, but to splash whoever we were passing!

After our rafting fun, we headed back to the car and took the more scenic route (the long way around) via the left bank of the Verdon River. The views were amazing, tall cliffs, with the aquamarine blue river far, far below and the roads were narrow, long, and winding. It was worth it!! If the guys from Top Gear haven’t already driven this road, we are planning to recommend it - not for speed, but for the absolute beauty of the scenery.

We headed for Moustiers Sainte Marie, one of my favourite little towns from my last visit in 2006. It is still lovely. There are two mountains/cliffs, overshadowing the little village, with a small church on the hill between them, beautiful. But what makes this town really interesting is that there is a gold star strung up between the cliffs, hanging far above the town. We were lucky to visit in the afternoon light and the little star was shining bright.

Once again this is a town with small, winding streets, lots of little shops, small squares with fountains and happily the occasional creperie! I had un cafe (basically an espresso) and a crepe chocolat which made me feel MUCH better and ready for the remaining hour and a half drive home.

Back to the lovely restaurant, Ma Cuisine in Rognes and some more chocolate mousse with salty caramel sauce, to finish off a wonderful day in Provence!

Lovely Luberon!

Today we went for a day trip to the Luberon - beautiful!! this is an area made famous by Peter Mayle’s book ‘a year in provence’, but the scenery is absolutely magnificent!

There are some tall stone cliffs, popular with climbers, and some lovely bushwalks through forests and beside bubbling streams. I almost felt like I was back home in the rainforest.

On the way we stopped for a wander around Lourmarin, a lovely old town with a little chateau on the hill. Very pretty.

We then headed for a beautiful Auberge in the country at the foot of the cliffs. At the end of a dirt road we came across this beautifull oasis. Restaurant and hotel, snuggled beneath the cliff face. impressive!! We booked our table for lunch and headed off for a little bush walk to build our appetites! There were some lovely crystal clear streams and rock pools (freezing water!!), lots of moss, ferns and of course the cliff faces rising up above us.

We returned for lunch - one option, a salade de crudite - basically a plate with little tastes of a variety of foods, served of course, with bread! There were some raw carrots, radish and cauliflower with an anchovie sauce, toast with tomato tapinade, half a boiled egg with olive tapinade, roasted capsicum, tuna paste, lentils, aubergine dip and aubergine tart. So tasty, and so provencale!!

Dessert was thin slices of chocolate fondant with chocolate sauce and custard. I gather there were other options, but as soon I heard “chocolate fondant” I stopped listening and placed my order! The others said, “me too!”.

A quiet afternoon updating the blog (you’re welcome!) and a lovely roast chicken for dinner tonight!

A quiet weekend...

Friday

Friday started with rain which set the tone for a fairly quiet day of washing, housework and a bit of exercise. We took Megan to the TGV first thing in the morning and had a coffee and boulangerie visit in Saint Cannat.

Had a bit of fun skyping action today too, always a joy!

We played some petanque on the lawn this evening and started what has become a lovely tradition of nightly apperitif by the pool.. aahhh!! Kir, rose, vin blanc??

Saturday

Markets again this morning and a visit to the next door neighbouring winery this afternoon. Am feeling sorry I didn’t listen to Lizzie earlier and get over to that winery... the wines are fantastic!! Sadly I am at the stage of having to focus on finishing the wine I have before I leave on Friday. Very sadly, it is not possible, or at least prohibitively expensive to send a case of wine home for future enjoyment... sniff!!

Happily, and I’ve been hoping for this, the blackberries are ripening! There are some bushes on the “petite avenue de Brigit”, the little laneway I walk down on my way to the bus, so I HAVE to stop and taste a few. They have all been delicious, except for the one I ate the other day which had an ant on it, who figured it would try to eat me before I ate him. Actually a bit of a challenge to detach it from my tongue!! hmm..

Watched some polo again this afternoon, I now have hundreds of photographs of polo matches, but I am loving using my new camera, the zoom lense is perfect for the action shots! Aperitifs by the pool this evening, lovely!

Sunday

A lovely lazy Sunday at home today, sorting out what to send home from france and what to take on to Switzerland and Budapest. I’m starting to feel very sad about leaving France, I have had such a wonderful time here, learnt so much and enjoyed so many wonderful experiences. Not to mention having met some great new friends! Am loving the evening aperitifs before dinner - it might make dinner pretty late, 9 or 9.30pm but still great. It is still staying light pretty late so it is important to make use of the time! ;)

Arles, Camargue, Saintes Marie de la Mer - or the day of three desserts!

Today we headed east from Saint Cannat through (or rather past) Salon de Provence, to Arles. This lovely town is well known because Van Gogh spent some time there, and painted some of his well known paintings - la cafe de nuit, for example. He also spent a year in a hospital here, I gather... There is also a well preserved Roman Theatre and Arena, here in Arles, from the reign of Augustus, which are still in use today.

They use the arena for bullfights, which is NOT something I want to see!!! We started the day with successful navigation to get us into town and we managed to jag a carpark just near the Espace Van Gogh, which is now a museum/cultural centre in the hospital in which he spent some time.

We had some lunch here and finished with crepes - I had chocolate and banana and pine nuts... YUM!!!

We wandered through the town a little looking at the sights and then headed back to the car for the drive through the Carmague to Saintes Maries de la Mer. The Carmague is a big area of wetland and pasture where the well known Carmague ponies live (white, stocky horses) as well as the big horned black cows - I gather the bulls for the fighting... It is also a nature reserve with many different birds and lovely for walking although we just drove through on this day. I did manage to see some flamingos out of the window as we went by which was cool!! There were also a number of egrets and herons and things. It is a big salt pan area as well - basically a river delta leading to the sea.

We headed for Saintes Maries de la Mer, a little beach town which is so named as it is the site where Saint Martha, Mary Magdalene and the sister of the Virgin Mary (I think... might need to google it) [here's what wiki said... The three saints Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome and Mary Jacobe, so I was close...] arrived by boat to spread christianity after the death of Jesus. It is a little coastal town and I even managed to buy a new bikini. I had to get it, it was called “Brigitte”!! hilariously when I told the shop assistant that this was my name too, she called out to the other shop assistant who’s name was, get this... Brigitte!

We had a swim at the rocky beach (a really hot day) and wandered through town looking at the shops. I’m pretty sure there was another dress and top purchased here too... am off to the post office to send home some stuff tomorrow! We finished our visit in this lovely town with freshly made, right in front of us, chocolate crepes and waffles. Words cannot describe the taste - delicious!!!

We headed home to Saint Cannat, high fiving ourselves on our fabulous navigation once again. I did end up turning my music off after the teasing got too much! We went to dinner at a beautiful restaurant in nearby Rognes - Ma Cuisine. Once again, finding the words to describe this delicious feast becomes a challenge. I had some fois gras, the others had crab/prawn or possibly lobster ravioli for entree. We had a marinated chicken with noodles, wild white fish and thinly slice beef steaks for mains. There was a quiet moment of panic when the steaks came out raw, but I was relieved to receive the hot stone and small flame enabling me to cook the meat. phew!! And dessert - basically the reason for visiting this restaurant was the dessert recommendation... and it was worth it. Chocolate mouse with salty caramel sauce. sigh! We are going to try to recreate it when we get home... mmm!!

Altogether a fantastic day, swimming, history, friends and food!!

Sainte Victoire

We started the morning early on Wednesday and headed into Aix to catch the bus to Vauvenargues where we started our trek up Saint Victoire. This small mountain is probably best known as the subject of many paintings by Paul Cezanne, the highest point is a little over 1000m and we climbed to about 950m I think. I was an hour and twenty minutes up, a really good track, but some parts quite steep, and about fifty minutes back down. The first half of the track was a dirt road, even sealed in parts, winding through pine forests. The second part was more like a goat track rocky with switchbacks up the mountain. There is a church at the top, and a cross.

The other side of the mountain is very steep. There are a number of walks and climbs up to the top, but we had chosen an easy one.

We stopped for fresh bread, avocado and banana at the top which was delicious!! The views were amazing, we could see down into Vauvenargues, over into Aix and even a good view of a dam - which would please my dad. I sent him a text from the top!!

We walked from the place the bus had left us and we started the walk and into Vauvenargues town where we had lunch. There is the Palais Picasso, an old castle in this town, and we had some lunch at a cafe looking out at the castle and the mountain we had just climbed... very satisfying!!

We headed home and after a little lie down (LLD) we finished the day with a bbq with the gang - lovely!!

Haircut and neighbours

Tuesday was a very brave day for me... a haircut in french... happily I feel I was able to make myself understood - I had a treatment (hair is really dry) and explained what I was after. I can now advise that hairdressers are the same the world over (Melissa if you read this, you know I love you!!) I asked for about 2 cm off... and she took off about 5 - 8 cms!! eek! Still, I am assured it looks good - and in fact, pretty much the same, but I certainly feel as if it has been layered a bit more and is a fair bit shorter (and fluffier?!) than it was.... still long though. Still, the ends were pretty dry - and probably still are - but they are on the floor of the hairdresser’s now!! hee hee!

We had lunch at home and went to visit my little old friend who lives down the road... I think I’ve mentioned him in previous dispatches. He has a lovely little vegetable garden on the side of the road that I walk down each day on my way to the bus. I have spoken to him a couple of times (in french of course) to say what a pretty garden he has. I had introduced him to Megan and he saw her on the road the other day and gave her a bag of tomatoes and green capsicums from the garden! I saw him on the way into town this morning before my haircut and he asked if he could give me his address so I could send him a postcard when I get home to Aus, as his daughter collects stamps. Of course I said yes. His name is Albert, he’s 76 and very sweet!

So we went down to see him and collect his address. Megan gave him a bottle of ginger marmalade from Buderim and I gave him a little koala key ring. He was thrilled! He invited us in for a juice and even phoned one of his daughters who lives next door to come over and meet us. It was a wonderful hour or so - he gave us some more tomatoes - and tried to give us many more - and we chatted away happily in French. I was translating for Megan pretty successfully, except for a couple of times when I turned to ask her a question and she said, I don’t know - I can’t understand French!! I have a bit of trouble changing the language cassette in my head and had been talking to her in French too!!! ridiculous! Still, a wonderful experience.

And the wine....

In the first week or so that I was here, Lizzie had recommended I walk over to the neighbouring winery to try their wines... Albert suggested the same thing, so we headed off in the afternoon to walk the back roads to the Chateau de Baupre. There were a number of signs around the place saying private property and access forbidden and so forth. We walked around for a bit and wandered past the Automated Village.... not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but it is a fun park for children with giant colourful plastic animals and moving things - actually a little creepy, but apparently hugely popular! We elected not to pay the 10 Euro entry fee and merely walked around looking in with slightly bemused expressions.... We ended up in completely the wrong place but met Albert’s daughter, and as the third person who told us not to worry about any of the signs (we’re locals!), and by giving us some specific directions we headed for the winery and found it! And it was worth it!! I wish I had gone their earlier - the wine and the people are lovely and again I have had to make a commitment to drink more wine before before I leave!

To hire or not to hire....

Sunday was a very quiet day - lovely. Spent the morning at home, and wandered into town in the afternoon for a little wander and a bit of free wifi. We were considering hiring a car to drive up to Annecy in the alpes for a couple of days. We had some friends of friends who had kindly offered to have us for the night. After (a relatively successful) phone call with the hire car company - searching online was a complete nightmare! - we realised that it might all be a bit much of an effort... After we picked up the car we would have four and a half hours drive and then we had to return the car by a certain time so we would have to leave up there in plenty of time. We basically would have had enough time to stretch our legs and have dinner... not worth it! We decided to explore locally instead... boy - that was a load off my mind!!!

Aix and winery tour

We headed into Aix in the morning for a wander around the shops - I will soon have enough frocks to last me for the rest of my life!! I think the tally is up to nine or ten now... sigh.... but also YAY!!! We are also making a strong in roads into the various pastry treats which can accompany our morning coffee. I tend to stick to the eclair chocolat, but we have also sampled various custard, fruit and pastry concoctions!

Today I bought a beautiful photograph to take home for a souvenir, and we also sampled a slice of a massive spice cake (orangey - and a bit like a fruit cake without the fruit - yum!) which they sell here at the evening artisan markets.

I booked a haircut for tomorrow and we met up with Becky for a winery tour in the afternoon. We went to two wineries, at each of which we sampled the local produce - delicious!!! Sadly there was no option to send any home to Aus so I had to make do with buying a couple of bottles and making sure I made the commitment to drink them before I leave... Happily, this is a commitment I am willing to make!!

At one of the wineries they took us on a little tour and told us all about the wine making process. For an old winery visitor like me, it was more of the same, but it was still interesting. They tend to blend the various grapes to make the wines here. You can get AOC wine - which basically means it is made by the formula or by the rules of the region to be able to call itself a wine of Coteaux D’Aix-en-Provence. The other option is the VDP - Vin de Pays - which means that they have deviated from the “rules” by changing the percentages of grape varieties - maybe using extra cabernet sauvignon, or picking the grapes with machines. The VDP wines are often served as the house wine in restaurants, but they are great too! Each winery seems to make both AOC and PDV wines in Red, White and Rose. We tried them all!

One of the wineries had a library of past vintages... sadly I couldn't find the 1974... must have been a good year!! Here is the 1975.

We had a bbq dinner tonight featuring a bottle of red from one of the wineries - as if we hadn’t had enough wine today!! Happily we are all giggly drunks so it was great fun!!!

The glory and beauty of the markets!

We headed into town for the giant markets on Saturday morning. Incredible!! We met up with one of the girls from school who has been living in town for a few months adn was able to direct us to the best bread guy, peach woman, cheese guy and tomato stall. Fantastic!! I was able to lead us to the fresh pasta guy - black truffle pasta - YUM!!!!

The markets are a gourmet and photographic dream! The food, the smells, the colours, the variety of everything was mind blowing. Emily literally stood us still before we entered the markets, looked us in the eye and said “remember, you don’t need to buy everything!” I must say though, this was the day Megan and I both bought beautiful red handbags!!!

We took our purchases to Emily’s apartment for lunch and enjoyed beautiful bread with four types of cheese, three types of olive, two types of tomato and about four types of olive oil. Emily is an olive oil connoisseur and Megan was luving it!!

A couple of the girls from school came out to watch a practice polo match in the afternoon and we enjoyed a little apperatif before they returned to town. Another lovely day!

MUST VISIT FARMERS MARKETS WHEN I GET HOME!!!

Friday - drinks at school

After a big day on Thursday, we started our day pretty slowly on Friday and then headed into town so I could show off my town “Aix” and go to the “end of two week” drinks at school. I was saddened to see my favourite cafe was closed for the holidays so I couldn’t show it off, or use their free wifi... :)

We enjoyed some pastry treats - there is a theme developing here, and headed up to school for some wifi and apperatif action. I was pleased to introduce Megan to some of my school friends and a bunch of us went out for lunch and a bit of shopping afterwards. Lovely! We also headed to Monoprix for a bit of grocery shopping, before heading home. The girls from school invited us to join them at the movies that night. The film started at 10.15pm... do they know who they’re dealing with??? We, of course, were well and truly tucked up in bed and snoozing by the time the movie started!

The four dolphin fountain - one of about a thousand fountains in Aix...

Cassis, Calanques and Kayak

Thursday was a day of adventure, Megan, Becky and I embarked on a road trip!! We headed down to Cassis by the sea with the intention of hunting out some sea kayaking action around the Calanques. These are the tall white cliffs and coves that run along the coast between Marseilles and Cassis (I did a boat trip a few weeks ago). We arrived in Cassis after some pretty groovy navigation and driving and headed straight for the beach. Not the bigger, busier one in town, but one a little further west which is in the direction of the kayaking place (we hoped). Like any good road trip we had stopped for treats on the way down and enjoyed some eclair chocolat, chocolate brioche, apple tart and vanilla slice!! Gotta love a quality boulangerie!! (bakery).

The water was beautiful and as soon as we three managed to walk/hobble/stumble down the stony beach to the waters edge it was delightful!! We envied the little booties worn by some better prepared swimmers. Once again we were slightly surprised by the amount of topless bathing and general wandering about, but overall our swim at the ‘beach’ was fantastic. There was even some jumping off rocks into the crystal clear, very deep water. We stayed for lunch in a cafe by the beach and then headed off on our expedition in search of kayaks.

Without too much trouble we found Port Miou - which is the place we had seen on the internet as having some kayak expeditions. We parked the car, paid our 5 Euros and headed off. We walked right along the cliff top, then left - we could see some kayaks down below - but how to get down there?? We walked right again... asked directions of the parking attendant, walked further left - asked some other tourists, they were also looking for the kayaks (unsuccessfully). Turned around a couple of times and split up heading left - some took the high road and some took the low... A happy cheer - “I see some steps!!” We headed for them, saw a tunnel in the cliff, and then a gate with two large red signs basically saying ‘no entry’.... then we noticed some smaller writing in black nikko pen - ‘kayaks’ and an arrow! We braced ourselves and headed through the gate towards a guy wearing raybans and carrying a walkie talkie. ‘Go straight through’ he said - no problem! We found the kayaks, run by a bunch of older exsurfie guys who would have been at home in Aus, one of them had been there ten years before, and we were off. 3 in a kayak, 30 Euros, 2 hours - perfect!

IT WAS WORTH IT!!! It was a beautiful sunny day without too much wind, and we paddled for about half an hour to the first of the calanques where there is a lovely secluded beach - only accessible for us kayakers. We passed a few tourist boats on the way in, and bounced around a bit on the waves - what fun! We swam for a half hour or so, took photos and headed back. It is so beautiful in the calanques - white cliffs, green shrubs, blue sky and crystal clear blue water - magic!

What a BEAUTIFUL day!!!

Back Home!!

Wednesday was a quiet day at home, washing, cleaning the house and generally hanging out after the business of being a tourist in Paris. We watched a practice match of Polo in the afternoon and went into Aix for dinner at a beautiful little restaurant.

Aix has some ridiculous number of fountains - maybe a thousand and I gather there are about the same number of restaurants. It makes choosing one a little difficult, but happily we were with the locals so they took us to a fantastic place. I had the fois gras for entree which was absolutely beautiful, steak and a chocolate mousse cake thing for dessert. Of course accompanied by the Kir - as an apperatif - and some white wine with the meal.

If I haven’t yet taken the time to explain Kir, please indulge me for a moment. Kir is basically a small amount of Cassis (a blackcurrant liqueur) in the bottom of a wine glass topped up with white wine - any will do, but Chardonnay is best. If you can get both from the Bourgogne region then you are a step ahead. Sweet fruity goodness! Absolutely delicious on a hot summer afternoon, happily I have the makings at the Cabinon now, so I am able to enjoy an apperatif pretty regularly!!

Paris Day 5 - Arc de Triomphe and did I mention the Caramel Macaroons?!

Our last day in Paris, and I must admit, a part of me was very happy to be heading back home to Aix and my little cabinon. The big city was, well, BIG - and full of yucky tourists!!

We started our last day by wandering through the Latin Quarter including a visit to the Jardin de Luxembourg. We took up the Champs Elysees where we had left off on our first night in town and wandered along towards our last big attraction - the Arc de Triomphe. Pretty impressive, but we decided to leave climbing it for our next visit to Paris - now we have to go back some time!! We have made a little habit of offering to take photos of other pairs or families at the various monuments... and then they’ve taken ours! Its been great! when looking for someone to take our photo we look for someone with a fancy camera in the hope they will know what they’re doing. :) Its important to wait until after the massive orange tour bus goes past!!

Our last mission for the day and for Paris was to utilise our metro passes to the extreme - really got our money’s worth - and travel to the other side of town from our accommodation and hunt down the world’s best caramel macaroon. Near the place de Abesses - at the metro station of the same name... around a corner, you will find a boulangerie called “Coquelicot” www.coquelicot-montmartre.com Delicious!!! I can personally vouch for the macaroons and chocolate eclairs and I can tell you on that day (Tuesday) around lunch time there was a line out the door, permanently!! we had lunch in a cafe on the other side of the road. We bought a couple of macaroons and some other treats. We even managed to save one for the TGV.

On this day we also discovered the yellow cherries - divine, and I reunited with the green plums - delish, not to mention numerous nectarines, peaches and apricots - gotta luv summer!!

We made the cross town journey back to the hotel, had our last little chat with Valerie, the guy who worked on the reception desk and loved Megan as she learnt a new phrase to practice on him each day, and headed off to the Gare de Lyon for the TGV home. A great few days in Paris.

We made the TGV and got home to Aix with no problems. The lovely Becky picked us up at the bus stop which was great with all our bags and we had a beautiful BBQ dinner and cocktail party with the gang here. A wonderful homecoming and introduction for Megan!!

Paris Day 4 - Mona, Venus and a bit of Michaelangelo

Our number one plan for today was the Louvre and we arrived there after wandering through the Latin Quarter and along the Seine. At this juncture (yes I know you love it when I use that word) I will relate a little of the magic of the metro in Paris. On Day One I purchased a one day ticket which covered the zone out to the airport, but on Day two, we both purchased three day passes which allowed us to go anywhere within the Perifique - the inner sanctum of Paris - inside is cool, outside not so much.. we were staying on the inside, just in the 13th Arrondissement. We could use the Metro, RER (above ground train), trams and buses all day, every day - SO convenient!! The map needs to be seen to be believed, but we managed to navigate around without and problems at all.

Another map, with which I was not so successful was that for the Louvre - good grief that place is massive and confusing!! Wings here and there, floors up and down, and about a million people! However, we managed to find our way to the Louvre first lady - the Mona Lisa. It is quite amazing how much more beautiful she is in person. Of course she sits alone on her wall and looks down with her half smile on the hundreds of people with cameras who crowd to see her. We slowly worked our way to the front of the ‘mosh pit” as she smiled benignly down at us. Lovely!

Next we made our way to see the Venus De Milo... also lovely, but somehow not as impressive as I had expected.

After a bit of wandering around, and around - stupid lourve map - we found the two slave sculptures by Michaelangelo. There is something about his sculptures that I absolutely love - they are magnificent - they’re not the David, of course - but in their own way, they are beautiful.

We saw many other sculptures and paintings as we wandered the halls and really enjoyed out visit. We headed to the Place de la Bastille and found a cafe for lunch. We wandered along the Rue St Antoine intending to shop up a storm on the Rue de Rivoli but found a great little boutique before we got there and the storm arrived early!! I bought two dresses, one for work and one for fun, and Megan got a great frock for a wedding she has coming up. This was the end of us, so after stopping for a chocolate macaroon we headed to the Champs de Mar where we sat on the grass and took photos of ourselves with the Eiffel Tower in the background! gold!!

We had a lovely dinner back at the cafe in the Place d’Italie before heading home to bed - another big day!