From Normandy to the Cote d'Azur

Paris - what can I say. It is still beautiful, invigorating but draining, manic, stylish, quirky and oh, so elegant and there is still dog shit everywhere! The queues were phenomenal, it is the Easter holidays after all, so reluctantly we gazed at the long lines waiting to go into the Cathedrale de Notre-Dame and the Musee d'Orsay and carried on.




We were heading for the Latin Quarter where we wandered round the Sorbonne and the College de France universities. My French must be appalling because, even in Paris, where everyone pretends they can't understand you, as soon as I speak they answer me in English! The sun came out so we sat in the Jardin du Luxembourg and watched the world go by.


We ended the day strolling along the Boulevard St-Germain. A picnic of bread, Boursin, pate, olives and a nice bottle of red - perfect.

The next day we went to the Palace of Versailles, this time prepared to queue. It was pretty cold but we braved the gardens first, watching the fountains performing to music. Just like Vegas!










It was packed inside the palace, pretty difficult to see everything, made even harder by people taking photos everywhere. We found that to be weird, flashes were going off all over the place, doesn't that damage the paintings and stuff. Jim walked through a doorway just as several people in the room decided to take photos. He remarked, 'I felt just like George Clooney walking down the red carpet.' I assured him he didn't look like George Clooney.
Still it was a pretty amazing place.

We left Gasny on Easter Sunday, Brigitte presented us with a chocolate Easter chick each, bless her! A long, but fairly easy journey took us to Lyon, what a beautiful city, my favourite spot so far.

It has large squares with sweeping boulevards, along with ancient narrow streets and the obligatory cathedral. We climbed high up to the Basilica Notre-Dame pour Fourviere. It looks pretty spectacular when it's lit up at night.


We went to the Croix-Rousse, a rabbit warren of narrow streets, criss-crossed by t or secret passageways, which were used during the Second World War to escape raids by the Gestapo.


In Bellecour Square Louis XIV looked like he'd hit the sales, with a carrier bag over each shoulder!



Leaving Lyon on Tuesday morning another few hours down the motorway found us on the Cote D'Azur. Mind you it was throwing it down and the med appeared more grey than azure.



But today it dawned sunny, with bright blue skies, we visited the market and Nice old town. We've got a sweet little apartment and it was so good to cook a meal again.








Tomorrow is all about finding some wi-fi, times of trains to Monaco and Cannes and plotting our departure from France. I'm writing this in bed and there's a family gathering going on next door. Oh well, we don't have to get up early in the morning!


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Location:Rue de France, Nice