We woke up to a stunning sunny morning. Another slow start by the local Parisians! Checked our itinerary and signed relief to see we were going to have a slower day more in line with the locals!
Headed off to a local Cafe and ordered Coffee and Baguettes. Ordinary Coffee, but the Baguette made up for it!

Our first major attraction was a visit to Notre-Dame. We were humbled by its shear splendour and being a Sunday were treated to a Mass.

Then off to the much smaller, but stunning stain glass windowed Sainte Chapelle.

Then

Then we strolled through a number of streets soaking up the relaxed Sunday atmosphere along with the many Parisians out and about with the warmer weather.

We finished off the afternoon with fresh Strawberry’s sitting in a park nearby. Out for dinner tonight!
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Day 3! A lazy start with our staple Coffee and Croissants for breakfast. Don’t think we could ever get sick of them, especially at 1.50 Euro’s! No queue at Louvre at 9:30am on a Saturday morning. These Parisiens are slow starters! We sampled some of what the Louvre has to offer. First off was a history lesson on the Louvre, followed by viewing Napoleon III Apartments, then a not to be missed Mona Lisa.

We then enjoyed lunch in a traditional working class restaurant called Brassier Chartier. Thierry would be proud of our waitress. She refused to take our order for food that wasn’t traditional French! So French food it was!

After lunch we headed off to Opera Garnier and picked up an English speaking tour (It’s the only way to do it).

We took in plenty more Paris landmarks before literally staggering back to the Hotel with a takeaway Coffee and Gelato from a nearby store. We arrived back after 9:00pm! No thanks to me getting us lost and using maps on my mobile phone that pointed the wrong way! (We really must be upside down back home). Cost us an extra 5km and a grumpy wife!

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Chateau De Versailles… No pictures or words can describe it. You simply need to experience this place for yourself! I got frustrated taking photos as they just couldn’t capture it’s magnitude and beauty! The Chateau and it’s history are so overwhelming that one cannot take it all in with even a full days visit. You’ve got to admire the French!

Our day started out early (up at 6:00am), but still managed a close call in not making it to our 9:30am English tour of the Private Apartments and the Royal Opera. A long story, but a happy ending as we soon discovered it was a tour not to be missed! After the 2Hr tour we got a chance to eat our breakfast we had purchased earlier (Plain and Chocolate & Almond Croissants). This was now lunch (Delicious!). After enjoying the Gardens… Gardens? Do you call that a garden? We hired bikes for the afternoon so we could cover more ground, including a visit of Marie-Antoinette’s private Chateau. Smaller? Yes, but still expressive in its own right! With it’s own beautiful gardens!

We caught the 5:00pm train back. This included catching 3 different trains. RER C, RER B and Metro L1. This sounds complicated, but we do have a good personal travel consultant back home giving us all the good oil which has paid off, not to mention the excellent signage that they have here!

Now I’ve got to wake Jenny up so we can go out for dinner. Restaurant booked for 8:30! Oh no! It’s an 8 o’clock booking!

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