Officially 1 full week down .......

We've had a fairly relaxed time here so far but we've still managed to fit a hell of a lot in.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty cruisy, still suffering from jetlag and 24hours of travelling, so mainly it was a bit of wandering around to orientate the kids with the immediate area and look for a supermarket. It was also pretty quiet because of the gale force wind and pouring rain which started about 10 minutes after we headed out and didn't improve until sometime that night.

As I think I mentioned last time - the big shock ( for me anyway ) was that there was no lift - so it's about 100 stairs any time we go in or out ... the legs will either look fantastic by the time we leave or they will give out :-)

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1/The girls - 1st hour in Paris and already ovewhelmed

2 / First sunrise from the balcony

3/ View over the roof tops

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4/ Grand vin et grand fromage

5/ The girls favourite passtime

6/ Forum des Halles

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7/ The Paris Opera House

8/ American Dream

Grocery shopping has been one of my favourite things so far - getting an apartment and fending for ourselves was definitely the way to do it - no better way to immerse yourself in the lifestyle than than to have to look after yourself without the safety net of a hotel concierge to help fill in the blanks.

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9/ Monster snow pea !

10/ We asked for Sprite but when it came out it was Pschitt !

11/ Every supermarket needs a section like this !

(Time is running short for now so going to do away with the numbering on the pics - I will add a bit more of a description to some of them later on )

Monday was a leisurely stroll around the Louvre - still as magnificent as it was the last time !!! It was great that you could photograph the Mona Lisa this time - it was not allowed at all last time.

Tuesday was a marathon walk from 'home' through the grounds of the Louvre and the Jardins du Tuileries to Place de la Concorde - up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe ( and up the 300 odd stairs to the top ) then along Rue Kleiber to the Trocadero overlooking the Eiffel Tower - past the tower through the Champs du Mars, almost down to Montparnasse and back up through the grounds of Invalides and back 'home' - about 6 hours walking and we were pretty shattered by the time we got back but it was a wonderful day - topped off with the show at the Lido on Monday night.

The Lido show is good but (to me) it doesn't compare to the Moulin Rouge - the music is a little too droll for my liking - I will admit to dozing off a few times but that could have been the result of the huge walk and the bottle of champagne we had during the show :-)

Another quiet one Wednesday, I went on an excursion to find a pair of kitchen tongs - hardly exciting I know but nothing worse than trying to trying to cook with only a spatula to help you ..... and it's no small feat trying to find a pair of tongs here ... most of the people I asked looked at me like I was quite mad but I finally got a tip on where to possibly find a pair. About $22 later I had said tongs in hand .......... BJ and I went for a late afternoon stroll up to Notre Dame and to find the bookstore that MBB demanded I find for her - friends can be so high maintenance sometimes ;-)

Last time here we only saw Notre Dame from the outside - the queue to get in was incredibly long so we gave going in a miss ... this time there was nobody except for a few Bosnian beggars (please, if you were fleeing from Bosnia WHY would you choose Paris to beg in .... one of the most expensive cities in the world ????) ..... anyway ..... the grandeur of Notre Dame is quite overwhelming. I am not into religion or religious icons of any description or denomination but it is awe inspiring to stand withing the walls of a building of this magnitude.

Thursday morning we hit the Metro and headed to Montmarte to see Sacre Coeur and have a stroll around the streets. This area is just beautiful !!

Sacre Coeur is on par with Notre Dame in terms of breathtaking grandeur - no piccies allowed inside here though but just picture the same type of interior as Notre Dame and you have the look. The position on top of the hill gives a spectacular view over Paris - the stairs here are a killer though so if you are planning to visit, be aware !!! Also be aware that there is a tram that shuttles people up the hill ( we did not realise this until we were at the top though ! DOH ! ) but , there are not THAT many stairs that you really need to use the tram.

What I didn't realise about Montmarte was that in the market area there is street after street after street of fabric shops !!!!!! Now, if you have read some of the earlier posts you would be aware that I used to run a pretty damn good drag show. I 'retired' from this about 2 years ago but have been thinking for about a year or so about getting a new show together as a one off 'spectacular' just to let people know I am still around and always watching ;-)

When I finished up I sold off the entire wardrobe of costumes which had been accumulated over about 15years so doing a new show meant starting everything from scratch - and finding this 'community' of shops just overflowing with glamour was almost too much to bear. I will be heading back to Montmarte next week on a reconissance mission to check out the prices - I am hoping that with so many similar shops in such a small area that the prices are going to be pretty competitive, even with the poor conversion rate - keep your fingers X'd !

Today was a bit of a strange day - we all seemed to be a bit worn out and nobody really started to surface until nearly lunchtime. The plan for the day was to head to Montparnasse to see the Catacombes (I have been looking forward to this for ages) and have a wander through Cimitere du Montparnasse.

When we got there though what do we see on the entry to the Catacombes ?

A 'Closed' sign ! ... not just closed today but closed until February 2008 !!!!!!!

HOW typical is that ?????

Oh well !!

We headed up the road to Cimitere du Montparnasse - one of a number of gothic cemetaries in Paris. After wandering around for a while looking for Samuel Beckett's grave - once we finally found it we headed off looking for Man Ray's resting place when we were stopped by a cemetary worker and basically thrown out !

No idea why !

It was only about 2pm and it was meant to be open until 5 but even with the difficulty in translation it was easy enough to figure out we were not wanted - all I could think was " We've been thrown out of far better places than this, and besides,the crowd is dead anyway !"

:-)

So it was back on the Metro to take the kids for a look at Notre Dame and to visit Centre Pompidou. The weather by now was pretty crap and I learnt that my fab new jacket that I bought in China last year really is waterproof - to a point - and unfortunately that point was reached about 20 minutes before we managed to get home ! Live and learn !

So, Paris in summary form so far -

Food - Superb !!!! Particualrly 'Louise's brasserie' on the corner of our street - simple food but in a home cooked style and utterly delicious !!!!!! 9 Rue De Pelican if you happen to be in the area - Loiuse is just gorgeous and always scurrying around making sure everything is perfect - which it always is.

Wine - mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ! Available in stores and supermarkets - excellent valus and just wonderful !!!!! May go into withdrawals when we leave here :-(

People - wonderful ! Don't believe the stories about arrogance and rudeness - simply not true ! Make even the slightest effort to speak a little French and people will bend over backwards to help.

Metro - Cheap - efficient - easy ! Can't put it any simpler.

Tourist spots -

The usual suspects - truly breathtaking IMO - but it depends what you are looking for - and I suspect on your generational point of view. BJ and I stand gaping at some of these historical monuments while the girls kind of just gaze about looking for a nearby department store :-)

The unsuspected surprises - As I have said before I am really interested in the normal day to day streetscape of the city - there are some truly beautiful areas that are nothing at all to do with the usual tourist traps but none the less worthy. There is history and grandeur everywhere you look.

Hotel V.S Apartment - Definitely apartment ! This is obviously going to depend on the length of stay but if you are staying for more than a week I would recommend booking a self catering apartment over a hotel any day - even with the 100 odd stairs.

Come walk up the stairs with me !

Turn the volume down if you don't want to hear me wheezing !! hehe

We are off to Disneyland on Sunday for a few days - hopefully the weather will hold off a bit while we are there. Overall the weather has been pretty good - most days have been no colder than we get at home during winter. Obviously that isn't going to last but it's pretty damn good for now. A few rainy days but in some ways it's kind of nice strolling around in the rain. Different story when the wind picks up though !!!!!

More next week :-)