Cheese, wine and Mitterand's waiter

On Friday evening Elissa and I popped into Tesco, picked up sandwiches, some smoothie, a couscous salad and a couple of cream slices, and headed to St Pancras to catch our train. Our train to Paris, where we'd be spending what we had down as a very relaxing weekend.

Arriving at Gare Du Nord we headed to the Metro and got off just across the bridge from Notre Dame. Our hotel was a short walk away, and our room was comfortable and quiet. The boulangerie down the road provided a delicious breakfast. Then we set off. We walked from our hotel to the Eiffel Tower, via Notre Dame, the Louvre, Tuileries, The Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe and the Trocadero.


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At the Eiffel Tower we hopped onto a boat and took a tour back up the river to Notre Dame and beyond, and then we hopped onto the Metro and headed to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. By this time it was about 5pm, and the light was softening slightly. Sacre Couer looked much darker than I ever remember it being. Elissa was delighted to see nuns inside the church. We wandered round the square in Montmartre, watching people having their portraits done, and popped into another boulangerie for a snack and a coffee.

Later, back at the hotel, we had a short nap, and complained about the pain in our legs. We both staggered around the streets (no, not a drop, I swear!) and eventually found ourselves outside a restaurant. A drunk local came and spoke to us, in French. I missed what he had said and explained we were English (sorry Elissa, it's easier to bundle us together...) and he explained that Francois Mitterand used to eat in the restaurant, and lived just round the corner. "If it's good enough for the President, it's good enough for us" I said. And it was. Their couscous was particularly good.

Sunday morning we rose late, and went to the Musee D'Orsay. It was really busy, but as we got to the end of the queue we saw why. The museum is open for free on the first Sunday of each month. So we had a very pleasant couple of hours in there, and felt very pleased at getting a bit of a bargain. I was hard pushed to choose between something by Van Gogh and a big stone polar bear, as my favourite bits.

We headed out of the centre a little, trying to find a flea market, but we failed. In the end we made for the Centre Commercial at Gare Montparnasse. Of course, it was Sunday so everything was closed. We grabbed a bite to eat and rushed back to the hotel where the man behind the desk pointed out two supermarkets that would be open, and we managed to find our obligatory cheese and wine haul for the trip home. At Gare Du Nord, an Australian tourist gratefully received our day travelcards, and we checked in. Our train pulled back in to London at about 7pm, just enough time left in the day to try the cheeses and have a glass of wine!