The end of our stay in Paris.

We survived Bastille Day but the build-up to The Football World Cup was keeping pace with us.

The lead up games to the final were slightly noisy after the wins, with drunken singing, the continual use of car horns, and the necessary smoke flares, car rocking( or climbing).  That’s not taking into consideration the continual car police sirens.!!!!!

Steph, Bill and Min watching a lead up game at the local Marina bar…

THEN came the final match on Sunday-------- with the support team.

Watched the game in sweltering heat in the Capitainaires room with lots of rowdy French, faces painted, beer & wine, flags waving and the repeated singing of La Marseilleise. And all this didn’t compare with what happened around us after The French team won the World Cup!!!

Needless to say, the noise finally stopped around 6 am on Monday am. A lot of tired looking people around till Monday evening when the Victorious Team paraded down the Champs-Elysees with the fighter jet fly past.

In the mean time we had booked into see a cabaret show at the Lido, the four B’s..( Bums, boobs, boa’s and bubbly) where there was a dress code…

This meant a chance for the boys to do a bit of shopping. 

BUT BUT WAIT, there’s more…. because of the bloody football, Monday morning the email arrived to say show was cancelled due to the parade.

so the shirts will have to

wait for an airing on another day.

Sam and I managed a little bit  of intellectual culture and visited the Musee d’Orsay. Saw an amazing selection of paintings by Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne and a Rodin sculpture.

We also managed to catch up with good school friend Jo and husband Jim who live in Paris for a lovely meal out.

So now we have left Paris and are heading down south with Wok and Sam on board and Bill and Min keeping us company.

Our route will take us from Paris, down the Haute Seine, Canal du Loing, Canal de Briare and Lateral, down to Decize and Digoin and up to Chalon-sur-Soane.

Paris continues

July. The weather has remained hot for all 3 weeks of our stay in Paris.  Only the continual breeze through the marina made it all bearable.  We have discovered the love of cycling through and around the streets of Paris, and have seen so much more than we would have without them.

Steph arrived from Chichester and we were off…cycling along the right bank to the Tuileries Gardens, up the Champs Elysees, over to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur, The Pompidou Centre, taking in just a little bit of what Paris has to offer.

 

Max not only gets collared by an artist at Montmartre, but then later by a TV reporter at Notre Dame. Don’t let Max near a hat shop…..the compulsory buying of the ‘beret’ and following…not so good a photo but it was the meeting of the French resistance!!!!! you know

Met up with James and Val from Perth,, another good night.

Claire and Benji arrive for a visit with a new wine dispenser for Max…..and Benji slips into the roll of a Kiwi well!!!

Wok and Sam arrive from NZ for a few weeks, and get shown our bits of Paris.,, cycling, sightseeing and partying.               Bill and Min have arrived and are moored next to us.

Wok and Max looking pretty smart outside Notre Dame…

And then Bastille Day.. We got up early (7am) to watch the mounted The Military Band and the horses leaving the Barracks for the big parade up the Champs Elysees.Iit was so hot, we didn’t feel we could cope going to the parade,so we just waited at the marina for the fly over and then saw some of the procession as it came back through The Bastille. 

Thought we would be able to see the fire works at the Eiffel Tower from the river but we were just too far away.