Paris, France

Very excited to be in Paris, so started with brekky in our room, with obligatory croissants.
Down to nitty gritty, and a load of washing!!! Running desperately short on jocks……just saying!
We have booked 2 tours with ‘fat tires bike tours’, one during the day, and a night ride which included a boat ride on the Seine.
First stop, the Eiffel Tower, past some very nice folk selling genuine memorabilia, then some more nice folk, and finally some of their cousins!

The Eiffel Tower is a very impressive structure, but more of that later.
Sized up for bikes, main dude Drew welcomed us, and away we go.
Biking is a great way to see the sites, which included amongst others the following,

Ecole Militaire, where Napoleon trained
Musee de L’Armee & Hotel Des Invalides, where Napoleon is buried
Place De La Concorde, where many lost their heads to the guillotine
Musee du Louvre, where the Di Vinci Code started
Arc de Triomphe du Carousel, the poor mans arc…but very lovely
Eiffel Tower, stunning

Very interesting 4 hours, with plenty of history, blood and guts, and a wee bit of exercise.
Home for some R&R, a ploughmans dinner in our room, then back for the night tour.
The night tour is more riding and a little less history, but the sights where still as impressive.
We rode to the Notre Dame first, stopped at Ille St. Louis for ice cream, very expensive ice cream!

Then off to the Louvre via the Pont du Carousel which is where everyone hangs a lock on the bridge as a declaration of their love for each other. In the city of
All a bit tacky, but hey, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, so we bought a genuine Lockwood from the nice folk selling them, and shared our love with the world!
‘Love is in the air’…..

Na, just kidding, as I said, tacky!
We drifted slowly back down the road towards our river boat ride, (get it….’drifted?’) then joined the masses, i.e. Japanese tourists and school kids.

What I thought would be pretty dreary turned out to be great, especially as it got darker, and all the lights come out.

The Seine is a pretty dirty river, not unlike the Yarra, but what was interesting was the number of people who hang around it, drinking, socialising, play music….a very happy, social crowd.

The river was spectacular, and the Eiffel Tower even more so.
What a sight at night it is!
A couple of vino’s, squillions of photos later, the boat trip was finished, we’d ridden back to the depot, and we headed home via the metro.
12.30 am and into bed.
A huge day….very tuckered.