A weekend in Paris

Before starting our big Asian adventure (after the "small Asian adventure" of last autumn), we quite fancied one last weekend in Paris. So when our dear friend CoCo decided to organize here 40th birthday party in February, it was an easy enough decision to accept her invitation.

We arrived Saturday morning, after a rather pleasant journey on the night train (something we should do more often, really - taking the train is so much more relaxing than flying, even if it does take a bit of time - but that's not really an issue with a night train is it?)

We had all the day to us in Paris before heading off to the party in Montmartre, so we decided to make the best of it. We started off by checking out the Orsay museum, a place we'd both been to several times already. But hey, a museum like that merits several visits anyway! Besides, it's much less busy than the Louvre, for example.

The cultural bit (which really is mandatory in Paris) out of the way, we decided to head off for lunch. We ended up in a delightful little creperie not far from the museum, where we enjoyed some of the finest crepes I've had anywhere, including Brittany! Our appetites sated, we met up with Sarah, and ex-colleague of Mathilde's who's relocated to Paris. Great to catch up with her as well, especially since she had some great news to announce to us with the arrival of a baby!

We then made our way to our hotel, which was located in Montmartre, which truly is one of the most beautiful parts of Paris (which is to say in the world!), in spite of the tourist hordes who have invaded it, in no small part thanks to that wonderful movie called Amelie.

The party itself was, of course, fantastic fun! Most of Mathilde's friends from her Angers years were there, great to catch up with them.



One of the problems of "really growing up" is that as people have kids and stuff, it gets harder and harder to meet up for great "adults only" parties. Anyway, as can only be expected from a party celebrating CoCo, everybody had a fantastic time.

CoCo, of course, loved by all as she is, got loads of cool pressies (I wonder what she's gonna do with all those bags she was given, though?) Much to my surprise, we carried on to the wee hours of the morning. And I didn't even have such a bad headache in the morning. Is there still hope for me !?

We spent the next morning exploring Montmartre a bit more. We decided to check out the cemetery, one of the more famous ones in Paris, with quite a few famous Frenchmen and -women are buried (people like Alexander Dumas, Edgar Degas, and last but certainly not least, Dalida). Quite a peaceful place to wonder about, actually.

The next stop on our breakneck schedule was lunch with Isabelle. The plan was to meet at the outskirts of Paris, in a place called Suresnes. It's a pleasant enough place, quite green, in contrast to downtown Paris (there are nice views towards the Bois de Boulogne). Before lunch, we decided to check out the American military cemetery (wow, what's this about all them cemeteries today, eh!?)

The lunch, which we enjoyed in a rather fancy French bistrot called Pere Lapin, was unsurprisingly delicious. And of course, most importantly of all, it was great to catch up with Isabelle again!)

Felt a bit wistful to leave Paris, since we don't know when we'll be back next time. Soon enough, I hope! If not, we can always quote Bogie and say "we'll always have Paris" (not sure what that's got to do with anything, but there you go...)

Another French wedding

The plan for the coming weekend was to attend a second weekend - this time the hero of the day was Mathilde's cousin Emeric (and his wife-to-be, of course!), who lives in Hong-Kong, who was getting married near Le Mans on Saturday. The plan was for us to head to spend Friday and Saturday nights in nearby La Fleche. Francoise decided to take scenic county roads across the Charante-Maritimes, Vendee and Maine-et-Loire departments, before taking us to our final destination in the Sarthe.

Our first stop was at a cute little village in the Vendee, which was blessed with a rather impressive medieval tower, where we stopped to picnic by a nice river. We then stopped for a quick drink by the impressively picturesque Les-Rosiers-sur-Loire. This is what a small town by the Loire river should look like (even if there are more famous and prestigious towns along the Loire river - the castles of the Loire River are justly famous!). Anyways, we stopped here for a quick drink before pushing on towards La Fleche.

La Fleche is one of those typical French provincial small town. Picturesque, without being over the top, but seemed quite lively when we were there - there was a scene at the main square with a local band (I suppose) playing. After having a quick look around town (in particular the area around the river was rather pretty), we had an enjoyable dinner at the local creperie - very good food at a more than decent price (then again, we are used to Cote d'Azur prices, which means pretty much anywhere else in France apart from Paris seems cheap...).

The next day, we had a bit of time to kill before the wedding, so we decided to head over to a lake just next to our hotel, where I had time to go for a bit of a swim. And then we sped over to Sarge-Le-Les-Mans, where the wedding ceremony was taking place. Now, I was quite looking forward to the wedding, as Emeric's wife to be hailed from Hong Kong. International weddings are usually good fun ;-) The church ceremony, taking place in the picturesque parish church, was rather interesting, with reading of texts both in French and Cantonese.

The church part done, we sped down to Clermont-Creans, located just next to La Fleche, where the actual celebrations were taking place. No expense was obviously spared when it came to this wedding - the festivities were taking place in a proper French castle! (Château d'Oyré). So the location couldn't really get any better than this - especially as we were once again blessed with pretty much perfect summer weather (not a given in this part of France). I'm sure the numerous guests from Hong-Kong were delighted - maybe they will leave thinking all of France is like this ;)

The celebrations themselves where fantastic. I think there was a nice mix of people attending - family of course (including Mahtilde's uncles Gerard, Didier and of course Emeric's dad Jacques), Emeric's local French friends, Emeric's expat friends, and of course all the guests from Hong-Kong. The food was absolutely fantastic - not surprisingly considering the food was delivered by a Michelin-starred restaurant. Everything from the aperif to desert was spot on.

We left the castle in the little hours of the morning, having spent a fantastic time at the Chateau. Thanks to Emeric and his lovely wife for a great ceremony - we hope we will meet them later on in Hong-Kong, during our Asian adventure...

The next morning, we had to get up rather early, get packed, and head off, as we had a train to catch from Le Mans to Paris. So unfortunately we had to give the Sunday brunch being organized a miss.

We had a few hours to kill in Paris, which is always nice, especially when the weather is fantastic as it was today. We started off our day in Paris with a visit to Musee Guimet - which is the museum dedicated to Asian arts and civilizations. As you may have guessed there was a slight Japanese angle to our visit - there was an exhibition on about erotic arts in Japanese Printed arts. The exhibition was pretty interesting (actually there was some pretty explicit stuff on display!) - I also quite enjoyed the permanent exhibition. Unfortunately, we didn't have to time to visit nearly all of it, as we had a rendez-vous with Sarah pencilled in.

Our meeting with Sarah was planned near Les Jardins de Luxembourg, which meant we had to cross a lot of Paris to meet her. Of course we could've taken the metro, but, well, Paris is one of those cities best seen on foot, especially when the weather is great as it was today. We made it nearly on time ( we lost a few crucial minutes buying ice cream!), and headed off for a drink with Sarah in the Jardins de Luxembourg - a great meeting place in Paris when the weather is good. Great to catch up with Sarah and get an update on her always busy life - unfortunately it was all too quick as we had our flight to catch back to Nice.

So that brought an end to a very busy week travelling back and forth around Western France. And for me, back to work. Doh... But, on a positive note, only two weeks to go before our big Asian adventure starts!

Weekend in Paris

It's been a while since our last visit to Paris - in fact almost exactly one year (we came about the same time of the year last year). So I was rather looking forward to visiting Paris, a city we truly love.

Like last time, we booked a flat for the weekend via Airbnb, this time in the 15th Arrondisement, at Rue de Commerce. As I'd taken the afternoon off from work, we arrived quite early in Paris. The area where we were staying was rather nice - a busy commercial street (obviously, given the name!) with plenty of cafés and restaurants. The flat was basic, but suited our needs perfectly. We could even see the top of the Eiffel tower from one of the windows.

After having a walk around the area, we made our way to Le Table Libanaise, where we're meeting our dear friend Isabelle for dinner. Great restaurant, with excellent, friendly service and great food (well, I'll have to trust Mathilde and Isa on that, as I was suffering from a bad cold, so my taste buds were not up to the job of assessing the quality of the food). Great to catch up with Isabelle as well, as always!

The next morning, after a breakfast at the flat, we headed off towards Petit Palais, where the plan was to check out an exhibition. We took the metro to Hotel des Invalides, and crossed the Seigne to the Petit Palais (quite a scenic walk, it has to be said!).

Naturally, the exhibition we were checking out had a connection with Japan - the exhibition covered the art of a certain Kuniyoshi, a master of Ukiyo-e (woodblock prints). I loved the exhibition - even more than Hokusai exhibition we checked out one year ago in the Grand Palais! The emphasis of the exhibition was on his depictions of the Japanese legends - so plenty of samurais, legendary monsters and so forth - cool! There was also a second exhibition about fantasy art in Europe, to make the connection between the West and the East, which was pretty cool as well.

We then made our way over to Montparnasse, where the plan was to pay a visit to Muriel and Mathilde's nieces and nephews. We stopped by for lunch at a local favourite of ours -le cantine de Trouquet, which features Parisian/Basque bistrot type food signed by  Christian Etchebest (e chef who's made numerous appearances on various cooking shows on telly).

Our appetites sated, rendez-vous at Muriel's flat, where we spent a rather intensive hour or so with Muriel and the kids (for a moment, I thought Paul and Lucas had calmed down - for a while they seemed to be more interested to play on their tablets/phones than messing with me, but in the end they proved me wrong). Great to see the kids and Muriel, as always!

After that, we decided to do what we love most to do in Paris, kind of stroll around randomly. Well, the plan was to check out a furniture shop (we're planning to buy a sofa!) but that was kind of just an excuse for strolling about. We started our stroll, by crossing the Montparnasse graveyard (a bit less famous than Pere Lechaise, but still, quite a few famous people buried here). From there, we strolled towards Saint-Michel and the Latin quarter, where we crossed the River Seigne, and found ourselves at the Louvre. 

We then made our way to the Opera, and then to Gallerie LaFayette (the big one, in Paris), where we finally checked out some sofas. No luck finding what we were looking for, though. The shopping bit done, we made our way down Boulevard Montmartre to le BAT, where we were meeting up with our good friend CoCo for dinner. Excellent venue, excellent company. Le BAT specialize in tapas, and they were really excellent (if a bit pricey, but that's Paris for you I suppose). I still felt a bit hungry, so went for a main course - excellent as well. Afterwards, we went to a nearby bar for a drink. Great night out - as it always is with CoCo!

The next day (sadly our last day in Paris), we had a rendez-vous at our friend Sarah's place in the 16th arrondisment (la classe - the 16th arrondisment is a rather posh part of Paris!). Being avid walkers, we decided to go by foot. As we were meeting for lunch, we had quite a bit of time to explore Paris in the morning. 

We decided to start with the Parc Andre Citron (yes, that would be the car manufacturint pioneer). This was actually the site of the original Citroen manufacturing plant, which was torn down after production ended in the 1970's. The park is very modern (dating back to 1992), but didn't really impress us. It feels somehow cold and not like a particularly inviting place, with a big lawn in the midlde (with a panoramic balloon being the main attraction. Plenty of joggers having a run around the concrete corridors that line the central lawn. 

We then crossed the Seigne and ended up in the 16th arrondisment. We still had an hour and a bit to kill, so decided to do part of a walk I'd found on the internet. Quite a pleasant stroll, we particularly enjoyed Rue Boileau, with its various Art Nouveau buildings. There are some quite cosy little private (gated) cobble-stoned streets as well, where one could almost imagine being in a village. All in all, I didn't get the feeling of a particularly posh part of town, appearances can be deceiving, I suppose...

Time for lunch, then! Sarah, an ex-colleague of Mathilde whom we often met in the port of Nice for great dinners & nights out, moved to Paris this autumn. Present were also Julie and Aurelien, who just arrived in Paris, and were planning to stay for a week. 

So, pretty much like a standard night out in Nice, then... The lunch Sarah had prepared for us was predictably delicious - she'd prepared a Dal Bhat, a traditional Indian/Nepalese recipe. Actually, it's been a while since my last Dal Bhat (I had plenty of Dal Bhat during my 3 week hiking trip in Nepal - in fact that's about the only thing I ate for 2 weeks during the amazing Annapurna trek I did). 

So a great finale for a great weekend in Paris then! Felt rather sad to head back to Nice, especially as Mathilde was off to La Rochelle for a week.

An afternoon in Paris

After a few rather emotional days in Finland, I was kind of happy to make my way back to France, to get a new perspective on things.

I actually flew to Paris, rather than Nice, from where the plan was to travel down to Auvergne with Philippe, Aniko and little Elize, where we were spending new year together with a bunch of friends.

My flight arrived rather early, so I had quite a few hours to kill in Paris before making my way to Versailles, where Philippe and Aniko live. My bus arrived at Montparnasse, which was pretty much perfect, as it's one of the best places in Paris for eating (well, pretty much any area in Paris is good when it comes to food, I suppose...).

After rambling about a bit in this rather picturesque part of Paris (taking in views of the imposing Tour de Montparnasse, and crossing the famous cemetery). I ended up in a nice little bistrot called Le Parc des Cerfs. Perfect little place for a quiet solo lunch - I was treated to excellent service, and most importantly, the food was excellent.

The plan was to meet up with Philippe at Gare de Lyon, which is near to where he works, and head back to Versailles with him. The area around Gare de Lyon is a part of Paris I don't know very well, so I decided to jump on the bus and head that way straight away to explore a bit. After dropping off my bag in a luggage locker, I headed off to have a walk around the area. I ended up in Bastille (yes, the very same place where the French revolution sort of started), a nice and rather lively area, perfect for a stroll around (I realize I'm repeating myself, but pretty much anywhere in Paris is perfect for strolling about, of course).

I then made my way down to the Seine river, and since I still had a bit of time before my rendez-vous with Philippe, I decided to walk up towards Ile-de-Paris and Notre-Dame. It was a rather stunning walk esthetically speaking, with the sun setting over the Seine and the silhouette of Notre Dame looming ahead of me. There definitely is something magical about Paris - every time I visit I sort of fall in love with the place all over again.

And then, before I knew it, it was time for me to head back to Gare de Lyon, from where me and Philippe took the train back to Versaille. We spent rather a nice night chatting away in Aniko and Philippe's flat, enjoying some nice food and wine. And of course I got to meet the lovely Elize again, whose rather grown up since the last time we met ;)

And then, the next morning, Auvergne here we come!

A cultural weekend in Paris

Paris is one of those places you can just visit over and over again. Always something new to do, a new museum to visit, a new restaurant to try out. So when we read about a Hokusai exhibition at Le Grand Palais, we decided it was the perfect excuse for a autumnal weekend in Paris.

This time, we decided to book a room through Airbnb - Mathilde found a nice little apartment located in a lovely part of Paris called Le Butte aux Cailles. After arriving at Orly airport, we jumped on the Orlybus and headed for Paris. We were a bit worried about traffic, but turns out it wasn't as bad as we feared. We arrived at the apartment earlier than expected, greeted by our lovely host Isabelle.

After checking out the apartment (which was perfect for our needs), we headed off for dinner. I'd booked a restaurant called l'Avant Gout for the occasion - apparently a bit of a local institution (as confirmed by our host). And we were not disappointed - the place was just wonderful - a really cozy little modern Paris-style bistrot. I particularly liked the main dish - some absolutely succulent deer.

After dinner, we decided to have a walk around Buttes Aux Cailles to burn off some calories. It really is a lovely part of Paris - a bit like a little village in the midst of Paris (very chic and Bo-Bo...).

The next morning, we got up to a cold but sunny Parisian day. After a lovely breakfast (fresh baguettes down the road form a boulangerie, yummie...), we headed off for the Grand Palais, for our first exhibition for the weekend - Niki de Saint Phalle's Nanas and other works of art were being shown (we had a combined ticket for the Nana's and Hokusai). I'm not a huge fan of Niki de Saint Phalle (although I find it more accessible than a lot of modern art, that quite often completely eludes me ;-), but the exhibition was quite good actually. Gave a bit of background and context about her art - and plenty of those big nana's on display of course!

The cultural bit for the day done, we had our first rendez-vous for the day - we were meeting up with Isabelle for lunch. After sort of randomly wandering around Paris (Paris is of course one of the greatest places in the world to randomly wander around), we ended up in (surprise surprise) a Japanese restaurant called Aki. We had to queue for quite some time, but the okonomiyakis (kind of Japanese omelets) they served were more than worth the wait. After our lunch, we continued randomly wandering around, ending up around the Louvre and then walking along the Seine river (a perfect sunny day for randomly wandering around).

From there, we headed off for our next rendez-vous, this time near the Canal d'Ourcq in the 19th Arrondisment. We'd been invited over to Youcef and Ouarda's place for tea and cakes. Youcef and Ouarda are good friends of ours whom we've not seen for quite some time (not much since Youcef moved from Nice to Paris a couple of years ago), so it was a happy reunion indeed. And much to our joy, their family has been joined by a little one as well! Great to see them again!

Barely had we finished our teas and cakes, before it was time for our next social gathering (we always seem to spend a lot of time travelling back and forth across Paris meeting various people!) - this time we were meeting Muriel and the kids for Crepes in Montparnasse! And what better place to have crepes than Creperie Josselin - one of the oldest creperies in Paris. The crepes were great, and we had a lot of fun as well (gosh those kids are growing up fast - soon I'll struggle to fight off those wild twins...). After the crepes we ended up in a bar watching Miss France - how cool is that !?

Sunday promised to be just as busy as Saturday. After tidying up our flat and leaving the keys, we headed off to le Grand Palais again - this time to check out the great Japanese master Hokusai's work. Hokusai is most famous (at least in the Western World) for his ukiyo-e (woodblock print painting). What was great about this exhibition is that it really shows the body of work of this amazing artist - this man was amazingly versatile! And modest too - he famously stated that he only started to begin to understand art at the age of 73... Very  interesting exhibition!

The cultural bit for the Sunday done, it was time for some food! We'd been invited over for lunch at Paula and Beppe's place. Paula is an old friend of Mathilde from her exchange student times in Perugia. Milene and Kamel also came over with their kids. Paula had made a paella for us - very tasty indeed! After several helpings, plus some chocolate cake for desert, we reluctantly just had to go - as we had a flight to catch!

All in all, a fantastic weekend then - as weekends always are in Paris!

Long weekend in Paris

There are a couple of long weekends in France come November, and we decided to take advantage of the first of them (All Saint's day) to visit Paris. It's been a while, after all, and visiting Paris is always good fun!

After a rather dull Easyjet flight (in spite of a flight attendant trying to be funny - there seem to be statistically rather many of those on Easyjet flights for some reason?), and a ride on the airport bus, I arrived at our hotel, located near Place de l'Italie, where I was happy to be reunited with Mathilde (who had spent a few days in Angers before making her way to Paris on the TGV).

On Friday, we had a rather cultural day planned out. We started off with a visit at the  Musée Jacquemart-André, located just off Boulevard Haussman. It used to be a rather impressive town house, which is used as a museum these days. We were there to check out the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition that was on - the theme more particularly was to celebrate female beauty. We rather enjoyed the exhibition (especially Mathilde, who's quite keen on the Pre-Raphaelites).

Our original plan was to walk around Paris, but alas, we had to change plans due to the abysmal weather (we're just not used to rain anymore, I suppose...), so we did a bit of shopping instead. Since the weather didn't show any signs of improvements, we decided for an extended dose of culture, and made our way to Trocadero, to La Cité de l'architecture & du patrimoine, where there was an art deco exhibition on. The exhibition wasn't all that interesting, but the museum itself is brilliant! It gives a kind of overview of architecture throughout France, both from a geographical and historical perspective. They've moved/replicated big pieces of church facades etc. to demonstrate various styles and methods. We spent quite a few hours there, until the place closed, actually. Highly recommended! And what's best, there's a superb view towards the Eiffel tower from the museum (we got the "by-night" variant).

After all that culture, it was time for some food finally. Our obsession with Japan continued, we'd booked a well-rated Japanese restaurant called Kiyomizu. And the place certainly deserves its reputation - as far as the food is concerned, one might as well be in Japan (which isn't always the case with Japanese restaurants abroad - it's quite hard to meet the high standards Japanese folks put on their food!). We did find the place quite pricy though - one can certainly find the same quality food for much cheaper in Japan (we were amazed at how good value for money restaurants were in Japan on our trip this Easter). But hey, this is Paris, and Japanese food is "in". And the main thing is, we had a great meal!

The next day, our wishes were fulfilled, and the weather got better. So we decided to walk around Paris - the best way to really appreciate this wonderful city. Our walk took us from our hotel, in the 13th Arrondisment, all the way to Odeon, where we had a rendez-vous with Sarah, a colleague of Mathilde's who is from Paris. We had a quick coffee with her at a real typical Parisian brasserie (although the waiters were almost polite, which is rather atypical for a Parisian brasserie). 

We then headed off to meet up with Myriam (an-ex colleague of Mathilde's, also a Parisian!). After walking around for a bit, we ended up having lunch in a nice little restaurant in the Latin Quarter. Great catching up with her! We spent the next of the afternoon doing a bit more shopping and just taking in that great Parisian atmosphere. We even made our way to Montmarte, hiking up to the hilltop. We were rather put off by the hordes of tourists though, and didn't stay for too long... Amelie was a great movie, but I am sure Montmarte was a nicer place to visit before the movie came out... ;-)

Our original plan had been to stay at Philippe and Aniko's place in Chaville, but due to a last-minute emergency situation, we had to change our plans, and so we headed off to stay at Sarah and Bruno's place near Vincennes instead. Which turned out quite well, since it gave us the opportunity to catch up with them as well! As usual, Sarah had cooked a great dinner for us - fish this time. Yummie! Nice to see young Ulysse growing up too!

The next day, the plan was to cross Paris to Chaville, and catch up with Philippe and Aniko (and meet their little girl, of course!). We did have a bit of time on our hands before heading Westward, so we decided to visit Vincennes castle, which is one of the most famous castles in France. There was a classic car gathering taking place by the castle for added entertainment. After checking out classic cars for a bit, we headed off to check out that famous Chateau. It's a pretty cool castle to visit - it's more of a "medieval war castle" rather than a "fancy reneissance show-off castle", which is what I prefer ;-). From its humble origins as a hunting lodge, it became a royal residence, until it was replaced by the somewhat more glamorous Versailles.

The touristy bit done, we said our farewells to Sarah, Bruno and Ulysse, and jumped on the west-bound RER towards Chaville. After a changeover to a commuter train, we eventually arrived at our destination. Turns out Philippe, Aniko and young Elize are temporarily staying at Philippe's parents place, due to some delays in their new lodgings getting ready. At any rate, it was great to catch up with them, even if it was only for a quick coffee. 

And then it was time to head for the airport, unfortunately. What can I say ? Paris is a great city - there's so much to see and do. Looking forward to our next visit!

Nantes-Angers-Paris in three days!

Due to some long-distance travel planned in a couple of months, I suddenly found myself needing to renew my passport. Unfortunately, the closest place to do that is Paris... So a trip to Paris was called for (not that I mind or anything, Paris is a fantastic city...). Since Mathilde was planning a trip to Western France around the same time, I decided to join her to Nantes, then Angers, and take the train to Paris from Angers. Quite an ambitious programme for three days!

We arrived in Nantes as planned Saturday evening, and were happy to a lift to Aude and Magayes's lovely recently refurbished house where we were planning to stay the night. We spent a very nice evening indeed at their house, enjoying some rather delicious pizza, followed by some equally delicious crepes. Since we still have some illusions of youth, we decided to head into town after dinner for a couple of drinks. After checking out a couple of places that were just too busy (finding a bar "too busy" - a sign of getting old?), we found a nice little bar in the town centre, where we stopped for a couple of beers. I really like the buzz Nantes has - it seems like a much more happening and "experimental" place than Nice (in spite of Nice being a student town, it just feels a bit old sometimes...).


The next morning, we got up, and sat down to a most excellent brunch. Bravo, Aude and Magaye! Our appetites sated, we headed to the Vertou, a village just down the road from Nantes, where we checked out the local market. It's one of the things I really like about France - the fact that most towns have access to a proper farmer's market (we do almost all our fruit and veg shopping at our local farmer's market). After a couple of glasses of white wine at the "buvette", it was unfortunately time to head to the train station, say bye bye to Aude and Magaye, and jump on the train to Angers.

After a nice late lunch in Angers town centre, we headed back to Joel and Francoise's house, by foot (the sun was out, so we wanted to make the best of it). The walk back to the house, along the Maine River, really is great, especially when the sun is out, like it was on this particular day.

Our welcome at Joel and Francoise's house was great, as always. Great to see them, even though in my case it was to be a very short visit. And the dinner we were served was as great as always ;-)

The next morning, it was time for me to say bye bye to Mathilde, and catch the TGV down to Paris. After the raid 1 1/2 hour journey, the train pulled into Montparnasse station without any delay. From there, I jumped on the metro and headed down to Invalides, where the Finnish embassy is located. After the quick and efficient (if rather expensive...) formalities, I headed out to explore Paris.

I had almost all day ahead of me, before catching my flight back to Nice at 7 in the evening. Since I was lucky enough to have some excellent sunny (if a bit chilly) weather, I decided to make the best of it and walk around and enjoy Paris. I started by crossing the Seine to Place de La Concorde, from where I headed towards the Jardin des Tulieres. To get my mandatory dose of culture, I visited the Orangerie, a museum featuring Impressionist art - including the famous Nympheas by Monet. What can I say ? It's a fantastic museum - I really like Impressionist art, and the place in human-sized (unlike the Louvre located just next to it), it took me about an hour to check it all out.

I then carried on through the Jardin down to the Louvre, and headed towards Pont-Neuf after contemplating the ridiculous queue for the Louvre (and remember, this was a Monday!) for a while. I crossed Pont-Neuf to l'île de la Cité all the way to the Notre Dame. I considered the option of visiting the church for a while, but seeing the length of the queue, decided against it (that's the problem with Paris - the queues to most monuments are just ridiculous...). I decided to have a walk around the Latin quarter instead, on the other side of the Seine. Good choice, it was a bit calmer there. By now, my stomach was starting to grumble, so I decided to grab a bite to eat. The Latin Quarter is unfortunately full of tourist traps, but I managed to find a lovely little Georgian restaurant at a deserted side street. The place was deserted apart from a few people who seemed like regular customers - but the food was excellent and the 13 Euros I paid for the lunch menu felt like a bit of a bargain considering this is Paris.

I still had a couple of hours before catching my bus to Orly, so I decided to check out the nearby Pantheon, which I've not visited. This neoclassical building was originally a church dedicated to St. Genevieve (the patron saint of Paris). After the revolution, the government decided to change the place from a church to a kind of mausoleum where "great Frenchmen (and later French women) were to be buried". The building itself is more imposing than pretty, I would say (it's grandiose but not exactly subtle), but the visit proved quite an interesting summary of French history, as there are plaques summarizing the lives of the most famous people resting in the building.

 My original plan had been to finish my day in Paris with a visit to the Catacombs, since they are located in Denfert-Rochereau, where I was supposed to take the bus to Orly later on. Unfortunately they were closed on Mondays, so I eneded up spending an hour chilling out in the Jardins de Luxembourg instead. Not a bad way to end my day in Paris actually, basking in the winter sun, and watching the Parisians playing chess, reading books, and just basking in the winter sun like me.

All in all, quite a busy, but fantastic day!