Day 15 continued

Our afternoon excursion is to Sacre Coeur, a cathedral on top of the highest hill in Paris. There are two ways to get to the top, climb the massive stairs, or take a 2 min cable car ride to the top. Not a difficult decision after walking Paris all day......the cable car.
Our next decision coffee or a tour of Sacre Coeur....again not a difficult decision...coffee.
Feeling extremely parched and dehydrated we headed into the local cafe for coffee. Robyn and Doug were with us, and Robyn was served by a short very dark waiter and asked for a short black. Well in my delicate condition, I could not contain my laughter..... It was a " had to be there moment"

We walked around the cathedral enjoying the quirky shops and a variety of artists at work. Market stalls and freelance artists were everywhere displaying their crafts and talents and offering to draw your portrait.( Tash, you would have loved it). Musicians and dancers entertained on the lawns and steps, it was a great atmosphere.( Joel and Rach, you would have loved it). The cathedral was not a highlight of the Montmatre visit, in fact in needed a good guerni water blast to remove all the muck off the stone work.


On return to our group, we heard many stories of our tour group and the kids being harassed by groups of Africans peddling their wares and bracelets. Also gypsies up to their tricks of distraction, to grab your bag or wallet. ( they tell you, you have dropped something, so you bend down to get it, and hey presto your bag disappears and so does the gypsy). Luckily, no one lost anything as we had been warned by our guide about these people.

Tonight is our Farewell dinner with our group. We head off to the Pantheon district, for dinner at 8pm. Everyone is in good spirits and as walk through the lane ways, chants of Aussie Aussie Aussie , can be heard around Paris.
The restaurant is underground, and we are offered 5 choices of entrees, mains, desserts, cheeses and unlimited drinks.
I choose, frog legs, duck and apple tart. Yum. And also tasted snails.
Greg,the conservative one, has French onion soup, beef casserole and apple tart.

It's a fun night with lots of singing and laughter. The muscians wander around the tables singing well known songs, hoping the crowd will fill in the words they don't know.
We leave at 11 pm, for a noisy drive back to our hotel. The coach and driver have to have a 9 hr break before getting back onto the road, so our nights out are never very late.


Au revouir Paris, hello England.

We have had an amazing, surreal, breathtaking, fabulous time in Europe and feel very blessed to have had a great group, guide and driver.

Cheers, from a weary, Leanne and Greg.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Paris