Paris 18/7

First glimpses of France as we hurtle towards Paris-Austerlitz station, arriving mid-morning. Takes us a while to find the tourist office and to get our bearings. We are not far from our hotel - called My Hotel in France Le Marais - so leap on the metro with our bags. We are glad not to have to change currency now that everyone uses the Euro. Dump our bags at the hotel as still too early to check in and head out for Notre Dame Cathedral as we can sort of see that in the distance. We have so little time here that we are loathe to spend the next 60minutes or more in a queue no matter how good the cathedral is and we take a few snaps and move on. Paris seems so grubby compared to cities in Spain, and we immediately put it down to the number of cars on which the Parisians seem to rely heavily. We have become unused to that over the past month. I have to say that it certainly is my preference to be without the cars. I haven't had any opportunity to ride any of the hire bikes in every town we have been in, and I don't think I will before we leave Europe. I am dying to get back on my own bike when I get home.

So, what does a poor tourist do with so much to see and so little time - get on a bus of course. We join the throng on the red bus, the ticket will cover two days, and hed upstairs to the open top to take photos as we go along and do a bit of a recce ("time spent in reconnaisance is never wasted" M.Craig). We do get off the bus a couple of times to see things but for the most part we stay on just having a look. We go to the Louvre, just to the outside and to have a look at the Pompidou pyramid. That has to be the most ridiculous construction and the most inappropriately placed I have seen in a while.

Walk back to the hotel, check in, shower and off again to dine at a cafe somewhere near Notre Dame on the river then we do what I have been wanting to do all along - head up the Seine on a boat. A very nice young woman points out all the wonderfully illuminated buildings and gives us a short history lesson along the way. You can almost hear the excitement build as we approach Le Tour Eiffel - and the oohs and aaahs as the lights start to glitter and rush up and down the structure. I shouldn't sound so cynical as I was ooohing and aaaahing along with the rest of them. It is terrific. We now know where we are going tomorrow - thank you Mr Bus Driver. We experience one more first along the way home - a very well dressed woman with a clear English accent approaches us and asks if we speak English. So we tell her we do, then she starts to ask for help - hmmmm... Rob heads off and I follow but not before she tells me that she owes money at her hotel and just needs a little to sort things out with them .. I also am out of earshot at this point.