Paris

eek - here we go...

At precisely 17.04:12, after having parked the car safely off-rue, Tristan and Richard arrived in the centre of Paris, opposite Notre Dame. The scheduled arrival time would have been earlier had they not lost their bearings along the way to Yatje's flat but you know what men and map-reading are like and these pesky French make their street signs so difficult to read. Being the cyber junkies they are, it didn’t take them long to hook themselves up to the internet and soon they were merrily checking emails, googling attractions visited (sur le Pont d’Avignon la-la), displaying their photos and drafting blog entries instead of admiring the wonderful view or even wanting to do anything remotely touristy, despite all the brilliant suggestions of their hostess. Once the internet appetite had been satiated, they realised that their stomachs needed appeasing too and so we went to a lovely little restaurant which served both meaty and veggie stuff since Richard didn’t really want to sample the delights of the macrobiotic mung beans and tofu polenta with alfalfa coulis from the nearby veggie restaurant.

After a good night’s sleep (thankfully with not much coughing and no snoring), we were made to get up and enjoy the beautiful sunny Parisian day and accompany Yatje on a walk along the Seine. Should we mention that ‘saddo’ had her camcorder with her to capture every beautiful moment? Naturally, this rendered us a bit mute for the duration of the walk. Thankfully, it was switched off when we reached the Louvre and its Pyramids and we could speak and joke freely again as we enjoyed our crêpe lunch. Then it was back to the beloved audi- tourer-camper-van again for a typically touristy ride along the rue de Rivoli, around Place de la Concorde and up the Champs-Elysées before a hair-raising dodgem ride around the Arc de Triomphe before joining the périphérique bound for Calais. Vive les vacances!