Sunday 11 March 2018

Day 27,

we were out and about early again,


we made our way past the tower,

and mini fun fair,

there are number of these by some of the bridges, I mention to Diana how cold it was, over night the temperature had really dropped,

we crossed the bridge,

to see another roundabout in the distance,

sans customers,

we seldom walk in this side of the River Siene,

the roundabout we normally walk past from the other side of the river,

fridge magnet time!

a quick pose,

then out with the selfie stick,

we walked with our back to the tower,

taking pictures,

as we went,

we were now away from any protection from the wind,

it was bitingly cold,

going down,

and we found this bit of fun, you could hire a car for the day, I was tempted, but the thought of the paperwork involved if there was a ding put me off of the idea, but what great fun,

we crossed back to the tower side, in the background the boat we have tickets for, we had paid for a evening cruise and dinner, but with the river so high it seems unlikely that it will happen, if the trip is cancelled it will be on to plan B,

but first a late breakfast,

beef stew for myself,

lasagna for Diana,

we continued our walk past the mausoleum,

then crossed the river,

and passed a number of statues,



made in 1877,

cheval a la herse de, by Pierre Louis Rouillard

I love looking at the print and book stalls, 

that line the bank side,

magnet time,

again!

a bit difficult to see, but there was a diving bird, 

when it surfaced a cormorant, with all of that water the fish must be pretty thin on the ground,

a quick pose,

and we were on our way again, when I noticed some street art on the other bank,

it was actually paintings on tarpaulin,

that the builder was using to stop dust and debris from falling or blowing about,

what a neat idea,

as we neared Notre Dame,

blue skies,

it had been cold, chilly and slightly drizzly all morning,

what a difference Mr. Blue sky makes,

I even posed myself,

we had been inside the last time we were here,

well we had to try a tuk-tuk, and this time we were not attacked by a gang of vicious thugs, unlike the last time we were here when tourist became the target of striking street gangs,

so today we were all smiles,

and this is what we were looking for, a Panasonic photography shop, I/we had forgotten to pack the battery charger for the camera so I was going to buy one, but the shop was shut, as it happened I had 3 fully charged batteries with us plus the one in each camera, in the event we did not need a charger, but fancy me/we forgetting to pack it!

we decided to walk back passing many imposing buildings as we entered the shopping area of town, we were looking at a couple of glass shops, the pieces on offer looking like sweeping floor cast offs, which we both commented on,

in the next shop we stopped outside, the first thing Diana said was, 'these look better, they look just like Lalique',

and I had to agree, 

there was something about the pieces,

that you knew they were special,

and as we moved away from the shop we knew why, Diana was 100% correct, it was the official Laique store! we must be watching way too many shows about antiques,

we passed the Paris Eye,

and I chanced upon this classic, a Citron, in it's day arguably the most technically advance and comfortable ride money could buy, 

we made our way towards the bridge,

passing one of the three Cleopatra's Needle, it is the name shared by three ancient Egyptian obelisks, one in New York City, one in London, and one in Paris, and in a classic case of getting the name wrong, each comes from a different Egyptian site and none may have been built in honor of Cleopatra, well I will still call them collectively Cleopatra's Needle,

it makes for a nice picture,

one advantage of coming to any tourist site in winter,

lack of tourists!

we continued walking,

then something caught my eye,

someone had given the stature of a Zouave soldier a life jacket,

still the rising water level was not going to keep at least one fisherman to try for his supper,

the sun was starting to go down,

not far to go now,

and then the tuk-tuk came past,

we continued walking,

on the opposite bank,

then crossed the river and went back to the hotel to change for our evening meal at a local restaurant,

at the Lolanda, just around the corner from our hotel,

Diana ordered pizza,

and then wished she had not, it was huge,

the same with mine, I expected one or maybe two fillets of pork,

not four!

naturally we finished with crepes, then back to the hotel for a nightcap, and we were off to bed.


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