Today is a actually a bit of a rest day for us as the main objective is the tour this afternoon. Paul decided he wanted to go to Sacre Coeur so we decided we would catch a train to Opera and then walk from there to Sacre Coeur and then to the Tour.
We caught the train to Opera which Paul decided against going into as you had to pay and he preferred to spend the time at Sacre Coeur. We had a nice walk up some back roads and then up the hill itself. Naturally Paul brought us out right in the middle of all the sex shops! From there we went up several flights of stairs and ended up not at Sacre Coeur but at Montemarte.
We had a quick look and then walked on to Sacre Coeur. There was the great view of the city, I sat for a few minutes to enjoy it and then we went into the church. It's funny I didn't recall that it was so new, only consecrated in 1919(?). There was a service on so we could only walk around the sides but we were serenaded by choral music.
We then walked back to Montemarte. Too early for lunch! So we had a bit of a walk, looked at some junk stores and then Paul found what turned out to be a lovely little, reasonably priced, restaurant. We both had terrine for entree and then I had a Beef Bourginone for the main, very tasty, and Paul had a Salad Nicoise. For dessert I had a crème caramel and Paul had melon. The décor inside the restaurant was very nice.
We then walked around for a bit, I got a Tour T-Shirt, we took another look at the view of the city then we went back down the hill. Funnily enough Paul had us back in the sex shop area again! After walking a bit we came up to the Moulin Rouge, which I didn't even realise was in this area. We then seemed to walk for ages and in the end I needed a bit of a recharge, so we stopped at a patisserie, which shuts for holidays in 2 days, where I had a nice afternoon tea of a fruit tart and a coke.
Next the Champs Elysee, at the Arc, the crowds were enormous! Although I was surprised that in many places they were only 3 deep. We walked down the right (east) side of the avenue enjoying the ambiance. The plan was to go to the Jardin des Tuilleries. However we ran into a road block, a large section that was not open. So we walked half way back up the avenue, under the road via the metro, and then back down the avenue. This time we were detoured all the way to the Seine and then had to walk along its banks for quite a while. Eventually we managed to go up and into the Jardin using an underpass. Unfortunately the Place de la Concorde was not open so we went to the main road with all the hotels near the Louvre. We ended up at a great location, 1 km from the finish, i.e. about 10 metres past the red kite!
We got a great place right by the road with only a kid and his sister in front of us, i.e. short, perfect. We got lots of photo's, some videos and even had time to cheer as they go past many times (8 or 9). All very exciting. There was a break away for quite a while but of course they were caught on the final lap.
Once it was all over, and we had no idea who won, we were caught in traffic. It was kind of stupid, the roads weren't opened up. So it took as 45 minutes to get around to where the presentations are made, long after they are finished. Even though there were thousands of people there didn't seem to be anything on.
So we then made our way back to a place near the Louvre that Paul had picked out as a possibility for lunch the other day, his second choice. This was much more up market than his first choice and much more suited to a dinner feast! The interior was very nice and the food excellent. Paul made the point that it was our last night in Paris so we should have something special. In the end he talked me into it so we both had one of their specialities, French Onion soup, and I had a seafood platter. Ken would be proud :) Paul had a calves head stew, another speciality, which he couldn't finish! The seafood platter was quite different to anything I have had before. It was basically lots and lots of shell fish, oysters, muscles, clams, other shell things, little snails, bug snails, lots of tiny little shrimp and 3 big prawns. The little shrimp were quite sweet, you could eat them whole although I preferred to remove the head because of the long tentacles.
After that we waddled back to the hotel where of course we had to watch Retour le Tour to find out what happened :)
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