Evening walk along the Seine We decided to go for a walk along the Seine as it was a glorious night and with no fixed destination went down to the river to see the sights. We crossed various bridges stopping to look at all manner of interesting things on the way including the various tourist boats of all shapes and sizes, children playing on river edge playgrounds, people jogging, cycling and others dining out and just enjoying the lifestyle of Paris. We were am...

Saturday - Off to Paris - Sunday Enjoy the Sights Up out of bed early to catch the TGV train to Paris, a trip of just over 2 hours with one stop in Dijon along the way. We were in the upper level of the train which gave us excellent views of the small villages with their church spires reaching for the heavens and neat tree lined streets of 2 storey stone houses of cream to light brown stonework, with their elegant chimney stacks and dormer windows protruding fro...

Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Vauban's 17th century masterpiece, the Besançon Citadel, is considered to be one of the finest in France. The fortifications cover 11 hectares and lie more than 100 metres above the old town sitting in a loop of the River Doubs. The site is encircled by ramparts topped by walkways and punctuated with watchtowers and bartizans. The walls are up to 20 metres high and 5 to 6 metres thick. The Citadel offers visitors spectacul...

Besancon Le Tour Start -Wednesday We went to the tour start around 9.30 am today and already huge crowds, could not get near the sign on area today as too many people. The area was right beside the river Doubs with the tour village (enclosed area for sponsors etc) located in a beautiful tree lined park on the rivers edge and the start on the road above the park so the area was very compressed as only really footpath areas for the crowds to view from at road leve...

We have now moved on to Besançon awaiting Le Tour stage 11 tomorrow. We arrived last night via train which reached speeds of 320 km per hour yet ran so smoothly it didn't feel like we were moving. The whole of the old centre of Besançon is a delightful urban environment that has survived more or less intact against the onslaughts of modernisation the old streets are lined with houses and buildings from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century, built in th...