Paris Boat & Bus Tour

Well, we arrived at the apartment after almost hiring a limo at the train station (ooops) and the lovely Virginia (apartment owner) let us in. She took us up in the old elevator (1934) and suddenly we're back to the elevator in Rome where you have an inner and an outer door! Virginia assures us it is perfectly safe!

Virginia is a tiny thing, even shorter than me but she has so much energy that you feel a little old just watching her zip around everywhere. anyway we walked into the apartment and she showed us the bathroom, the hallway, how to work the lights and the door and then we walked into the loungeroom. The view is something to behold, rooftops across Paris and there in the distance waiting for you to fall in love with her is the Iron Lady (the name Paris natives use for the Eiffel Tower apparently). I'm not ashamed to admit it - I cried, Sarah had tears in her eyes and bless her heart, Virginia said "it is right that you are here to love Paris so much".

After we'd collected ourselves, we looked around the rest of the apartment and the kitchen has the same view - WOW how lucky can we be! The bedroom has a view of the main square and that was lovely too - it reminded us of Florence.

Virginia gave us 15 minutes to ourselves and then the orientation began. She showed us Paris from the map print she has on her wall and then takes you around the local neighbourhood to show you where everything is - from the pharmacy, the best supermarket, baker, deli, restaurant etc. she also gave the opening days and showed us the metro and the magic bus - stops at all the major sights on the way to the Eiffel Tower! An incredible welcome and then she suggested a small walk to orient ourselves. We stopped at a lovley restaurant with no english translation to the menu but I managed to order two cheeseburgers (OMG so delicious) and to pay and all with only minor reference to the phrase book! We watched the sunset and the lights come on at the tower including the sparkly twinkly lights that we had seen so often. The photos don't do it justice but I'll never forget sitting at the table watching the sparkly lights - magic.

Day 1 saw us take a bus tour and boat tour around Paris visiting all the major sights. Too many to mention but enough to whet our appetite for the days ahead. The tour finished up at the Eiffel Tower and we wandered around and under whilst marvelling at the size of it. Metro ride home and we were absolutely exhausted but very very happy.

Dinner was our time to experiment, we've vowed for ages that when the opportunity presented itself, we were going to try snails. Through extremely bad planning on my part, our restaurant offered snails on the menu so there was really nothing for it but to have a try. I went first and the mental image of eating a snail is much worse than the snail itself. Digging them out of the shell wasn't nice and I'm seriously unskilled at the grabby tong things but I ate one and then it was Sarah's turn. Like an absolute trooper she ate one, drank some lemonade, ate some caprese salad and then went back for another one! I was so proud of her!!

Despite having two beds, we fell asleep fully clothed on the bed in the bedroom and both slept like logs!