Well we vowed not to leave it so long between entries, so here's the next installment!

We left you in Senlis, where we lived like royalty for a couple of days in our own beautiful chateau drinking Taittinger champagne and strolling the lush gardens. It was a perfect chilled out precursor to what would be a big week in Paris - the city of Love......

Paris didn't get off to the best start. After being mucked around with the apartment we had booked, and being sent to an entirely different area, we ended up in what we fondly termed it, the Paris Bronx. Arriving at 11.30am we were greeted by a dozen or so homeless drunks sleeping pretty much on our doorstep, and a gang of junkies playing house in the park outside our window. Not the idillic tree lined, bakery filled, market laden Paris we had imagined. Anyway, I had obviously inherited some tough, hard nosed German attitude from our time in Deutschland, cos I wasn't settling for this, and ensured the (not so nice/helpful/approachable) lady at the rental place knew it.

We finally settled into our newly assigned apartment (or shoebox) in a nicer area and hit the ground running. A bike tour to see the 'lesser know locals Paris' started us off, and although my attire was entirely inappropriate (I had felt pressure to look sophisticated after seeing how beautiful all the Parisian girls were....fail), it was the perfect start to what is a massive city. All the big ticket items were checked off the list during our stay - The Louvre, Notre Dame, Sacre Couer, Champs Élysées (no purchases to show however....have given Mum and Dad the pics to buy the 'less expensive' versions in KL!), shopping in The Marais, Latin Quarter, and of course, a very French picnic dinner by the Eifell tower. We even managed to fit in some time to see the unfortunate win by the Cats at 6am at the Aussie pub with 200 other Aussie fans - fabulous atmosphere, weird drinking VB anytime really, let alone at 6am! The result was the wrong one, but 10 mins after leaving the pub the result was forgotten and Paris was calling!

The highlight of the week though had to be our day at the Arc de Triomphe races. It is arguably the most prestigious race in the world, and even better, our own Aussie gem So You Think was a keen fancy to take it out. Using our charm we managed to get free trainers tickets into the course which also allowed us to access the jockeys rooms etc, as well as the best reserved seats in the house in the grandstand (thank you VRC!). With perfect weather and a beautiful course, the day could only have been better with a win from So You Think, but 4th was the best he could do. However, we made friends with a bookie from WA - James is veery happy about that new found friendship!, had a few drinks, and came to the conclusion that we really do hold the best sporting events in Australia - you don't know how good we have it till you see what the competition is!

So we finished up Paris after a good week, but can't say we are sad to have left. It's a tough place to travel in- always having to be aware of everything you're carrying, constantly getting hassled and scammed by beggars (a lot of them better dressed than us - I even saw I one lady begging while talking on her mobile phone that she got out of her immaculate Longchamp handbag!!), and so BIG! It's hard to see everything, and even with their super efficient and reliable Metro, it's just impossible. It is a fabulous city with great food, great culture, and even managed to find some good shopping, but it's also hard and a week was about perfect there for us.

So we spent last night at the Paris Orly airport hotel to catch up with Mum and Dad on their way back from Spain, and now we head South. Loire valley....here we come for more chateaux, more good wine, and hopefully some good french hospitality! (the Germans are definitely winning in that race so far.....)

We will write again soon, much love,
J&N