Volcanos RULE!
Well, "Bernadette's Volcano" in Iceland is certainly causing bedlam in the UK and Europe. We were certainly fortunate to just beat it by a couple of days.
Today, we went on a long and hilly perambulation through Montmartre ending up at Sacre Coeur which is very impressive.
Today was the first day of holidays in Paris and it sure was busy on the trains, buses, streets and footpaths. We are leaving for St Malo on Monday but if it was like today, we could not possibly have got onto the Metro with our luggage. Michel from our Chambre d'Hote assures us that Monday will be better. He has been correct with everything else so is likely to be right again.
This morning, we organised our local mobile phone SIM plus internet access for the remainder of our trip. We also purchased our Carte Seniors and TGV tickets to St Malo on Monday. This was done all in French and we were assured our French was "tres bien" but I think this was more than we deserve at the moment. Due to the volcano, most of the available seats on the Paris-St Malo trains disappeared overnight. We have taken up a special offer from SNCF to upgrade to First Classs for 13 euros. This should be a treat on the ultra-fast train. It will be interesting being on a train capable of 575km/hr (max recorded in 2007) though on our trip it will probably only get up to 300km/hr. WOW! It is also great that Penny booked our Ferry to Guernsey to see the kids several months ago. All Ferries are booked out everywhere.
As well as a number of other things, we visited the Musee d'Orangerie today. Saw a large number of Monets, Rodins, Picassos, Matisses, Cezannes, Klees, Gaughins, Renoirs, Modligianis etc etc. What a feast! Tired we came home and chatted to Michel over a coffee. Then we tried a new restaurant (we are right next to an excellent few streets full of great bars and restaurants). Three course meal including Rose for 11euros! Wow- and this is in Paris! The waiter asked if we spoke French- we said "a peu" (a little) with which he said "then we will speak English" but he did not. All French with a few corrections of pronunciation which was great- just what we need. We added a nice bottle of Bordeaux and rolled down the hill to "home" and are ready for a sleep.
Off to the Bois de Bologne and the Eiffel tower tomorrow.
Someone has to do this, so it might as well be us.
All the best,
Dave and Penny
