Really enjoying daylight saving here. Went for a walk at 9pm this evening and it is still light.
Had a day in town today. We visited the Bayeux tapestry today - this is an 11th century tapestry measuring 70m and displayed these days in a purpose built museum. It records the events leading up to the Norman invasion of England, and the battle of Hastings which occurred in 1066. After that we visited the Battle for Normandy Museum which is dedicated to the D-Day invasion by Allied troops during WWII which took place in June 1944 - the month and year I was born in.

This evening John and I went for a walk around town to capture some night shots. Here in Bayeux most restaurants don't open until 7pm and as we walked around, the restaurants were all full of diners.

At this time of night it is also quite mild, making it a haven for night photography. The plan for tomorrow is to visit some of the Normandy beaches where the Allied invasions took place and also a museum and one of the large war cemeteries. Tomorrow is our last day here in Bayeux.

29 August - Le Mont St Michel, France

Woke up this morning to rain, not what we hoped for. While we had breakfast I downloaded a weather program for this part of the world and found that the rain was due to clear by noon. Our plan for today was to drive 100km or so to Mont St Michel.
Mont St Michel is a rocky tidal island on the coast of Normandy. It's use goes back many centuries, and in the 11th century an abbey was built right on the top of the island.

 The island is located in an estuary which experiences 12m tides, and so there are times when it is possible to walk to the island, but at other times it is totally surrounded by water. These days there is a cause way built some meters above the water level. A free shuttle bus transports the visitors from a car park a couple of km inland, across the causeway and right to the entrance to Mont St Michell.

Once you enter the island there is a steep and narrow cobbled street which leads visitors all the way to the abbey to the top. Quite a steep climb but well worth it. Mont St Michell has always been close to the top of my bucket list of places to visit and getting here was actually fantastic. 

By the time we arrived it was still cloudy but no sign of rain and at the end we had a terrific day.

All that remained was the 100k drive back to Bayeux and looking for somewhere to eat.

29 August - Bayeux, Normandy, France

We left Paris yesterday. After picking up our hire car at Gare de L'Este, we had to tackle a 10k drive through some very busy Paris suburbs, with the added fun of driving on the right hand side of the road with a manual transmission. It was certainly a relief to finally hit the freeways. The speed limits here are 130km/hr which sounds a lot but the roads are so good that anything less feels slow.
We arrived here in Bayeux, on the Normandy coast late in the afternoon. It is a beautiful old city with a wonderful cathedral. Work on the cathedral commenced in 1077, eleven years after the Norman invasion of England.

Here in France it is still light at 9pm so we really enjoyed walking around the town checking out the sights and taking lots of photographs.

We bought baguettes, cheese, ham, tomatoes and a bottle of red wine (14 Euros) and had a picnic dinner in our room which made a nice change from eating in restaurants all the time.

We finished breakfast about an hour ago and now getting ready to drive to Mont St Michel which is about a 100 km drive from here. It was raining this morning but it is now clearing up.

27 August - Paris at Night

After dinner tonight I decided to go back into the city to capture some night shots along the Seine. As the sun goes down, the street lights come on, and most of the bridges and important buildings are lit. It's very beautiful.

Spent a couple of hours just strolling along the left bank. There are Parisians everywhere quietly sharing a bottle of wine and a bit to eat - it's a fantastic scene.

The Notre Dame cathedral looked absolutely wonderful against the pink glow of the sunset.

Finally the sky turned black and it was time to go home via the Metro. Tomorrow we drive to Bayeux in Normandy.

Our last day in Paris. Tomorrow we pick up our hire car and drive north to Normandy. After breakfast, we decided to take the Metro to Place Concord and then to stroll all the way up the Champs Elyssees to the Arc de Triomphe. It is one of the busiest and most beautiful boulevards in the world. As we approached the final 500m or so we encountered all the exclusive shops such as Cartier and Rolex - nice to look but definitely not for us. We did stop for Haagen Daz ice-creams though.

After a very nice stroll in pleasant weather, we reached the Arc de Triomphe, a famous landmark honouring France's war dead and containing the eternal flame commemorating soldiers' lives lost in WWI. Rosa and I last visited here 25 years ago and nothing much has changed - it is still a beautiful place.

After that it was time to return to the Waldorf Hotel, our home away from home, for drinks and a short rest before venturing out for dinner later tonight.

26 August, Paris, France

Today was a quieter day. Our plan was to visit the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery here in Paris. It is a very historic cemetery set in beautiful gardens and many famous people are buried here including Oscar Wilde, Edit Piaf, Chopin, and of course Jim Morrison.

The cemetery is enormous and we had to use Google Maps to find our way to various grave sites. Right in the middle is a beautiful building which is actually a crematorium.

We got back to the hotel around 2:30 for afternoon drinks before having a rest in preparation for the evening's adventure. We'll be heading back into the city late this afternoon so that we're there for dusk   and hopefully some great photo opportunities.

Tomorrow is our last day in Paris - that week has certainly flown. On Tuesday we pick up our hire car and drive to Bayeux in Normandy.

We're all a bit weary and footsore from all the walking we have been doing but once we leave Paris we will have time to recover. Our hotel has been great and we've enjoyed the breakfasts of baguettes and croissants.

24 August - Paris, France

Had a busy day in Paris yesterday. Started off with a river cruise on the rive Seine which runs right through the middle of the city of Paris. What a treat to sit on the top deck of our cruise boat in great weather viewing many of the famous sights of Paris. Wonderful way to start the day. After the cruise we made our way to Montmartre which is the old bohemian part of Paris, and many artists live and have studios here. Our target was the Basilica of Sacre Coeur, on of the main churches here in Paris.

Sacre Coeur is located on the top of the hill and to get there we had to navigate lots of very narrow cobbled street and a very steep climb. Well worth it though. After that we made our way back home using the Metro and had steaks at a restaurant a short distance from our hotel.

Today was our opportunity to visit the palace of Versailles, one of the most visited tourist destination in the world. This opulent palace, built by the Sun King, Louis XIV, is located a 20 minute train ride, and a 20 minute walk from Paris. This huge palace is surrounded by incredible gardens and that's where we started our visit.

After that we headed into the palace. I imagine it would take many days to explore the whole building  and at this stage we were all getting a bit foot sore and tired. What we saw though was magnificent. Can't imagine what it would cost to keep up the maintenance to this place.

So then, very weary and thirsty, we walked back into the suburb of Versailles, and had drinks in a local cafe before catching the train back to Paris.

Our hotel here in Montparanasse is literally surrounded on all sides by restaurants of every type you can imaging. This evening we chose a little Italian pizza/pasta place for dinner before calling it a night. After three very hectic days we are planning fairly quiet day tomorrow.

23 August - Paris, France

After the usual endless flight via Dubai (21 hours plus a 2 hour stop over we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport to a very balmy 21º afternoon. We had booked a transfer to our hotel and it was great to see a driver holding a placard with our names on it. Forty minutes later we were settled into the Waldorf hotel in Montparnasse.  It's a great little boutique hotel. Very friendly people who speak pretty good English. It was too early to go to bed so we wondered down the road a little to find lots of places  to have a drink. After a couple of those we decided to share a pizza as well and then called it a night. In bed by 8pm and slept all the way through to 7 am the this morning. Our hotel room includes breakfast and it was terrific. Fresh baguettes and croissants, with a choice of ham and cheeses and lots of strong coffee - great way to start the day.

This morning we booked some tour tickets which gave us all day hop on - hop off on the "Big Bus", on of those double decker buses with an open top. With the temperature at 31º it was a fantastic way to get an overview of the whole city. After a brief spell at back at the hotel we headed back into town to catch up with our night tour of the city which started at 9:00 also included in our ticket. The night tour is scheduled so that at 11:00 the bus pulls up alongside the Eiffel tower, which then puts on a magnificent light display.