Next day back at Abbesses metro found that bloody station had a lift most of the way which would have saved much straining.

The metro ,at first daunting is an incredible piece of engineering the one ticket allows you to travel all over central Paris one way it is so easy to use and in fact every one does it . So we went down to the stop at the Louvre and caught the ubiquitous hop on hop off bus .First off Paris is a far grander city than London and that is in part the fact that ,it didn't suffer depredations during the blitz .probably also it being predominately roman catholic , the church did ring a lot out of its subjects for very grand houses of worship.napoleon also liked a huge building or two . I don't know why but the city is really beautiful. We went to Place de Concorde where during the revolution it is estimated that 1300 hundred of the aristocracy were guillotined , it is said the whole area was running with blood. As usual we walked and walked , poor old C not really feeling that flash. Had lunch near garden of Luxemburg's a huge area where the Parisians have lunch and play and lie on the grass. Jumped on bus again ,this tour gave 4 different tours we did 2. Got of at the Louvre again and went in only to discover that it closes at 530 we didn't even realise it was that late and then to discover it closes on Tuesday . The weather is absolutely beautiful about 26c so different from poor old blighty..

Some observations the Parisian men are as you sort of expect ,hair sort of longer ,wearing cream trousers and needle cord jackets . The French girls wear no makeup or plunging necklines and look oh so chic. The whole existence revolves around sitting around cafes with coffee or beer smoking and much talking. Montmartre where we are is perfect for this because, even though it has a lot of foot traffic going up to Sacre Coeur it still is really a village with heaps of boulangerie ,boucherie, patisserie friut shops fish shops (where the fish looks so fresh).

We have been following the locals and having hot chocolate and pastries.for breakfast. Very delicious and I'm sure better for not having a fag with it Our second sleep was very disturbed as we very hot and there is no tea facilities in the room ,we went back to sleep and woke up at 10 o'clock .A much needed catch up and we were both in a better frame of mind. As the Louvre was out we decided to go to muse dOrsay a building (building doesn't do it justice) to see the impressionists .We spent about 2 hrs wandering around looking at Manets Monets Pissaro's Van Gogh Renoir's and many others .No real security and so close that you could touch them .

After flagging a bit we revived with a coke continued wandering around until we caught metro home.

We went back to top of hill ,I bought some art from a market then we had a beautiful dinner at a little cafe at top .

Last day in Paris boo hoo we decided to stay in the village and look around it as we had to heading to Montpanasse to catch Tgv for Bordeaux by 4 .

That all went very smoothly ,our metro from Abbesses took us all the way without having to change .

There is very little warning that the train is leaving , the doors close and you are off.

The countryside was mainly cropping ,lots of sunflowers ,for seed or oil I presume. Interestingly also large amounts of wind turbines in the paddocks not close together though and didn't look that offensive. We were expecting lots of shrills when we disembarked ,but as luck would have it we followed one another around before seeing them.

Bizarre seeing Mike and Philly in Bordeaux .The house is absolutely fantastic ,and Mike and the credit card have been having time completely out fitting it. Philly made us a french meal and we collapsed into bed