Out and about in Paris

Graeme - Met the owners of the unit and one of their children last night, lovely people and couldn't be more helpful. They live upstairs and we were to go up at 8pm when they got home. Put the head down on the bed at about 5.30 pm and woke up at 10pm. (No comments from Trev please). Great start but they seemed to think it was normal for their visitors. The lady said she would come and collect us if we were lost as long as we were still in Paris (and she worked this out after only meeting Annette for 5 minutes, boy she was good).
Up early and about on foot. Not sure where were were going but heading in towards the centre. We decided not to take the metro, it shouldn't take long on foot and we would be seeing a bit more of Paris. Ha!!!.

First stop was to the local street market to show Annette (remember I was out and about yesterday) and buy something to eat. Bit of an experience hearing French being shouted at you from the stall holders but very easy to ignore. Nola, a message from Annette, she wants one of these for her birthday.(as seen in one of the many tempting window displays)

Got a bit further along and another huge market. Got a bite to eat and the stall holder asked if Annette was American and when told no AUSTRALIAN he replied that's not as bad then, which made the other french people around laugh.

Further along found the Port de Plaisance de Paris-Arsenal full of interesting boats that people appear to live on. A very nicely kept area. One of the boats had an interesting item attached to the side.

By now it's past lunch, we haven't even gotten to the la Bastille, (just up the street from where we are staying) and I'm beginning to think we should have taken the metro. Evey corner you turn there is something else you want to take a closer look at. It is just unbelievable how old and pretty the buildings are. Every alleyway holds another treasure to find. This is just a couple below.

This bloke was making the biggest bubbles I had ever seen. The children were loving it. Arrived in the main area, so to speak around 3pm. Didn't have time to have a look around as I wanted to check out a map shop so it was over the river to the south side. Discovered a small museum with roman ruins that we will check out later and Annette discovered the expensive shops.

I threatened to put these two onto her if she even thought about going inside. The female officer was doing a pretty good job on a group of musicians how had just started to play in the street. She remined me of one of my work mates actually. Got to the map shop just before they closed and guess what. Had a whole down stairs area full of maps of all France except where we wanted to walk. It appeared to be the only one missing out of about 150 maps. Our plans may have to change. Left there and walked back home, very tired, very sore. Second impression of Paris. Very pretty city where we walked through. Very clean. All the people have been helpfull, even it they thought we were americans. This was the only odd thing we saw and it reminded me of someone.

Until tomorrow
Au revoir