Day 10

Today was a big day, I ordered breakfast entirely in French and got what I asked for, including a very pleasant person serving who I think knew I was a beginner but really appreciated the effort.

After a quick breakfast we went on the first of the days adventures, can anyone guess our mode of travel? This is the Fanicular cable railway.

Sacre-Cœur was our first stop of the day, a place of beauty by itself but as it is one of the highest set buildings in Paris it gives a good vantage point for photos of Paris itself.

Unfortunately there was no photo taking in the building so we got a post card and I took a picture of it.

The roof looks like a painting but it's in fact the largest mosaic I have ever seen, this picture doesn't even begin to show the massiveness of it, simply breath taking.

Sacre-Cœur has 2 other amazing things to visit, the Dome and the Crypts.

The Dome

Some interesting guttering and drainage ideas for our home

The crypts

It started to rain so we headed for a local cafe.

It was home for a very quick lunch via ... you guessed it, stairs. You know how they name cities, like Adelaide is the city of churches, I here by dub thee (Paris) City of stairs. I have never walked up and down as many stairs as I have done in the last 4 days.

Just quick note to say how proud I was of my beautiful wife today, she had her first small exchange in French with a staff member at the hotel and did very well. :)

Out we went again, next stop ... Arc de Triomphe ... where's wally? (ie me)

The Arc de Triomphe resides at the end of the Champs-Elysées, the rich main street of Paris.

Our journey started with ... you guessed it more stairs.

There wasn't too much more to show up the top other than more beautiful pictures of Paris but we did manage to get a few nice ones of us.

Some more pictures

On the way home to watch stage 9 of Le Tour de France we got caught on a train with a second accordion player (the first we escaped as he got on when we got off). <rant>In my humble opinion the accordion and the banjo should never have been created, awful instruments with nothing to add to the musical scene</rant>

Had a great afternoon watching Le Tour de France, it was also raining quite a bit which was nice to listen to, here is a sample.

http://youtu.be/LV_508-dYJ4

The evening was spent with Rhys and Yvette having dinner and watching the final of the world football cup projected onto the back wall of the restaurant.

Tomorrow is Bastille Day, a national public holiday in France, shoud be interesting.