Day Sixteen: Travel Day to Nice

IT'S A 'TRAVEL DAY' TODAY


I wake up early at 5am and start working before Ant and the monster wake up :)

Ant showers and I clean up a little ... play with Charlie and grab breakfast. I look out the window and 8 young, handsome, French Firemen are hanging out of the window across the road. OMG!!! I'm in my underwear!! I gasp and they laugh while I run away. Oh god what a perfect photo that would be for Deirdre but they are gone by the time I put jeans on and grab the camera.





Darn... fly out today earlier than we thought so maybe can't meet Sophie :( I was really looking forward to going out with a French couple!

We don't want to leave Paris - a week is just not enough!!

Time to shower and pack while Ant entertains Charlie ....

Boooooo!!


ARRIVING IN NICE

We get a cab to the hotel and are pleasantly surprised. It's close to the beach and right on one of the walking streets (mall). I get into my holiday mode immediately! Lets eat and go to the beach!!





We grab a bite at le Bistro, where we meet a couple of English ladies, Dori and her daughter Lucy, with their children Finlay almost two and Rory who is seven. (I think Bistro food should generally be avoided BTW hehe). We head down to the beach for a look-see.

Charlie has this thing at the moment with stones. She LOVES them. Everywhere we go she collects them. And if you think you can get any of them off her think again!!

So when we rock up to the beach at Nice she was in instant heaven. You should have seen her face!! "STONES!!!!!!" she screamed, raising her hands in the air. "YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!" and her pockets were full in seconds. The beaches are pebbles and round stones here.

We get back quite late and crash out. Did I mention the sun doesn't set here until around 9.30pm?

Day Fifteen: Sacre Coer, Montmarte & L'Arc de Triomphe

**Photos and details st to come there is just no time to blog at the moment! I have days and days to catch up on and some awesome photos! **

Charlie has been playing up a bit the last couple of days so I take her to the park early today to try to burn some energy straight up :) I meet Sophie and her son Joachim and then her husband Benjamin before she heads off to work at Radio France. We plan to catch up tomorrow for a play and then maybe to go out somewhere as it's Saturday. Yay! She's really nice! (And speaks excellent English).

I head back to grumpy Ant... (even after a big sleep in!) and we get the day under way.

EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK ... OLD AD IMPRESSIVE

No matter where we walk in this city we see cool stuff.

So THIS is how they get the furniture into the tiny apartments... we know the size of the lifts here so wondered about that!

SACRE COER IS BEAUTIFUL

We jumped on a bus near the Louvre and started with Sacre Coer - even better than Notre Dame I think. You aren't allowed to take photos in there and that seems right (unlike Notre Dame where a full service can be going on while tourists traipse through). Sacre Coer is absolutely beautiful inside. Some Spanish teenagers were taking flash photos in there and ignoring all the signs ... looks were exchanged between everyone around us ... I thought they maybe didn't speak French or English and pointed at the camera and made a cross... 'no' .... she smiled and deliberatley took more photo's without even looking through the camera whilst giving me a cheesy grin. No idea... lol.

IT'S ALL ABOUT GETTING MONEY FROM TOURISTS

Lunch in Montmarte just behind Sacre Coer (expensive and crappy food - it's all American style chips and burgers etc and so different from the food we've had so far!!) ... AUD $15 for a glass of Fanta (Orangina) and the waiter tries to tell us if we really want to be French we could ask for "La soustraction" instead of "l'addition". What a dick...

We walk through the market part famous for artists and portraits and it's nice enough but really really touristy ... it seems kinda fake. A guy tries to sell me a sillouette cutout thingy and I say no a few times... he eventually seems to offer it to me for free. He's asks if I speak English and says "Just for you" and starts to do one... I am surprised!! Cool! For me? Really?? Seriously?? He nods and hands it over. I thank him with two big kisses on each cheek and tell him thank you so much (another artist behind him starts laughing his head off...) then he actually asks me for 10 EUR .. usually 20 EUR he says.... Oh!! I thought it was too god to be true... Oh! I say... this is what you do .... (con people basically... not impressed). He gives up and hands it to me free. :)

We take Charlie on the carousel ... the movie Amelie is set in Montmarte by the way. You'll see this carousel in the movie too.

Walking through the streets of Montmarte on the way to a Metro station.

L'ARC DE TRIOMPHE

We leave Montmarte.... jump on le Metro to L'Arc de Triomphe and go up to the top.

View of Sacre Coer from the top.

Yes... and the tower of course :)

HUGE walking day... my feet are sooo sore! I slather them with massive amounts of Charlie's Sorbolene and throw some socks on to try to bring them back to normal.

Sooooo tired..... back to the apartment for Chinese takeaway dinner. I should be working but I crash out at 9pm. Today I shiver to think we still have another month on the road.... No more sightseeing Antony!! In Nice all I am doing is working and lounging on the (stony) beach.

We fly out tomorrow.