Paris!

Bonjour all
Well here we are in Paris! Jase and I caught the train up to Paris on Sunday 4th. We met Jase's parents here. It is their first time in Europe, and they are having a ball! Before here they have been in London staying with Jase's mum's brother, and then to Barcelona which they both loved. They had some good stories to tell of their travels - the most amusing being the cell phone story...They bought a new cell phone in Spain but couldn't get it to work, so spent considerable time trying to get it to work, and had to phone us from their hotel - Jase told them to go in to a Vodafone shop to get it sorted. The next day they spent alot of time looking for a vodafone shop and finally found one and went in and explained that the phone wouldn't work - they gave it to the man behind the counter, who took one look at it and then said it may help if they turned it on!!! That is something I would do! Classic!!!

The next day (yesterday) Mum and Christine arrived. Christine has just spent 2 weeks in Corsica with the mad Irish woman (aka Titch). She is so tanned, and has had a great time cycling and sightseeing on the island. This is the first time Mum has been to France, and the first time she has traveled on her own, so a big trip for her. We spent the day showing the parents around the city - we went to the Champs Elysees, Arc De Triumphe, Louvre, StarBucks (!), Hard Rock Cafe (good French cuisine!), and the Galeries Lafayette.

Yesterday I had a terrifying experience - most people know that I hate birds... well lets just say that the bloody pigeons here have faulty radar! Christine and I had just been to the toilet in Mc Donalds, and were about to cross the road to join the others when a damn pigeon flew down and actually hit me on the head!! I was terrified! I spent the the next few hours pretty much jumping out of my skin when I saw any pigeon fly in the vicinity, and embarrassed the others by walking like the hunch back of Notre Dame!

Today we went to the Eiffel tower. Jase and I sat at the bottom whilst the others took the 650 stairs to the first level, then the elevator to the top. They got some great shots of Paris from up there too, and they all agree that it was the highlight of their Paris experience so far. We then walked towards the Notre Dame Cathedal - and stopped for lunch along the way at a Boulangerie Restaurant. Hmmmmm - not a cheap lunch by all accounts - the cokes were 9 Euros each! We were unaware of the cost until we went to pay. Needless to say we are having salad and baguettes at home for dinner tonight! I did buy a new bag - pretty trendy for me, and a good replacement for my skody kathmandu bag that Katrina (S) from work advised me needed replacing a long time ago!

We have checked the Marmotte results - and a quick summary was that all of our 'team' were placed in the top 6 or 700 riders, which is pretty impressive when the field start number was 7000! Meg did exceptionally well placing 5th in her age group for the women!!

Hope you are all well back home. Will attach some photos when we are back in Bourg...
Jeanette