On to Paris

More beautiful countryside on our way to Paris. We passed right through the centre of the Champagne region. The bottle bank at the marina in Mareuil-sur-Ay made us laugh, being about two-thirds full of champagne bottles, rather than the usual "Vin du Pays". It's a lovely little town (one baker, one butcher, 14 champagne houses), but does seem to have some rather unusual residents.....

The vineyards are quite amazing to see; mile after mile of carefully ordered rows of vines.

 
And I loved this wild flower garden planted at one of the locks we passed through. It was full of insects and butterflies.

Arrived in Paris in rain and high winds - not very August-y. We stayed at Paris Arsenal which is right next to the Place Bastille, in fact the Bastille Metro Station forms one of the boundary walls, so very central.

My sister, Helen, and her daughter, Lily came to visit for the weekend, much to Emma's excitement. Lily is now five and had two "must do" items on her list for Paris:

1. Go and see the Eiffel Tower (or the "Eif Tower" as Emma calls it)
2. Go and see Quasimodo's House (better known as Notre Dame - she's been watching the Disney film)

Both pretty easy to accomplish!

In the event, I think both Emma and Lily were more excited by the other events of the day - a ride on the Metro, lunch in a cafe, a ride on a carousel and a big bag of popcorn!

Next day we met up with an old friend of mine and her daughter. We worked together at Royal Trust Bank many years ago. She moved to Paris 20 years ago and this was the first time I had met her daughter.

We all had lunch then took the boat out for a trip up and down the Seine. The sun shone and the children had a whale of a time doing a little bit of sightseeing and a lot of pulling out all the toys and squealing at each other.

 

The Eiffel Tower and Paris's Statute of Liberty from the Seine

 



Before signing off, I must post a picture of the boat we were moored next to in Paris. When we booked in the Harbourmaster said "you are in slot 130, next to the colourful boat; you won't miss it". He was right!