Plus Paris

Day two saw us having breakfast in a cute little cafe (pic) before we headed to the street market of Rue Mouffetard, which is one of the oldest market streets in Paris - near Gobelins. It was there that we bought some delicious french wine, cheese, ham and bread for our lunch at Montmartre.

As you know both Mark and I are impatient at the best of times with public transport, so we usually walk everywhere, but I must say this was one of the few times as we actually caught a bus.

Our feet were still aching after all the previous days walking which even a soak in the bath could not cure. It was actually a good thing, as it went a different way and we saw a few places of interest to return to later.

Montmartre (pic below) was just as quaint as I remember, but busier as it was a weekday when we last visited, but there was still no clear view to the the Eiffel Tower. I also wanted to buy a painting from one of the painters in the square, but with the rent being due soon, I was promised i could buy on our next Paris visit. We have the rugby in France next September, so we know for sure we will be back.

The Galleries LaFayette was next on the agenda, all the way down the hill from Montmatre. At first it seems like a big shopping mall, but its actually one huge multi-level (7 actually) shop, but all designer products, not unlike Selfridges really (which I actually hate). We actually visited because the interior is supposed to be stunning and it certainly did not disapoint.

We managed to grab a bus, just before a huge downpour of rain, back towards our hotel, but alas once we got to our stop, we were still forced to huddle in the shelter of a cafe while it subsided - but only slightly.

It didn't quite disappear even when we went to dinner that night at Bistro 80, near the St Sulpice church. We were a little worried that we had seen the last of the sunshine, but the next morning it was just as gorgeous as ever. Oh and despite what everyone says Paris is very clean, and we saw only one nasty doggy poop on the pavement the whole time we were there, the biggest problem we encountered was the abundance of smokers - the French sure do love to contribute to the tobacco industry!

Tres Bien....ah oui Paris....

We barely had a week to recover from our Turkey visit before we were off again on a much anticipated long weekend in Paris.

It was anticipated that the weather was going to be against us, but after our 2 hour Eurostar train ride when we arrived at Gare du Nord, we discovered that the BBC have no idea when it comes to weather and it was sunny, bright and gorgeous in Paris.

Our little hotel was situated in the latin quarter, just near the Notre Dame (see pic) on the South of the river, very cute and cosy in a tiny winding narrow street. So after dropping off our luggage we set out to explore Paris.

First thing on the agenda was to go for a wander along the Isle St Louis, which has lots of cute little shops. It was there that I had my first attempt at speaking french, when we ordered our lunch at a Boulangerie (Bakery).


Lunch was in the Tulleries gardens, right next to the Louvre, just amazing - I still have Paris down as my most favourite city. In the gardens were the most beautiful flowers, sailboats in the fountains, and people just wandering around or enjoying the sunshine in the garden chairs. I have lots of pictures and will put more in too.

From there we wandered our way along towards the Champs Elysees, where we window shopped the designers stores along Avenue Montaigne before finally wandering around to "Le Tour Eiffel".

It's just as magnificent as we remember, so we sat a while in the little gardens. Next stop was the Luxemberg gardens (pic) on our way back to the hotel and dinner in the Marais area.

ANZAC - Turkey Trip - Final

Ok so we made it back to Istanbul in one piece, and even the dodgy food on the way back didn't kill us.... Gallipoli was exhasting so we were very ready for bed on our return.
The next morning a group of us whom had later flights decided to visit the famous Grand Bazaar to do a bit of shopping. It is quite huge and you can buy lots of gold, fabrics, brass, linen and turkish teas or some more gold and fabrics - there was even a section where you could buy giant bags of press studs and the like. All the shops were run by men, very friendly though so all good there.

We were trying to find a good place for some nice Turkish food for lunch and we were chatting with some men a gold store whom directed us to the Havvzlur Restaurant in the middle of the markets. It was delicious and not a kabab in sight. With that we farewelled our Anzac friends and headed off to the airport, taking a local train there, which reminded me a lot of the local Paris trains. So all good things must come to an end, thus lies the end of our trip to Istanbul.