Thursday, 24 May 2012

Where is the Eiffel Tower?

Day 23, Tuesday 22nd May.
The rain has stopped so the Planner plans some 'free time' and sends the Pusher and the Payer out the door fairly early to do the ubiquitous Paris 'big red double decker bus tour'. She meanwhile plans for the departure and chases up wheelchairs for the stop over in Dubai and books a last night out in Gay Paris. Finally on the road about midday she walks down to Le Bon Marche  and meets up with Sylvia, the Parisian lady with whom she and Roger home exchanged 3 years ago. We had never met as she was in Cairns whilst we were in her Paris apartment in the 15th E. Finally twe met up and we walked down to St Germaine de Pres window shopping en route. Even Sylvia thinks that the prices are very high and says she normally shops at the sales which are held twice a year. Now Paris is full of charming cafes as most of you will know but we get as far as the Monoprix store - read Coles caffetteria and dissappear downstairs to have our coffee. I was shattered but I think as a retired women who loves to travel this is obviously her way to save money - and we know from the state of her kitchen that she doesn't cook so she must spend quite alot over a week on eating out. Anyway she plied me with food "you must have something sweet" and then took me on a delightful meander through the hidden cobblestone streets of St Germaine de Pres. Leaving her to continue her shopping I txted the tourists who had just had lunch and suggested they taxi down to Les Deux Magots, a famous landmark in St Germaine de Pres. They had had an exciting morning as when enquiring about wheelchair friendly buses, the driver just said Oui madam and literally picked up the wheelchair and pushed her onto the bus. Anyway after counting 37 buses on one side of the Tour Eiffel ( and there were a similar number on the other side!) they departed to see the city sights only to return to the starting point. Alighting the bus Grannie is annoyed that the Tour Eiffel is no where to be seen after all how can she orientate herself! Stewart is in stiches, they are literally parked right underneath it !
So after rendeavousing in St Germaine de Pres and a little retail therapy, the Planner finally finds herself a unique Parisian handbag, one of only 15 in the world  before the intrepid travellers wheel their way  back home via Le Bon Marche.
After G& T's they decide to visit one of their local restaurants just across the road. The planner has observed that it is always busy so deems that to be a great reccomendation.  We arrive at the door and it appears packed but the owner says "oui oui, entre entre" the wheelchair is parked outside in the lane way as the restaurant is smaller than our apartment living room and probably only seats 20 people. It is intimate with only 6 inches between each table and we are given the prime seat right in the front window. Already seated at the table is a well dressed gentleman so in our limited french we introduced ourselvmyes as the Planner was literally rubbing shoulders with him and it would have been rude not too. A simply fascinating night ensued as we spoke franglais and discovered a whole new lifestyle than none of us realised existed. It turns out he had been coming to the restaurant regularly for the past 32 years ! he had a mistress for 17 yrs who was married, and he lived in a hotel in Montmartre. He has several prefered restaurants, one fish, the one we were sharing with him and a scottidh one in Mont martre because he really liked haggis! He calls his hotel his bedroom, his restaurants are his kitchen and Paris is his 'living room' ! Oooo la la. It was amost entertaining evening and we left in high spirits. The Payer was ready for bed so the Planner and the Pusher thought we should go out for a night cap. Surprise surprise, it was only 10pm but by the time we got back downstairs the  restaurants were all closing so we had to retreat back home and finish of the G& T.

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