The final of the Tour wasn't until the afternoon so we decided on another walk around the city.
I think this was sewage..
The Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine, which is a museum of contemporary history.
The Grand Palais, this is a large historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex.
Petite Palais which is now an art gallery
We wandered through same back streets and saw some interesting cars. I can see these electric cars being pretty practical in a big city. Not much use for a family though.
Porsche family sedan
or SUV
New VW beetle
The Flame of Liberty (Flamme de la Liberté) in Paris is a full-sized, gold-leaf-covered replica of the new flame at the upper end of the torch carried in the hand of the Statue of Liberty. The flame became an unofficial memorial for Diana, Princess of Wales after her 1997 death in the tunnel beneath the Pont de l'Alma.
We could see the crowd building so we headed back.
Lolly shop
Outside the flasher hotels
were the nicer cars
Our first function for the Tour was a meeting in the bar to watch the final stage. There I got to meet my first billionaire , the guy that owns the Saxo bank
I also ended up sitting behind Ivan Basso (although I didn't know who he was, google him you you don't know).
Later that evening we set of for a meal at Restaurant Laurent . It's a one Michelin star restaurant, which apparently is good.
I was a bit worried the food would be too fancy for my tastes but it was really nice.
On our table was the head mechanic for the Tinkoff/Saxo team. He was a pretty interesting guy and I learnt a fair bit more about cycling
After the meal we walked back to the hotel.
Whilst Jo was doing the Laundry (and reading her Kindle) I went for a walk to see what was around. First thing I found was George Washington.
If you believe the stereotype the French hate the Americans and vice versa. Whether that is true, I don't know but looking at all the American's immortalised in French stone or Paris street names that clearly wasn't the case in the past.
Next I stumbled across rather nice water feature. It's at the bottom of the Trocadéro Gardens. The buildings up the top are the Palais de Chaillot which now house Architectural, naval & ethnographic museums.
Across the road was this Tower.
On the way back to meet Jo I came across a local street market.
After grabbing Jo we went back to check it out. It sold all sorts of things from fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh meat, seafood and pastries to clothing and of course souvenirs. We spent a good hour and half looking through the various stalls and buying a few bits and pieces.
Never really thought they had big Prawns up there.
The traditional French chicken roaster. Wasn't bad either.
I did like the mini parked outside this real estate agent. We did check out some of the apartments on offer.... A bit out of our price range.
And on the way back Jo had to check out the Crazy horse review.
After a 2.5 hour drive across the French countryside (look sensible speed limits.) we dropped the car back at Charles De Gaulle airport then proceeded to look for the RER train into the city
Our first route was blocked by three heavily armed French Paratroopers so we looked for an alternate route.
Eventually we found the station and jumped on the train to city. We got off at a large station then spent 30 mins trying to find our way out. The station was attached to massive shopping mall parts of which were under construction.
Once we reached the street we went looking for a taxi. That proved harder than we thought. Whilst fumbling with Google maps on my phone a Frenchwoman came up to me (must of been my good looks) and pointed us in the right direction to a main road. We nabbed a cab just in time as it was starting to rain - a feature we'd get used over the next few days.
We finally arrived at our rather nice abode for the next few days Hotel de La Tremoille.
That's not our pic, our room was on the 1st floor on the right.
And macaroons on arrival... Who would have though 3 days later I'd be sick of these
A view down the street from our room
After we'd settled in we went for a walk to find the Laverie (Laundromat) I'd marked on Google Maps. Washing was a priority after 7 days on the road. Once we found that and confirmed opening times we found a restaurant and sat down for a nice Italian meal.
Some street scenes.
It's a busy place
