10 days in Paris

Paris. Wow! What a city.

We were so pleased to find our campsite so easily. Camping Indigo Paris, Bois de Boulogne, Paris. The site is so close to the city centre. It’s a busy site with great facilities, tree lined avenues, a bar and restaurant, a shop with fresh bread & croissants each morning and friendly faces at reception.

We have stayed here for 10 nights with Andy travelling back to the UK twice for meetings.

Our first trip into the city and we decided to go on our bikes. We headed off towards The Eiffel Tower. It was a little surreal as we cycled through the centre of Paris, we stopped for photos along the way. Once we reached The Tower we carried on along the bank of the River Seine and over the Passerelle Leopoldo-Sedar-Senghor (A pedestrian/cyclist bridge) and into the Tuileries Gardens that led us up to the Place de la Concorde and a wonderful view down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.

We then cycled around the streets of Paris and made our way back to the Eiffel Tower to sit in the sun with a view and enjoy our ice creams.

As we were finding a park bench in the sun a young man stood up and I thought, great we could sit there but no! He was swiftly down on one knee with ring in hand and proposed to his girlfriend 😍🍾😍 How romantic and we were the first to give our congratulations to them.

The following morning Andy was up and away by 5am to fly to Manchester for a meeting in Salford. I pottered around, doing some washing, writing notes, marking maps with our route, a walk around site and then a bike ride to Lidl. Lunch and a film watched. What a busy day 😂😘 Andy returned at 11:20pm after driving around for a while looking for the site in the dark 😘😘 A glass of wine soon had him relaxed again.

The next place to be explored on our bikes was Boulogne – Billancourt, this area has Paris Saint – Germain FC and the Roland Garros Tennis Stadium along with the Longchamp Racecourse just around the corner. No wonder all the childrens shoes in the little shop we looked in were over €100 a pair! We sat with a beer outside a small bar and watched the kids scoot by, all heading home from school.

The following day we decided to use the site shuttle bus and Metro to see more sights in the city. We visited Sacre Coeur, walked up all those steps and what a view of the city. Once inside The Basilica I walked around with tears in my eyes. It was so serene, so intense, so beautiful.

We then headed to La Bastille and sat outside a bar with a beer, watching the world go by. The Opera House there is a very modern building.

Then Notre Dame. The long queue moved quickly to get inside. It was an amazing place but so busy. We sat as a service took place, the music and choir singing was beautiful but people with no respect spoiled the experience. Once outside again Andy
had his camera clicking away as the building is spectacular.

We walked along the bank of The Seine as sunset approached and it was wonderful, the light and colours were amazing.

Thankfully I had prepared dinner earlier and it was ready in the slow cooker when we returned to the caravan, with a bottle of corbieres it went down a treat.

Saturday 7th October, Happy birthday Mark 😘😘
The next couple of days we relaxed around the site, had a few bike rides, did a bit of shopping at Lidl. I downloaded an audio book to learn French and it’s actually helping.
We even sat and watched some “Only fools and horses”

Andy had a day visit to London on the Eurostar for a business meeting. I stayed and spent the day pottering, cleaning, reading, learning French and just relaxing.
We decided to go into Paris on our last evening so Andy could take some night photo shots. The Eiffel Tower was amazing.