On Monday morning we left our hotel to go explore Barcelona for the brief time we had left here. We made our way toward the beach, and found a cool cafe where we stopped for coffee.
We stopped by the fountain across the street from our hotel.
Then it was time to make our way to the the port to catch our cruise. We are anticipating that from this point forward we will have a more "relaxed" holiday where we are not needing to do so much of the "tick in the box" activities.
We set off at 19:00 from Barcelona headed for Toulon.
Yesterday I woke up early and went for a run along the top deck of the ship where the running track was. I ran for 30 minutes, which I usually can clock around 6-6.5km in that time, but I'm guessing I can do less now because all I've been doing on this trip is eat and eat and eat! I feel like a whale.
Jef woke up and caught the sunrise and our passage into Toulon.
Toulon is like a sleepy coastal town. It's pretty and quiet.
We were meandering around when all of a sudden we came upon an All Blacks store. Who would have thought we'd see a NZ store in the middle of nowhere in southern France!
Kien finally got to send his postcard that he purchased at the Eiffel Tower for his teacher who was originally from Paris.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Arc de Triomphe et the Champs-Élysées
Yesterday was our last full day in Paris and we headed off mid morning and had breakfast at a cafe overlooking the Seine. We certainly paid for that privilege, because we each had the most expensive cafe au lait and croissant I've ever paid for!
We then caught the metro to the Arc de Triomphe.
After lazing around in the sun we walked the length of the Champs-Élysées adorned with high end shops with ridiculous price tags.
We stopped into the Citroen store. It was a cool building with some pretty neat cars on display.
Back home again via the Seine, and admiring the array of locks on one of the bridges.
Kien had lots of fun hunting for and picking up chestnuts whilst walking along the eastern end of the Champs, so we decided to roast them. Jef looked up the process of achieving this, but unfortunately instead of dialing in 205C he had cranked it to 250C. Exploding chestnuts make very loud bangs, and lots of mess. But it was an awesome experience.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
No hunchbacks here
We've been very fortunate with the weather here. We've had sunshine the entire time, and even though it's been cold in the mornings and evenings it's been rather pleasant.
The Notre Dame is just a km from our apartment, and we walked there via the Seine.
We were impressed by the cathedral. It's considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Having been to St Peters I thought that would taint my view on other cathedrals, but the Notre Dame is definitely unique and amazing.
We all talked in hushed tones inside. There were lots of people taking mass and praying.
The queue was way too long to go up to the tower, and we knew Kien wouldn't be able to handle standing around for ages, so we went across the street to the park where Kien was able to run around and take pictures. He is really enjoying taking pictures and is rather thoughtful at composing his shots. He verbalises the whole process, which is interesting for me to hear what is doing on in his little head.
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