Paris

25th June, 2010 (Tony)

It is impossible to tire of a city like Paris. There is just so much to do and see, especially when you have family on board to entertain. We arrived in the Port de l'Arsenal ten days ago and were delighted to be directed to raft-up alongside Imagine and to at last meet Tony and Cindy and their two children. They are on an eighteen month cruise through France, having chartered Imagine owned by Caroline who lives in Surfers Paradise and whom we met last year while we were home on the Gold Coast. Talk about an extraordinary series of coincidences... anyway it was a pleasure to meet them and we had numerous cheerful conversations with them over the course of a week.

Miles and Louis (13) were our first visitors to arrive and we quickly hired an extra bike and set off for a long ride up to La Villette to check out the port and also the Science Museum. What a fascinating place. One could easily spend several days and still not manage to absorb all of its various sections. Tired, but hungry, we headed back into the city at night to relive the dining experience we enjoyed so much, many years ago, at "Pied au Cochon" restaurant. Next morning Gray and Suellen and Elsie (11) and Joey (8 yesterday) arrived. A walk across the river to the Jardins des Plantes was succeeded by a stroll to the Pantheon and around the Latin Quarter. As luck would have it the church of St Etienne which Sally and Suellen were keen to see was shut for lunch, so Gray and I found ourselves ensconsed in an English pub to watch the final twenty minutes of the Wallabies v England rugby test. We ultimately wished we hadn't bothered; and the pommy fans were barely more impressed than we were.

Enough walking. Three more bikes were immediately hired. My credit card seemed to be the only one that was acceptable — how did my two sons contrive that mystery? So for the princely sum of 5€ per week for each bike I find myself responsible for four Velim cycles. What a great system and how easy it is to pedal all around Paris. And of course one can just abandon, change or pick up another bike anywhere around the city; which we did; frequently; while the three we own had to be chained up and reclaimed after every site visit.

There was a bitterly cold wind blowing the day we went up the Eiffel Tower but the view over Paris is spectacular. We would have lingered longer at the top but the wind and temperature determined otherwise so we adjourned to the park below to enjoy a picnic lunch before setting off to admire the Tuileries Gardens and its splendid statues and arcades of trees. One day the adults decided that too much biking and walking might be tiring for the kids. As Joey was riding pillion and Louis and Elsie didn't seem at all tired I suspect some adults may have been looking for an excuse to relieve their creaking joints. We all bundled into the Métro and boarded successive trains, as only Sally and I and Elsie were nimble enough to catch the one at the platform. We all regathered at la Défense and studied the Grande Arche before retiring to a vast shopping centre for a session of retail therapy followed by lunch. In the afternoon we clambered up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and admired more spectacular views of Paris before strolling down the Champs Elyssée. The girls deviated to investigate the classy string of exclusive shops along Rue St Honoré, whilst the boys chose to take a bike and head back to the boat for a beer and to watch some World Cup soccer. As always, June 21st is celebrated throughout France with a music festival. Sally and I stayed in to look after the grandkids while their parents experienced a night out at a recommended restaurant and later, revelling with the crowds enjoying bands banging it out on most street corners until the wee small hours.

No visit to the "City of Love" by boat would be complete without a cruise down the Seine "under the bridges of Paris with me". To be different we decided to do a grand circle of the city by entering the tunnel at the north-eastern end of Port de l'Arsenal and going up the Canal de St Martin to la Villette and then turning into the Canal St Denis which takes one back down, past Stade France and back to the Seine. For boats going downstream this route saves about 25km of the huge sweeping bends the Seine follows out of town. For us however it meant a four hour journey to get back to the Eiffel Tower and the recognised bridges of mid-city Paris. But everyone enjoyed the day out and the late-evening vistas were stunning. It was 8:30pm when we gotSable back to her berth. Weary and hungry, the eight of us staggered into a welcoming restaurant at 10pm for a hearty meal.

The final day in Paris necessitated a visit to a museum. Gray, Suellen, Joey and I elected to bike to the Maritime Museum, at Trocadéro near the Eiffel Tower. Everyone else went to the Louvre. I learned about the existence of the Maritime Museum from Tony on Imagine. I have to say it was one of the most pleasurable museum visits ever made and I can't wait to take certain others there. The collection of model ships spanning four centuries is astounding. Perfectly to scale and exquisitely detailed most of the models were made before the actual ship in order to gauge the lines and sometimes merely to show to the king. The museum also includes hundreds of paintings, including many of famous sea battles and French ports that deserve a place in the Louvre. But best of all, it seemed as though there were only a dozen visitors in the whole place whereas the Louvre is every day packed with thousands of viewers, despite its enormous size, and queues to see anything are the norm.

We've now departed Paris and are slowly wending our way up the Marne towards Champagne. Each day for the past week has been sunny and hot and most evenings we have barbequed on the top deck waiting for the sun to set at around ten o'clock. Miles and Louis have left to visit Nicole in Germany but will return with her to join us in Epernay to see the Tour de France.