Singapore

Here we are at the end. 

We arrived in Singapore at 6:30am local time which was 12:30 am Paris time. No sleeping on the plane as the times were all wrong.

We now know, with the benefit of hindsight, that this stopover was a mistake. We could have been asleep in our own beds by now instead of setting the alarm for 3:30am for our flight home tomorrow.

As we couldn't get into our room early this morning, we had a quick cappuccino at Raffles hotel then hopped on the "hop on hop off bus" without hopping off anywhere- to kill time. As expected, the weather is hot and very humid- combined with tiredness, we were unable to do any sightseeing.

Back to the hotel to sit by the pool and read until our room was ready at lunch time. Jim went straight to sleep. I decided to get a taxi to Orchard roads to explore the shops but couldn't find an ATM anywhere to get cash for the taxi ( even asking for directions from hotel). So, back to the room and a little doze.

We then headed down to a bar in Clarke Quay to watch the second half of the grand final. Spoke to a couple of nice Aussies.

We were heading to the Bay Gardens but that, too, got difficult, so abandoned the idea for a quick bite and return to the hotel.

We have had a fantastic seven weeks travelling but are very much looking forward to getting home and seeing the kids. It may take some time to get back to a normal routine but it has been an incredible time.

For those following our journey, I hope you have enjoyed sharing our experiences. We are looking forward to catching up with friends and family soon as well.

Until next time, au revoir, Buon giorno, and however they say bye in Turkish!

Paris ...Finale

Our second last day in Europe began with our usual excellent breakfast from Genevieve. A boiled egg, croissants, baguette, coffee, orange juice, cheese, jam - it is a mini feast set out with class on little silver trays. The breakfast comes with a conversation in half pigeon French and English because it appears that our hostess is determined to teach me French in our little breakfast sessions. Great fun, lots of laughs trying to work it all out. We started by heading up to the closest attraction which is Notre Dame. We checked out the cathedral with its famous stained glass windows. Nice.

We then headed to the Notre Dame crypt to look at the archaeological history of the area around the cathedral. Really fascinating stuff, showing the ruins they uncovered here that show the early Roman days, with the hot baths, the old pier on the edge of the Seine and the more modern ruins of the old town from the Middle Ages.

The audio visual displays were impressive, helping us to picture the history of Paris. Learned a lot.

Around the corner was Saint Chappelle. This seems to be Genevieves favourite place, she was insisting we to here to see the stained glass, but at the time I didn't translate that well and we turned up at night. I wonder how many other things she said that I got wrong. Oh well never mind.

Anyway, Saint Chappelle was Louis IXs private chapel built within the Royal Palace and it is magnificent. It once housed a piece of the Crown of Thorns and the Cross. Louis bought them for his private chapel because if he was going to have relics it would be nothing but the best.

We decided to head off to the D'Orsay Gallery which holds lots of famous art works and gets rave reviews. It is housed in an old railway station that has been converted into a magnificent huge space for the art.

It was fantastic.

Not allowed to take pictures of the art work.

We found out from the cranky man after we took these ones.

Lots of really great art in here. Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec, Gaugin, Cezanne and heaps of others. The building itself is a work of art.

From there we had lunch, then onto the big red bus and off to The Arc de Triomphe. This big old fella is very famous and much much bigger than I remembered it. While we were trying to work out how to find a lift to the top ... we were not doing the stair thing....a ceremony started.

Looks good in the stills, but it was a bit of a shambles compared to the Menin Gate. No one knew what anyone else was doing, there were nudges, giggles and people pushing other people into position. Very Frrrrench.

Anyway, someone directed us to a lift and we were soon on the top.

Good views. You can see how well the city is set out, it really is remarkable.

We were not finished yet. We wanted to really make the most out of the day and in between breaks in the rain we walked the length of the Champs Élysées, stopping for a coffee and cake and gawking at the people. Every shape, size, creed and colour, the place  is awash with people. Maccas have secured a prime spot on the Boulevarde with street walk cafe space right out to the road.

Unbelievable. Everything has a price.

We found the Metro at the Place de la Concorde after checking out the Egyptian Obelisk and the fountains then made our way home. We are tiring, but determined to really see Paris. You don't come here every week.

Our final day in Paris happened to be my birthday. Yay.

Eiffel Tower Day.

But first we went shopping for my birthday present. A new suit, shirts and a tie. I was very happy with all of them. Very happy indeed. Very spoilt.

La Tour Eiffel was next. We knew we would be on a long queue so there was no point stressing about it. We joined the line and slowly crawled forward for two hours. Luckily there were some really chatty, happy, funny people on the line near us. One couple were Australian Indians and the other a couple from New Jersey. The guy looked like Paul Keating so we told him so and took his photo, explaining that Keating was the famous Aussie PM who put his hand on the Queens back. I think this pleased the yank. Finally we were in the lift. The first two levels are pretty straight forward, even though crowded.

The final leg was where Michele pulled out last time, but his time she dug deep and jumped on. The lift for the final ascent runs straight up the narrow top end of the tower exposed on all sides. Everyone on the lift was looking at everyone else. It is barely contained mass fear, so it is nervous smiles and giggles all round. When you reach the summit it is narrow and open, but the view is one in a million.

We queued again to come down and felt the terra firma under our feet again. We then took a long walk to a Metro to connect us with Monmartre. The Metro has been good after our first day where it appeared to be pretty shambolic and we were soon at the base of Sacre Couer on the Funiculaire to the top. Monmartre was a bit of a disappointment compared to our memory of it. It looks like the old artists village it once was is now a souvenir shop haven that is packed with people trying to milk the tourists. It is still beautiful and the church is one of the best we have seen, but it is swarming with people and hawkers are everywhere. We had a lovely final dinner and talked about the highlights of this amazing trip overseas. It has been a trip of a lifetime. To share it with our friends and family has made it extra special. To finish here in Paris on my birthday is brilliant.

We said goodbye, au revoir and bonne journee to Genevieve this morning and we are on our way to Singapore. I am not sure whether Michele will write that up, but if not...Thankyou dear reader whoever you are. If you are reading this then you are a very patient friend indeed.

Paris

Our first full day in Paris began with a beautiful breakfast prepared by our lovely hostess, Genevieve. She is trying to help Jim improve his French so speaks in French as much as possible. Jim is doing very well. We spoke over breakfast for about an hour. Genevieve is so friendly and very knowledgeable. Unfortunately her husband Jean Paul had a stroke two months ago so we won't get to meet him. He is in a pretty bad way which is awful. Reading comments from past visitors makes us think he would have been a very interesting man to get to know. 

Due to our leisurely breakfast we had a late start to our sightseeing.

We activated our two day Paris pass by joining the hop on hop off bus at Notre Dame which is a short walk from our apartment. We stayed on for over an hour just looking at the city. We got off at the Eiffel Tower. 

The queue was crazy so we decided to leave it for another day and took a cruise on the Seine for an hour. A lot of seated sightseeing so far. 

The day had started off cool but by lunch time it was quite warm and the predicted rain was nowhere to be seen.

Not hungry due to the filling breakfast, we hopped back on the bus and headed to the Louvre.

Knowing we were crazy, we headed for the Mona Lisa. We had seen her before , but decided a visit would not be complete without looking at her again. What an amazing display of bad manners we experienced. People were absolutely desperate to get in close. People were pushing and shoving like they were trying to escape a life-threatening situation. Jim gave up. I almost got to the front but when a young girl offered me her front position I suggested she give it to the man beside me as he was so desperate ( I made sure he heard me, having also mentioned that if he stopped shoving me every time I tried to take a shot, I would move away more quickly).

Still fuzzy: I should have taken a photo of the front of a souvenir book or the black and white sign instead like other people did- strange behaviour! The craziest part was when I was trying to move away and the crazy woman behind me was physically pushing me. I told her I was leaving like her but she continued to push anyway. I could only laugh.

We wandered through other galleries without the crowds apart from coming across pockets of tour groups. 

Silly us for choosing the early afternoon to visit here.

The weather was now surprisingly warm. We have been soooo lucky with the weather for almost seven weeks- one drizzly day in Lake Como and the rest warm ( or extremely hot) and sunny.

We walked back towards our apartment and stopped for an early dinner at the restaurant on the corner, recommended by Genevieve. It was indeed a lovely meal accompanied by Champagne ( the real stuff of course). 

Back to the room for a little rest before venturing out into the night.

We wandered along the Seine, specifically headed for Saint Chappell. We expected to find this church lit up, as Genevieve raved about it at breakfast. We obviously got our wires crossed. We eventually found it- in the dark, in the centre of the police centre which used to be a palace. Not only wasn't it lit up, we couldn't even see it as all the gates were closed and you couldn't see through them. Oh, well, a visit during the day will be on our list.

The weather was still very mild out at 10 pm so when we got back, we had to sit on the terrace for a while to cool down. 

A lovely day with much more to pack in tomorrow.