As the French do

On the bus, colder start to the morning

Jules Verne station

Centre Pompidou

One section of dog bags

Could not find the Ritz so checked out Hotel Regina

Great setup on the Eurostar

Ok its day 3 in Paris and its time to slow down and take it a bit easier. First stop is a hot chocolate. Watching the other diners as they have boiled eggs, orange juices in wine glasses and one guy even has a beer for breakfast. A leisurely start to the day.

Now the hop on bus takes me around another district, this time we pass Moulin Rouge and lots of shops that sell sex and gadegettery, their word not mine. The bus driver has a fight with someone and then decides to go really slow just to aggravate them even more past the church that has services where you bring your pets. Dogs, cats, hamsters even goldfish.  Had enough of this bus tour see a Metro station and hop off. The train passes through Arts Et Meitersstation which looks like I have arrived at the set of a Jules Verne classic, 20,000 leagues under the sea.  I later learn this is intentional in 1994, the station was redesigned by Belgian comic artist François Schuiten in a steam punk style reminiscent of the science fiction works of Jules Verne.

Metro drops me back into familiar territory and am tempted to go back into the Louvre. Instead I fit in just one more chocolate éclair sitting by the pond in the beautiful Tuileries gardens.

Now it’s time to hit the shops. Try out one of the big department stores that Parisians supposedly shop at and they have a special section I am particularly interested in. A fat middle aged lady pretends she can’t speak English and would not tell me where the section is. Does she really think I was going to give up after one try? I found a nice young male shop assistant and he showed me exactly where it was. An area just for pets, Rosco I tried really hard to buy you a present but there was nothing there you do not have. There are about 50 different styles of bags that you carry dogs in but I think you are a bit heavier than the average French dog.

More shopping follows and I just have to buy a bag as well to put it all in. So for one last cliché we say au reviour to Paris and return via the Eurostar.

Travelling back I see lots more of the French countryside, it’s a bit like watching the tour de France on TV. Lots of green rolling hills, church steeples and cute cottages. At up to 300 kms an hour we make it back to London in one piece and I head for home.