Friday 5th October

Paris,
Up early as its our last day in Paris, our tour guide Marisa had worked out what and where we were off to, for the morning. Down to the metro and having watched one of the natives work the automatic ticket selling machine Marisa produced three tickets for us to travel to the Palais Royal Musee du Lourve station, even having to change at Louis Blanc.
A short walk and there we were at the glass pyramid of the Louvre and thankfully not much of a queue to get in. What a place, I'm sure you would have to spend at least a week here to see all the exhibits.
Beatrice decided to sit this one out and look around all the arcades and shops that extend all underneath the museum.
We of course had to see the Mona Lisa, as of course just as everybody wanted to. However we were able to walk around without the hordes of tourists that descend on Paris in the summer months. We looked at all the famous and some not so famous sculptures and paintings that we could fit in, in the hour and half that we had.
It was then off walking down one of Paris' many wide boulevards, the Av De L'Opera to the fashion district Galeries LaFayette. Here it was every fashion house and label you have ever heard. We walked around the huge store and were very impressed by the very ornate dome in the centre of the building along with,of course, the fashions and accessories, I didn't like the prices though! Of course we could have again spent hours looking around here but unfortunately we had to start making our way back to the hotel to pick up our bags and get to the train station.
We decided to walk down to the Gare du Nord where we knew we could catch the 63 bus to Gare de Lyon. The less said about the bus ride of hell the better, now with our bags and a crowded bus and a driver with no tickets we were pleased to eventually arrive at the station with at least three quarters of an hour before the train left.
Plenty of time we thought! Marisa and I guarded the bags whilst Beatrice went off to buy the tickets. We don't think we have seen that many people at a railway station and B had to join a queue that snaked back and forth for some distance. To cut a long story short we managed to board the train with about five minutes to spare. We couldn't find seats together, so just grabbed whatever we could. Of course it was a Friday afternoon and everybody was going down to their weekenders in the countryside, plus a lot of commuters, as it was the 1647 train, going to Montargis,where they live.
We continued on to Nogent and had to be ready to jump off as its a very small station and the train only stops briefly for the few passengers that get off.
Thankfully our car was still safely parked where we had left it four days ago.
Marisa was now being introduced to the French country side, it was still light which made it much easier for me find my way through the narrow lanes and fields to Les Toulerons.
Regrettably my camera has decided it has had enough, I thought it was the battery but it didn't even like the one I paid 21 euros for and refuses to work.
Safely home with Marisa we enjoyed our dinner and red wine, lit the fire and settled down for a quite evening.