Paris – Rest / Sight seeing day. 0 miles.

Our bikes rested overnight in the hotels atriam outside our bedroom. On arrival despite the perfect English email with acknowledgment of us having to store two bikes, it turns out no one thought to tell reception where that might be. They do provide a talking point for other guests all of whom have to get passed them and some have asked if they belong to the hotel. A missed business opportunity.

My compatriot refuses to get out of bed this morning. Even an Earl Grey tea (which I have been carting round in my pannier) will not budge her. She is taking this retirement far too seriously.

It is strange not putting, the now clean and dry, cycling gear on today and having to put on the now dirty non cycling clothes. I feel a Chinese laundry coming on later for these garments now we know we have an overnight drying facility.

We have opted for the hop on and off Big Bus for today’s mode of transport. I booked the tickets during the night so we just have to find a bus stop by Notre Dam to validate them after first having some breakfast.

Once we boarded the bus, unwound the headphones and chose the nationality for the automatic commentary we realised it was interspersed by snippets of Charles Asnavores music, which after having had to listen to him for several hours was taken off our future music play list.

The tour turned out to be a great idea (Compatriots assessment of her idea) as it took us past the main tourist sites in Paris without us having to exercise ourselves or mingle with the vast number of tourists. The picture below apparently gives the flavour of Paris.

The most impressive of the stops, in my opinion i.e. the Compatriot, was the Trocadero, which we had never visited before and gave a fabulous view of the Eiffel Tower with a backdrop of the city. With a stop for drinks at The Opera and then another one later for lunch our day took a leisurely pace, and we still felt we had ‘seen’ enough of Paris.

Many of the places we passed we have been inside on previous visits.

The tour ended with us purchasing supplies for tomorrows ride, reading our books, then eating and drinking.

Things were going so well. For those reading last years blog may remember the missing tooth incident. Tonight we frequented an Italian restaurant in the Latin quarter. I had a Pizza with olives with stones and managed to damage a tooth. Well on the basis it hurt and bits of tooth appeared but there is no gap this time. We will have to see how it develops.

Enough of this relaxing and back to the serious cycling business tomorrow.