A DAY OUT IN SPRINGTIME
March 2002
Friday 22nd March saw us catching a Beards Coaches of Cinderford bus to Paris at 5.45am. We were picked up practically on our doorstep by a mini bus to join the main coach in Lydney.
Crossed the channel at Dover to Calais and were at our hotel by 6.00pm G.m.t. We stayed at the Hotel Ibis on the Quai de l'oise in the 19th arrondisment overlooking the canal.
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On Saturday morning after breakfast we traveled by coach round the city with a French tourist guide giving us the history etc, stopping at Notre Dame and The Dome church just long enough to take pictures.
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The Dome church is where Napoleons body is kept.
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As we didn't have time to stop for long at any one place Alastair and I hopped off the coach at the Eiffel Tower and made our own way around for the rest of the day.
First took the lift to the very top of the tower. Cost 9.90 Euros, queuing time approximately 1 hour, height 1051 feet but 6 inches taller in hot weather, weight 10,100 tons.
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Walked to the Arc de Triomphe
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Then down the Champs Elysees
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Across the place de la Concorde, through the Jardin de Tuileries, along the banks of the Seine, round the Pompadou Centre stopping to watch the street performers and artists, eating at an Italian restaraunt just off the Boulevard de Magenta and finally ending up at the Sacre Coeur.
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