Hi Aussie --

Am enjoying your report and anxiously awaiting more.

6 of my girlfriends and I are staying in two of the Paris Perfect apartments this summer -- Sancerre & Champagne. We are all so excited!!!

Can you include in a segment of your trip report what you did in and around the 7th arr. What cafes, stores, patisseries, boulangeries, wine merchants, etc., are close by? What markets did you go to? What was available to purchase at the markets besides the fabulous foodstuffs? Merci!!

So, we had decided to settle in and then meet our DF's for dinner. Saw them from our little balcony and off we went. Walked around the corner and there it was, the Eifel Tower. Does one ever get sick of looking at it? I'd think not. Wanted somewhere casual for dinner. We're not what you would call 'foodies' but love good food in a relaxed atmosphere and this was probably the only times we found the language 'barrier' a problem. We chickened out a bit I guess, by chosing restaurants that had an english menu. So as you can tell by the report so far, I haven't listed any restaurants as such. But one I must list is Le Dome Cafe. Avoid it at all cost. The food wasn't just boring, it was bad, really bad. The wine was good but the food and the service were terrible.
But we still had a wonderful first night in Paris. We bought pastries and went back for coffee (love that espresso machine) and the adults couldn't sit still, so we went back over to the Eifel Tower, just cause we could. .

Just a note for Luvparee, we found that it didn't matter which patisseries, boulangeries we went to , they were all wonderful, really!

The next day we got tickets for the Le Open Tour. Fantastic. We sat up the top, which was absolutely freezing, but awesome. Stayed on the bus 'till we got to the Arc De Triomphe. Just had to get off and go up. I think we counted about 200 steps, but worth it. The view from the top was outstanding. It was a cloudy day,with dark clouds on the horizon. Which made the view spectacular. Spent a long time up there. Had lunch in one of the cafes on the Champs Elysees, and wandered around the shops,soaking up the wonderful atmosphere. Made our way back to the apartment and sent the men out out to find dinner. It was rather amusing that they chose chinese food!!! But I must say it was delicious and can you buy a bad bottle of white wine in Paris? I'm sure you can, but we never did. More pastries and coffee, just as well we are doing a lot of walking.

We used our 2nd day on the Le Open Tour to get to The Louvre. We really like Le Open Tour, its a great way to get an overview of the city. Met our DF's and in we went. not huge museum buffs, but wanted to see the obvious. Mona Lisa etc. Which we did in about 1.5 hours. We include a lot of other paintings too, but as we have no art knowledge "AT ALL" that was probably enough. But we enjoyed what we did. Had lunch and carried on to Notre Dame. Really enjoyed it. We all did. Until we need to use the bathroom. If I can convey one msg on this forum, Never Ever under any circumstances use the public toilets outside Notre Dame. It was the single most distressingly horrible experience we had. It was like a communal area and absolutely filthy. We actually felt physically sick when we came back up. (down like a subway).

Did our own thing for dinner in the apartment. Yum Yum, baked chicken dinner. DH proved himself to be a real trouper. He found this great street sort of behind us and came home with everything we needed. Including more pastries and wine. I would have to say my favourite pastry would be anything with raspberries. and I mean anything......

Left the girls sleeping in and headed out for breakfast with DF's the next morning as it was their last day. Ended up at one of the many cafes. They all had omlettes, I really felt like poached egg on toast. This was probably one of the few places we went that they either spoke no english, or pretended not to. I ended up with literally a poached egg on a plate. Nothing else. Quite funny really. Had a look around our local area at food shops etc, found a little shop that stocked all things british and a few Australian thing. Got some more vegimite. Our friends left to catch their plane. Found out the night before that our DF from London (the one thats working on Wemberly) is coming to Paris for the weekend to stay with us. We were thrilled. He was a bit homesick, so it worked out all 'round. He arrived about 8pm via the Eurostar. Would you believe he walked from the station to our apartment? Went out and had a lovely dinner in a cosy little bistro, with a great waitress who took it easy on us Aussies.

Next morning we 'braved' the RER and got off at the St Mechel station. Just walked and looked. Notre Dame again. Got a bit lost, DD1 asked a 'cute' guy for help. He was Italian, and we all (including him) had a good laugh. She then asked some local policeman and they were very helpful. The headed for the Louvre. We were looking for Angelinas for some hot chocolate. After much wondering we found it. We found very very rich. But a good experience. Walked through the Tuillees gardens and then to the Obelisk, all the way up Champs Elysees to the ARc De Triomph. Our DF from London went up, as he hadn't been before. We then jumped on atrain and headed up to the Arc Defense and had a good look around. We trained it back to Champs De Mars/Eifel station. DD's & I got off and went home! DH & DF stayed on to find the markets that were listed in the guest book, as we needed more coffee for our wonderful machine.

A few hours later they were back, with all the ingredients for a wonderful baked fish dinner. C/w champagne and tarts. A wonderful evening, we were all exhausted.

The next day our DF had to leave for London pm. So we spent the morning at Hotel d Invalides and walking the general area. REally enjoyed it. Trained to Champs Elysees again and had a great look around the shops. Got back on the train us home, DF to London.

Spent the evening packing and getting ready to leave Paris. It had been a wonderful week filled with lots of amazing memories. I will never forget.

Next stop Rome.

Cabbed to the airport for our flight to Rome via Munich. We only had about 15 minutes to catch the connecting flight. But we did it with time to spare. Munich was a great airport. And the flight in was very scenic and pretty, lots of snow.

We were collected by our car service at Rome airport. Then we started on our 'interesting' drive into Roma. The man was a lunatic. But on observing , he wasn't the only one. DH commented that he was very glad we hadn't arranged to drive in Rome. As he's not sure we would have survived it. We knew we were in trouble when we went sailing past a police car c/w sirens and flashing lights.

We were met at our apartment by our 'landlord'. A very nice man with great english. The apartment was huge, a bit old, but very clean. We basically looked (if we craned our necks a bit) at the Pantheon. A great location. Dropped our bags and off we went. It was bitterly cold so we just had a quick look around and grabbed some pizza & pasta and headed back. There was a Crepe/icecream shop below us (which proved to be a blessing and a curse) and a wonderful coffee shop across our little lane.

The reason the shop was a curse is, they played very loud music 'till closing every night which reverbarated into our apartment. Got very annoying. But the crepes were wonderful.

And we felt like 'locals' starting each day standing at the counter of the coffee shop having our cappucino. Yum!

we got our tickets on our open bus (The Original Tour) tour. Which we found a little disappointing. Great to get the overview but the commentary was very ordinary. WE would be passing for eg. the Coloseum and the commentary was there is the coloseum. No history, nothing. Very odd.

So we just spent the next 3 days wondering and walking. Loved that we were 'right there'. A short stroll to the Fountain D Trevi and couldn't get enough of the Pantheon. I think i ws just amazed that it was all so accessible. Loved walking around the Spanish Steps, went to the Vatican and I am left wondering if you need to be catholic to truely appreciate it? I'm not, & I found it a little obscene, if that makes sense?

Had our final dinner at Zio Ciro (spelling?) which was a delight. I had the best fish dinner, sea bass EVER! And to finish it off, our waiter gave us all a lemon liquor, which i noticed was very popular, but must be an aquired taste.

Had an early start to the airport, a much safer ride this time, for our 'direct' flight to Singapore.

Due to a catering strike, our direct flight went via Dubai. No problems, always wanted to go there anyway. Only thing is, we sat on the tarmac for 45minutes and that was Dubai. The flight had a bit of a party atmosphere, due to the fact there was no food/drink service to Dubai, so everyone took their own on board. And they handed out the worst sandwiches, not sure where they found them. But it was amusing.

Great flight from Dubai to Singapore, lots of yummy food and drinks. Singapore airlines was our favourite airline on the whole trip.

Arrive in Singapore at about 8am for our one night stop over. It was going to be our final spend up, before the harsh reality of home. but we arrive for Chinese New Year and Singapore was like a deserted ghost town. Nothing was open, save for a market we went to in Little India. Which we discovered is were 'everybody' else spent that day!!

So we just lazed around and anticipated the last flight. We were all getting very excited. But we were also very 'jet lagged'. much worse this way than the outward bound journey. Couldn't sleep all night. So we pretty much sat around waiting and watching the clock, for about 5 hours. And 15 minutes before our cab was to arrive, DD2 came in from their connecting room, letting the door slam behind her. LOCKED OUT. They had slept with the outer door bolted and the internal door to our room had only the lock on their side.

After much panic, and the concierge telling us that we would have to wait 'till 9am to get in (it was only 6am) the night manager came and cut the chain off the main door. I must say there was a little bit of tension in the room. Funny now though!

So after spending a couple of hours and a few hundred dollars at the duty free stores at the airport we boarded our final flight.

A great flight and we were met at the airport by the same wonderful friends who took us originally. And also DD2's boyfriend bearing flowers. One very happy daughter.

DF's came c/w with grocerys, wine and beer. It was a wonderful end. Lots of laughter and catching up.

So thats it..............6 weeks, many miles and memories that will last a life time. There is nothing about the trip I regret and the only thing I would change if possible is , I would have left Orlando out and stayed somewere else in London. So I guess thats not too bad.

I hope I haven;t bored anyone silly.

Thanks again for all your help in the planning of this trip,especially anyone who recommended staying with Paisperfect.

Happy Travels to all.

aussiedreamer

Well done.

I liked your style of reporting and found your honesty welcome.
I could almost feel the tension when you wrote about the locked door caused by DD2.
Loved all the other little details you gave.

What wonderful memories you have. Thank you.

Sandy

Just wanted to finish this report incase anyone ever re-reads it.

I have done the comparison between the London and the Paris apartments.

London - $1996.34 Aud
Paris - $3055.84 AUD

I'm sorry its in Aussie dollars, but that was the easiest way for me to see the difference. As we see it the extra cost for Paris was worth every cent. I'm kicking myself now as I see Parisperfect also have apartments in London & Rome!!

Oh well, Qei sera sera