The Eiffel Tower, Books and Acquaintances

5 April 2008

When Virginia was at school here last year she met a woman called "Winky" (short for Winifred). An American who lives here in Paris with her partner, Sandy. Virginia has kept in touch with them ever since and we are invited to dinner there tomorrow night. They live in the 16th Arrondisement which is not well known to us. Today we did a trial run of how to get there and after taking our local line of the Metro to Place de la Concorde we switched to the bus. Line 72 takes you along the banks of the Seine with views to die for and if you want pictures of the Eiffel Tower, this is the way to get them.

Unfortunately, half way to our destination the bus broke down and we were all sent up to the next bus stop to wait for a replacement which came after about fifteen minutes. You can say what you want about public transport, but in Paris it is frequent; bone-jarring at times, but frequent. Anyway, where we broke down provided a perfect opportunity for even more pictures of the Eiffel Tower!

We eventually got to our destination, where we will be going for dinner tomorrow, and a whole new area of Paris opened up for us. After a brief wander around the neighbourhood we returned to the Rue de Rivoli where we had lunch and then spent some time looking for books in English at W. H. Smith's. Much to our joy, one of our favourite authors, Donna Leon, has just published a new work which we are now fighting over since each of us wants to be the first to read it. Virginia, however, had the most telling argument since she had paid for it!

Back on the Metro to our Internet Cafe so we could check e-mail, post the blog and start the process of booking accommodation for our brief stay in Singapore on the way back. And finally, home for the day. It turned wet and cold as we made our way home and tomorrow is going to be very cold and wet. The overnight forecast is for 3C with a high of 8C and rain throughout the day. It is all quite different from last year when the summer had set in and we had temperatures in the 30s.