Last full day in Paris

Today was wet, wet, wet.....  Our first port of call was to the area called Mairie which is essentially an area of artists. We found one particular shop with the most amazing sculptures in it. We ended up chatting to the chap in the shop who enlighten us as to how many thousands of euros the sculptures would cost. Let's just say that it would be equivalent to buying a car..... If only money wasn't an issue!

Nearby was the Carnavalet Museum, which presents the history of Paris from it's earliest times until the present day. It was okay. Michael liked the paintings post-Revolution when the king and Maire Antoinette were being executed.

Although the rain dented our plans to visit the Sacre Coeur basilica and Montmartre we managed to fill in the day without any difficulty.  We used the metro, not exactly like pro's, but nevertheless we  managed to find our way to Lafayette, a huge department store which thankfully is accessible from the metro station. It is bedlam inside, almost too big to find anything although we did find a rather nice restaurant with which we settled in for food and beverages.  The ceiling is architecturally beautiful.  Our intention had been to eat in the restaurant on the roof of Layayette which is high enough to provide a stunning view (on a good day), however the rain, and thunder, put an end to those plans.

Unfortunately the weather didn't abate so we had to cancel all plans to visit the Basilica, and Montmarte where the artists have their works on display.  We did however find the Passage Joffrey which we had previously visited in 2010. This is a long passage of shops and restaurants that were built to accommodate the ladies in the 19th century not getting their dresses dirty by the mud and horses on the main streets. The Passage runs  through several blocks and carries on across several roads and makes for a save haven out of the heavy rain. Michael even managed to get his golden locks shorn off  (or maybe I should rephrase that and say that his hair now no longer looks like Friar Tuck).

Back near our "home" metro station we scuttled into the nearest cafe bar in order to wait for the rain to at least lessen before we hit the road back to the hotel. We managed some nice Boudeaux wine to accompany us through the next hour or so.