I'm Sorry - I can't drive in Paris...

So, it's pretty busy on the streets in Paris. I would take a drive in 401 rush hour over driving any time in Paris! there are many cars (all cute and little and mostly very fuel efficient) there are lots and lots of buses, and there are HUNDREDS of mopeds and motocycles on the roads.

Did you know - well, unless you've been here you wouldn't know so I'll just tell you, there are no rules for driving here in Paris. The mopeds make their own rules and drive where ever they want, including on the SIDEWALKS so "Attention pietons" you take your life in your hands when you walk anywhere that Mopeds can access!

We had quite a busy day again today just mainly using our hop-on, hop-off tickets for the OpenTour buses.It's our last day with these tickets so we tried to make sure we saw all the routes. There were a few highlights from our day though...we started our day a little later than we hoped (as is usual with the kids anyway) we were all kind of dragging our butts today. We hiked to our first hop-on location and headed to a location where they change routes and switch up - while we were getting off one bus and on to another at L'Hotel des Invalides, created by King Louise XIV, aka the Sun King, to house injured/disabled soldiers...also the place of Napoleon's tomb however we haven't seen that yet so I can't speak of it. Anyway, while we were there we were given a show of a small parade of 19th century costumed soldiers preparing for the Bastille Day parade...Did I mention we're going to be here for Bastille day?? yup - it's going to be quite a party here and at the tour Eiffel!

We hopped on our next bus and headed to the Moulin Rouge on Boulevard de Clichy so that Eric could see the place that made history with risque shows and of course he's a huge fan of the movie which was actually filmed there. (Did anyone ever hear that this is the (shhhhhhh....) S E X district? Well there were so many sex shops and peep shows that you could visit one every day for about three months~seriously!

After that we visited the Basilique du Sacre Coeur (sorry no accents for me!!!) This cathedral is by far my favourite. It was built by a group of Catholics who vowed to build a church to the sacred heart if Paris was delivered from the Prussian siege and to expatriate the sin of the athiests (this is all part of the above noted shhhhhhhhhh area so go figure). I have to say I was in awe at the interior of this understated Cathedral. It's painted nave was my favourite church to see.

Sam, Eric and Annette hiked up to to the dome and got a fantastic 360 view of Paris...this is me and sam with our new scarves on the steps of the basicilla.

ok so the day continued, as I say lots of things happened today. but the most important thing to happen was our bus getting hit by a car. Yup that's right, a car decided it didn't want to be in the lane beside us anymore and we're all stopped in the middle of an intersection so it just backed up...BUT the driver of the car missed the fact that a big green and yellow bus was right beside it and he backed right into the passenger side back wheel - we, of course, had a good giggle and he had a sun roof so he and his passengers saw us laughing at him...

We had a lovely picnic on the island - Pont Neuf - consisting of ---yup you guessed it, pain au fromage (by far my fav bread to date), baguette, trois fromage differents, and un bouteille de vin rouge. YUM, YUM. Yup drinking in the park, using plastic cups left over from Eric and Annettes Starbucks fix this morning (and an empty water bottle).

Following our lunch (4pm - we're becoming very europeanized) we were walking and happened by a lot of police National action - of course the police station is right there across from Notre Dame so it shouldn't have surprised us...but there were a lot of them there. We stopped and Matt and Annette (mostly Annette) asked what was happening, it turned out to be a training exercise for them but it was sure nice to watch. Matt got a photo with quite a handsome young man, and got a badge as well! By the time we left there were five officers around us and of them said - in my translation - when i said thank you he responded with , no problem, we're all brothers when we wear the blue. it was pretty neat, but I think that people thought we were in trouble! Did I mention that this was right after we drank a bottle of wine in the park at lunch and I was a bit, ummmm.... how shall we say, wobbly?

We made it home just in time for Eric and Annette to go back out as they are going to try to catch a show at 11 tonight at the Moulin Rouge. She can write about that. We're staying in for the night, doing some laundry (fun wow) and maybe go to the pizza shop across the road. Sam is enjoying the music tv station because they don't play all those stupid shows like at home, here it's only videos. Sam and I both like this song and video but have NO IDEA what he's singing about -I'll have to look up the words I guess. We saw the video on French TV tonight and had to share... now you can feel like you are here with us.http://www.wat.tv/video/mozart-opera-rock-tatou-moi-18t8u_18t91_.html

Well everyone that's all for tonight. Tomorrow there will be a market out our 1st floor balcony window so we hope there will be some good stuff there! Good night everyone! Pizza here we come! (Marco Polo Pizza shop across the street from our flat).