Today was planned as a rest day for us as we knew our full day at Versailles yesterday would take its toll. It was about having a leisurely breakfast, explore our neighbourhood and maybe make it down to the Tour de France final stage. Well, we fitted all that in and more.
The apartment we are staying in belongs to a very special Australian friend, who goes back over 45 years and has kindly allowed us to use it. To help him out we replaced his microwave that had died and got him a clothes horse with some pegs to make life a lot easier. They tend not to have dryers and often neither washing machines but luckily this place does have the latter. We have utilized it well but have enhanced the drying side of things.
We mentioned earlier about these Haussmann designed buildings that were no higher than seven stories as that was due to the fact that back then elevators did not exist. We are sooooo very fortunate to have an elevator that was installed about six months ago as we are on the top floor. It fits two people only, with small ruck sacks. It would not fit one person with a zimmer frame which Di feels defeats its purpose for having been installed. It is the most minuscule elevator we have ever seen. They have very cleverly fitted it in the stair well and we can tell you, it was NOT cheap to do so. The presence of this new addition has substantially increased the value of this apartment.
After sorting out the washing, it was a very short walk down to our local boulangerie for our obligatory morning croissant (we have a choice of three pastry shops within a block of the apartment) and then to the old fashioned but fun hardware store to pick up a new plug for the sink. It was then home for breakfast and then off to pick up Karen from her air BnB. Next was to walk Karen to a gluten free café where she could indulge in food that is more palatable for her. That was a real success and she was able to purchase some supplies for the rest of her day.
It was then a ten minute walk to one of the most famous cemeteries in not just Paris but the world. Pere Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Paris, at 44 hectares or 110 acres. It has more than 3.5 million visitors annually and is the most visited necropolis in the world. Some of you may know it as the resting place of Jimmi Henrdricks. We did go and see his grave but it is in a poor state.
Di particularly wanted to go and see the grave of Isadora Duncan. If you have watched the recent wonderful Irish series called Bad Sisters and remember how The Prick died, it relates back to Isadora Duncan. Also, Di can always remember her gran mentioning the Isadora Duncan incident whenever she saw her grand daughter wearing her school scarf in a very flowing fashion. You will need to google about her (Isadora) and also watch Bad Sisters which Di so highly recommends and if you enjoy dark Irish humour, you are in for a treat.
Di hasn’t a macabre fascination with cemeteries but there is wonderful history in them. Karen, Fras and Di did Highgate Cemetery in London back in 2022 and actually joined a tour which was most insightful. This time, we just wandered around.
Oscar Wilde the great Irish poet is also buried here.
The weather was very overcast and gloomy which made for a perfect day to visit the graveyard. It was worth a visit but when comparing it to Highgate Hill cemetery in London, the latter is the better as it is like being on one of those film sets where the graveyard is spooky, dark and mysterious and you are scared a hand is going to come out of the earth and grab you by your ankle and pull you back into their grave…………..have we set the scene up for you 😱. Fraser got some wonderful shots of the two girls doing what they do best – nattering away.
It was a short stroll back to our wonderful neighbourhood which has everything and more. It is what your local neighbourhood should be about – not these big box store places with no character and definitely no community feel about it. OK, we can’t understand what 99.999% of what they are talking about but we certainly get the vibe of the place and we are very jealous – the French know how to do community living and do it well and it is surviving and thriving.
What we are seeing around us is not contrived – it is what it truly is.
We needed a little rest and Karen wanted to watch the start of the Formula One being held in Spa, Belgium. She did this by getting her husband in London to FaceTime her and he got his iPhone to face his computer which was live streaming – kudos for ingenuity. It was then off to the Metro to make our way towards the Champs-Élysées to see if we could possibly catch the final stage of the 2025 Tour de France – our hopes were not high as we knew the crowds would be enormous.
They had broadened the course this year including the climb up to Montmartre and did the circuit three times so that gave the opportunity for more people to be able to view the race without it being 15 people deep.
We weren’t directly on the Champs-élysées but we were very close to the end stage. Also what worked in our favour was that it started to rain so a lot of people cleared out and we got front row seats.
The rain was great for us but not so the riders as the roads became slippery and in fact there was a cyclist who came off his bike right at the corner where we were situated. Such a sad thing to see but like all elite athletes, he left his skin on the road, climbed back on his treadlie and headed off to the finish line.
We were in the crowd with these two delightful young men who were in Paris for work. They were training to be pilots and were located in Tours in the Loire Valley but had some courses in Paris for the week. Such lovely pair of lads – one in particular was easy on the eyes – Di is quoting Karen on that comment🤪.
Our tummies were truly rumbling by now and we found the closest restaurant and set up shop……but…..we made a fatal error. We did not check the menu for prices before we sat down…..ooops! BUT it was a wonderful meal anyway and the fig dessert was to die for.
So, as mentioned in the beginning, this was to be our day of rest……did not quite pan out like that but we would not have had it any other way!!!!!!
Steps – 19,203
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