Au revoir Paris!

Our last day in Paris; we effortlessly swapped yesterday's itinerary for today's and the boys set off again for Les Invalides while Heather navigated me expertly on foot to the Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussmann. Now, I'm not a great shopper - I never feel the desire that some people have to shop as a hobby - but from time to time I like to have a browse around a shop and where better to do this than Paris? Heather and I had a very pleasant time in Galeries Lafayette, where we had a coffee, and then in Au Printemps. We bought hardly anything but I enjoyed the experience. On the rooftop of "Au Printemps Maison" is the best free view in Paris, as James and I accidentally discovered two years ago when buying a suitcase. From there you have great views across the rooftops to the Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, and also to the Eiffel Tower. So we arranged to meet James and Ewan there, and we all had a relaxing lunch in the rooftop cafe (inside rather than outside due to the time of year!) Heather bought us some macarons to try - they seem to be very popular at the moment and I have never eaten one - and I liked them; they were pleasantly chewy. James and Ewan had enjoyed visiting Napoleon's tomb and the military museum where James was very impressed by the moving battle dioramas. After lunch we walked back to St Germain de Pres via the Palais Royal, built in the 17th century for Cardinal Richelieu and then a royal residence steeped in history; it's now mainly government buildings and a designer shopping arcade. Then we had a coffee in Cafe de Flore, which claims to have had all the same famous customers as Cafe des Deux Magots just down the road - these literati and existentialists must have drunk an awful lot of coffee, and also had a lot of time to spend hanging around in cafes! Ewan mentioned that Voltaire used to have forty cups of coffee a day in Cafe Procope; one can only imagine his behaviour after that let alone the tumultuous effect on his innards! Our journey home went smoothly, helped by the fact that I slept for almost all of the boring bus journey from Porte Maillot to Beauvais. Our flight actually left early and I read my current book "Before I Go to Sleep" on the plane, Heather is also reading it and it's very good so far. Ewan and Heather drove us home from Prestwick and here we are back home having a cup of tea! What a great and action-packed weekend we have had!