Amazing day in Paris

What a day! Audrey and I woke to a huge clap of thunder outside our window! In my half awake state I thought for a moment that we were still on the ferry and that it had crashed into the dock! It was lashing with rain and there was lightning too, and the air felt quite a lot fresher which was good because yesterday evening was stiflingly hot. By the time we set off into Paris the rain had stopped and it turned into another sunny, hot day. I love Paris! Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower. We had the choice of walking up to the 1st or 2nd floor. I was absolutely roasting, or more accurately melting, by the time I got up to the 2nd floor but will count it as my day's exercise! I was chatting to the toilet attendant up there and he told me that the whole tower was evacuated yesterday because some poor soul attempted suicide. As Jane pointed out, it would be difficult to do that because everything is safely enclosed by metal grilles. Maybe this is why he didn't succeed (I'm glad to say). The views were hazy today but it was so nice to be back there! Next stop was the Parc Montsouris for our final concert. Lovely park, pleasant and appreciative crowd, but no key for the bandstand chairs! Richie and I swung into action and found a very friendly parkie who jogged up with us and the key. This jogging in the extreme heat nearly finished me off and I had to recover in the shade for a while! All of the bands were absolutely brilliant again - I am loving this musical trip! Even on the bus they all keep breaking into song! Jane said that everyone should join in the last tune so I grabbed some maracas and joined in with Highland Cathedral, which was just wonderful! What a great finish! The audience loved it and gave us a big round of applause.
An old man called Raymond Verner was talking to Audrey and later to me. He is an artist and showed me photographs of his paintings which were in his wallet - they were very good - paintings of Parc Montsouris and paintings of scenes from operas. He also showed me photos if himself as a young man (handsome) in the Air Force in 1961, and photos of his mum and a Russian princess and the wife of General L'Arminat who he said led the French army in Italy. When we said goodbye he said that we might meet again because "Le monde est petit"!
Back in the bus Derek taught me how to say "totes amazeballs" to embarrass David. We made our way through busy and bonkers traffic to our drop off point and then walked to Notre Dame. It was so hot (and ominously thundery!) that I sat outside on tiered wooden seating opposite the cathedral and looked at the amazing façade with its two towers and three huge arches, all intricately carved with many saints and glowing in the strange light before the storm. It was great just taking it all in; the atmosphere was literally electric as flashes of lightning went off overhead and the crowd collectively gasped. The sky suddenly turned dark and the inevitable downpour followed and we all got drenched on our way to "Flunch" beside the Pompidou Centre. Chris aka "Nacho" did a great job of navigating our way there as quickly as possible and soon we were tucking into a welcome hearty dinner, although being rather damp the air conditioning made us quite cold. I never would have believed that I could go from being so hot to being so cold in such a short time. The eventful day was not yet over because next we went on the Bateaux Mouches. The rain had stopped and it turned into a beautiful evening; the sunlight lit up all the buildings along the river. And as we finally climbed into the buses at about 10 p.m. (later to be entertained by the amazing pub singing of Ian aka M.C.Lean) we saw that the Eiffel Tower was all lit up glittering with fairy lights - it looked amazing!