Climbing small mountains and homeward-bound

On the floor in front of me are dozens of bags and I don’t know how I will get them home. Tomorrow is my last day and I want to visit Pierre Marcolini chocolates (said to be the best). I cleaned the flat yesterday and after doing some laundry went to the laundromat down the street. There I met a charming young woman who told me to visit Parc de Belleville. I headed to metro Chatelet, stopping off for coffee and tartine (crunchy flute), which I have to say was exceptional. I had fig jam and it was gorgeous. Then I braved the metro. Well, what an eye-opener and what a mob when I got off the metro. Immediately outside there was a flea market going on in the square on the ground, you had to push your way through, trampling on people in the process. I finally found the park after a huge walk up a hill. The park is huge and quite stunning with lots of little children playing. 



































After wandering around for a bit I headed even further up the hill to Buttes Chaumont park which was recommended as the best of the best. What a walk, the sun was shining and I was getting quite warm. The view of the park is amazing, you can certainly see for kilometres around. I kept walking uphill, crossed a suspension bridge and then up and up again to a grotto/temple right at the very top. Unfortunately, there was no-one around to ask to take picture of me to prove I did this huge trek. It is a beautiful day and there are so many people around: walking, jogging and exercising their dogs.

I then worked my way down and headed out of the park to the main place where I and caught the #75 bus back to where I started - Chatelet. I decided to stop off at the same place I had breakfast for a late lunch. I had a Caesar salad (nothing you would recognise, and parmesan much be cheap as I had buckets of it) but it was very tasty and I enjoyed a glass of Pouilly-fumé, which was very good indeed.




There is a huge tower (Tour Saint-Jacques) across the road from the restaurant that I had heard you could climb. It is certainly a majestic tower in a lovely park and the sun was shining but again I could see no discernible way into the building, so, frustrated, I left without climbing the tower. I then headed off to look for Pierre Marcolini the chocolatier. As I was wandering around I realised I need another two weeks in Paris, which unfortunately I didn’t have. I kept coming across places I had meant to visit and streets I had meant to wander down but just never got around to it. I think today was the first time I had walked all the way down rue de Seine and most of Boulevard St Germain. I stopped off for a hot chocolate at Cafe des Flores so as to get a photo of myself sitting there for a friend - the chocolate was molten and very, very sweet. I found Pierre Marcolini in rue de Seine and I bought a box of mixed chocolates (two each from collection). Very expensive but hopefully they are very nice chocolates. I've booked dinner at Le Christine (just over the road from my apartment) for tonight at 8.30pm. I ordered foie gras and roast beef and had a glass of red wine. The meal was reasonable but not amazing; also it was stifling hot in the tiny restaurant. I was sitting next to some English and American people who apparently were in town for a food expo.


Friday 22 October

My last morning in Paris. Went to the ATM (one I have been using the entire trip) and for some reason it didn’t work, it deducted E100 from my account but didn’t give me any cash. I tried the bank but no-one spoke English and my French was nowhere near good enough to explain. So I went to another ATM and got some cash out. When I came home I put in a disputed transaction form and it was resolved very quickly. So I was very impressed with the Travelex service. I got to Charles de Gaulle airport and was met with a nightmarish crowd of pushing shoving, rude people – what a shock. It took forever to get through security, passport control etc. Our flight left about one hour late. But eventually I was winging my way home in a very crowded Airbus. From Paris to Dubai, I sat next to a charming young South African model on her way to Beijing after being in Paris for Fashion Week. Au revoir, Paris!