Paul et Robbie de la grande aventure, avec nous

So la deuxième partie ('cuse the french) of Paul and Robbie's visit to our little part of the world involved them heading off to France. They had some time in Paris, before heading down to the Burgundy region of France. But of course this blog is not about them, it is about us!

We had a half-term break, so took some time to revisit France. We arrived in Paris late on a Monday night and stayed at a hotel near the Gare du Nord, the main international rail station in Paris. It was a typical French Hotel, quaint and small but nicely set out. We took a little walk around the area, tried to order a coke from MacDonald's which was a struggle then headed back to our hotel.

We had all day in Paris the next day, so jumped on the metro at La Chapelle station. Having seen the major sights in February we picked the Opera station to get off. The weather had turned ugly though so we found a nice looking cafe and ordered ourselves an early lunch. Lunch was really good, though we were seated next to three 50+ aged Australian women who spent their entire meal complaining about everything. I gathered they were travelling together having left their husbands behind in Australia, to their husbands relief I'm sure. After wining and dining we found a little theatre place that had a presentation called 'The Paris Story' that included a minature model city (see here) and a movie presentation experience. The movie was suitably dramatic and told the story of Paris in a poetic manner that was completely different to how it would be done here or at home where the facts would certainly be presented in a much drier manner.

After the show we looked through the brochures on offer as we decided what we would do next. We saw one for the Moulin Rouge and decided to jump on the train and take a look. We got off at Pigalle station which is situated on Boulevard de Clichy, and discovered the sleaziest street in Paris. The pictures will give you and idea of the type of area it was.

What a pretty street, I wonder what these shops sell??

We walked along the street a little surprised at what we had found. We saw the Moulin Rouge but decided the prices they charged for dinner and a show were in excess of what we wanted to pay. We also visited Musee de l'Erotisme which was an education both culturally and otherwise.

The World famous Moulin Rouge, couldn't find Nicole anywhere

We found across fom the Moulin Rouge the Australian Bar, but it was shut so we got a cold drink from an Irish Bar instead and were served by a real Irishmen. It had been raining on and off through the day so we again found ourselves waiting for the rain to stop. As we come back up the street we saw the Australian Bar was open and thought it would be un-Australian not to have at least one drink. Fortunately it was happy hour, which actually ran for 3 hours, so the 5 euro cocktails needed to be sampled. I settle on the King Brown, but Krystle needed to try a few different ones to decide on her favourite. Added to this was a generous barman who took to giving us shots of something unidentified but pink and quite sweet, we rounded out happy hour very happy. We grabbed some dinner then walked back to our hotel in the coolest thunderstorm. Paris with the flashing thunder was quite a sight to behold.

Thought Nicole might be hanging out at the Australian Bar, but no luck

Below are the stores either side which show what a wholsome family
orientated area we were in

Can't read French so not really sure what they're selling

People shouldn't dance on tables, that will cause them to scuff