Paris

What's the first thing you do when you get off the plane from Helsinki to Paris? You meet up with your adopted niece Beanie and her gorgeous boyfriend Jeremy to see the sights. Notre Dame is a five minute dance from our apartment on Ile Saint Louis. The location of our four hundred year old building is superb. It is right on the river Seine and a skip and a jump to the Left and Right banks. We are surrounded by great restaurants and shops in the heart of Paris. What's not to like? Just because the flat is small, dark and you can't stand up in the loft bedroom doesn't mean we don't love it. 

We do.

They took us on the grand tour. First a quick visit to the markets.

And then off to Shakespeare and Company, the famous Paris bookshop that has been here for ages.

A wonderful place where you can read a book, buy a book or write a note and leave it for the next person to read.

This note reads: A world in which there are monsters and ghosts and things that steal your soul is a world in which there are angels and dreams and a world in which there is hope.

There is some pretty cool street art that is a cross between graffiti and sculpture.

And then a well deserved pause for yummy Lebanese lunch.

And then on to one of the most beautifully delicate churches I've ever seen. Sainte Chapelle is simply gorgeous and to top things off it was a feast day so we got in free.

After which Tom retraced his life in Paris and showed as where the offices of Paris Metro had forty years ago.

Montmartre, last stop for the day.

A bit of a tourist trap with some pretty scary dudes who tried to intimidate you to buy bracelets. We have been warned many times to beware of kids on the streets who will steal your valuables. There are quite a lot of people doing it hard here, living on the streets.

A happy busker who was singing "I come from a land down under" at the foot of the stairs. A nice end to a great day.