Day 18 Paris

After our late night we slept in .... we were expecting that we would wake to a wet morning but the sun was shining. We decided to do some shopping and visited the famous Galleries LaFayette (Paris's equivalent to a department store). We weren't sure what the shopping etiquette was, so patiently waited to be served but the shop assistants kept doing their own work (which wasn't serving customers), so in the end we found what we wanted ourselves. The very opposite of shopping in Australia where as soon as you enter the shop you are asked can they help you. We then walked back to our apartment and discovered that the other end of the street had been turned into a food market overnight. We bought vegetables, fruit, some precooked meals and of course a baguette. We couldn't resist the strawberries or 'fraise' which were from Spain ... they were extra sweet. Richard was able to talk our way through the purchases especially when the vendors didn't speak much English. Returned to the apartment for lunch and then headed off on the Metro to Montmartre.
The train ride took about 15 minutes and we then walked up more steps to see the Basilique Du Sacre Coeur. We had seen its dome from the Eiffel Tower. It is impressive but again there were queues, so decided to miss the opportunity to climb its 234 steps to the top. We then walked through Place Du Tertre, Montmartre's famous Square where portrait artists try to draw your portrait . Being a sunny afternoon they were everywhere and Julia and Tom were both 'captured' and asked to pose .... James kept his distance. We finally got away and did a DYI walking tour of the area. We saw the only remaining vineyard in Paris (Clos Montmartre), Eric Satie's house, the Maison Rose the subject of a famous painting by Utrillo and where painters Renoir and Utrillo lived. We had hoped to find the last two remaining windmills in the area but got lost so returned on the Metro to cruise the Seine for the remainder of the afternoon.
We bought a Bat-O-Bus ticket which is a water bus that takes you to 8 major land-marks on the river. The complete round trip takes about an hour, so we cruised around the major sights again seeing them from the river. A nice way to spend Saturday afternoon in Paris. Still no sign of rain so we got off at the Jardin Des Plantes stop and walked across to the Ile St-Louis to have some of the island's famous ice cream from Berthillons. Again we had to queue but only for about 10 minutes. And yes the ice-cream was delicious. They apparently have over 70 flavors but we had to choose from about 20 - a difficult decision. I would highly recommend the cafe flavor and Julia thought the white chocolate was delicious. Richard had peach sorbet and the boys ate their way through vanilla and chocolate. We then wandered past the boutique shops on the Island and again caught the Metro home.
After a home-cooked meal (well the reheated market meal but we did cook the vegetables) the boys and I stayed home while Richard and Julia braved the cold to go and see the Eiffel Tower lit up. They got back about 11.30pm ... The Tower is always lit up but once per hour it 'sparkles'. When they turned up they had just missed the sparkles, so waited an hour for it to happen again.
We are off to Versailles in the morning ... Hoping the rain stays away for one more day. Au revoir