Day 33 - Serris

Today we had a nice quiet morning - had brekky in the motel and then we caught the train into Paris.

 

As we got off the train Tasha saw some street dancers and was mesmerised watching the breakdancing.

 

I wandered up to the Arc de Triomphe for some photos. 

 This roundabout amazes me. It surrounds the Arc de Trimophe.  We had been on this with our bus driver on the tour. It is basically a 6 or 7 lane roundabout... not sure exactly how many as there are no lines marked. Cars enter from all directions and criss cross in whatever direction they want to go. It is madness!  Oh.... and they have no hesitation taking on the big buses either.

 Then we went for a stroll down the Champs Elysee.  Lots of shops to go exploring in.  Only in Paris would find chestnuts lined up on the pavement like this!

 We went for a stroll.  Or a skip as the case may be, down the Jardin des Tuleries on our way to the Louvre

 Tasha found herself a nice seat beside the large fountain.  (note Mickey Mouse sitting beside her!)

 When we got to the Louvre there was some kind of demonstration going on outside.  Not quite sure what it was about - rather bizarre.  First they all marched up to the Louvre, then they laid down on the concrete, then got up again before some of them did a very poor impersonation of the haka!?!

 Anyway, with the demonstration going on, and roads being blocked the line to enter the Louvre was massive!  So, much to my disappointment we decided to give it a miss.  I would have loved to go inside.  As it was we could see into the lobby at all the marble statues and that was amazing.

 So we wandered up to the train station to get the train back to our hotel.  The train system in Paris is so much harder to understand than that in London.  In Paris there are multiple different systems and depending on what map you look at the line you are looking at changes colour so you can't take any notice of the colour coding.  You also need to know the station at the end of your line to know where to go and whether it is an RER train or an M train.

On the way to the station we ran into these buskers.  They are everywhere through Europe and always amaze Tasha with their ability to stand still for so long.  Anyway she was doing everything she could to break their concentration.  Talking to them, pointing out every little breath etc.  Anyway as she leaned in close to one of them to see if she could see his throat move he suddenly pointed towards her and said "Boo".  She screamed so loudly and it had everyone on the street laughing (including the two buskers.... oh and her Mum!)

We finally gave up on finding the right station as where the map said it should be there was a different RER train station so we decided to get on that train and then change at the next station.  As we walked through the station wouldn't you know it - there was the entry to our station!

Finally we made it back to the hotel to find the window here still hasn't been fixed and once again we had to go down to the lobby to get internet.

Todays tally:

Steps:  15450
Protestors seen:  1000's
What the protest was about:  no idea - Tasha kept asking for Google translate.