Sunday 31 December

Despite being awake at 2 am, we remain dozing in bed until 7.30 am, then do some blog posting and head off for our big walk around 9.30 am heading towards Opera and Galleries Lafayette because there is a breakfast café Lady P found on her research somewhere enroute.

 You might be wondering how a couple of far north Queenslanders, who think 20 degrees is cold, are handling 9c to 10c in Paris? Well, there’s two stories. We are not in our number 1 Arctic gear. We only need a simple shirt, the wonderful puffer jackets, scarf and beanie. Flashy gets so hot he needs to open the jacket and take off the hat. This is due to unaccustomed exercise and those strategically acquired layers of body fat. Bit like a grizzly I reckon.

 Lady P keeps getting a cold chin, despite her layers but is not uncomfortable.  The cold may affect her balance however, as she keeps drifting to the left on the footpaths.

 The second story is about our glasses. So far, we have had lovely, cold, crisp winter weather, with beautiful blue skies and our photochromatic glasses darken as they should. The only problem, is that at 4 pm, when the winter sun is setting, the bloody glasses are still dark. Flashy has been walking around like a blind beggar half the day.

 We found Mademoiselle Café on the way to Opera and enjoyed a traditional petite déjeuners formula. Then, as Opera was under renovation, we went to Galleries Lafayette to have a Champagne at the bar overlooking the perfume section.  I recall that the Major and I had a similar experience there once. Lady P has done it more than once too and it was nice to relive the experience. Champagne was good, as well.

 The plan was to have a late lunch around 2 pm, on the way over Ile de Cite to Saint Germain des Pres. Our choice of Colvert Restaurant, had closed its kitchen at 2.15pm, so we found Saint Andre Bistrot near by and enjoyed escargot, followed by filet mignon de veau with sauce pouvre and poitrine de poulet sauce estragon, both with chips pommes de terre, plenty of baguette traditionale and a half decent cote du Rhone rouge. Very Parisian bistrot tucker.

 Then a strange thing happened. Old Flashy is tail end Charlie, trying to keep Lady P on the right, when he stumbles across a bar/bistrot that was the field HQ when he and the Major did their Battlefields and Burgundy tour in 2012, This is in the centre of Saint Germain des Pres and across the rue from Hotel de Seine where we stayed while planning our Western Front tour. Lady P was patient while we took photos.

 The 16,500 step journey terminates back at our Citizen M hotel, where a  cleansing beer and an espresso martini in the funky lounge completes a jet lag busting day.

Field HQ

Officer's Mess