Sunday morning was taken up with a coach tour of all the sites in central Paris (a lot of which we had seen on foot the previous day, but it was nice to tour in comfort - we must be getting middle aged!)
We saw all the usual sites (including the French Statue of Liberty which is in the Seine not far from our hotel), grabbing a quick stop at the Hotel des
Invalides before we decamped for the afternoon to Versailles, where the queues were so epic that we decided jut to tour the grounds rather than get inside the palace itself. A wise choice - it took all afternoon just to take in the amazing water gardens - and we didn't get much further than that (the grounds at Versailles go on literally for miles in every direction).
We chose not to pay a small fortune and take in a stage show in the evening, but instead took the Metro back in to town to see a closer hand the recently restored Opera House. Sadly no performances on Sunday, so we could not get inside - but the exterior was truly glorious.
Then off to a restuarant we had been reccomended at the bottom of Montmartre. Charties is a 130 seater restaurant, a bit away from the tourist circuit, and usually full to bursting by 7.30 (this is queue on our departure at 8.00).
Good, basic French faire, noting haute about this cuisne - Touloson sausages, Provençal mushrooms, roast chicken, all served with pomme frites and washed down with a house wine that would not have disgraced any wine list. Finished off with ice cream profiteroles and hot chocolate sauce, then we rolled home on the Metro for a nite cap and a long sleep!!Funny footnote - the Sunday evening TV showing was "Inspectuer Barnaby" - Midsummer Murders dubbed into French. Steve then saw the same episode in Romanian the following weekend in Cluj!!
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