Episode 4: The Photos

Shopping in Paris: not my idea of a great holiday activity and having experienced it first-hand, I'm not exactly a convert. No amount of nudges could dissuade Chris from visiting the Lego store though, so we drove 'round to St. Denis, hopped on a Metro train in to the centre and visited a shopping mall. After the Tower and the palaces and Notre-Dame the day before, it was something of an anti-climax - although as shopping centres go it was OK, I guess. The best part of the retail experience is that I am now the very happy owner of a tea kettle and some much better walking shoes.

The plan was to get to Brussels mid-afternoon but a snafu with the public transport system in Paris, and the traffic around St. Denis caused by a Coldplay concert meant we didn't arrive 'til 8:30pm, local time.

No matter though, we've only been here a couple of hours and we can already tell this is a night-time city. A short walk around the centre took us past more open bars, restaurants and shops than we'd seen in the whole of our trek around Paris and if anything, the Belgian capital is an even more beautiful place than the French one.

Today was mostly travelling, shopping or hanging around Metro stations. Not much to talk about there, but a picture's worth a thousand words so here are the snaps of Calais, Paris and Brussels instead.

CALAIS:

Notre-Dame á Calais                                                    Calais Town Hall

 PARIS:

Blackpool Tower                                                                 Taj Mahal

Urgh, what a dump

Notre-Dame                                                                   Île de la Cité

BRUXELLES:

View from The Hotel Chambord

This crazy clock thing.

And last but by no means least: