Day 44- Rest Day in Paris

Another sleep in until 7.00 am!

Awake and ready to tackle to sights of Paris after breakfast.

The first think was to get a travel card which is valid for all of the public transportation such as trains, trams and buses. The helpful staff at the station near our accommodation at Rosa Parks set us up quite well and we were off on the underground Metro to the nearest station to Notre Dame. Arrived at the station and emerged into the sunshine and there were no cars apart from gendarmerie at all…. Really quite weird after visiting Paris on many occasions and to see the streets empty apart from a few visitors looking at the venues near the Seine River.

The area around the river was also blocked off for the opening ceremony which goes down the river to the Trokedero where a lot of the opening ceremony will be held.

It was good to see the Notre Dame Cathedral with the roof completed and the wooden spire rebuilt.

The seating for spectators around the Seine looked spectacular and I am hoping to get there somehow for the opening.

We then caught the train up to the Eiffel Tower area where again there are several areas where games events will be held. We had a baguette lunch near the Eiffel Tower and then made our way to the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Élysées. Once again there were very few cars other than police and gendarmes. Large areas were also blocked off around event sites.

At this stage the feet were getting quite tired and we headed back to the hostel. Later Steve and I collected our bikes from the bike shop. It seems that they have done a great job in replacing my chain, replacing the worm brake pads and sorting out the large chain ring gear lever which is hard to move. Looks all good for the next stage of the ride.

Speaking of which…. Yes we are continuing the ride in a few days up to northern France and Belgium to look at some WW 1 battle areas and visit Mesen to see the plaques which record the action of Captain Robert Greive where he was awarded the VC. Then it is in to Dunkirk and Dover and the South Coast of England under head north to the Cotswold area and finally into London to fly home. It looks like we will be doing a further 1500 kms of riding!

On this basis I will continue my daily blog posts and hope you enjoy them! I also hope this continues to encourage further donations to Alkira for the Alkira Cafe!

Please consider donating if you haven’t already! I am hoping we might move the total we have so far of around $32k to $40k. Donation can be made by clicking the donation button on my website.

The photos today are of the normal tourist spots in Paris which you can see in a different light with minimal traffic .

They also named a street near the beach volleyball venue near the Eiffel Tower after Sydney!!