Le weekend en gay Paree

30/31 October

So if anyone tells you it's difficult to get from San Sebastian to the French border, I don't know what they've based it on but we found it so easy. One Eusketren from the Amara station, taking 37 minutes, running every half hour and stopping 20m away from the SNCF station at Hendaye. Simples. I have no idea why no-one on Trip Advisor could come up with a straight answer to this.

After a 6-hour journey through beautiful countryside and via Bordeaux, we arrived at Paris Montparnasse and managed to negotiate the Metro to the slightly dodgy part of Montmartre where we're staying. It's not far from Gare du Nord so we had an easy walk pick up Gill and our Eurostar return trip on Monday will be simple too - but let's just say that the area is a wee bit edgy. The flat we're staying in is very sweet but it's definitely not suitable for 3 women who don't wish to share a bed and we've ended up having to move furniture in order to try and sort out sleeping arrangements.

Anyway, we ate out locally last night (on our host's recommendations) and tonight and both times we've been pleasantly surprised at the value and quality of the neighbourhood restaurants we've chosen. This morning it seemed rude not to visit Sacre Coeur as it's only 20 minutes' walk from here - it was a foggy morning so the view across Paris was hampered a bit, but it's still a beautiful church.

We went for a walk through Montmartre and a coffee,

 and Gill did a little unexpected shopping with encouragement from me as it always does my heart good to watch someone else spend money. We got on to the metro at the beautiful Art Noveau station at Abbesses

and went Seine side - what I can advise is (at least for probably the next year) that if you're contemplating using Chatelet metro, don't - it seemed that as we approached it, every single exit was shut off and the arrows pointed a different way - we felt as though we were going round and round in circles. I think it took us 10 minutes from platform to exit. Our mission was to cross to the left bank and visit La Chappelle, the stunning medieval church with amazing stained glass windows.

After lunch

it was back on the Metro to Pere Lachaise cemetry - it was a beautiful day weather-wise today, so it was a good day to visit and lots of the graves had fresh flowers on because 1 November is All Souls' Day. We didn't manage to see all the famous graves we wanted - Jim Morrison's is a mess with so much junk on it, plus it's hidden behind one of the family mausoleums so not that easy to see - and Oscar Wilde's is a lovely Art Deco tomb, though covered in lipstick - why?

We took a little time to visit Galleries Lafayette and Printemps on Boulevard Hausmann to look at their respective domes and lights - the only word is really opulent, but we could only admire the displays as the glitz and glamour price tags were rather beyond us. I just felt so grubby in my jeans and Converse....in fact I've been feeling a bit grubby for the past two months! I'm looking forward to wearing heels again, and maybe a skirt...

Printemps

Sadly dome was out of bounds for a private function so can't compare it with the beauty of GL below 

Dome at Galeries Lafayette

Yes, it's Christmas

We decided it was time for Aperol Spritz just off the shopping drag, but were sorely disappointed at the standard and the horrific price - I'd paid 12 euros in Milan too, but at least it was nice with the right amount of Aperol. Seems the Italians know best when it comes to this particular cocktail.