Paris by Bike

We arrived in Paris yesterday after a 1.5 hour flight from Barcelona. We checked into Hotel Favart - which is a small hotel in the Opera district which I think is in the 2nd Arondissment of Paris. Paris is divided into 20 districts or arondissements that circle outward from the 1st in a snail pattern, so being in the 2nd district means we are pretty much in the cente of Paris. The first thing we have noticed is the cold - much colder than anywhere else we have been - a high of about 8 deg C today - Brr! Although we got a bit of rain yesterday, today at least has been sunny which was wonderful for our bike tour of the city. This pic is of us on the Seine river bank with the Notre Dame cathedral in the background on the left. The bike tour today was fantastic - we wandered around yesterday a bit lost, but today our tour, which lasted about 6 hours, has given us a good orientation of the city and it is fantastic to get an overview of all the famous sites and now we can get a plan together for the next couple of days of what we want to go back to. Not only did we see some of the famous sites today including the Louvre, the house where Jim Morrison died and many palaces, cathedrals, museums and churches (as you do!), but we also discovered some other gems such as the restaurant and rat shop that featured in the kids' movie  Ratatouille (we won't be going to the restaurant - dinner is about 2000 E a couple because they arrange for the lights on the Notre Dame to be turned on for their guests.), a gorgeous patisserie for lunch, lots of antique shops and shopping areas and the work of a guerilla street artist who has placed all these mosaic 'space invaders' at various points all over the city. He then takes photos of himself with the art and blanks out his face. He has a website and books and no-one knows who he is. He has done the same thing in other cities all over the world including New York, London and Barcelona. Jordan and Liam both won 5 E each off Chris by spotting them around the place - they are all different though. You can tell I was quite taken by this!  Check out his website here. Here is an example of the art:

Our guide, Pamela was a charming Chilean girl who is in Paris studying French.She had lots of wonderful stories and was very knowledgable about the city. Today being a public holiday there were plenty of tourists out strolling but not much traffic which was great. At the end of the tour they gave us a list of recommended restaurants and things to see that are hopefully not the typical tourist traps. It was great day and we are now resting up with the next difficult decision being where to go for dinner. The hotel is fine, but obviously the difference is that we are either in our rooms or out, rather than the living space we had in the apartment. At least we have 2 rooms here, wich have an adjoining bathroom, and for 148 E a night including breakfast is a pretty good deal in what is a very expensive city. Paris is a lovely city and we can't wait to explore for tne next couple of days.