Ah! Waking up and not having to go anywhere or pack up. What luxury. This however is balanced out by having to walk at least 100 metres to go for a “natural break” in the middle of the night. My tried and tested method will be coming into play tonight though, the use of a small Liptons Iced Tea bottle will make that light work of that moonlit stroll. (This bottle is bigger than the capacity of my bladder and has a wide neck, I'll leave the rest for you to work out).
Today has been deemed a rest/Thomas/sort out day. My clothes although not walking on their own yet are in need of a wash and the 18 euros a night cost of the camp site means we at least have running hot water, so whilst showering I wash my clothes at the same time. I don't know why I have decided to do this as it's both easier and more economical on the clothes wash liquid to do it in the purpose built sinks. The sky is blue and the sun comes out, add a slight breeze and looks like perfect weather for drying clothes. By the time we eat breakfast, faff about, have a coffee and I sort out what stuff Maddy is to take back with her to England it's lunch time. We lunch al fresco and head back over the Seine to give Thomas' route a proper seeing to. We head back over the Pont Nuilly and towards La Defense. A behemoth modern square arch of an office building appropriately named Le Grande Arch towers above everything as we head in to the financial district, incredibly Mountain Goat must have been looking for grass to chew on as she missed it completely. We wind our way to its entrance and look back from this arch to the Arc de Triomphe in a dead straight line probably a kilometre or so away towards Paris Central. I have not had time to investigate the maps of Paris in 1885 so do not know what Thomas would have seen. Whether this view would have been possible or what buildings where standing then, but today everything is shiny and new and glass towers of various pleasing curves sparkle in the sunshine. On various windows of the offices within people have made post-it note homages to the graffiti artist Space Invader. Here there and everywhere if you look close enough you will see a pixelated window bearing a love heart, an alien or a smurf.
Virtually the entire straight line back to the Arc de Triomphe is accessible by bicycle. As we head that way we pass a plethora of modern buildings that take artwork as an inspiration as much as they do function. Today is a public holiday and most of Paris is devoid of workers. This makes for calm traffic and a beautiful day for cruising the streets and taking in the details. We speed up to the biggest round-about in the world as we are now cycling without any luggage and it's as if the bikes have engines fitted. Not quite knowing the rules for navigating the Arc on a velo we hug the outer perimeter and gesticulate wildly at any cars about to cross our path. This gets us around 180 degrees and we decide to head to the middle and have a look at the Arc close up. On arrival at the Island we are greeted by two Gendarmerie who in no uncertain terms explain that bikes are forbidden and you have to leave them on the outskirts and use the subway. Oops. Off we go. Follow the nice policeman's advice, explore said Island and arch and return back to the bikes. Down the Champs Elysees we cruise and wind our way through the empty (ish) streets looking for a shop that might sell a universal camera battery charger as my £2.99 ebay chinese 5th year GCSE homework project has now died. At this point we are oblivious to the fact that it is a public holiday and no shops are open. As we shimmy along the “Hotel de Louvre” comes in to focus. Stevens first tried to book into this hotel on his arrival in Paris but was told there was no facility to store bicycles and he ended up at the Hotel L'oriet instead. I tried to book us into to the L'oriet but they no longer have room for bicycles, the Manger explained that a lot has changed since 1885. For a sense of completion I go into the Hotel De Louvre and see what's happening now. I prime Maddy that if I manage to get us a room we might have to up sticks and leave our camp site. The Louvre is a majestic place, 5 star I'm sure and in the heart of Paris. Its gold letters shine down the couture street of Rue de L'Honure like a beacon to well heeled travellers. Hilariously the Louvre now has a facility where I could put my bicycle and although the receptionist is interested in my story and does everything in her powers to help me, when I mention my budget is £1 per day she gives a false look to her computer screen and lets me work out the rest. I decide on this occasion that if the presidential suite is unused we would be happy to sleep on the floor on our own mattresses so as not to have to use the maid.
The rest of the day is spent scooting around empty Paris in the sunshine and generally enjoying life. On the way back to camp we pick up supplies for dinner and find two more beers to go with the “Navigator” we had yesterday. The same brewery makes the “Explorator” at a pultry 6.2% volume and then the daddy the”Maximator” at 11.6%. I' ll let you know how it turns out. Amsterdam Brewery we salute you.
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