Started today by flooding the bathroom. I stepped out of the shower into about two inches of water. It had been draining very slowly prior to that point. Not my fault that the drain was blocked. So after I fixed the plumbing (I am a woman of many talents) I had to mop up all the water. I reckon that bathroom floor is now the cleanest it's been for a century!
After that little drama I headed off on a Metro trip BY MYSELF. Not only that but I had to change lines. I have to admit that it was very easy. All the stations are very well signposted and the train carriages have good displays showing all the stops on that line with a flashing light next to the next stop. So I arrived at the meeting point for the walking tour of the Paris Flea Markets before the guide.
We were shortly joined by a couple from India, a couple from England and two women from the US. Our guide Marie was very nice and spoke good English which made things easier. She obviously also loved the markets (a girl after my own heart) and was very enthusiastic about everything and took us on a longer tour than we'd paid for so it was about two hours. Surprisingly I didn't buy anything. It just so happened that the things I saw that I liked broke one of my travel shopping rules - too big, too heavy or too fragile.
I then went back on the Metro to the Marais area which was very close to where we were staying. I shopped around the Place des Vosges (along with a few thousand other people). Next I went over the river to the St Germain des Pres area but it was window shopping only for me in that area. Such fancy high-end shops! My eyes must have been nearly popping out of my head as I walked past shops like Hermes and Burberry. Alas, only in my dreams could I buy something from one of those places. I did have some information about good shopping in side streets but I kept getting lost and it was time to go back to the apartment to get ready for Moulin Rouge.
One of Lindee's friends in Canberra is French and has a sister who still lives in Paris. Chantal invited us to her place for an early dinner on our way to Moulin Rouge. She lives about halfway between our apartment and Moulin Rouge. The food she made for us was all from the Alsace region where her family come from. It was all very very delicious. So nice of her to do that for us as it wasn't just me, Lindee and Liz but another four friends of Lindee's who had been travelling around Europe.
The Moulin Rouge show was spectacular. I was really only expecting a lot of half-dressed women kicking their legs high up in the air. There was a bit of that but also amazing gymnasts, an excellent ventriloquist (not usually a fan of ventriloquists but he was very funny) and a woman who swam in a clear perspex tank with these huge snakes! Lots of champagne was consumed during the evening and a couple of unopened bottles on tables around us (who are these people that don't drink all their allocation of champagne?) were smuggled out by the two Aussie blokes in our group. You can take the boy out of Australia ...
Definitely another night where I collapsed into bed when we got back 'home'.
