A brisk walk through Montmartre – Paris, 2011

After spending a few days in Madrid and Valencia it was time to come home. Our hotel had been great. The rooftop sun lounge area gave views over the port and out towards the City of Arts and Sciences.

My legs were doing ok post marathon and we had discovered a new drink called ‘Frozen hot chocolate’ which was incredible. All good things must come to an end and so we headed for home on a sleeper train.

While waiting for the train we sat next to an official looking person in the cafe. After a quick search it turned out to be the Queen Letizia of Spain. An actual Queen just sat over there! Amazing.

One bad nights sleep later and we were in Paris. I don’t sleep well on sleeper trains as I’m too tall for the beds. I do enjoy that method of travel though. It is roomier than flying and you get to see the world go by over breakfast. I miss it. We had time to kill in Paris so we went to Amelie’s cafe for lunch. I really enjoy not rushing to make a train connection. If you can I highly recommend having a meal between connections. In 2018 we had lunch in Venice on our way to Croatia. Such a simple little thing but how great is it to casually have lunch in Venice? It is great.

Lunch, a beer and a wander in Paris with a trip to a camera store and some eclairs from a boulangerie for the trip home. I passionately miss these trips.