france and italy trip...(Day 5)...

MO, Sept 5 (Paris, France and the surroundings)

Today is the day we say good-bye to the Saint James...sad, it was really nice meeting you.

Jerome and Lou went to go pick up our rental car, which was going to be a Ford Focus, but turned out to be a Peugeot 3008 - whoa, pretty nice car (crossover/SUV).  Apparently, when they were giving the Focus a wash, they left the back window open a tad and the back seat got soaked.  So, we got an upgrade!

We drove the the St. Ouen Flea Market and walked around a bit.  It's pretty huge and somewhat expensive.  I have heard since that there are smaller flea markets around France that are not expensive...one of these days I figure this out!

We are always in search of a modern bathroom facility when we are in France.  "We" being me and whomever we are bringing along ~ Jerome could care less.  So, we are told that there is "the toilets" around the corner.  Both Lou and I have to use it.  This bathroom happens to be for men and women.  In fact, you get to walk right by the open urinals in order to get to the stalls.  Avert your eyes, ladies. Also, it seems to be where the flea market sellers do their dishes.  There were some wine glasses being washed in a very large bathroom sink.  Hopefully not the wine glasses we were about to drink from at the restaurant that is on site; Chez Linsette.  This was an extremely gaudy restaurant, filled with Christmas decor as only the French can do.  There was live music and luckily we got there just before the kitchen closed for the afternoon.  The woman singing was loud and would sell you one of her CDs for the low, low price of 20 euros!

After our flea market visit, we traveled to Versailles.  We came up what I would call the back way.  This was a way I didn't recognize.  You can nearly drive right up to the palace.  Last time I was there (15 years ago), my sister brought us a different way, through some naked statues and gardens.  Well, we found out some valuable information...Versailles is closed on Monday's.  So, again, just a photo op from outside the gates.

The village my sister lived was not too far away, so we took a drive there to see if I could recognize the place.  We found the roundabout that had the name of the village spelled out in foliage.  Took some pictures for my sister and then headed to Uncle Dudu and Aunt Janine's place.

We stopped at Carrefour to pick up some flowers and the next thing you know, we can't find Dee.  We looked for her for a good 10-15 minutes before we found her.  She took a wrong turn looking for a bathroom.

Had dinner at Dudu & Janine's.  Herve, Noemie, her brother Bastien and his girlfriend Matilde joined us.  Noemie was very happy to see me; happier than all of the other French.  I guess the three weeks she spent with us helped with my credibility...depending on if they find Noemie credible. ;)

Let me tell ya, a Murphy bed is very neat that it tucks away and everything, but man, their Murphy bed is so uncomfortable.  Couldn't sleep AT.ALL.