Paris

Ruth says: Our second stop was Paris. We stayed in a campsite in the Bois de Boulogne ( wrong spelling i know). It was a bit of a ropey place but it was right next to the Seine so ideal for getting into the city. I was starting to get used to camping, and apart from the dramas involved in having to go to the loo in the middle of the night, our bed was super comfy and the whole Al Fresco lifestyle thing is pretty cool.

We did a lot lot lot of walking in Paris ( we worked out we walked about 12km each day). In an attempt to save money and to keep ourselves from turning into lumps of lard we walked into Paris which took us about an hour and a half as we got lost and managed to walk past a lady of the night touting for business in a short skirt and bra in the middle of the day.

Paris was beautiful. We did pretty much all of the touristy stuff, walking to it all...( the Birkenstocks are holding up well) including Montmatre which I absolutely loved. Sitting on the hill in front of Sacre Coeur in the sunshine overlooking Paris was just gorgeous.

Bob says: As we did our first longish stint of driving towards Gay Paris, we happened to be listening to the best of Bob Marley. It was very apt i thought that Bob should be singing about "Moving Yorkshire People" on his "Exodus" track. Although I said nothing to Ru, I´m sure it was a poignant moment for us both. Just for the record, although the wife is not Yorkshire, she has acheived Honorary Yorkshire Status by being married to a True Yorkshireman. A status that she is rightly proud of as she comes from ye London!

Whilst obviously being a magnificent structure, i feel the Arc de Triumph as a name is way off the mark. Originally conceived by yer Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th century during the time he was rampaging through Europe following the first revolution in 1792 (yer French love a revolution. There have been at least 5 up to this present day). The Arc was finally finished in 1826. By this time France had been defeated by the Russians with the final insult coming when they met their Waterloo. In the mean time Napoleon fled into exile to a small island in the South Atlantic, hardly a glorious end to his time as emporer. Since then apart from a few colonial disputes, the French have largely concentrated on La Cuisines and Les Arts, and why not? Any serious skirmishes have quickly ended in surrender for yer French. So, I hereby by rename it The Arc de Surrender before Defeat.
N.B. I take no responsibility for the historical innacuracies of the above.