France

We are alive and well!!!! I've been letting Aaron take all the photos while I soak up the atmosphere!! Have left Paris now after 5 nights there - enjoyed our time there but I was sick of being jostled by people all the time! Spent last night in Charters, thoroughly enjoyed a smaller place with no where near as many people.

Paris - Mum and Simon were very kind to us and helped us get the right Metro when we arrived in Paris, explaining how it worked and then we assured them we'd be fine!! We found the street we needed on the map walked there and didn't see a phone so we kept walking!! It took us what seemed like forever to find a public phone only to discover it doesn't take coins and had to find a place to buy a card. Aaron got that organised and then it took another 5 minutes to figure out where to put the card!! We had that figured and after 6 different attempts at the phone number we'd been given to call to get into our apartment a lovely lady told us what we were doing wrong!! We then walked back to our building to wait outside, believing it would only be about 15minutes before someone would arrive, a nice lady took pity on us and let us into the foyer of the building so we could at least take off our packs and sit down and let Avryl walk around without holdong our hand (footpaths in Paris seem to be single file!), it ended up taking over an hour for the lady to arrive - overall not a wonderful start, we were then so tired we said let's just go for a walk get some dinner and we'll find a supermarket tomorrow. Big mistake - there are no Supermarkets open on Sundays and the corner store we bought a fedw supplies from charged the earth!!! But after that bumpy start we had a great time.

We've seen the sights, lots to tell ou all when we gwt back. I loved the architecture of the buildings the most. And the parks and the musems!! I would have to say though that I have walked so much I've not been missing my regular exercise with Julie - and instead of travelling lunges with weights I've been doing Metro stairs with Avryl or her pram!! Aaron and I had 24hrs to ourselves - Mum and Simon took Avryl for a night (they went to the zoo) and we went to the Louvre.

Charters - would have loved to have had more time there. The Cathedral is so different to the Notre Dame in Paris. The town is big enough but quiter than Paris, lovely Medieval buildings.

Normandy - Aaron has had his first day driving on the wrong side of the road!! He is worn out - snoring beside me:) We're staying in Arromanches, about 250 meters from the beach. We've alreadybeen down to the beach and Aaron and Avryl had a long walk on the sand. It is soo beautiful. If it weren't for the rusting "pontoons" in the ocean and the fact that buildings here although in the same architectuaral style as other towns we drove through have a newer look to them you would never known such a major battle had been fought in this town. This is what I imagined France to be like.

Weather - it's cold - 10 degrees celcius today. Our first couple of days in Paris were gorgeous and lulled us into thinking France was going to be warmer but it started being cloudy and spitting rain a few days back and it's been like it ever since!! Avryl and I have both got a cold (Aaron had his at the start of the trip!) but we are still having lots of fun!

Avryl is starting to get home sick though - talking about Bella, Kiara, Pud, Luke, Lily, Kura and Remi all the time. She spent most of the time in our hotel room at Charters "talking" to them on the phone. She has also started asking to go back to our home in Australia (thanks to Mum's hard work Avryl now understands that Tindal is in Australia).

I still can't email and don't have PO boxes so anyone checking this that would like a postcard please email arron with your address!! (aaronbetts@aapt.net.au) He checks email more frequently than I do!!