Next morning 08 Nov.

Went downstairs for a croissant, cheese, and coffee. Boys followed a few minutes later. We checked out, left our luggage at the Hotel… Name… And wandered the streets of Geneve in search of adventure. Boy is this place ever a banking town, lots’o signs about watches as well. We walked by the water searching for the famous fountain. We walked out on a pier???  Jetty, breakwater… Saw a dead seagull and dead swan which had it’s head wedged between two rocks. We were at the point where the fountain is supposed to be. I told the boys that maybe it was turned off for the winter. The morning air was quite nippy, especially in the shade and the breeze off of the lake did not warm things up either. Off we went to find a mid-morning snack. We discovered a sandwich shop on a street corner. It was more of a patisserie. They had assorted sandwiches and the boys had tuna, I had curried chicken all on a 1/2 baguette, with assorted lettuces and tomatoes. We sat down on a window ledge to eat, and warm up.

Off we went after the snack and viewed a spray 400 – check height….. feet in the air, down a street, The Fountain!!! We walked back towards where we had been before our snack and there was the fountain at the end of the breakwater we had been on spraying high into the air, misting and soaking the place we had stood earlier. Boy that fountain shoots high into the air.

We meandered back towards the hotel stopping into a department store for a pee break and an electronics store to see what they had-boys found little Lego mini-figs.

Grabbed our suitcases and walked 3 minutes to the train station to head towards Paris.

Swiss francs are very colourful and the boys wanted to keep the bank notes.

Train trip to Paris was more countryside, little less mist and fog, more empty buildings and factories by the rail line, and travelling at 300kph is fun. One note is how one perceives level when you are traveling through the Alps by train. I would swear that the buildings are built with severe slants to the external and internal architecture – i.e really crooked floors when viewed from a train. But I believe that the visual illusion is created by the train not being on a level track, the track leans left and right and it is going up hill and down hill, and as a viewer from the train you use the train as a reference point for the horizon, thereby creating the illusion of crooked houses and buildings. CONFUSED?

Arrived at Gare de Lyon in the early evening, again greeted by light drizzle and darkness. We grabbed the Metro / subway to head towards the Gare de Nord where I had booked a hotel. Again after exiting the train station, the gps did not work -still using the Italian Wind mobile card – but the credit had run out, I became lost again. But we found Blvd. Magenta and found Hôtel Avalon Paris, checked into a nice room where the bathroom window did not fully close letting loud traffic noise from below blast into the room. We each had a bed in this room, with a view of Blvd. Magenta.

We went in search of a local restaurant through the back streets of Paris. I asked a beautiful lady where there was a good restaurant, with French food and good prices a la Français. She pointed one out on the corner and we had an excellent meal. Of course the wine in France is just as good as in Italy, and the waiter helped the boys with French  grammar and pronunciation. We sampled a duck patè, a fish patè, and had a delightful créme caramel, carrot cake with whipped cream, and a chocolate mousse – Brendan says it was yummy.

We had ????

We stopped at a grocery store (magasin) picked up some refreshments and went back to the hotel for sleep.