Paris and Tours

cinque terra
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I am typing on a keyboard that is not QUERTY which makes things interesting

Well yesterday started with a visit to the Vatican in Rome. We ended up running out of time as we had to catch the 3:30 flight to Paris. After leaving our friends and travelling partners at the Vatican (frank needs all the help he can get) we found our way back, to our Hotel called REX, on the subway, which incidentally is brilliant.The flight went well but the De Gaulle Airport experience was a shocker. 2.5 hours to buy a rail ticket and find transport to our hotel which was a pitching wedge from the airport.

Inside the Coluseum Rome
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After asking several so called information staff and getting the run around we decided on a taxi,but alas the fare was not eneogh for them so we continued to lug around our gear and eventually foung the Hotel shuttle bus. This morning we caught the GARE fast train down to the Loire valley about 2 hrs south of Paris,we in TOURS. We are catching up on washing and having a relaxing day,combining a little bit of site seeing with a dozey day. The weather right through Italy was around 30 to 35 deg C, France has just had storms and it is about 20c, a bit of a shock but I guess you are all still envious; We are taking a formal tour tomorrow around a couple of castles and stately homes, their names are Chambord and Cheverny, you can google these if you are keen. We are staying here for 2 nights and then we head for Paris. TOURS, from the little we have seen, is made up of an extremely old section in the middle of town which has building a bit like the tudor styles you see in England,made up old diagonal timbers infilled with bricks,render etc: The Loire river runs through the town and right now it is running a "banker" as the storms were in the mountains that feed the river. Hav not heard any news from Oz so if anything exciting is happening include it in your comments back to me, especially if Collingwood gets a hiding (go the roos);

Coluseum at night
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I am waiting for a photos disk to be copied as i think I can upload some photo,s from here,non of the previous internet points allowed it. The staff running this site do not speak english which makes for an interesting delemma; i have been trying to copy the SD card to DVD and it keeps failing and giving error messages in French, so I do the normal thing and call for help, may as well not bother; Anywat catch you again soon ; I will now tru to add some photo,s

Bill & Jill