Between Saint Denis and Paris

- 10 August, leaving for Paris with a bit of anxiety - refuelling at Carrefour Grand Nimes, € 38, 0.99 €/l, we wait until 8.30 to fill up together with a slightly clumsy elderly Spanish couple - breakfast at Carrefour, € 4.65, with the "suisse" and the croissant - autoroute to Montpellier, € 2 - traffic as far as Millau; a traffic jam near Millau, I'm a bit worried: the road is bad, there's a lot of traffic and the weather is almost October-like, and the roundabouts get on your nerves quite a bit.- lunch at Lozere, € 17..we feel alone because apparently there are no Italians, then in the bathroom I discover a group of Abruzzesi - refuelling near Orleans, € 25, 1.046 €/l - toll 60 km from Paris € 29.4 - dinner at Le boeuf jardinier, the Limours motorway services, € 14.6.

It's 9 pm and the sun is still out.- 22.15 arrival in Paris!- Then I see the Eiffel Tower darting about and the Sacré Coeur basilica. - I worry about the hotel: the directions aren't very clear! - By luck we reach Saint-Denis.- 22.30 we reach the hotel Formule 1- room payment 26.5 € + 3.4 € breakfast with a Visa card.

11 August:- the basilica of Saint-Denis cheers us up; it's a Gothic basilica older than Notre-Dame, where the French sovereigns were crowned and where the remains of some kings are kept. We attend a mass in French and at the end a deafening organ solo. - after crossing the market of Saint-Denis we take metro line 13 towards the centre.- Arriving in the real Paris opens our hearts: even the sky changes, now the sun is out and it's a bit warm! - As usual, an embarrassment of choice when visiting the city that greets us with its Arc de Triomphe - We see the Champs-Élysées, the Eiffel Tower (what a surprise, it's brown!), the majestic Seine with its bateaux-mouches and at last I can stretch out on the grass near the tower.

- lunch at pizza Iolanda, an Italian restaurant, € 21.5; we meet a couple of pizza makers from Terni who are our neighbours at the table. - After a bit of rest we set off again towards the Tuileries, place de la Concorde, petit palais, palais de Chaillot, arc de triomphe, the Louvre (closing at 6 pm after having my backpack X-rayed we go into the bookshop and watch a short film on Egyptian civilisation. In the multimedia room we consult a few documents..anyway this is the Paris I like!!- I observe the Rosetta obelisk; and then thirsty again we enjoy an excellent orange juice for € 4.1 at the Tuileries; - Looking for Notre Dame we stumble upon the Sainte Chapelle, and in the end we see Notre-Dame on the île de la Cité..a pity we arrived late and the church is closed, but who knows..after all so far I've met many Italians who have come back to Paris, and maybe one day I will too..

- Metro back to the hotel. 12 August: expensive breakfast at the Café du Musée near the Louvre (€ 12 for two caffè latte and two pastries;- visit to the Samaritaine department store; Montmartre (Amélie's quarter)- leaving Paris, exiting through the Porte de Clichy towards the southern périphérique