---

Today we departed Antwerp and caught a train to Paris. There is not much to say about that, trains after all are pretty mundane. This one not so much though as it traveled the 300 km into Paris in 2 hours. Outside towns and cities I estimate is was traveling at well over 200 km/hr.

We enjoyed our time in Antwerp. It is a city we had not read much about and had no expectations and/or preconceptions. Thus we were probably a little surprised and pleased to find it an interesting place. Lots of interesting buildings, museums and such, but also a strong sense of "things being good" - not at all like Athens.

Once in Paris we had a little difficulty making contact with our hosts Peggy and Jeff. We had quite detailed instructions that got us to the front door of the apartment block but then we could not raise Jeff on the phone. We eventually succeeded contacting Peggy at work. The problem was, Jeff had changed his phone number (new phone) and had not told us or at least we had not noted the change.

Jeff and Peggy were packing for a 1 month vacation in Thailand and so we did not have much of a conversation during the evening, though we did get an introduction to the local neighbourhood and a bit of a guide as to where to find things.

The apartment was in a vast complex of apartment buildings. Actually a compound with maybe a dozen apartment blocks, two schools and a medical clinic. Very different to anything we are accustomed to.

Not trying to be uncharitable, but we got lucky that Jeff and Peggy were vacationing as it gave us the entire apartment to ourselves and enabled us to spread out. What a treat 9 days in Paris in our own apartment for a very affordable price.

We were more than a bit excited to be in Paris and so, even though we arrived somewhat late in the day we could not resist going out for a quick look around. As you can see from the photos we chose the Eiffel tower for our first look.