Around Paris

We headed back to Paris with a couple of days left, in part so we could explore some bike shops. Most of the shops were closed in August, so we had not been able to do any shopping before heading to the Alps. The first shop we were looking for, la Boutique du Cyclo, seemed to have disappeared. I had spent a great deal of time and money in this shop in 1991 after PBP. But we found another great shop for randonneurs, the suitably named Rando-Cycles. We found loads of cool things there, that we can't get here, and spent way more than we should have. We collected all our gear, and bikes, and made our way back out to the hotel in Plaisir (via subway and train.) We had stayed here before and immediately after PBP, and had left our cases here. The folks were incredibly nice, and we will use them again. For our last day, we took a soin out to Mountainville, a lovely hilltop village, whose residents ssem to truly pride themsolves in their window box gardens.

Apparently we had no pictures of straight rows of trees!

From there, we headed toward an African Preserve and Zoological Park. We couldn't ride through, since we might be eaten by lions! But as we were headed back, we stumbled upon a lovely Chateau. John slipped pastthe gate to take some pictures. Then we rode around the front and discovered it is a hotel!

We eventually returned to oir hotel, packed up the bikes and headed off to the airport.