Paris (22.7. - 26.7.)

Last stop: Paris!

• We stayed in a friends apartment near Canal Saint Martin / Goncourt - a good location (with a rather loud bar next door, but we came prepared)
• We used velib on two days (23 journeys, 66km). On both days it started very nice (especially on Sunday), but turned out to be a bit stressy, as it's hard to find a free spot to "park" your bike in the touristy areas.
• Cycling on the big bike paths is lovely, on the bus/bike-lanes on some boulevards not so much. And Marais on a Monday afternoon probably wasn't a good idea: lots of traffic, construction works, garbage trucks, and don't get me started on the bloody tourists everywhere .. :-)
• We visited the Louvre, where we skipped the most crowded parts, but still got a good view of the Mona Lisa; and the Musée de l'Orangerie with the "Water Lilies" by Claude Monet - impressive.
• We also visited a lot of second hand shops, I liked the ones around Château Rouge better then the various "Kilo Shops".
• On various walks we found lots of nice street art,
• And again too many boulangeries - I've never eaten that much cake per day...
• Now we're on the sleeper train back to Vienna, which this time was neither canceled by a strike nor delayed by a fire - yay!