Thursday 8th September – There are a lot of saints around this area but today we went to Saint Malo, just over 50km away,  An interesting walled city on the Brittany coast.  It seems to be famous as a base for pirates apparently approved by the King.  We had a bit of fun finding a park as they were all Complete which we assumed to mean full.  We found one about a kilometre away back in the newer city and walked over.  It was pretty impressive looking but all the buildings looked a bit like they had been built by the same builder (or designed by the same. architect).  They were five stories high and looked very similar.  Maybe the town wasn’t that old.  I think around 1500s so built to a plan.  It got my tick as I did see topless bathers otherwise it was just another tourist spot.  Wandered back to our Airbnb where I cleaned the car as we are handing it back tomorrow after having it for 50 days.  We will be up arround four and a half thousand Kilometers by the time we get it back to Charles De Gaulle.   Read our books and sorted our suitcases.  Not counting the plane we have only six big sleeps before we are home

Friday – Big day today, 360 or so Kilometer drive drive to our hotel then out to the airport to drop off our car.  We are on the road before nine after breakfast and saying goodbye to our host, Michelle.  She had been a great host even though her English was as bad as my French, and most of us know how bad that was.  Staying with her was almost like being at home with my Mum (who died 38 years ago). She could not have been more helpful and fussed around us.  It was good.  The place was probably centuries old, the floor creaked, the bed creaked, the walls were paper thin.  During the three nights  we were there additional guests arrived after we had gone to bed and we weren’t early.  It was really interesting talking to the others at breakfast again none of whom English was their first language.  It appeared it was quite fashionable to go to the monastery at night as there were less people and being quiet and darker you apparently got the real feel of the place.

The drive to Paris was great, one stop on the way for a drink, loo stop and Diesel.  Ten euro worth as we got the car empty and wanted to return it as we found it.  Once we got into Paris the driving was just crazy, jammed up.  It took us an extra 45 minutes to get us to the hotel than the GPS started at.  We are not sure why they bothered with traffic lights and lane markings as people totally ignored them.  When your light turned green you couldn’t go anyway because cars going across in front were just blocking your way.  Some hour we made it to the hotel and illegally parked while we dropped our bags and registered  ( Holiday Inn, Paris Gare de I’Est).  It was then back into the mayhem heading out to Charles de Gaulle airport to drop off the car.  I was starting to sweat a bit now as the car was showing we only had another 50K of driving left and of course there had been an accident on the motorway and once we got on we were moving slower than we were in the city.  We made it although finding the drop-off point was another issue.  We did one 7km loop and the second time were lucky enough to find a guy that hopped in a van and said follow me.  Probably  saved us an hour or so as we seemed to be  way off track.  Had done 4789 kilometres when we dropped it back.  The first thing we noticed was a yard full of cars with red number plates.  We asked why red number plates and was told they didn’t indicate anything yet we had seen no others on the whole of our trip.  The guy had said to the customer before us that “everything was easy in France”. He had no credibility.  It was sad to see the car go, a Peugeot 308 Station Wagon but not as good as the CX-5 so looking forward to getting back into that at home.Went into the airport to orientate ourselves for our Sunday departure, found terminal 2C and worked our way back on the train from there to our hotel,  It was about six by this time.  We had a cuppa, booked ourselves too a Segeay Paris tour and a bit of a rest before heading out to explore.  There were hundreds of people around but at one stage we worked out we hadn’t seen a white face for a bit and even although we hadn’t felt threatened thought we should change our direction .  Found a nice little cafe and had some fish and chips sitting at one of the tables outside.  We worked out that over 90% of people, mostly younger people were smoking,  Margaret was starting to notice how bad second hand smoke was.  Strolled a bit more before retiring back to the hotel.

Saturday – our last day in Europe, a small sleep in before we were off to the underground. We thought we would head over to the vicinity of our Segway tour and then look for brunch.  We had to travel on three different lines (5, 2 & 6) but we were starting to get the hang of it so no problem except some stations were so big it took a bit of finding the correct platform.  We got off at Duplex and found a great cafe that did “English Breakfasts” for 12 euro.  A glass of orange,  Bacon, egg, toast & jam, coffee and a basket of bread.  We ate everything, again lots of people out and about and we were sitting out on the footpath so very pleasant.  Wandered over in the Eiffle Tower direction, had ourselves painted by a con artist and generally joined the throng of tourists milling around.
Our tour was for 1:30 with a company called Fat Tires and our guide Victor from Barcelona.  He looked a bit like Castro and was superb.  He took half an hour getting us familiar with the Segways.  I think he picked on Margaret as the person that if she could do it they all could so she was first up.  She was like a duck to water on it and soon whipping arround.  The tour was a lot of fun.  There were eight of us on it and only two wankers, not going to name what country they were from but they just did everything they were told not to do and thought they were smart.  I did laugh when he crashed into the fence after running up the back of another guy.  One couple had flown over from the UK for the day to do the tour.  It was just so much fun wiping along beside the Seine amongst all the other people enjoying the sun and the atmosphere.  Thanks for recommending it Murray.  We finished around 4:30 and ended up going and having a beer with Tom and Joan from Wisconson, USA.  They owned a couple of John Deere franchises and did business with and had been to NZ on several occasions.  Joan was also a State Legislator.  We were heading back to the station when we saw a bus heading to our second to last station so we hopped on that and had a 40 minute drive through Paris which included part of the Champs Élysée.  We had enjoyed our Fish & Chips  so much the night before we headed back there to eat before heading to our hotel and sorting our bags for tomorrow.