We’ve been so busy that it’s been some time since I’ve made an update. Paris is now 6 days behind us, but was an amazing experience, all the while made better by our intermediate level of traveller French.

It seems that nothing pleases the locals more than trying in French first. If at first you don’t succeed, they’ll often come back at you in English, or they’ll come back in English as they can easily discern your accent.

Not that we had a list and had to check the items off, but we visited The Louvre for the “three piece tour” and the Museum of Modern Art where I was lucky enough to see a large Bridget Reily exhibition. Also the Institut du Monde Arab is well worth a look, even for the façade alone.

One of the highlights of the visit was a day of cycling around Versailles - quite an amazing venue, both the grounds and the building itself and a wonderful place to have a picnic too. Don’t forget the great shopping in the Marais and Latin Quartier as well - as it happens, we happen to be travelling through Europe during sales times - which can be good and also bad.

Oh, and let’s not forget the George Pompidou Centre experience!

Pompidou Centre forecourt

You’ll notice that the forecourt above is devoid of people, with a few packages left behind.

I took a photo with no idea what was going on as there were no people about. As we walked on there was a massive boom which scared the **** out of us. Not knowing what had happened exactly and without asking the police (and after seeing a van with "Deminage" on the side of it), I guess that a suspicious package was found and was detonated.

The radius had to be at maximum 150m - I can only wonder if the package was actually an explosive device.

The Eiffel Tower - a must at night. It sparkles for ten minutes at the start of every hour.

Lots of great food to be had, and a couple of shockers as well. Citrus Etoile, Les Philosophes, Le P’tit Troquet, L’as Du Fallafel and Berthillon were all very good - ranging from fine dining to quick in-and-out lunch, and the bad - avoid Le Petit Dakar, and Le Petit Mâchon - one of the worst dining experiences ever. We walked out after 2 hours, in which time we had only had an entree!

Dinner by the Seine - another fab food experience, complete with Pierre Herme desserts!

Anyway, we’re in Gent right now and just gone midday and I can hear the first of the music from one of the stages close to our B&B. It’s a miserable 16C outside and raining! Today is the first day of the Gentse Feesen - so, it’s time to go outside and brave the weather and enjoy the action.

You can also check out some of the other holiday snaps on Flickr.