Up early for the final time on our journey, we packed our bags over croissants served by the lovely Janet. Then, graciously accepting more sandwiches, we left Brussels.

Now, we’ve been on some average buses, and some nice trains.  We’ve been on some average trains and some nice buses.

However, once at Bruxelles-Midi, we boarded a Thalys train.  For those in the know, this was a rebranded SNCF TGV.  For the uninitiated, this was one step below the luxury of the Eurostar, but travels at the same speed.  That’s right, to get to our final stop, we were travelling on the Concorde of trains.

Casually dozing at 300km/h, we woke up at Paris Gare du Nord.

Once we’d arrived en France, NM took me for a top-secret rendezvous at the entrance of an unnamed metro station to pick up our safehouse key from a clandestine interthink sympathiser.  Then, it was off to a lovely flat in the 15ème arrondissement.

Not wanting to over-cliché the most beautiful city in Europe (damn.) on our first day, we decided to take a late-afternoon stroll up to Sacre Coeur, after checking out the Moulin Rouge.  Moral vs. less-than-moral.  We’re all about balance.

Featuring a terribly tourist-laden wade through Montmartre, autrefois Amelie, now host to a deluge of portrait “artists”, we settled on a café with a prixe-fixe dinner menu.  Paying 24 Euros for a sub-average meal (although I did have a nice half-lobster starter) was not a high point.

A placating walk home accompanied by a short metro ride and we decided to pop in one of our host’s grand selection of DVDs.  Being rather up on the historical events in question and having visited certain places of note, we decided to watch Schindler’s List.  Three hours and seven minutes of breathtaking, moving cinema later, and we were long overdue for some rest.