23 sleeps to go

It is starting to seem real that we will soon be leaving for Paris. We've managed to get all our flight sectors on Singapore Airlines A380 so our holiday will start the moment we get to Kingsford-Smith (Sydney) airport !

The great dream of living in Paris (albeit only for one month) is so close. We're staying at Rue Jacob in Saint-Germain-des-Prés (6th Arrondissement) about 700 metres from Notre Dame. St Germain is home to the the cafe Les Deux Magots

Gavin's madly practising his French so hopefully we will experience the friendlier side of your average Parisien. We want to do simple things like go to the markets (maybe each day) to buy what we want to eat and drink for that day.  We will have the pleasure of Kiki (our past neighbour who now lives in Boston with Larry, Macho and Waldo)

staying with us for a while. It's been a long time since we saw each other so it's going to be rather special.
We also hoping to catch up with some friends and work colleagues who happen to be in Europe (or resident in the UK) while we are there.

Sue and Renze have rented an apartment in Paris for a month (they inspired our plan) and have started giving us suggestions on restaurants etc.
The first suggestion is to go to a restaurant called Aux Charpentiers near ‘’Marché St Germain’’ +33 1 43 26 30 05
Friends of theirs have suggested:
Les Papilles
Nabulione
Dans Les Landes
and Apicius which is apparently very high end but exceptional.
Hopefully whoever reads our blog may add further suggestions / ideas.
We'd like to go to Buddha Bar since we've enjoyed some many CDs from there. We've got our travel card from Ozforex.com.au as their offer (cost to use ATMs and cost of loading euro on to it) seems the best at the moment. We're not sure what local mobile SIM card (Vodafone? O2?) to buy once we have landed.
Jenni's planning on taking only enough clothes for a week and intends to hit the shops after the first week ! The new autumn season fashion will be out on 1st September so perfect timing.