4. Where's the swimming pool?

Not the only reason, but one of several reasons we are staying in the Montorgueil district, a stone's throw from Les Halles, is because the huge Les Halles retail, Metro and RER complex houses the best piscine (swimming pool) in Paris.

So, having settled into our apartment in rue Bachaumont, we set out to buy a three month pool membership for Paul. 

But alas - tres desolée! - what has happened to the pool?

Well ... it is underneath this enormous building site that is the six-year project to re-develop Les Halles.  To be specific, it is directly underneath that bright yellow Manitou arm you can see in front of La Bourse (the Chamber of Commerce) in the middle rear of the photo.

That is La Bourse in the background and St Eustace church on the right. 

The re-development is vast, covering several hectares at ground level and three or four levels underground.  There is that yellow Manitou in the far background where Paul's pool used to be.

St Eustache church is on the border of Les Halles (1st Arrondissement) and Montorgueil (2nd Arr).

So, having lost one pool, the best idea seemed to be to find another one.  This one looked inviting, and was only two streets away, but alas, school groups and swimming lessons only.

We had more luck at the Saint-Merri Piscine, neat the H otel-de-Ville (Town Hall).

Not a pretty building ...... but that doesn't matter, the pool looked fine.  Although  I must say it's a bit of a hike from rue Bachaumont - 1.2km and 15 minutes according to Google maps.  Whereas the pool at Les Halles, that has disappeared under a city of building construction, was only 500 metres.

Having solved the problem of the pool, we took up the challenge of finding Pylones.  

Our daughter-in-law Dani, bought her boys Jack and Henry, gifts from Pylones when she was in Paris with her mother Margaret, about 4 years ago.  And for the last four years we have used that beautifully designed and strong plastic bag from Pylones as the "wet" bag when we went to swimming lessons and the pool.  So it is now a bit the worse for wear and we have all been looking at it for what seems like forever.  So Dani, who always comes up with things out of left field, suggested that we might like to find the Pylones shop and get a new swimming bag.

So we headed out in 8 degrees of warmth, to find Pylones.

And guess where it is?  Just around the corner!

Turns out that it is not a toy shop but a design shop.  One thousand and one everyday household, office and personal items re-designed in the most colourful and stunning ways.

It was fascinating!  We haven't got the new swimming bag yet because it was just too difficult to choose between all the clever and amusing items.  We'll visit again in a few weeks.

And on the way home we passed the electric cigarette shop, which had no lack of customers (that's a queue you can see inside).

And these are the electric cigarettes.  Select you favourite model and then purchase nicotine and/or perfumed smoke as required, dispensed via micro-cylinders inserted in the holder.

And before the ever-decreasing temperature (7 degrees and falling at this point) sent us back to the warmth of our little apartment, Paul made sure he posted a post-card for Jacque et Henri.

What you can't see in the photo are the thongs!  They are blue thongs.  They match his toes.