Our journey to Ireland starts with finding the cab rank and purchasing tickets for the Renfe from Plaza de Sevilla (Cádiz train station’s name causes some confusion for a while as we plan how to get out of the city). The train journey is a quick one, retracing our journey into Cádiz and the timetable means we are deposited at the smallish Aeorporto de Jerez XRY (not small as in Port Lincoln but small for an international airport) several hours before our flight.

Train at Cádiz

Checkin for Iberia is not open so we make use of the souvenir shopping and the huge upstairs food court for several beers, coffee and Spanish champagne before we go down and hand our cases over to the airline – and then back to remind them to check our luggage through to Dublin as we won’t have time to collect and recheck it in in Madrid. There is more waiting around and the flight leaves late.

There is no such hanging about in Madrid’s Barajas airport. We can tell as we taxi the full length of the award winning Terminal 4 that it is going to be a challenge to make our connection. We succeed thanks to being at the front of the plane thus on the first bus, some good signage, massive travellators and being able to break out of the EU passport queue when we reach the final gate of H.

Unfortunately our luggage is not up to the same challenge and we find out when we land in Dublin that it is still in Madrid and will not make it over until this time tomorrow. Of course this is the flight where we have packed everything and have no emergency supplies in hand luggage between us. All the train travel of the previous week has made us complacent. There is nothing for it but to get on the bus and head to our hotel where Barbara and Alan are already in situ – and luckily have plugs that mean we can recharge devices. Clothes we can do without but not iThings.

Bloomsday wall, Dublin

Dublin is finishing off a sunny Bloomsday and finding room in a traditional Irish pub defeats us, so we settle for traditional Italian and then wander in the long evening light getting our bearings.

Today is designated as above ground day with gardens on top of the list. Père Lachise Cemetery is closest and recommended by travellers before us. After some time failling to find anyone on our list we get to Chopin and an enthusiastic expert adopts us and in short succession we are introduced to:

• Vivant Denon, 1747-1825, first Director of the Louvre Museum.
  

  Vivant Denon

• Ken Sasaki, 1943-1991 [no Wikipedia article?] a Japanese pianist who according to our cemetery guide wanted to be buried near Chopin, and whose Australian wife made her mark by including a kangaroo playing the piano on his headstone.
  

  Ken Sasaki’s grave

• Armande Pierre Arman, 1928-2005, French-born American artist.
  

  Armande Pierre Arman’s grave

• Marcel Marceau, 1923-1997, originally Marcel Mangel who was a French Resistance hero before he became so well known for mime.
  

  Grave of Marcel Marceau

• Rossini, 1792-1868 has a most impressive monument
  

  Rossini’s grave

Feeling we have one more garden in us for the day and looking up opinion online to choose between Tuileries and Luxembourg we opt for Palais-Royal. This allows us to walk back through the Louvre and part way through the Tuileries.

Sainte-Chapelle windows

Sadly the Jane Rutter Australienne in Paris concert tonight at Saint-Chapelle is too late for those who have to pack and check out by 6am so we opt for the earlier Best of Baroque programme. Much queuing and herding for 45 minutes through security and around buildings and upstairs but the windows are stunning indeed, and we get to hear #2, #6 and #47 from the recent ABC Classic FM 100 Baroque and Before.

Notre Dame Paris

On the way back we detour to try for a shiny day (rather than a rainy day) photo of Notre Dame. Time for a last dinner in Paris and we walk the gauntlet of the ‘typical French cuisine’ strip around St Michel and finally chose l’oignon soup and fondue Savoyarde. Who knew that Wikibooks did recipes? Sending best wishes to the School Library Association (SLASA) conference starting today at Adelaide TAFE and remembering arriving from Perth in 2002 and launching into organising the then SASLA conference. Losing track of the state, national conferences and Library Staff days with SLASA since then.

With thanks to help from guest blogger for Day 11: birdsey7

This morning we decide to test out the route to the Beauvais airport shuttle bus. This starts badly when we march off down Bv de Reuilly instead of Rue de Reuilly. Luckily we realise before too long so we trace our steps back to Bercy Square and start again. It is about a 20 minute walk to Reuilly-Diderot, then about a half hour ride to Porte Maillot. We follow the signs to the bus, losing sight of them at one point and going up and down stairs before realising we have gone wrong. More retracing of steps and when we finally emerge above ground we find we still have about a five minute walk back to the bus station.

Palais des Congrės

On the way back we find a much quicker route to the metro directly below the Palais des Congrès. But the popular opinion is that it it will probably be easier to take a cab. Then we take the train to Montmartre (Anvers) and after a quick beer and coffee take the funicular up to Sacré Cœur.

Funicular, Montmartre

This is a very big impressive looking pile on top of a steep hill. The church was built in the 1870s so has a rather romantic feel to it with lots of colourful pictures and mosaics, not at all like the old Gothic churches.

Sacré Coeur Montmartre

After this we walk down some steep steps and narrow cobbled streets and find a cute bar for lunch, Au clair de lune. We manage to find Château rouge metro station, which is immensely busy. In the confusion we get on the down train instead of the up train, but this proves to be a good thing because it is the right line to go straight to the Champs-Élysées. We emerge at George V station into a mass of tourists and traffic. We have a quick look at the Arc (which was decorated with scaffolding, like nearly every other landmark we’ve looked at on this trip so far), then scurry back into the underground at Charles de Gaulle Étoile.

Eiffel Tower from train

Soon we are over the river at Ber-Hakeim with several hundred others. We walk with the crowds to the bottom of the Eiffel Tower, marvel at its size and then walk back to the station, onto a rattly old train and back to our old familiar Dugommier.

Venturing out into the rain soaked street after a hotel breakfast we realise the metal frame strutures we saw last night are market stalls – right outside our gate. Still very grey but while the rain holds off we head towards the river – finding it at Pont de Tolbiac.

The Seine from Pont de Talbiac

A very overcast walk along the Seine – so distracted by trains moving across Pont d’Austerlitz that we don’t realise the Bibliotheque Nationalé de France is on the bank above us until we are at Gare d’Austerlitz.

Wollemi pine at Jardin des Plantes

It is drizzling on approach to the Jardin des Plantes but by the time we are well inside it turns into full blown rain from which the avenues of trees do little to protect us.

Already dampened we move onto #2 on the to-do list and queue (for the first time) at Notre Dame. Perhaps the crowds are smaller than usual thanks to the clouds. It is very dark inside.

Umbrellas at Notre Dame

Church of St Severin, Paris

A beautiful déjeuner in a cafe features food of the Basque region then we find our way back to a metro – underground being preferable to above ground this afternoon. We come across St Severin’s  – a welcome shelter and interesting windows and another war memorial.

There is no article in English Wikipedia for Séverin of Paris, “a devout hermit, who lived on the banks of the River Seine during the first half of the fifth century.”

Some hours spent drying off in the bar back at the hotel, then off to a highly efficient laundromat – conveniently located next to an eccentric corner bar.

Wiki news
Some education related news on the Wikimedia lists today:

• Israel’s Mininstry of Education agrees on a new initiative to incorporate education about Wikipedia in its school curriculum.
• Serbia Wikimedia reports that their Ministry “has prescribed that from September 2014 all students of the second year of secondary school curriculum must study wiki tools.” The Institute for the Improvement of Knowledge and Education has included a course on Wikipedia in its catalog of programs of continuous professional development of teachers, professors and other school personnel.”

Limmat, Zurich

Wake up to a warm day in Zurich, and find a wifi cafe with croissant, espresso and amazing homemade limonade with basil and mint, before walking along the Limmat to the last bridge.

Grossmünster, Zurich

WikiVoyage  is every useful in identifying the places we are seeing. So far there has been limited English labelling of significant buildings so we are grateful for the wiki articles on key cities. The churches (and their clocks) we photograph turn out to be:

• Grossmünster – construction of the present structure of which happened around 1100-1220, and features a huge Heinrich Bullinger on its outer wall.

Fraumünster, Zurich

• Fraumünster – named not for Our Lady but because it is built on the remains of a former abbey for aristocratical women founded in 853. Now a Swiss Reformed Church.

After lunch it is time for our 4 hour TGV experience to Paris Gare de Lyon via Basel and Dijon, arriving in Paris with the late afternoon rush. It is great to have expert guidance on Le Metro to get us to a station near Bercy le Quartier.

A picnic of baguette, charcuterie, cheese and a fine drop of premier cru outside in the garden leading into a very stormy and disturbed night.

Back home it is a public holiday and Queen’s birthday honours and thanks are due to those responsible for the compilation of music honours. Still waiting for the equivalent education and library related lists.

Today, as well as a public holiday, we missed the end of the ABC Classic 100  Baroque countdown.