Paris - a city of wonder

None of us were keen to leap out of bed this morning, not only were we tired but glancing out the window we looked onto a day that was grey and drizzly. I did walk up the street to get croissants for breakfast and bread for lunch. We eventually got ourselves organised and headed out around 10am. We decided we would do the hop-on, hop-off bus today so we caught the metro to Opera Garnier then got on the bus.
Our first stop on the bus was the Louvre – saw the obligatory Mona Lisa and statue of Venus de Milo as well as lots of other wonderful pieces of art. One amazing painting that stood out was a huge painting in the same room as the Mona Lisa of the Wedding at Cana – the people in the painting were actually life size, that’s how big the painting was. We spent a couple of hours wandering around looking at the art work and the

beautiful building – in some rooms the ceiling was as impressive as the artwork on the walls and we spent as much time – if not more – looking up as we did looking at the artwork on the walls.
We had our pre packed sandwiches for lunch in the foyer of the Louvre, sandwiches taste so much better when they are made on crusty fresh French bread with beautiful ham and cheese. By the time we got out, the rain had cleared and the day was looking ok again.

Back on hop on hop off bus which took us passed the Musee de Orsay then we got off at the Obelisk. From here we had a great view to Louvre one way and the Arc de Triomphe the other. We decided that when in Paris one must have a walk

along the Champs-Elysees so that is what we did. The girls had a chocolate crepe from a street van along the way and said they were delicious. We jumped back on the bus just before the Arc de Triomphe so we could experience driving around this crazy intersection. There are 12 roads leading off this roundabout and it is amazing that all the drivers manage to negotiate this very busy intersection without piling into each other. We got off the bus at the next stop and walked back to Arc de Triomphe so that we could have a proper look around this iconic monument. We climbed to the top – 282 steps – for a great view of Paris. Not only was the view fantastic but it was amazing to stand up here and watch the traffic negotiating its way around the roundabout. Again this is the perfect place for sitting and watching the world go by, so after we came down from the Arc de Triomphe we went into a café on the Champs-Elysees for a drink and to do some people watching.
Then back on to the bus to the Trocadero – the view of the Eiffel Tower from here is amazing, especially when it is all lit up. After night fall, every hour for 5min, 20, 000 lightbulbs sparkle on the tower. We decided to hang around until 6pm to watch this and it was well worth it, such a beautiful sight to see the Eiffel Tower twinkling away covered in lights. Our plan was then to catch the hop on hop off bus around its route and back to Opera Garnier to catch the metro home but after hanging around at the bus stop for 30min we figured the times we had were incorrect and the last bus was gone. So back on the metro instead which was very crowded at 6:30 on Fri night and nowhere near as relaxing as an evening on the hop on hop off bus would have been so this was a bit disappointing but nothing we could do about it.


We decided we just wanted an easy dinner at the apartment rather than out somewhere so we bought some pre-cooked food from a great little gourmet deli that we walked passed on the way to the apartment from the metro – the girl there was very keen to practice her English so was quite happy to tell us about the food they had on offer. We bought some risotto and what was very similar to a shepherds pie as well as some ham, then went next door for some cheese from the cheese shop and across the road for a bottle of wine from the supermarket. Finally we were home, with very tired legs after walking 14.56km! Put some washing on and sat back to relax over a simple but delicious dinner.