Day 13 Paris

The weather forecast was incredibly accurate for today. We got up late after our late night and after watching a crane hoist lift things to the top floor of a neighbouring apartment, we didn’t get out the door until 10am. Then we set off to catch our Toot tour bus from the stop at the Louvre, unfortunately there was a film being made in the area so we couldn’t walk through it at all and the bus couldn’t get in either. So we had to walk a bit further and a bus never came, so walked further and finally got one. We rode up top for a while but then on cue at 11.30 the rain started and it was pretty heavy. So downstairs we went and it seemed to be a good idea to stay on the bus for a while which we did until we got to the Notre Dame stop.

We were both feeling pretty hungry by then. We had started our day with a banana and pain au chocolat quite some time before. I was also feeling pretty cold as I had crocs on with no socks and only a t shirt. We found a lovely little restaurant with a 3 course meal for 14 euros. The French Onion soup was amazing with a slightly unusual chicken with chips and then chocolate mousse to finish, yummy!

Notre Dame is not open after the fire but they are working hard for that to happen for 2024. We were not far from our hotel so went back there for me to find some warmer clothes. The reason I have been wearing the crocs is due to blisters I got with the heat. They have gone down a bit and with the cooler weather it was lovely to wear long pants, merino sox and my normal shoes.

Tomorrow we are doing a bike tour to Versailles, so today worked out the train route we needed to take and had a practice run. After that we visited the Petite Palace which is a free museum which had some interesting things to see. And then off to the Eiffel Tower. I have never been up there before because getting tickets seemed too tricky. But Trish was keen so we went for a look and just walked straight in and bought tickets. We bought them right to the top, but I didn’t realise that meant only 50m lower than the very top. It was very high! When we first got out of the lift we couldn’t see a thing because of the cloud cover, but then it started to lift. It was a great experience and we could see all the places that we have been. We stopped at the 2nd floor on the way down as well. I’m very pleased Trish was keen to do that as it was awesome.

By this stage we were hungry again as it was about 7pm, so stopped for a quick bite to eat before heading to the Arc de Triomphe. It was much later than we expected, and after climbing the 50 million steps, it was dark when we got to the top. But we had incredible views of the Eiffel Tower being lit up as well as many other things. And of course there was car watching to be done. Just fascinating watching them navigate the lanes of traffic from the 12 roads that enter the roundabout. We could have stayed there for longer but were conscious of our early rising for tomorrow. So then back on the train and straight through to our station at Chatalet.

We really do have an awesome location here, very close to train station and other things.

20,262 steps with lots of stairs. High was 20 degrees which was just lovely.Okumaya devam et