Paris 05 Ancien - Quartier Porte-Saint-Martin

Today we left behind the magic of Disneyland and headed to central Paris for the day, before catching an evening train back to London.

Despite the fact that there have been riots in Paris every night for the past 5 nights, there was very little evidence that we could see... Maybe we were in a different part of the city. The only impact for us was the early closure of the Disneyland parks last night and a threat of interrupted public transport routes today, though in the end, fortunately, we did not notice any disruptions.

We arrived in Paris around 11:30am and had about 7 hours before we needed to be at the Gare du Nord international train station.

Our first stop was to grab some lunch and we sat near a canal that runs though the city to eat our food. Little did we know that we had sat ourselves down in the perfect position to watch a triathlon that was on today. About 5 mins after sitting down, while munching on baguettes, we watched as 20 or so athletes came running by out of nowhere, and started jumping into the canal to begin their swim leg. It was great entertainment.

Next we wandered the Paris streets for a while and grabbed coffees and ice-cream. There are cafes and restaurants everywhere and around every corner another bakery or patisserie is revealed with delicious looking baked goods and cakes on display.

While we were walking we came across a roadside stall selling all sorts of goods, but Tom spotted a beret. Since we arrived in Paris a few days ago it is the only thing that Tom has wanted to buy. While we were in Disneyland we were practically forcing him to consider buying a souvenir. But no, the only thing he wanted was a beret. We had searched Disneyland high and low without success, but here it finally was. And what a find! - it suits him so well. He spent the afternoon pretending to be a French artist. The only thing missing was a thin twirled moustache.

We then headed to Luxembourg Parc to spend the afternoon. The park is the grounds of a former palace in the middle of the city. It is huge, with many activities to do and on such a beautiful day many Parisians had come to the park to enjoy the sunshine.

Tom got to have a pony ride, and Belle sailed a model boat in the pond. It was all a lot of fun.

After a lazy lie down on the only patch of grass in the park that you're allowed to step foot on, it was nearly time to head to the train station. But first we detoured to a creperie that served gluten-free buck wheat crepes so that Danielle could finally enjoy some famed French food.

Tomorrow we will be back in the UK to continue our adventures, but we will have some great memories from our time here in Paris.Les mer