Place du Palais Royal

The first big day out in Paris! Straight up, we should be thankful for having children who did not complain once despite the 10km+ of walking we put in today! We decided to walk from Montmartre to the Musée du Louvre because at 36 minutes, it seemed only marginally slower than taking the Metro without the hassle of trying to work out the ticket vending machines. The Louvre deserves its own posting, so the adventure continues on after the Louvre to the walk through the Tuilleres Garden just outside, along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées to the Arch de Triomphe, with the plan to find a boulangerie on the way to buy a baguette to eat with our salami and cheese. Despite a relatively high density of such shops everywhere else in Paris, it would appear the cost of real estate on the Champs-Élysées would render this type of business unprofitable, because there were none to be found.

Still, around the corner on the way back to the Tour Eiffel we managed to locate one as well as a park bench at which we could rest the weary feet. Across the Seine we bought our tickets to the top of the Eiffel Tower and once again I think we were relatively lucky in terms of waiting time (15 minutes or so). The real queues started at the elevators, both on the way up and on the way down and no amount of pre-purchasing was going to save us from that. But, it was worth it - a most incredible structure and really quite beautiful. The 1991 budget tourist me could only afford to walk to the second level, so the lift to the top was a treat (and much less tiring).

We caught the Metro home. Walking was not an option.

The kids enjoyed dinner out with Nanny and Poppy, having crepes for dessert and a night view of the Sacré-Cœur - complete with furnicular ride to the top.

Craig and I enjoyed a dinner out in Paris prior to going to the Le Crazy Horse cabaret show. Finn was asking why they weren't coming out with us. We told them that the show was only for adults to go to, Craig adding that they didn't want stinky children there. When we got home, the kids had found a brochure for Crazy Horse whilst they were out for dinner with Nanny and Poppy and Kate said "I know why we couldn't go mum. It looked like those girl soldiers were not wearing very many clothes."

True dat! The theatre was smallish, perhaps seating around 150. We had great seats only 4 rows from the front with a bottle of champagne. The lighting, music, costumes (what little there were) and the stage setting were done brilliantly. Highly recommended for a special night out in Paris.Lue lisää