Paris!!!

The weather on the first day in Paris was glorious and suncream was definitely needed! The itinerary for the day was to head back to the Sacre Coeur and walk around Montmatre before heading to the Eiffel Tower. The views at the Sacre Coeur were just as stunning as the previous night (only this time we could clearly identify which monument was which). Montmatre, specifically the Place du Tetre, was very touristy with lots of artists, cobbled streets, art galleries and restraunts giving the place a buzz.

We decided then to walk from the Sacre Coeur all the way to the Eiffel Tower. This was an opportunity to get the feel of the place and to burn in Fiona's shoes! The walk was about xx miles and went passed the Louvre, Concorde and other famous landmarks (see pictures when they are up). The Eiffel Tower looked gloroius in the sun and we decided to splash the cash and take the stairs up to the second level. We decided not to go to the top as we both felt this was high enough and the metal frame structure did not give us the full confidence, especially when we found out that it was only designed to be up for 20 years!

After the Eiffel Tower, we proceeded to grab a bite of lunch in the gardens behind it before then walking to the golden dome we spotted earlier. The golden dome was actually Les Invalides, the resting place for French war criminals/heroes :P. The day was not yet over and we headed along the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arch was HUGE and really towered over all roads leading into it. By this point Fionas feet were beyond repair (Iand Gerard was secretly tired too) so we took the underground back to Montmatre for a crepe and ice cream before heading back to the hotel.

The itinerary for the second day in Paris was to explore the Latin quarter. This included the St Chapelle, Palais du Luxembourg, the Pantheon and Notre Dame. St Chapelle is currently being restored so we didn't get the best view of it. We loved les Jardins de Luxembourg, climbed to the top of the Pantheon for another panoramic view of Paris (where this time we could see the Eiffel tower) and really enjoyed the Latin quarter near Notre Dame (as well as Notre Dame itself).

After all of this we walked (yes walked!) all the way back to Monmatre for a two hour tour which included the Moulin Rouge (so not like the film), a few places where Amelie was filmed, some history of the Sacre Coeur and plenty of stories about artists who used to live in the area like Van Gogh and Picasso.