Seeing the sights and a surprise in a metro station

Tuesday 27th July

Today we managed to see pretty much all of this beautiful city - everywhere we wanted to anyway.  We allowed ourselves a lie in until 9am and then got up and made our way down the road to the metro station.  We metroed to the Bastille, where Claire was my history guide and told me all about everything that happened to cause the storming of the Bastille, the event itself and the consequences and aftermath.

We then strolled down to the Notre Dame, marveled at the huge queues of people to go in and took photos of the amazing architecture.  I wanted to go to the Shakespeare and Co bookshop so we got directed there by an informative French guide.  Full of old books and little bookshelves everywhere, the shop even had a wooden shelf ladder that was 'not to be removed from the French literature section'.

Luxembourg Palace and Gardens were next - Claire's choice.  It was a pleasant surprise but the gravelly paths gave us a not quite pleasant foot exfoliation.

We then metroed to le Tour Eiffel.  Claire thought we had arrived directly underneath it, until she realised it was just the underside of a bridge.  We walked around a corner, past lots of men selling miniature Eiffel towers '5 for €1', and saw it, rising above the trees.  The queues were huge so we sat on the grass infront of it for a while.  As we sat, several girls came over and asked if we'd take photos of them and then another girl asked if we could tell her how to get to the Champs Elysees.  We decided we either looked nice and helpful or very touristy and English.

Walking around the streets to get to the Arc de Triomphe ourselves was fun, as we got some free cherries from a French man who sold us some fruit from his 'fruits et legumes' stall.  With cherry stained hands we stood slightly nervously at the edge of the massive roundabout and watched as thousands of cars all swerved around each other.

We set off down the Champs Elysees, aiming to walk all the way down to the Louvre.  We popped into Louis Vuitton and had a gander at all the tourists, and the few people actually buying things.  Carrying on down the Champs Elysees, we seemed to be on the restaurant and hotel side.  This was good as we weren't tempted by shops, but we did want to eat everything we saw or smelt.  As time was getting on, we jumped on a metro to take us to the Louvre from halfway down the Champs Elysees. 

It was still fairly busy but we managed to act out the end of 'The Da Vinci Code' and Tom Hanks' deep thoughts at the pyramid.  A brilliant part of the day was when we got off the metro at the Louvre station and there was a little orchestra playing jolly music.  People were watching and clapping, and one old lady was actually stood conducting them.  She clearly wasn't part of the group, as they carried on without her onto the next song.

An early night was needed, as Claire's plans for us the next day involved an early morning, lots of sugary sweet brightness and thousands of children.  We were going to Disneyland.

Stride like the rooster!