June 22 nd

Today was the day for shopping. I am sure there is some excellent shopping in Paris but as with elsewhere in the world, trying to find appropriate clothing for a small and short teenager is challenging. Eventually we gave up the search for a dress for the school house dinner and set ourselves an achievable goal, souvenir shopping - cheap and cheerful.

We spent the afternoon at Musuee d'Orsay before headlining up to an area called Montmarte home to Moulin Rouge and a beautiful cathedral called Sacre Coeur. Huge crowds again, the streets had lots of quirky shops and fantastic delicatessens , with yummy food both ready to eat and to cook at home. Pity we had lunch already and dinner booked at our hotel.

Traditional French meal at our hotel, so much butter.....then an evening stroll to Arc de Triumph, Avenue des Champs Élysées , think Stan suggested this as evening walk presuming shops would be shut - but he was wrong - and the only one to buy anything. Then dash across to Eiffel Tower, no public toilets anywhere to be found, we were busting,( public loos shut at 11 pm ), our bus service had closed, so we rushed about the metro( still extraordinarily busy for a Saturday night) to crash home at midnight.

The upside, the Eiffel Tower was lit up the added effect of strobing lights like a Christmas tree. So impressive....

For those friends coming top Paris soon, my advice would be the following:
- definitely get either a Paris Pass or Paris Museum Pass, the museum pass is easily bought here at different locations around town. Even if you are not sure if you will get "value out of it" it will mean you miss a lot of long queues so well worth it. Some places eg arc de triumph, still need you to queue to get a free ticket before going up.
- if you plan to go to Montmarte, do so either for a meal or pickup the ingredients for a picnic to have later in one of the lovely gardens, such as Luxembourg Gardens.
- see the Eiffel Tower late at night when it is all lit up