Well Friday the 13th has struck the Farrugia's right in the arse would you believe 13km out of Paris and the day we were returning the hire car Bang! Some old Frenchman ran into us on a congested freeway. Unbelievable this happening after all we have been through over the last 5 weeks without a scratch. There were no serious injuries except for Carmel's bumped nose as she head butted the camera while taking a photo of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. The camera came out unscathed!

Although we were quite pissed off, we weren't going to let this dampen our trip so we unloaded the car at our hotel and made our way to return the car. This was a quite eventful drive as on the way there we had to drive around the Arch De Triumph which was in the middle of this enormous round about which had about 12 exits and we had to exit on the eighth.....I had no idea how to keep count of which exit we needed especially when there were cars and buses criss crossing around you. This was another one of those moments; I asked Carmel to record the drive around the roundabout as it would have been good viewing well she managed to get about 12 seconds in before she started to get panicky and had to put the camera down! I told her not to worry and that we were ok as I had that much adrenalin still in my system from the accident we had that my senses were heightened and I could see and feel every car around me which was the truth.

Next day it was time to take in the sites of Paris, it all started out fairly well until the sky blackened and it started to rain. I was glad to have borrowed an umbrella from the hotel, we pushed on sharing the umbrella which barely covered us. We started at the Tracodero, then to the Eiffel Tower, the military museum, on to the Louvre to see the famous Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo De Vinci then up Champs Elyese looking at shops all the way to the Arch De Triumph. Which we climbed up the 284 spiral stairs to the top to see the surrounding areas into the night. The climb down was less demanding. We had been walking up to 11 hours at this stage and mostly in the rain. We wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower so we decided to spoil ourselves and get a bicycle rickshaw for a change. We were so lucky as we made the tower covered in strobing lights it was definitely a sight to see. Still raining we headed back to our hotel.

You wouldn't believe the following day the sun was shining and it was definitely a contrast from the day before which was welcomed as rain and sightseeing definitely is not a happy mix it literally puts a dampener on things! We passed by the Eiffel Tower to go up and get a view of the city but the line was so long I decided to can it there was still much to see and besides we seen Paris from a height from the Tromp! in any case.

We then visited Monmarte which was a quaint little town which was built on steep hills there were so many stairs we decided to catch the shortest cable car ride up and walk our way down. This town was famous for local artist walking the streets doing portraits and charactures. Well you'd think we would of learnt by now don't take up the first offer! We agreed to have a characture done and together just to say we did it! This guy started sketching Carmel as he said that mine would be easy so Carmel and I held each other, arm in arm and he busily got drawing. I was watching what he was doing and was commenting to Carmel on this is looking crappy and did not capture any of her characteristics so manned up and told the guy that we were not paying for that crap and offered him €5. I think he got offended and just walked off. I want to make a complaint to the French artist authority in respect to the caliber of artists they allow on the streets! Amateurs should be banned! Or at least wear L plates to warn us tourists.....

From here we visited Notra Dame famous church oh yes another church! I have had enough for a years worth of Sundays I recon! This church was famous for the stain glass windows and the famous sculpture of Michel Angelo Pieta and that it claims to have a shard of Jesus crucifix so they say!! We didn't get to see this.

The big finale of our visit to Paris is that we went to Mourlin Rouge. Wow I always liked stage shows but this was well done and a spectacle at that! The acts between shows were definitely top class that complimented the show. This is a definitely must see when in Paris and worth the hearty price although I would only do the show next time as dinner wasn't worth the money we paid for it!

Next day off to the UK on the Eurostar on our last leg of our journey.