We arrived at 7.30 am at CDG/Roissy. My first experience speaking French was a brief encounter with a lady and her child. With some food we had on the plane, in front of the declaration area, I wondered what I should do with it. She told me that there would be no problem. Being aware of the importance of customs in Australia, I wasn't sure what had to be done here. She didn't think I understood, because I offered the biscuits to her son and so probably thought I was confused.

We met Chris nearby, bought our Mobilis tickets for the day (travel from CDG is included in the zone 1-5 ticket), then off to drop our bags in his shoebox of an apartment. I'd imagine there would be quite a few of these sized apartments in Paris. Paris was very warm, just like a perfect Australian summer day. In the morning, the air had quite a stuffy, hazy feel to it. Travelling through Paris' northern suburbs added to a industrial type feel to the city air.

First stop Montmartre. We made our way to funicular to the top, but since it had a long queue we climbed the stairs to the Sacré-Coeur. There was a wedding party taking photos at the small park where you look down towards the city. We went around the side of the basillica where you can enter to go up the stairs. There were so many children there in groups. This was the last day of school for Zone B, but it was already school holidays for Parisian children. We walked through Place du Tertre, where all the artist are set up. Most of them were drawing caricatures, while others were selling paintings. We passed Café de Deux Moulins, the place where they filmed Amélie. It is in the street as you come around the corner to the Moulin Rouge. After this we took line 2 to get to L'Arc de Triomphe. One of the things I wanted to get experience of was the Métro. I wasn't disappointed - it was as complex and confusing as I had imagined. Thanks to Chris, we didn't waste even more time navigating through the network of walkways and directions. We barely had enough time as it was to also get ourselves lost underground.

Upon arrival at L'Arc, we came to the famous rond-pont than encircles it. I could have spend hours just watching this traffic go round, round, and around. Very entertaining watching them all try do dodge themselves around each other. Try to guess how many lanes it has? 3, 4, an infinite number? Paris is worth a trip just to watch this spectacle. We took the underground path to enter below the Arc. One of my goals was to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, buried beneath the Arc. I appreciated all the detail found on the monument as well. Line 6 took us to Trocadéro, with its famous view of the Eiffel Tower. By this time in late morning the hazy feeling had mostly cleared from my consciousness. The sun was warm and the sky completely clear at this time and would continue all day. From here we walked across the Pont d'Iena to get closer to the Eiffel Tower. We decided to look for lunch. The goal was to find the right place, with gluten-free offerings on the menu. After looking a little while on the bank of the Seine, we walked towards the Eiffel Tower. Due to the recent terrorist activity, you cannot walk directly to the tower from the Trocadéro. We took the left direction, then decided to eat lunch at the Brasserie de la Tour Eiffel. It was a touristy kind of place, but said it was not a bad choice since they offered nice food at a reasonable price.

After lunch, we walked to the bus stop off the Champs de Mars, line 42 I believe. Earlier at the L'Arc de Triomphe, we heard many police cars go down the Champs d'Elysees. When we took the bus, the regular route was supposed to go to Place de la Concorde via a non-direct route, but for us it took a much shorter detour. Fortunately for us, it gave us a front-row view past Pont Alexandre III and Luxor Obelisk in the middle of Place de la Concorde, two monuments that were must-see places for me. It also gave us an experience of a Parisian traffic jam, when the bus entered Place de la Concorde. We had three buses and many cars trying to squeeze through a "single lane" past the obelisk. When we finally got off the bus, we went to the Madeleine church. Making our way to visit the church, we saw someone moving house from a top floor apartment, using a large crane to remove heavy items. I typical Parisian scene we were told. Inside the church that doesn't look at all like a church, were pictures Johnny Hallyday, whose recent funeral was held there. The church also held the funerals for some music favourites such as Camille Saint-Saëns, Marlene Dietrich and Édith Piaf. I think perhaps St. Cecilia would be a better saint named for this church. The church was ordered built by Napoléon, and this is a fact made blatantly obvious when you see the mural painted atop the cupola.

On the street opposite La Madeleine, we saw a space invader. Apparently during the 80s at the height of the video game craze, these space invader tiles were placed on the walls of buidings. They are found randomly on the streets of Paris, and I even saw one in another town in France. We made our way to Île de la Cité, where we visited Notre-Dame and Point Zéro. We joined the long but fast queue to enter the Cathedral. We walked around the cathedral where I took first of a few flying buttresses that I would photograph at various gothic cathedrals in France. The thing I really like about Paris is the wide variety of architecture that can be found, from Roman walls, 11th century gothic, 19th century Baron Hausseman, and 20th century Art Deco. I had planned to visit the Phillippe Auguste wall remnants near St. Paul's Cathedral, but there would be no such luxury of time here. At 6 pm the church bells of Notre Dame chimed. It was the most beautiful sound I had heard. I managed to capture a small part of the chimes by video, but I would have preferred to record the whole thing. I also found it strange that 6 pm Paris was feeling like 2 pm Sydney.

We went to visit Tour St. Jacques then we went to the Louvre for a couple of hours. It would be nice to walk to Santiago from St. Jacques tower, but there are much nicer places in France to start. At the Louvre we decided to go see the Mona Lisa, since this is the thing to do. I was more impressed with the crowd come to see her than the painting itself. The museum began life as a castle, begun during the 12th century by Phillippe Auguste, where we spent quite a while examining the original bastions. We saw paintings, sculptures then finally the ancient Babylonian and Iranian works. These were far more impressive than a small painting stolen on the 21st August 1911. We were most amazed to see the Babylonian cuneiform on these ancient pieces. Obviously a couple of hours here is nothing. To be honest I felt like I saw barely anything. I got a brief look at a few paintings, but hardly enough time to really appreciate anything. I did note one painting that really interested me, "Les mystères de la Passion du Christ" by Antonio Campi. Next time. No doubt Maureen will want to spend a full day there, and I totally agree that it is necessary. By the time we left, the sun had set and the twilight was in full swing. Looking at the sky you will see airplane trails. At any time of the day, it is a constant scene. It works out well if you want to take images at sunset, since they add some interesting detail to an already interesting photo.

After the museum, we attempted to eat at Chris' favourite restaurant close to Tour St Jacques. Unfortunately just as we had sat down, we realised that we had to go immediately. Luckily Chris being a regular, it wasn't too bad. I had told the Airbnb where we were staying that night, that we would arrive around 10.15 pm. We first had to go back to Place des Fêtes to get our bags, and then after a very unfortunate circumstance trying to get to Vincennes on time, we made it by 10.45pm. As we had just arrived off the plane followed by the whole day in Paris, we had never been so tired. Dad was obviously exhausted, but I could have stayed awake a few more hours, at the restaurant at least. This was our first experience of Airbnb. It was strange, to be honest, arriving at night at a stranger's house to stay a few hours in their house then leave. I guess it takes a special kind of person to feel comfortable letting out part of their house in such a way. Airbnb definitely has its advantages over hotels. Bonne nuit!