We didn't have the best sleep on our first night in Paris; a combination of living in a tissue box with no air conditioning to cool the room, which forced us to open the window, and the fact that this area of town must've had a packed bar in the middle of the night, meaning the sounds of drunks, glass being smashed and the street being cleaned travelled through said open window quite easily, were probably a pretty big factor. No matter anyway, we were in Paris, and we're completely full of energy for the day regardless! We got down to breakfast at about 9:30, and it's fair to say that it wasn't really that much chop. There were bread rolls, there was jam. Another guest asked about the croissants, but was met with some feisty French talk that neither them, or us, could understand. We decided not to ask, and it didn't matter anyway! We were in Paris, one of the biggest food places in the world. We could find something later! I gather by now that you know we're in Paris, so I'll do my best just to describe the day without mentioning that again. I shouldn't need to anyway, because today we were going to see some of the biggest things Paris is known for, so you'll know exactly where we are! After breakfast, we hit the streets - we were going to do a lot of walking today. We made our way back down the the River Seine and the centre of town via a little bit of a different route today, keen to explore as much of the city in our short time here as we could. Being a Saturday, it was noticeably quieter on the streets than it had been yesterday, when traffic and everything looked so bustling and hectic, but despite how hectic it had been, it just worked. They do love their horns though. Beep beep. Also on the streets, it was also pretty noticeable that there was a bit of homelessness in Paris too, with a few beggars and people sleeping in parks in some areas of the city. I guess it happens everywhere. Along our way to the river, we passed the Centre Pompidou, which looked more out of place than a black sheep in a paddock full of white ones. Built in the 70s, it has this inside-out facade that looked so ridiculously out of place in this area of the city. But I guess they're being a bit progressive, and they hated the Eiffel Tower when it was first built, thinking it looked ugly, but they obviously kept that, so who knows; maybe give this thing another 100 years and it'll be revered as much (I think ********). As we neared the river, the area opened up with a massive forecourt in front of a beautiful old building. You know it's beautiful because all the buildings are (except you Centre Pompidou, there's no hope for you), and when one seems even more impressive, it must be pretty nice! The building was the (le!) Hôtel de Ville, set right on the banks of the river, which has been the location for the Municipality of Paris since the 1300's, although the building today was built in the 1800's. But this was only the beginning of some of the stunning and historic architecture we were about to see today. We crossed over the Seine on the Pont d'Arcole and were now on the largest of the islands on the river, Île de la Cité, which as basically the centre of the oldest area of Paris, was full of historic sights, filled to the brim with centuries old buildings. And you could just feel the history in the atmosphere of the place, it's what was quickly making Paris so special. On the other side of the island, we reached the Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris (yes, the Notre Dame), and it was just spectacular. Taking almost 200 years to build from the 1100's, it's one of those places that is just so quintessentially Paris. In fact, it's so Paris, and so central, that every distance from Paris to any part of France is measured from here. The building itself is so intricate with massive rose windows and stone gargoyles, and when you consider how old it is, it was truly amazing and a real wow moment. We explored the grounds and crossed a little bridge for a nice photo of it. Every last bit of space on the bridge sides was filled with locks, put there by couples who then throw the key into the river below. There were even locks attached to locks, and I wondered if that meant space was becoming hard to come by, or maybe those couples had foursomes. We didn't end up going inside the Notre Dame, as we don't have a lot of time in Paris, and the 18km line to get in would've drained a fair amount of it. But the appreciation of just being there was pretty amazing already, so we weren't too worried. The beauty of this area didn't end there though. Just down the road from the Notre Dame stands the Ste-Chapelle, which dated back to the 1200's. Yep this place really is so spectacularly old. When a place like this still has to play second fiddle, you know you're in a pretty special place. We crossed over the bridge to the south side of the river, and into the narrow laneways of this side of town, to find a little café for a break and a coffee. The cafés line the streets of Paris, with outdoor eating all along the streets, adding to its ambience. A sort've odd thing though is the tendency for all the tables to be set so every single chair faces out into the street, so you can watch the people and the world go by, but equally the world can sit and watch you stuff your face. It's a very Paris thing, but we've found it all through Europe so far. Our break didn't last as long as we'd originally intended, because our coffees came out and it was just a small shot of espresso, so rather than slowly watching the world go by for the next 20 minutes or so, within 5 minutes we were done and out of there! No matter, the ridiculously strong coffee gave us a boost of energy to keep us going. We had a general idea of the direction to the Eiffel Tower, and decided to make our way towards it. For the next hour or so we got absolutely lost in the cobblestone laneways criss-crossing the neighbourhood, which was amazing as we slowly headed in that direction. As it was approaching lunch time by now, we found a little restaurant and ordered some food to fuel us on for the afternoon. I'd been told from back home that I had to try croque-monsieur, and luckily they had it on the menu, so I decided on that. It was really good, and I felt a little connected to home when I ate it too. The restaurant also had good wifi, and we found we'd earlier missed a call from Mum, so I decided to give her a call back. She was down at Nan's place with all her sisters, so it was a great time to catch up. It was also good to know she was there with all her sisters, because I know what they're like when they all get together - they've probably partied harder and had even more fun than we have, which is a big statement! We continued on our merry way after lunch, and the streets opened up a bit. Paris is set up in sort've a circle, with streets radiating out from the centre into beautiful symmetrical boulevards. We were in an area like that more now. We passed the Musee de l'Armée (the Army Museum), another beautiful building with a golden roof, but all the while the top of the Eiffel Tower was looming large as we got ever closer to it. Finally, we got to the boulevard that led to it. To our left, an impressive old building I don't even remember the name of, because to the right, right there in front of us, was the Eiffel Tower in all its magnificent glory - the first time we'd seen the whole thing. Sorry building I don't remember, but you can't blame me when the Eiffel Tower's right there; it puts you to shame. The sight of the Eiffel Tower was enough to put shivers down my spine - it really was an amazing, beautiful sight! Our path down to the Eiffel Tower led us through spacious lawns and gardens, and being a gorgeous day, early Saturday afternoon, with that in the background, there were people picnicking all the way along, sipping champagne and eating cheese. It really would be the perfect place to have a picnic and spend the afternoon. Unfortunately we didn't have time for that (but maybe one day), as we marched towards the foot of the tower. A really unfortunate thing about Paris so far is that as soon as you get anywhere near anything touristy, it is just absolutely full with people trying to sell you dodgy souvenirs - they're actually at you. I know that happens everywhere, but I've never seen it to this extent, and there is so much history and so many famous sites here, it takes away from it a bit and we got over it pretty quickly after a while. But it exists because there are tourists, and tourists can get duped. And boy were we today. Actually no, I'm not taking the blame for this, I never wanted the stupid bracelets; Dad and Daniel were duped. It all started as we were almost underneath the Eiffel Tower, and a man approached wanting to make something with four bits of string on my hand. Trying to push him away and say I wasn't interested, he insisted he wanted to show me, and I had no obligation to buy. Ok then p**** I'll entertain you making your stupid thing, you wasting your time, that's fine, because I'm gonna have the last laugh knowing I already don't want this thing, whatever it is going to be, and you'll have wasted all that time, effort and string. As soon as they've stopped me though, two more of them swoop in and got Dad and Daniel involved as well. So they started wrapping string around the end of our fingers, attempting sweet talk about kangaroos and how tall we are, and all the while I was smugly counting down to the moment I told them I didn't want it. They twisted the string into a pattern on one finger, then called for our other wrist and wrapped it around there, creating a bracelet. Out of four bits of string. Oh how very Paris! About to tell them to cut it off as they start asking if we want them, I turn and see Dad and Daniel starting to reluctantly agree that they will as they start pulling money out. Seeing 10€ coming out of a wallet, they quickly establish the price as 10€, which for three four-stringed bracelets, I thought was absolutely ridiculous, and couldn't wait for them to cut it off. But no, they managed to convince Dad and Daniel that they were 10€. Each. Worse, before I could even get them to cut it off, Dad added 20€ to Daniel's 10 and they actually paid for them, despite knowing I really didn't want it. That translates to about $50, for three four-stringed bracelets. What a duping. No wonder they're out in numbers. Anyway, it didn't matter because we were in Paris (I know I promised I'd do my best not to repeat that, but I feel after that episode I need to reestablish it), and it was actually pretty funny! After that ultimate ripoff, we arrived at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, and lined up to go up it. Surprisingly, the queue to go up wasn't as bad as we were expecting, and we decided to go up the corner that didn't have a lift - we thought climbing the Eiffel Tower by the stairs would be pretty cool. We started climbing, and were soon at the first level, a few hundred steps up. It was pretty amazing to see the park and the city from this perspective, and to see the symmetry of the boulevards from above. After a quick rest, we continued up to the second viewing platform. After 668 steps in all from the bottom (no, I didn't count them, and yes, I know you thought that I did - it's written on the steps though), we reached the second level. In all, there are three viewing levels on the tower, and entry got us up to the second level. If we wanted to go any higher, it's only lift access, and the line for those tickets extended almost twice around the second level, which meant a massive wait. As it's pretty much the same view from a little higher, we decided that we didn't really need to go all the way to the very top, and after taking in the amazing sight, we headed back down to the bottom. It is pretty special to have been able to climb the Eiffel Tower! Once we arrived at the bottom, we all agreed that we needed a well earned drink, and found a place on the bank of the Seine to gather our breath, before we crossed over the river and headed towards the Arc de Triomphe - the amazing sights just kept coming. We stopped once more en route for another drink (code for free wifi) to catch up on the world (see if Geelong won), then continued on. The Arc de Triomphe is massive, and like pretty much all of Paris (no, not you Centre Pompidou), absolutely beautiful. But the traffic going around it is absolutely insane, I don't know how they do it. We certainly wouldn't have made it across the surface alive, so took the tunnel that got us to the centre. It was good to see they acknowledged how amazing I am by having my name on it. I felt pretty special! Once we'd taken that in, we crossed under the road again, and strolled the length of the Champs-Élysées all the way down to the Place de la Concorde, which was a pretty long distance actually, but took us back towards the old centre of the city. It was getting later into the afternoon, and we were starting to get a little tired and sore from a lot of walking, but the sights just kept coming. Between the Place de la Concorde and the old centre, we reached the Musée du Louvre, an absolutely massive complex including a building completed in the 1600's, and the much more modern Grande Pyramide. This is the museum that houses the Mona Lisa, which I would really love to see but think I will leave it till my next visit in a month or so. We finally made it back into town as the sun was starting to set, and found ourselves a place for some dinner, exhausted! Once dinner was finished, we made the final couple of kilometre trek back to our hotel. After a shower to freshen up, Dad and I decided to go downstairs for a couple of beers at the cool little café from yesterday, while Daniel couldn't make it and opted for bed. It was nice spending some time with Dad, and we talked a bit about his family. I could see he was so proud to have been able to introduce us to them. It made me think about how special this trip is! The bartender in the café was pretty awesome, and after a couple of pints, he saw me trying to convince Dad to have one more, so he helped me do it. Then, just as we were about to leave, he gave us half a pint each for free! It was a pretty good end to an amazingly awesome, albeit tiring, day. We headed back upstairs and collapsed into bed. Oh yeah, and we're still in Paris!