After the big museum day yesterday, today we decided it was time to take it easy and to just go and have a look at Galleries Lafayette. This is the Harrods of Paris and well worth a visit just to see the stained glass domed roof over the main shopping area.

We took the metro which only required one change to get there and once there started to stroll round the store, first off in the jewelry section, to see the sights, watches for over E$100K, diamonds etc you would normally only expect to see in top jewelry stores anywhere else.

We walked some of the floors before deciding it was coffee time, going to the top floor we were surprised to find not only some top restaurants but also a cafe which would not be out of place in M&S or Myers. However this is Paris, the coffee was reeeaaallly gooooood, and we had a pastry with it which was the sort of thing you would get at a top patisserie in Australia or UK.

Following our coffee we went for a walk to see the Paris Opera, we had determined we did not want to do the tour, just to see the outside and then make our way to Eiffel to see what the queues were like and if they weren't too bad then we would go up for a visit. We had been to the top of the tower 9 yrs ago so were only going to go if there was not too much of a queue.

On arriving at the base of the tower the queue did not look too bad, but as we got into the queue the same happened today as had happened yesterday, we were taken from the queue and moved to the front because of Jane being on her stick. We were advised just to go the 2nd level as they were having problems with the lift to the top, and if it did break there would be over 1000 steps for Jane to come down. We took the advice obviously and just did the 2nd level.

It was still good to go and see and something everyone should do if they come to Paris. As we started to think about coming down we were caught by a shower which was not forecast this morning, so the comment from yesterday remains, yesterday they forecast rain which did not happen, today they forecast overcast but no rain, and it rains.

For those of you wondering what has happened to the caps, we took them up to see the view from the top of the hotel this morning as they had not been out of the room for a couple of days, and they have decided to stay in Paris, there was something about their founder loving Paris so much he would appreciate them staying here.

Tomorrow we head back to the UK to catch up with family and friends before leaving for Melbourne next Monday