Catch up time - on 19th I started the day with breakfast Parisian style, coffee and bread. I then travelled by metro to La Cuisine cooking school for my first class. We met Lise our chef who took us through the basics first then we got stuck into chopping vegetables for stock for French onion soup. We then chopped up lots of onions for the soup. We then broke down a chicken into various pieces and even though I've done this many times I learnt some useful tips. We then made chicken paupiettes with mushroom, spinach a spine nut stuffing - we wrapped these in caul (very fine lacy membrane which dissolves on cooking) to hold them together, tied them with string and cooked them. Our soup was then put into bowls, topped with bread and cheese. Delicious, followed by our chicken with a green salad. It was also delicious - we finished by making salted caramel sauce and pouring it over vanilla ice cream. It was a nice way to spend a few hours.

I went for a walk after and took in some more sights then back to the hotel for a short rest before heading out to dinner. When I walked down the street to the metro there were literally hundreds of people in the streets. Buses, cars and a huge traffic jam. I wasn't going to make it to the meeting place so I called the company and arranged to meet the group at the Eiffel Tower which was a 10 minute walk for me. When I got there I had a short wait - once again huge crowds but they were all either looking or waiting to go up the tower. I met my group and we went up to the first level for dinner. It was very high (for me) but the view was amazing, the dinner very tasty and accompanied by good wine. Afterwards we walked to the river which is quite close and boarded a baton mouche for a cruise. It was a warm night and there were lots of people on the banks having picnics. The cruise took us under lots of bridges, past notre dame cathedral and many other magnificent buildings. After the cruise we boarded a bus which took us to Moulin Rouge. It was a terrific show and there were lots of acts including comedy, acrobats as well as the beautiful dancers. Thoroughly enjoyed the show although it was very crowded. I got back to the hotel at 2 am - very long but totally enjoyable day.