We bought a carnet of 10 billets (a book of 10 tickets) from Gare de L'Est and took a number 32 bus to Trocadero. From there, we walked through the Palais de Chaillot and were greeted with a magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower which was our main destination for today. We continued down through the Trocadero Gardens and across the Pont de Lena to join an already lengthy queue for tickets. Fortunately it moved reasonably quickly and soon we were enjoying fabulous views from the second floor and the summit of the tower.

On the way down, we decided at the last minute to hop off on the first floor for a look. By chance we had arrived just before 11:30 and discovered that the 58Tour Eiffel restaurant was about to open... so we decided to have lunch there. We enjoyed a great meal with excellent service and a sensational view out the window.

Afterwards, Chelsea and I descended by the stairs while Gail took the lift. The stairs provided some interesting extra viewpoints of the tower and the lower elevator.

We continued our walk along the extensively grassed Champ de Mars which was being well utilised by families picnicking and playing on the grass and turned left when we reached the Ecole Militaire. We continued until we found the gold domed Hotel des Invalides which had been visible from several viewpoints in the city. We had a break in the beautiful gardens at Invalides before continuing through the building and along the Avenue des Invalides to the Pont Alexandre III.

From there, we continued to the glass roofed Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, both of which we had seen from a different angle yesterday when we walked up the Champs Élysées. By this time, we were all pretty well exhausted again, but decided to make a final effort to continue on to the L'eglise de la Madeleine which is modelled after the Greek Parthenon but houses a Catholic Church inside. The steps were beautifully decorated with flowers. We were surprised to find that we had stumbled upon a very exclusive part of Paris which was home to stores such as Chanel and Ralph Lauren and Maxims Restaurant. A bit more walking got us to Opera where we caught a Metro train back to Gare de L'Est.