PAUL AND LI

We arrived in Paris around 5:30pm (June 10) from Brussels. With our hostess not home until 11pm that night we had some time to kill before heading over there. After storing our bags at the station and managing to book our next few train trips, we went off to find the Basilique du Sacre-Cœur and, after walking up the stairs, discovered that it really does sit on the highest point in Paris! At the top, we went into the Basilica and then sat in front of it and tried to match the view in front of us with our map of Paris.

The next day we used the city tour bus to see the major sights of Paris including the EiffelTower, Arc de Triomphe, Opera House, and the Notre Dame. On the way home we stopped off to see the Moulin Rouge (just from the outside) and some souvenir shopping.

Having had two days of brilliant sunshine in Paris, we shouldn't have been surprised that the next morning dawned grey and wet, putting our plans to climb the EiffelTower on hold. Instead, we visited the Conciergerie, where Li relived numerous scenes from The Scarlet Pimpernel for my education and "enjoyment". Then we braved the drizzling rain, and the entrepreneurs suddenly selling umbrellas to people in the line for 6 times the normal price (those pesky oil prices!), to have our chance to climb the towers of Notre Dame and meet the gargoyles at the top. Once at the top, we were taking photos of the city skyline when the EiffelTower "disappeared" in the approaching downpour. Ten seconds later we were huddled behind a stone column of the tower and faced with the decision of whether to wait it out or make a mad dash to what would hopefully be a drier spot inside the tower.

With the rain continuing, we decided to try out a French restaurant for lunch. Fortunately, our waiter was able to help us negotiate our way through the menu and we ended up with a very French combination of escargots, tartiflette and patisserie. The snails were quite nice but were seriously outdone by the tartiflette which is a bowl of melted cheese, potato, cheese, bacon, cheese, cream and then they add the cheese. Yum!

Somewhere between potato and pastry the skies cleared up and our EiffelTower aspirations were back on the agenda. After climbing the stairs to the first and second levels, we then took the elevator the rest of the way to the top (because there's no stairs to climb after the second level).

Our third full day in Paris was spent wondering through the Latin Quarter of Paris past the University and Pantheon, through some great little street markets as well the Jardin du Luxembourg. Somewhere around this time Li's 6 month old and, up 'til now, very reliable camera packed it in. It refuses to fully open the lens and all we could find out is it is either the battery (not necessarily as it's fully charged) or the computer in it. Lucky it's under warranty, and Paul's camera was on standby.

We took the metro back to the foot of the EiffelTower to buy the crepes we'd been eyeing off for past two days. Following on from the success of getting into museums for free the previous two nights (all legit I assure you), we headed to the Louvre to cultivate our inner art buffs. We made sure to see the "key attractions" early on and then made our way around through the various wings of the truly massive museum.

On our final day in Paris we joined a free walking tour and enjoyed the good weather while tying together all the things we'd seen in the past few days. We spent our final night making friends with other people at our hostel and laughing about the various scams we'd all come across during our stay in Paris.