Paris February 2006

This weekend we took advantage of my mother being here to look after the boys and took the Eurostar over to Pars to meet up with old friends.

Friday

• We took an early Eurostar and arrived in Paris around 1pm.
• We met up with our friends at our hotel at 2pm and took the Metro to the Champs-Elysees (FDR stop) and walked up to the Arc De Triomphe and went to the top for some great views.
• Then we took another metro to the Eiffel Tower and watched Paris in daylight through sunset and night.
• Afterwards we learned about ‘The Book’, our friends’s infallible guide Lonely Planet Guide as we were guided us to a restaurant Victor Hugo Etoile – which wasn’t open yet and pretty expensive. So we just walked around the circle and found another bistro and had a long, lovely meal.
• After dinner we went back towards our hotels.

Saturday

• In the morning we met our friends for breakfast and then headed to Montmarte to first see Sacre Coeur and then the art market behind it, then the windmills ( where ‘The Book’ was both amazing, and weak at finding one of the two ‘moulin’ ).
• Then we had a drink across from the Moulin Rouge.
• Afterwards we headed over to the The Catacombs (stop Denfert-Rochereau) and walked the mile underground and saw the millions of skeletons moved there over 150 years ago in an effort to clean-up the Paris cemeteries. It was pretty grim and hard to believe how many generations of people that represented.
• After the underground, we walked around Les Halles area and had a drink in a cafe.
• Then we went to the Palais Royale, near our hotel and found a great place to eat, about half an hour before they were ready… so we had a drink there and talked.
• Then home to bed.

Sunday

• We met our friends for breakfast, and they headed to the airport.
• We then walked over to Les Halles and bought some food to take home.
• Then we wandered over to Ile de Paris and Notre Dame and bought some presents for the boys.
• It was drizzling the whole time, so we checked out of the hotel and went over to the Louve for a couple of hours.
• Then we had a great lunch in a Cafe we knew from our last trip.
• Finally we headed to Gare du Nord and home by 8pm.

Great trip.