What a fantastic day we have had!  We are absolutely finished, but it was great!

We started off catching 2 metros to where we were having breakfast – Café Louise.  It was also part of our tourist pass – our breakfast was orange juice, fruit salad, croissant and a hot drink, sitting in a lovely old French restaurant.  And needless to say we did not have to pay!  Bonus!

After breakfast we walked to the Louvre – as we had a 10.30 timeslot booked.  We joined a long queue and our hearts sank – was this going to be a repeat of yesterday at the Palace of Versailles?  When the queue started moving, we were through security and inside very quickly, which was great as the wind was icy!  We made a bee-line for the wing where the Mona Lisa is, and although there were a lot of people in the Louvre, it was NOTHING like yesterday.

When we got to the Mona Lisa there were a lot of people, but there was no pushing and shoving.  Everyone had their turn and then moved on.  It probably took us about 10 – 15 minutes to get our moment at the front.  It was a wonderful feeling to be standing there just a few meters away from it.  And she looked at us!

From there we went around looking at the art and there are quite some artworks there, and so varied!  From paintings, big and small, to tapestries to sculptures, to woodcarvings to name just a few.  We were surprised at how much we enjoyed it.  The Louvre is huge, and if you want to see everything you would need to be there for the entire day.

We left the Louvre and took a walk along the Seine – I thought of Mamma Mia 😊- it was chilly and then started to rain, but it was lovely.  Sadly we weren’t able to find anything to eat as most places only open mid afternoon there.   So we left the river and headed towards our next visit which was a chocolate making exhibition.  We stopped at Starbucks for some lunch, and while we were eating and checking our afternoon itinerary William realised that we needed our Museum Passes for the Arc de Triomphe and they expired at 16.00.  (for some reason they were only valid for 48 hours), so we finished our lunch and walked in the rain to find a bus to take us there.  Well, we made it to the Arc De Triomphe in time and entered to see that we had to climb lots and lots of steps to get to the observation deck at the top.  My heart sank, but up we went until we reached the top, and boy was it worth it.  The rain had stopped and we walked around looking at Paris and the 12 roads that meet at the Arc.  So interesting to see the geography of it.  As we left the steps going down were much easier than those going up – I am not sure why!?

We caught 2 Metros to get back to our chocolate place.  The history and exhibition (and chocolate tasting) was very interesting.  And when we had finished we could choose a hot chocolate drink.  I chose dark chocolate and William chose white chocolate.  Very nice and warmed us up a little.  We caught a bus back to our apartment to put our weary feet up before we headed off to see the Eiffel Tower by night.

And what a wonderful site the Eiffel Tower was by night, as was the Arc de Triomphe!  It was freezing standing at the tower, but there were hundreds of fools standing there with us!  We thought that we would be the only fools there, but every bus/taxi arrived there absolutely full.  Amazing!

Today we have walked 19.24 km and 51 floors.  No wonder we are shattered!

We leave Paris tomorrow morning for Amsterdam – our last stop – before heading home.