Paris; Saturday, 22 March, 2003

Early start to the day leaving the hotel and walking to the Metro station to get the Metro to the Eiffel Tower. Being out in Paris that early on a Saturday morning you feel as though you have the city to yourself. There are no tourists, virtually no locals and almost no traffic on the roads, a light mist made the Eiffel Tower stand out even more.

After spending nearly 40 minutes admiring it from afar we walked over and waited for the lifts to open to go up it. The views from the top are spectacular taking the whole of the city you can see all the world famous monuments that Paris has to offer including the Arc de Triomphe and Notre-Dame. After spending a couple of hours up the tower we descended and boarded one of the tourist boats to view Paris from the Seine passing the Louvre, Notre Dame and Musee d'Orsay.

The boat returned us to the base of the Eiffel Tower so we caught the RER to Notre-Dame and then sat in a little street cafe to have lunch. Afterwards we walked round the cathedral and then back across the Seine towards the centre of the city. We quickly looked round the outside of the Pompidou Centre before catching the metro back over the river to the Luxembourg Gardens.

After spending some time relaxing in the gardens we walked back towards the Patheon and then, with the sun starting to set went back to the hotel. After a quick refresh, and allowing the sun to set, we walked up to the base of the hill that the Sacré Cœur is on and after taking some photos found a small restaurant off to one side.