Unfortunately, despite falling asleep quickly, I kept waking up through the night and felt a bit lethargic at first.  After a hearty breakfast I felt ready to take on the world.

We left the hotel and found a post office where we sent a prank letter on Mum’s behalf to her friend David Joy in Dunfermline.  Once the letter was sent we headed straight for the metro ready for a full day of sight seeing.

We started off by climbing up the Arc de Triomphe, then walked down the Champs-Elysees to Le Louvre.  In Le Louvre we noticed there was a fee to get in so we went to the park outside to have lunch and decided to go back later to make the most of our time there.

After lunch we caught the metro to the Eiffel Tower.  We decided that for fitness reasons, and financial reasons, we would walk up the tower instead of taking the lift to the summit.  Once we’d climbed as high as we could we got a short lift ride to the summit.  It was very windy and in the lift I whispered to Claire that I’d take my glasses off so they didn’t blow away.  Everyone heard this though and it raised a laugh.

The views were spectacular with an American couple taking pictures of me and Claire.  It will be a very long time before I forget those views.  On the way down we managed to blag a lift ride down to the ground even though we shouldn’t have – it was a time saver if nothing else.

We moved up the Seine to Notre Dame and struggled to take in the magnificence of the cathedral.  The architecture was superb and the environment solemn and relaxed.

Having left Notre Dame we headed back to Le Louvre where we eventually found the famous Mona Lisa and Club Footed Boy paintings.  Again, these will take a long time to forget.  We stayed until we were kicked out at closing time.

After a quick change and a breather back at the hotel we set off on the metro for Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur.  Beforehand though, we needed to eat and found a Japanese restaurant where I found out that when I’m in Japan I’ll enjoy the food but not the Sake because it was rancid!  Having eaten we walked up to Sacre Coeur and took a good ‘night time’ photo.  We both felt that it warranted more attention in the daylight so we decided to head for the hotel and bed.  Claire had had more than enough of climbing stairs for one day!

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