A week in Paris - Day 5

On Friday we were supposed to go to the Palace of Versailles and tread in the dainty footsteps of Marie Antoinette through the extensive gardens. Unfortunately the gardens were closed due to the weather and heavy winds experienced during the week. Another thing for next time!!

So we had a day with absolutely no plans.

Before I tell you what we did on our completely open and unplanned last day in Paris I would like to introduce you to the Blue Cat...

The Blue Cat made it's way into our house (and friend group) in 2013 at "The awesomest party that never should have happened" - According to Melanie (pictured on the right). The Blue Cat attended various parties and was always a good conversation starter, so Cindy went and bought a second Blue Cat.

Before we left SA, on one of our last "kuiers" we decided that the Blue Cat would travel with us, one with Riaan and I, and one with Cindy and Marcelle. The Travelling Blue Cat would see all the awesome sights in the world, and go on the most amazing adventures!

And that brings me to our last day in Paris. Every single day so far, we had completely forgotten to take the Blue Cat with us, what idiots! So on our last day we took Blue Cat on it's first adventure, to see all the best that Paris has to offer.

We started off at the Arc de Triomphe, we didn't take many photos here, Parisians don't seem to have the best sense of humour early on a Friday...I think they were just jealous of our schweet hat!!

Then we took a stroll to the Eiffel Tower, it was such a beautiful day, naturally we had to take a few selfies ... lucky you, you only have to see this one!

We strolled through the Champs de Mars and stopped for some more photos, the Blue Cat enjoyed the Eiffel Tower, we have that in common. It was our third visit in 5 days!

We admired the view, and discussed the oddly trimmed trees in the background ... Feline a little playful the Blue Cat did a little photo bombing - the targets didn't seem to mind!!

 Can I reach the top??

 What about now???

 OK, fine! I'll just be cute!

 Oh yeah! People are looking at us funny, but we don't care, we're having a blast!

Can I reach the sides??? Nope!!
Hahaha, if you had a better photographer you'd probably be able to reach the sides!!

We admired Notre Dame, from all angles! And then...
...
...
The Hunchback of Notre Dame paid a little visit!

Ah man! I giggled so much at this! It was so funny! Riaan always knows how to make me laugh!! People looking at us like we're crazy, laughing! This is exactly what memories are made of!

We walked across the Seine, to show the Blue Cat the outdoor ice rink outside Hotel De Ville, but first we stopped to imagine what it would be like to live in that apartment up there. Such a pretty French apartment!

As you can see, we ended up being captivated by the guy blowing gigantic bubbles, it was much more entertaining than anything else.

Our last stop for the day was the Louvre Museum, after a few candid pictures we made our way home to enjoy a last bottle of French wine and pack our bags.

On Saturday we left our hotel and made our way to Gare Du Nord, only to find that our train to London was delayed indefinitely, we checked in at a hotel nearby and hung around waiting to hear what to do, at about 4pm they told us we had to come back in the morning for further news. So we had an extra day, that was pretty much over, but we made the most of it, we had a great dinner at a little bistro and a little too much red wine. On Sunday morning bright and early we went back to the station and were lucky enough to get the first train to London. It was a mad rush to go back to the hotel, check out, and get back to the station but we made it, and after being stuck on the train for another minor (2 hour) delay we finally got to London on Sunday afternoon.

In case you were wondering, at the moment the Blue Cat is in Canada on an awesome adventure with Cindy and Marcelle!!

A week in Paris - Day 2

 **Warning - this is quite a photo intense post**
On Tuesday morning we hopped on the metro and made our way to the city centre.

And as luck would have it, we chose the carriage with the most annoying occupant on it...A middle aged French woman singing at the top of her lungs. I really wouldn't have minded (AT ALL) if she could hold a note and sing in key, but this was not the case. It was rather amusing since we had no idea what she was singing about and the two ladies opposite us smiled and snicked every now and then, shaking their heads. As the train came to a stop she made her way through the carriage asking for money, when she got to us she decided to give us a brief and very incorrect history lesson about the Eiffel Tower. It was an interesting train ride to say the least!

 

We started our day at the top of the Champ Elysees by the Arc de Triomphe. It surprised me because it was A LOT bigger than what I had imagined...("That's what she said" - Sorry I couldn't resist - this is a general response that I can expect from our group of dysfunctional friends for such a sentence! I miss you guys!!)

We strolled through the city towards the Eiffel Tower, passing Hotel Shangri La - one day when I'm big I will stay there for a night or two!

 

The Eiffel Tower dominates the skyline as it comes into view, 324m high, made of wrought iron, it's hard to not be amazed at the architectural genius that went into building this beauty. 

After admiring the tower from up close, we made our way up to the second floor, despite the cold winds, and looked out over beautiful Paris, the view from up there is amazing.

Unfortunately the top floor was closed for maintenance, so we made our way down the stairs to the first floor, they had an ice rink set up where youngsters were gracefully gliding across the ice and right next to that was a little booth where we watched a very interesting short film about the history and construction of the tower.

We strolled through the Champs de Mars, took a few touristy photos, made our way past the Hotel des Invalides, towards the Seine, we took a slow walk along the Seine, past the National Assembly, the Pont des Alexandre bridge and crossed the river to the Place de la Concorde.

It was drizzling as we walked up the Champs Elysees, we browsed through random shops, and then it started to rain, heavily, so we dashed into the Mercedes Benz showroom much to Riaans delight.

Once the rain subsided we walked up the rest of the Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe, stopped for an early dinner and then we made our way back to the Metro. It was time to go back to Montmartre, we had one last stop for the day - the Moulin Rouge. After walking up and down the risqué Boulevard de Clichy we were dead tired, we covered approximately 20km for the day, and decided to make our way back to the hotel where some more french red wine and a comfy bed awaited us.

If you missed day 1 you can read all about it here.