Paris - Day 4

Today was our last day, so after breakfast we packed our stuff and left the hotel. We'd noticed there was an ostrich mural on the building opposite.

We went to the Enfants Rouges market, but it was already pretty quiet.

Further on we went into the Arts and Crafts museum, which was very interesting and full of intricate historic machines. We spent a good couple of hours there.

We then headed to the shops, taking the Metro to Boulevard Haussmann. We went into two of the main department stores, starting with Printemps Haussmann. On the 7th floor you can get out onto a roof terrace.

Almost next door is Galeries Lafayette. They're getting ready for Christmas, but not all the decorations were finished yet.

They have restaurants on the 8th floor and a terrace on the 9th.

We decided to go and see the Arc de Triomphe, so caught the metro there and had a walk around.

With time to spare before our flight, we went back for a beer at the Frog & Rosbif. Unfortunately we got a bit lost between the Metro station and the pub, and got a bit soaked in a heavy rain shower. We also found it wasn't happy hour and beer was 9 euros a pint. Still tasted good though...

Since we were near the start of Rue St Denis, we decided to go for a walk down it. At one point we decided to go for a drink, and coincidentally found ourselves outside Le Sully, which happened to be a pub Scott had researched before the trip. It was good value and quite quirky.

We still had time for dinner before our flight, so headed towards the Gare du Nord looking for somewhere on the way. We ended up going into a very informal Bangladeshi restaurant. We had a selection of beef and lamb curries, with side dishes, rice and naan bread, it was all very good.

We went for a final drink at a bar near the station, then headed towards the airport.

The journey home went very smoothly until we started our drive from Edinburgh airport home. The M9 motorway was closed so we had to take back roads most of the way home. We still got home well before midnight though.

Paris - Day 3

After breakfast we started heading for the Eiffel Tower. We hadn't booked tickets but were just going to see what we could get on the day.

We took the Metro, but the nearest station to the Tower, Bir-Hakeim, was closed so the train went on to stop on the other side of the Seine at Passy. We walked back over the bridge, where we could see that the top of the tower was slightly in cloud.

The tower wasn't very busy at all, probably due to the weather. There were lots of fences and security to get through, but once through there were no queues. We bought tickets to take the stairs up to the first and second floors, then the lift to the top.

There are 327 steps to the first floor, then 347 steps to the second.

At the first floor you can walk around and start to take in the views. They're doing a lot of landscaping work for the 2024 Paris Olympics, so a few of the gardens are under repair.

There's a bit where you can walk on glass and see the ground below.

We carried on walking up to the second floor.

We took the lift to the very top at over 300 metres high. It was a bit hazy but we still got good views.

We went back down by the same route, lift then stairs.

We headed into the streets to the east, and looked at the street market on Rue Cler, which wasn't really all that big. Maybe it was the time of day.

We went to the Seine and walked up the left bank for a bit.

We crossed to the right bank and walked through the Tuileries gardens.

At the far end is the Louvre gallery, which was quite busy with people queuing. We had a good look around the courtyards.

We walked across to the İle de la Cité, and had a look at the Notre Dame under repair.

Heading north, we went for something to eat in a café, we had a filled baguette and a quiche lorraine. We had a look in the BHV Marais department store, then visited the Carnavalet museum, which is a free museum of the history of Paris.

We were pretty tired by now, so walked back to the hotel for a rest.

Later we went out for a drink, then had dinner in a local Cambodian restaurant, Heng Heng Rapide. We shared Vegetable Bo Bun and Beef Bo Bun, which was very good.