Pain au Chocolate! - Day Two!

We woke up at 9 am and were down in the reception for 10. Glenn is very particular about being on time... He likes to be organised.. that's why when I called his hotel room he hadn't even got out of bed yet. There was a very speedy response by the couple though, they were ready in 10 mins! We sat with the map and tried to decide where we would go today. We chose Notre Dame, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. We left the hotel to find breakfast. I was seriously looking forward to an authentic Parisian Pain au Chocolate (They're just not the same en Angleterre) so we went to a cafe called PAUL's and had the smallest coffee in the world and a beautiful Pain au Chocolate. Mmmmmmm Notre Dame Cathedral was literally around the corner from our hotel. It was beautiful. I lit a candle, said a prayer and then wandered around the massive place taking in all of the various monuments and statues. I have to admit that I didn't really like it in there that much. It had an enormous feeling of grandeur that I strongly believe has no place in a church,. Wouldn't it have been more Christian to give the money to the poor rather than have a huge statue of yourself made when you died? Oooh debate...

We then took a very long walk about Paris in search of the Louvre; Glenn and Matt navigating. It was a very long walk indeed! We did make the discovery of an entire shop dedicated to cows though!!! Very cool. Eventually we found the large glass pyramids of the louvre and joined the cue for a ticket. That place was huge!!!! I mean massive! There was a hall dedicated to every single thing ever made in the name of art and archaeology. I think it would take you years to see it all. We did look in the basement at the foundations of the original building. I found that quite interesting actually. We also saw some very famous pieces of art. Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa to name but two! The place was very crowded though and the movement of millions of people around you constantly is very tiring and uncomfortable.

It's a shame really as I like to be able to stop and look at things. The Louvre was far too busy for that and there was far too much to see to be able to enjoy it all like that. Matt did enjoy one statue in particular - A man who's bottom was being bitten by a lion.





When we left the Louvre we were feeling very tired and our feet were aching. we decided that walking to the Eiffel tower was out of the question. It was then, whilst standing on a bridge over the river Sein that I spotted our new friend... the batobus! This great little vessel did regular trips up and down the river. There were eight different stops where you could get on and off and you could buy a 2 day pass. Batobus saved our tired little legs on the journey to the tower.

The Batobus allowed us to understand two things. Firstly, Paris can not be walked across in any short space of time (15 minutes indeed Mr Davies!) and secondly, there are a lot of beautiful architecture and exciting things to see.

We arrived at the towe to discover that the exciting things had massive cues, ended up in another cafe near by (resting our tired feet again) and then went back to the hotel. We decided to return the tower the next morning hoping that the cue might be shorter.

Dinner that evening was far more successful as we went to a vegetarian restaurant. There was nothing on the menu that contained meat (Glenn seemed a little disappointed about that) so no risk of being handed a plate containing a sacrificed pig. My wheat, rice, seaweed and vegetables was very tasty and the home made chocolate mouse was even better! The boys did end up going out for Gyros (something a little like a kebab) later on though to make up for the fact that they had eaten no meat.

After dinner we went to FU bar, a place Glenn had researched on the internet. We drank and we were merry, very merry. Once the alcohol limits were met we returned to the hotel for coffee, the men when on their meat mission and then we all retired to bed.