“We’ll meet you in Paris for the weekend!” featuring Cam and Louisa and the Eiffel Tower

As mentioned in the previous post, Saturday morning Mum and Dad flew out to Italy for their golfing and sightseeing holiday, and so rather than head straight back to London we decided to head to Paris. Cam and Louisa Blackwood, friends from Sydney, are fortunate enough to be touring Europe at the moment, and so we managed to arrange to meet them in Paris.

Thanks to the kind folks at Hilton (and Sarah traveling too much for work) we were staying near the Eiffel Tower (no jokes about the Paris Hilton, please), and so Cam and Lou met us there before ducking down to a café to watch Australia beat Wales in a hard fought match.

Check out the scoreboard!

The girls went shopping at La Galleries LaFayette (which they said was very good and I’ll take their word for it) while Cam and I checked out the Rugby Tent at the Trocadero (complete with drunken Kiwis, Aussies and Welsh singing along to a country and western band – we got out before the Cold Chisel started) and headed to Napoleons tomb at l’Invalides. I don’t know if he designed it or not, but if so he must have been compensating for something! If not, it is interesting to see such a huge memorial to a vanquished leader.

Napoleon's tomb

After a dinner in the shadow of the Eiffel tower we took the lift to the 2^nd floor (the 3^rd floor was closed due to overcrowding). Even only half-way up we were still higher than the London Eye, and had a much more impressive view as most of the major monuments are really well lit (including the windmill from the Moulin Rouge, if you really squint – it is down and to the left of Sacre Cour)

Eiffel Tower at sunset

Cam and Louisa at dinner (see guys, you're famous now!)

Sarah and Louisa with the Eiffel Tower (the bright thing in the middle is a giant football)

The Champ de Mars from the Eiffel Tower

Stephen and Sarah up the tower

The light show on the Eiffel Tower - the big thing in the middle is an enormous rugby ball

After a sleep-in Sunday we headed to the Musee d’Orsay to check out some Monet and Renoir. As usual I recognised less than a third of the names and felt like something of a Philistine, but I’m getting better – at the Louvre I recognised fewer still. There was also a great collection of Objet d’Art, and some quite cool Architectural drawings and models of Parisian landmarks (although I think by that point I was suffering museum fatigue).

Our view from Breakfast

Cam enjoying the Musee d'Orsay

From there we unfortunately had to call our trip to a close, as we had a train to catch back to London to start work on Monday. I’m currently speeding through the French countryside and overtaking cars on the motorway like they’re standing still – high speed train has got to be the only way to travel! Not only that, but we walked straight onto the train 10 minutes before it left, didn’t have to check baggage, and had (would you believe) over 10cL of liquids with us!