14/08/09-16/08/09 – Paris
We finally got the chance to visit Cat in Paris (well she’s only been living there since May!), so we were really excited to find flights that were more convenient and a better price
than the TGV train. We had a barbecue at my school (another one!) so we managed to go to that for a couple of hours and catch up with some friends before getting the train to the airport and heading off to Paris.
We arrived in Paris quite late (around 10ish I think) and negotiated the RER trains and the metro (with very good instructions thanks to Cat!) to arrive at the Odeon stop near to Cat’s house. We met her there and were impressed to find someone who lives on an even higher floor than us but she does have a lift (cunningly disguised as a small cupboard!). Then we thought we should make the most of our time in Paris by going out to investigate the local nightlife in St Germain. We found a couple of lovely bars, had a little wander along the Seine and sampled several very nice cocktails. After that we made our way back to Cat’s for a good nights sleep in preparation for tomorrow’s tourism.
We got up, had breakfast and then went straight off to the Eiffel Tour, taking in a number of sights on the way. After that we very excitedly (well I was – I love boats!!) joined the queue for a boat cruise along the Seine. We saw many lovely sights and even learnt some interesting facts about Paris along the way. Some of us even saw a weird flashing bird (but I wasn’t one of them! 
( Then it was definitely lunch time – after a long and careful decision making process, we had some really nice tartines with a variety of different fillings. Even though we were full, we had to follow that with Haagan Dazs ice cream as there was a restaurant just over the road and it seemed rude not to!
Continuing our tourism, we wandered to the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs Elysees and to the Jardins Tuileries (where there was a funfair – yay!). We had a little walk in the Tuileries funfair and then decided that it was high time for a drink in one of the little bars nearby. So we stopped to rest our weary legs and quench our thirst – with beer! Following this, more wandering was in order, so we made our way up to the Louvre and around that area before stopping for another drink nearby (wine this time!).
I was keen to visit Montmartre and see the Moulin Rouge as I couldn’t remember seeing it on our school trip. So we got onto the metro to take us up to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. We wandered up the hill to get a lovely view over Paris and then walked through Montmartre loo
king for a good place for dinner. After being rejected by the first restaurant who on principle didn’t want to move a chair (!) we found a really nice place where the food was delicious (even if they had run out of the food I wanted!). It was also amazingly well priced at 26 Euros for 3 courses! By the time our incredibly cheerful (!) waitress had served all 3 courses it was getting late so we decided that going back to Cat’s was probably wise – poor Cat had to get up for work at 3am and we were planning on going for a run in the morning. We walked back through the interesting scenery of Montmartre to the metro and back to the flat.
In the morning we woke up well after Cat and set off for our run – Ben had already got a route planned, map and all (think he’s getting quite into this running lark!). Not a bad place to run, Paris – we had to run for 75 mins and ended up covering 12km! Lovely views of the Louvre, 
the Tuileries, along the Seine, Champs Elysees and of course that big radio mast thingy that all the 
tourists want to see! We went back to Cats (even climbing the stairs to continue the exercise a little longer!) got ready and went back out for Brunch (it was between 11 and 12 so that seemed the best option. We had planned to have crepes but the shop was shut so we had that other French thing, a baguette (which came with dessert included – lucky we’d just done a 75 minute run really!). I wanted to go to Montmartre again so we headed back up there, going to grab a couple of drinks and go and sit on the grass outside the Sacre Coeur to take in the view. Somewhere along the way, Ben decided to get a ‘crepe, oh actually a crepe with ham, well maybe a crepe with ham and cheese, or maybe a crepe with ham, cheese and egg.’ We weren’t even hungry after brunch so you can imagine how that went! It was a gigantic crepe and very nice, but we needed a good long walk after that to work it off!
We had a agreed to meet Cat in the Tuileries funfair as I was desperate to go on this bungee ball ride thingy (you know, the ones that everyone watches and hardly anyone is stupid enough to go on!) and Cat really wanted to go on the log flume. So we met a newly refreshed Cat, back from work and a little nap, ready for fun at the fair. We went on the log flume all together and then Ben and I went on the bungee type ride. It was great fun, although to quote myself just before they released the springs ‘we are a bit stupid doing this, aren’t we?’. Glad we did it though – bouncing around in the sky looking out at the Eiffel Tower is actually lots of fun!
After more walking (and more Haagan Dazs!) we knew we’d have to start making our way back to get our things and go to the airport. We went via ‘Invalides’ where Napoleon is buried in 6 coffins (allegedly – I didn’t count personally, we didn’t really have time to go in) and where there is a beautiful church and gardens. Eventually, we tore ourselves away and went back to collect our things and go to Charles de Gaulle airport. All in all, a lovely weekend – thanks Cat, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR TODAY!!!
Click here to view the photo gallery of all the pictures we took over the weekend.