Paris is a city of culture, refinement and sophistication. I however, am not. Although the Louvre was very interesting, 90% of it was wasted on me and I ended up playing spot the famous piece of art and admiring the building more than the art.

After the Louvre we strolled down the river Seine to Notre Dame. If I was thinking, we would have a photo of me with a jumper down my back swinging from a balcony pretending to be the hunchback of Notre Dame. Alas, it did not occur to me at the time. Carmen did however try to become one with the stone work. The cathedral is nice, but I think over the last 6 months we have been spoilt for churches, chapels and cathedrals to the point where I said “if this wasn’t free, I’d feel riped off”. Given that it only took about 45 minutes to look about inside and out, and we were unable to get up the Eiffel tower the day before. We were both keen to head back to it and tackle it head on.

Now I don’t think Carmen is able to judge size. The Eiffel is huge, it is more than 300 meters high. That is massive. To get a quick idea, I dug up some facts: 7,000 tonnes of steel, 50 tonnes of paint, the base covers 2.5 acres, 300.52 meters high, 2.5 million rivets, and its brown. I was very impressed and think a trip to Paris just to see the tower is worth it. We are nearing the dying stages of autumn on this side of the world, infact I think winter is at the door. So it was pretty chilly in Paris, about 3-8 degrees most days. As we approached ‘Le tour Eiffel’ it started to drizzle, and the wind was picking up so it was very cold and we were even murmuring to each other about not going up because of the cold. But there was no way in heck we were coming to Paris and not going up the Eiffel tour. The queue to go up had subsided dramatically due to the cold, we opted for the stairs instead of the elevator, paid our 3.50 euro and started our ascent. We paused only briefly at the first level (57meters), just to continue up to the 2nd level (115meters). This is as far as you can walk up, at this point you need to pay an extra 3.10 euro and catch an elevator to the top. The have alot of interesting facts and events about the tower, including how much it sways in the wind, thermal expansion etc (geeks :+) ). Up we went. To the top (276meters – the rest is the spire). The view of Paris is quite spectacular. As a little French girl said as she was lifted up to look over the safety rail 'Ou La Laa'.

The sun was setting, and it pretty much concluded our day, we had been walking at a steady rate for about 12 hours straight minus lunch. We hit the sack and was asleep in minutes.