Paris, France

We arrived in Paris, to gloomy weather, at 8.30 this morning and head straight off to Hotel Printemps, which is near the drop off point, but half the price. We get a room that won’t be ready until midday, so we dump our bags and head off for a while.

We had breakfast at McDonalds on the corner before walking to the Eiffel Tower.

Weather-wise, Paris is no different than when we left – cloudy, windy and a bit cold. But the atmosphere is heaps different. Gone are the people who were here last time for the World Cup, as too are the makeshift tourist information stalls and countless souvenir stalls. Now the city seems somewhat empty.

We are tired, but decide not to waste the day and head to the Louvre Museum. Once we line up, it takes half an hour to get into the museum and instantly we head to Leonardo di Vinci’s Mona Lisa. This relatively ordinary painting is said to have been carried everywhere by the artist and is famous for the fact that nobody seems to know who the subject of the portrait is, with some saying it is a self-portrait. We also saw the Venus de Milo – the famous armless sculpture of Aphrodite. The Louvre houses thousands of paintings, sculptures, and artefacts (of which we probably didn’t see half). But by three pm we were stuffed and decided to head home for the day.

Venus de Milo, Louvre Museum, Paris, France

We got back to the hotel and were asleep before our heads hit the pillow. We awake again at seven pm and decided on a take away dinner. Paris is probably the most expensive place we’ve come across when it comes to food and for a cheap meal tonight, we had to resort to Pizza Hut. We probably haven’t eaten too well on this trip – but who cares, we’re on holidays.

We are still tired and decided to stay in tonight and hopefully recover from last night’s horrendous bus trip.