Tuesday 28 July - Paris

Early start today as our Eurostar train to Paris left, as scheduled, at 8:31 (precisely).

First time we've been on one of these high speed trains.  I'm not sure how fast they travel, but it only took just over two hours to get to Paris.  I was amazed that it only took 15 minutes to get across the channel!

Then it was time to figure out how to get to our hotel, the Hotel du Louvre.  Like London, the easiest way to get around is via the underground Metro.  Unfortunately The Paris metro isn't as easy to navigate as the London Underground is.  It's nothing to do with the language - it's the crap signage and maps that aren't that clear to understand.  With a bit of help from a couple of friendly Metro workers, we finally figured out how to get to where needed to be.

The Hotel du Louvre is great!  Grace surprised us and shouted us two nights there - she told us this was to make up for the missed birthday and Christmas presents over the past nearly two years.  We have a corner room on the fifth floor with views across to the Louvre on one side and across the Paris skyline on the other - absolutely stunning!

We dumped our bags at the hotel and headed off to do a bit of exploring.  The first stop was at the Paris Pass office, where you can buy a Paris Pass that gets you into all sorts of attractions, Museums, galleries etc without having to worry about buying the tickets at each site.  The ticket also saves you time by lowing you to jump the queue in quite a few of the places it gets you into.  

From there we jumped on one of those open-air double decker bus and took a two hour tour of the city.  Apart from it being bloody cold (I was wearing t-shirt and shorts and Cindy was lightly dressed too) it was an excellent tour and great way to get your bearings around the city, not to mention seeing all of the magnificent buildings that are scattered around Paris.  The tour took in all the usual suspects of the Louvre, Notre Dame, Opera House, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumphe, Champs Élysées, St Germain and more.

Once the tour was finished, it was back to the hotel to warm up and then get ready for our night out at the famous Moulin Rouge.  Our show started at 9:00pm, so we headed up a bit early to have some dinner and to make sure we arrived with plenty of time to spare.  

Wow, what a show.  If you like boobs, then Moulin Rouge is the place for you - but only if you like small ones!  Seriously though, the show was fantastic.  We loved the cabaret style dancers, the huge stage and constant scene & costume changes.  In amongst the different dancers they threw in three different almost Cirque de Soleil style feats of strength, athleticism and flexibility. 

Moulin Rouge promises much and it certainly didn't disappoint us.  Following the show it was back to our hotel for a night cap before calling it a (long) day.