Owwwwww my feet are sore!!!

The OC took on Paris in style this week. Two days of traipsing, plodding, trawling but ultimately delighting in most of what this wonderful city has to offer. We did the big three for her today: in the queue for the Eiffel Tower, which opens at 9.30am, by 9.15am. One pillar was out for maintenance and the three queues to ascend were already a half a kilometre long snaking around the base like a hydra head. If there's one thing I'll say about my own preconceptions of this city, it's that I was so naive...so green...so silly to think the rest of the world wouldn't be as interested in Paris in the springtime as me.


Fortunately for the YC (and us) we were upgraded to immediate entry by virture of the wheelchair. Up in the lift, the YC and I to the 2nd floor and The OC and her Chef du jour up to the highest point.

There were plenty of gasps and oh-my-god's from the OC and I think maybe we did the Right Thing.

Then a wander down the Seine to the Louvre where the OC (being a child) was allowed to slip under the barrier and stand within two metres of the Mona Lisa. Oddly, the rest of the family managed to slip in behind her. The YC took this opportunity to implode at the majesty of it all (on our behalf of course). A sea of people...that's all we can say....a SEA of people!!! But fortunate seems to be the currency of the trip so far.

And the trifecta for the OC was occasioned by our throbbing feet and aching legs having literally walked our shoes off over the last two days so we caught the metro back to L'Arc de Triomphe so that we could wander down a side road where we found "L'Esmeralda" - a wee brasserie with yet another 'gratuit' WiFi zone and lashings of dark rich chocolate ice cream. Don't worry dear readers, the adults weren't neglected, we had a sumptuous steak and a well deserved rest.

I am finding that slipping into the life that is Paris....err...rather easy. And possibly we are only one lotto win shy of doing this on a more regular basis. I am using my schoolgirl French and appropriate hand signals (laced with smiles) and really that's all one needs.

Yesterday, my breath was taken (literally) by this view. I don't know why I was so surprised. Perhaps it's the overuse of the Eiffel Tower as an icon, a symbol and all that it entails that I thought I'd be hardened but in the OC's words.....oh mon dieu!