Bonjour Paris! 7/09/09

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Monday 7 September
We were up early for a final breakfast in London and then had to hurry as our transfer was already waiting. They spent a long time shoving all our suitcases into the one car and we pulled out before realising, this was the wrong transfer. So bags back out, and into the right, much bigger van.  We arrived at St Pancras with a lot of time to spare. Jules met us for a coffee and then we headed into the Eurostar waiting area. The train was great. So much better than flying. There was lots of room. Unfortunately we were on a morning train and dipped out getting breakfast again. No champagne before 11. 
I didn’t even notice going under the channel, as that was food time! We had a great journey and arrived just after 2 hours. We headed straight out to a cab stop and I have to say… straight away I knew I was going to enjoy Paris more than last time. And I did. There’s something about coming back to a place. You know it and are happy to be there again.
Our Hotel, The Muguet, was excellent. It was in a much nicer area than last time. More French, with a market street right around the corner. I loved that it had lovely French windows you could throw open, with a window box of flowers. Perfect. We headed off straight away for a walk toward the Eiffel tower that took about 10 minutes (mainly because areas were closed off)
The day was perfect and the line was short, so we decided to climb the steps of the Eiffel tower. Boy! That was hard work, but completely do-able. I treated myself to an ice cream when I reached the 2nd floor. The view was great! Last time all I saw was fog. We waited in line for a long time to catch the lift to the top. I’m glad we did though. It was fantastic. Helped that there was a champagne bar there and we treated ourselves to a 10 Euro taste of champers. Lovely.
Afterwards we walked over to the Trocodero. I walked back down Champs Elysees. No real desire to be there since I’d spent so much time last time.
We hunted for ages for the Concorde Metro station. Our legs were killing us. We eventually found it and headed back to the hotel.
We had time to get ready and head back out on the Metro to go to the Moulin Rogue. We went to O Sullivans pub for a quick dinner. It was nice having something like potato wedges again! The cocktails were reasonable, so we had a few of them before heading over. When we went into the Moulin Rogue we were given the bum seats. Right along stage on the righthand side. I could only see 2/3 of the stage. It turned out to be great. I was getting waves from backstage and had feathers twirled all over my face. Fantastic show as always. We went back to O Sullivans for some after show drinks and just made it back on the last train after a feed of Crepes with Nutella and banana. What a big day!

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