Woke up early to get brekkie and explore the city. Had croissants and an apple compote - how very continental! Took the train to Notre Dame where a girls choir were singing. Even in the early morning, Paris is very hot. Its also stuffed with tourists - sometimes it’s hard to move for them. There seem to be plenty of army people around with huge guns - “that’ll keep them in line”.

We looked around the Notre Dame crypts, which I wouldn’t recommend on the fact that there is nothing to see, and then walked to the Louvre. It’s been a few years since I was last here, and everything seems to have shrunk a little. Growing up does that sometimes. Afterwards we walked to the Arc de Triomphe, which was stunning; well worth the 290 steps in the 35 degree heat. Paris is a gorgeous city, even if the locals are sometimes rude (and they really are, especially in the service industries, although everyone in the train stations was incredibly helpful - it all balances out). We walked (noticing a theme here?) to the Eiffel tower where the queues to go up (either the steps or the elevators) were huge - several hours in the blistering sunshine. We’d all done it before so we relaxed and played cards in the shade of a park next to the tower.

In the evening I tried to use the cyber-cafe across the road from the hotel. He was just closing as I arrived and asked how long would I be. I replied “just a few minutes” in my finest schoolboy French and after tying up a few loose ends online, he charged me just 50c. I had one 50c coin, and no other change, so I didn’t tip him. Guilt plagued my evening.

Things really are different here than at home: Parisians are mad, they’re typically French and utterly insane drivers - they love to use their horns and get frustrated at each other, sometimes driving so close they have to reverse, Cafes are open until “late”, their tables spilling out into the wide streets. That said, it’s not too difficult to see why people love to live here, it is a fantastic city.
In the evening there was a huge thunderstorm that literally shook the city. Claps of thunder and lightning lit the city from above for brief fractions of a second. It was beautiful and scary at the same time - it would have been fascinating to have been on top of the Eiffel tower.