A few days away in Paris

 It was too much to resist for my daughter and I, a free train journey to Paris and back! The rest of the family were too busy so Jess and I set off for 4 days away, we booked a cheap Ibis hotel and set off leaving home at 4.30 in the morning. We caught the 5.45 am train from Ebbsfleet and were sitting drinking coffee at the Gare du Nord a couple of hours later.

We had a wonderful time, walking for mile after mile around this wonderful city, so much to see and four days to squeeze as much in as possible!  Above is a photo of the Tuileries.

The weather was fantastic and everywhere looked beautiful, we started with Galleries LaFayette which is beautiful with the biggest shoe department I have ever seen, and just kept walking!  You can buy an all day tube ticket for 6 euros and so we used that too.




We braved the enormous queue outside the Louvre, which moved remarkably quickly, and spent a couple of hours inside, we saw the Mona Lisa, David's Napoleon paintings and the Delacroix's and then the crowds became too much for us and went outside for a drink and a rest.

We walked from there to Notre Dame and then on to the Marais, a fantastic part of Paris, full of interesting little boutiques and second hand shops, all horribly expensive but nice to look at! We stayed out until the evening eating at a small restaurant and returned exhausted to our hotel room with a bottle of wine!

The next morning we went to the massive antique market at Clignancourt, slightly intimidating with the traders round the outside closing in on everyone trying to sell cheap tatt!  But once inside the main market, it was beautiful, full of little shops absolutely full of treasures!  There were miles upon miles of stalls and shops and if we had taken a truck with us, I'm sure we could have filled it!  The bead stalls were particularly a sight to behold.

 Once we had fought our way back through the market, our feet really couldn't take much more, we walked across the Seine and caught a boat!  You can buy a ticket which allows you to jump on and off at various points along the riverbank.

Our feet ached so much, we stayed on the boat and had a round trip, the sun was warm and it was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours.

So not much  way of being creative while we were away but loads and loads of inspiration, so well worth the trip.