France

Visited Notre Dame Cathedral first thing this morning, it is such a graceful structure - so vast but still seeming delicate and soaring.  Sadly, inside it is teeming with tourists and a lot of the atmosphere one might anticipate is lost in the hum of voices and whir and flash of cameras.

Pete discovered he had lost his Visa Card last night when we used it to phone home so after lunch we went separate ways for a while as he went back to the hotel to cancel it - we arranged to meet at L'Orangerie that afternoon.  In the meantime I decided to climb the towers at Notre Dame - those steps are worn to hollow in places by the tread of so many feet over the years but the view from the top across the city is spectacular and it was great to see the famous bell in it's high tower.

The atmosphere in the train on the trip back was almost festive with a guy playing a rollicking tune on a violin throughout the journey and I left the Metro station with a smile on my lips and bounce in my stride as I set off to L'Orangerie to await Pete.  I spent over an hour sitting quietly before Monet's magnificent Waterlillies before Pete finally arrived and I could tell from the harried look in his eye that he had not the same kind of morning as I.  I decided it would be tactful to be as discreet as possible and I think it helped to calm him that we also stopped to enjoy the Waterlillies for a while before returning to the hotel to collect our wits.

We had dinner at an expensive and very ordinary restaurant on the Champs Elysee then wandered up to the Arc de Triomphe.  In many ways it is better by night, the way the contours of the surface are lit by the lights and we stood for a long time at the top watching the swirl of traffic below and gazing across the bright avenues and bustle of the city.

Next we caught the Metro to visit the Eiffel Tower.  The train carriage and the streets in the area were alive with tourists even at the hour of 10pm.  We gazed in wonder at the vastness and sheer weight of this enormous steel monument, it is only by standing directly below and looking up that we really appreciate just how huge it is and just how much steel has gone into it - quite different from the feel of the images on postcards.