Day 8 Paris

Cam & I started the day back at the bakery. Bought the almond pastries and met Nick to catch metro to Musee d'Orsay.

We decided to get there early to try and beat the queue. The plan was to eat the pastries while standing in line, but it moved so fast we struggled to scoff them down and before we knew it we were in the warmth of the gallery. As a bonus we didn't have to pay as most museums have free entry the 1st Sunday of each month.  I had forgotten how grand the building was...it's impressive to be in regardless of the artworks. The building used to be a railway station & I love the giant clock.

 There are plenty of famous artworks here including by Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Cezanne & Renoir.

 We all recognised as least some of them.  Nick recognised one as being the origin of the world...

   ...don't know if it was part of his HIBS education!

From here we walked along the river to the Eiffel Tower. It was a good brisk 40 minute walk but I found it really exciting seeing it get closer & closer.

Kept wanting to take photos but the closer we got the better it looked. Didn't really notice the chilly conditions until we got to Place du Trocadero (the best viewing place for the tower).We took so many photos but many of them not the best of us.

was hoping for a miraculously good one of me, but just looked tired & old.  I was also wanting a good one of all 3 of us, but that proved elusive also.  The selfie stick which I had been carrying for just this occasion experienced technical difficulties (not sure if it was due to the user or the cold weather). Anyway we got plenty of photos and I enjoyed being there.

 We walked down to the tower and there was virtually no queue to go up the tower, but we really weren't that interested & don't think the view would be much as rain was setting in and it was pretty grey.

Our next mission was to head to the area around the Pompidou Centre & look for somewhere to eat. As per usual there were so many places to choose from so we picked one called Le Drapeau, very pleased for the warmth. I encouraged the boys to try escargots (snails) so Nick ordered half a dozen of those in garlic along with French onion soup. I got a salad that came with an enormous hunk of cheese and delicious dry cured ham.

Cam chose confit de canard (confit duck) with garlic potatoes.

The boys actually enjoyed the snails once the worked out what to do with the contraption you use to hold the hot snail. 

Now ridiculously full we joined the fast moving queue for the Pompidou Centre - the place for modern art & culture.

This was also free today and enjoyable in its quirkiness.

Much of the art was made from everyday objects, video, sounds and some just seriously weird. Cam particularly seemed to enjoy this.  We also got incredible views of the chimney tops of Paris and views extending from the Tour Eiffel to Sacre-Coeur.

By now it was 6pm and we were ready to head back to the apartment for more food. Stopped off at a local bakery and it was still full of fresh baked bread and treats at this time....love this place!  Got a couple of French loaves to go with our cheeses and decided we also needed to try some sweet things so got a large pistachio macaroon, a slice of lemon crumble tart and a coffee profiterole.

Feels like we are continually eating and we aren't even hungry...but we've just got to keep fitting it in as there is so much to try. Not sure I can keep it up though. It's a hard life!

Foot update: still a bit swollen, putting ice on it each night, but defintely improving & somehow coping with walking 10 - 14 km each day Thank goodness it wasn't worse!