We finally arrived in Paris after what seemed to be an endless flight! It took around 22 hours flying time. Our hotel, Hotel Montanna, is in a fantastic location near Rue de Rivoli which runs alongside the Tuileries Gardens and is walking distance to the Louvre museum. The rooms are lovely, clean and, by Parisian standards, large. We're all excited to be here and quickly unpack and then head out exploring. We wander the streets around our hotel. find a little bar that serves lovely mixed platters - so, we stop for a well-earned rest and snack. The girls decide that they want to go back to the room to releax. So, we drop them off and then David and I find a bar and have a 'happy hour' drink! We got back to the hotel by about 8pm - the girls were sound asleep.

Our second day in Paris is filled with tours - a segway tour, a skip the line tour of the Eiffel Tower and finally a fat tyre bike tour. After a delicious, typically European breakfast of cold meats, cheeses, bagettes and croisants, we make our way to the metro and head to our meeting place for the tour.

Our tour guide for the segway tour is Theo - a Parisian native with an American mum from New York. We discover that he spent several years living in NY but he chooses to live in Paris. He's a great guy, fully of local information and speaks perfect English. After a lesson on how to use the segways we are off to our first destination - the Eiffel Tower. It's just breathtaking - it's huge and it's pretty awesome! From there we head over to the military school and then the golden dome where Napolean's tomb is. We then make out way to Concorde square - which is close to our hotel. Theo stops traffic for us as we cross the busy Paris roads. In Concorde square, we learn that this is the place were people were beheaded. We then ride through the Tuileries Gardens - past our hotel, past the statue of St Joan of Arc and to the Louvre museum. Theo gives us a history lesson on the beautiful museum buildings and surrounding gardens. The area has many very dark south Africans selling their knock off eiffel tower keyrings and other souvineers. As police on bicycles approach the area, the men pack up their goods and take off - all illegal vendors! We head back to our meeting place, riding the segways along the River Seine and taking in the beautiful city sights. The segway tour is definitely a highlight of our stay in Paris - heaps of fun and an awesome way to get around Paris.

We have time to grab a bagette for lunch and then we walk to the Eiffel Tower for our skip the line tour of the Tower. Our guide is Jess a Melbourne girl from Glen Waverley - disappointing!! She's very informative - but I would have liked a local!! At the very top of the tower David and I toast our trip with our $24 tiny glass of champagne! The skip the line tour is worth every dollar as there were hundreds of people in the queue.

Our final tour is the Fat Tyre Bike tour with Eric, an American (living in Paris for a year) as our tourguide. The bike tour was another highlight of Paris. There were about 20 of us in the group and Eric taught us to "dominate" on the busy streets of Paris - it was lots of fun as we stopped traffic getting to our tour destinations. We visited Notre Dame - we're we bought the tiniest scoop of gelati for 3 Euro - about $4.50! As part of the bike tour, we also went on a river cruise of the Seine. As he boat made it's way along the river we saw heaps of groups of people and couples sitting along the river with their bottles of wine and chatting. Some groups were dancing. It was a Tuesday night and so many people were out enjoying the mild weather! We got back to our room at about 12.30am - a huge day filled with tours and tonnes of historical information - straight to bed!!

Our final day in Paris is a free day to explore and wander. First stop Arc de Triumph - the Arc is blocked off as there is a VIP visiting Paris - even the Champs-Elysees is closed for the VIP. We decide to come back later and jump on the metro and head over to Sacre Coeur - a beautiful and amazingly large church built on top of a hill. It's hot, the hilly gardens surrounding the church are packed with tourists and more South Africans selling their 'things'. We make our way up the hill to the church - it's quite amazing and beautiful. We train over to Moulin Rouge where we stop for a bite to eat and drink. Back to the Arc de Triumph where, this time, the streets are cleared and we are able to climb to the top. Final destination for the day is Monique's request to go to the Hard Rock Cafe in Paris and buy a t-shirt.

For dinner, Stephanie insists that we have a French meal and eat the local delicacies - snails! She quite likes them - Monique's not game enough to try. We share a delicious assortment of platters and entrees in a French restaurant close to our hotel.