So we arrived in Paris, dumped our bags and headed straight for the central hub of this gorgeous city – the River Seine.  Just look at the day we got for our first day here.

We stopped along the way for a ham and cheese crepe.  We asked in our best French – “We would like 4 ham and cheese crepes please” to which the chap replied (in English) “What? You want all the same?  You don’t want to try anything different from each other?” I was pretty happy with my choice up until that point…

Our destination for this afternoon was to see and climb the Eiffel Tower.

There it is – over there!

We wandered all the way from our hotel along what used to be a road last time I was here and now it’s a pedestrian’s paradise (for lack of a better word)

We passed bridges…

and games of boules…

Fabulous shady seated areas that were dotted all over the area…

And some crocheted fittings…

Then we hit the Eiffel and everyone nearly ran their battery out on their phone taking the same picture over and over…

The plan was that we were all going to climb the tower to the second floor – something like 704 steps.  I had done it before with me mate, Madds and I remember it being fairly tiring back then… as we approached I was a little apprehensive that my newly acquired back problem was going to give me some grief as well as the fact that it was a pretty warm day.  So when Matt realised that he still had his brand new, flash as you like, you beaut Swiss Army knife that he bought in actual Switzerland in his backpack, there were some tough decisions to be made.  He would either have to hand it over to be destroyed, risk hiding it somewhere in the garden or not go up the tower.  He was devo’ed.  This is when I realised that this was my out.  I had been up the tower twice before and I’d climbed the steps once – (once being enough for anyone), so I took the knife and I got to lay on the grass watching the people and looking up at the tower.  I was as happy as Larry!

This is where I was found…

And then we did the tourist thing…

One iconic landmark down!  Our next trick was to get to the Moulin Rouge.

You’re not allowed to take photos of the show, but it was spectacular!  The audience was mostly filled with people from Australia, Melbourne in particular and there were two ladies in the front row from Adelaide who were on our wine tour – so talk about a small world.

Then it was back to our lovely hotel – Le Saint where the gorgeous doorman let us into the VIP area.

Not a bad first day in Paris if you ask me.