Day 226 - We knew it was closed, so why did we go there?

Paris - Hotel du 7e Art

We knew the Louvre was closed on Tuesdays - but for some reason this slipped our minds when we arranged with A&L to make it our first visit of the day. We finally realised our mistake when we saw that the ticket queue was empty ..... doh! We made the most of it though by continuing our walk along the Champs Elysees to the Arc De Triomphe, then to the Eiffel Tower via the Trocadero. There were huge queues to climb the tower, so we hopped on a Seine cruise where we continued our misadventures with French food. Tip - take your own lunch when you go on a river cruise.

After the cruise we headed back to the Eiffel Tower and walked up the equivalent of 42 flights of stairs to the second level, before taking the lift to the very top for the magnificant views of Paris. We didn't indulge in the champagne on offer .... 10 euros for 100mls seemed a little excessive, but it helped us work out why there were so many baggage checks when we entered!

After the tower we jumped on the Metro to visit Montmartre and the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur. After the church visit we had an afternoon tea of crepes and coffee, followed by some souvenir shopping, and a look at the Moulin Rouge, before going back to the hotel and out for dinner. We finally managed a very tasty French meal at a restaurant near our hotel, followed by a pleasant evening with A&L at a nearby bar.