Eurostar is definitely the way to travel to Paris, Central London to Central Paris in just over 2 hours. The train is perfect for comfort and for epic card game championships to kill the time. We arrived late on Fri night with only enough time to make the last Metro to the hotel so not much was achieved apart from getting enough sleep to bound out of bed for an early start to squeeze in as much sightseeing as possible. Bounding was out of the question after demolishing a massive French breakfast and not being able to control the gorging on baguettes, croissants and pastries. It was a slow weighted down crawl to the metro to head towards the Eiffel Tower.
Getting there early unfortunately didn’t mean that everyone else didn’t have the same idea. The queues were massive and we waited over an hour to discover that the top level was closed and we could only walk up to the second level. Climbing over 1000 stairs was of course an excellent way to burn off some breakfast calories and fortunately the weather was glorious so the views were superb even though we weren’t at the very top.
Not happy with scaling just one Paris monument we headed towards the Arc du Triomphe and clambered up the stairs to gaze down the Champs de Elysee. All this stair climbing had worked up an appetite so we strolled down the Champs de Elysee towards the Musee du Louvre and sampled a cheese and a chocolate crepe (pure greediness but my goodness they are good). With a limited amount of time in Paris we had to forfeit going into the Museum and hunting down the Mona Lisa and save that for another visit.
Off to Notre Dame we trudged, you certainly need some comfy shoes in Paris as you end up walking for hours and hours to take in all the major stuff. It is a stunning church from the outside and equally impressive inside. For those of you that have visited before you will know that the bell towers are what is portrayed in all the postcards, but the rear of the church is so different and fantastic in its own right as well.
After all the walking and stair climbing we were both exhausted so retreated to the hotel to rest before heading out for dinner. Of course dinner was a long way off so a pre-dinner cheese, ham and baguette snack was in order. The supermarkets in France are a test on your will power with so many delicious things to choose from! We tried not to get carried away with snacking before dinner but that didn’t last long. Coupled with incredibly cheap wine (1.50 euros for a bottle – probably cheaper than water!) we almost didn’t need to go for dinner, but hey we were only in Paris for one night so it would have been rude not to…meat filled crepe you say? Yes please…
As we were leaving Sunday lunchtime, our sightseeing was limited in the morning but we managed to squeeze in a visit to the Monmarte area and see the Sacre Couer church. It was a beautiful area of Paris and renowned for being an artists hang out. Cobbled streets and apartments with flower pots on the balconies were everywhere and the view from the hill back over Paris was lovely.
It was quite nice getting back to London at a reasonable hour and not being tired for work the next day for a change. We were well fed, relaxed and happy, we love Paris! 
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