Playtime in Paris

So, a couple of weeks ago I popped over the English Channel to do some work in Paris for a week, and although I was a busy bee working, I still got to see some of the sights!

Looking on to the Ile de la Cité

We were working in the centre of Paris, in the 5th arrondissement, so our journey to work each morning was actually a little sight seeing tour for us. Line 1 on the Métro from Les Sablons to Hôtel de Ville, cross over the Seine to the Ile de la Cité, and then we walked either in front of or behind Notre Dame, and over the Pont des Amoureux covered in padlocks, before we reached the school we were working in. Not bad at all hey?!

Hôtel de Ville

A close up from the front of Notre Dame

Look at all the padlocks!

We managed to find time one evening (without being rained on) to walk through the Palais Royal, with a crêpe jambon fromage in hand. I was good and decided that nutella is probably not the best balanced dinner option...

Palais Royal

One of my favourite métros by the Louvre

The rain held off one evening so we decided to make the most of it and grab dinner out, so we found a small café near Châtelet and Les Halles, if only to grab a happy hour cocktail and Nicola's chicken not to be cooked through... oops.

Another night the rain didn't hold off, but we were too late to be bothered to go shopping and decide what to have for dinner, so we found a restaurant around Saint Michel, with  very reasonably priced set menu - hello 3 courses for 2 people and a bottle of Bordeaux for around 50€? And the wine was more expensive than the set menu... After enjoying a bit of French banter with the waiter and having a chat with an American girl who had just worked as an au pair for 8 weeks, we sat under the patio heaters and had an enjoyable meal, even if it wasn't the best magret de canard that I have had! It still hit the spot.

Classy girls with a bottle of rouge

Luckily for us, the final day, when we weren't working, was sunny! So Nicola and I met up with our Uncle and  my other cousins and went for lunch at Chartier, a very French restaurant just off Grands Boulevards, where my sister and I used to amuse ourselves by drawing on the paper tablecloths while we waited for our food. So I gave Alice a pen from my handbag and she decided it wasn't quite as posh as she thought, even though it does look impressive inside.

But what do you do in Paris when you have seen most of it and a 10 year old who has seen it all more than enough times by her standards (the hardships of growing up in Paris #FirstWorldProblem), so we went along the Seine and hit the pet shops! They're very different to what you find in the UK, where there are laws against keeping puppies in glass cages on display in shops, especially when this includes labradors and retrievers as well at grown puppy sizes. You can buy mice, rats, hamsters, kittens, any bird you can think of, chipmunks... and cheaply priced pythons! As you do.

Hello puppy!

... hello pythons?!

This then took us in the direction of the Louvre, obviously we couldn't resist some pictures of the pyramids, and then took Alice to the funfair at the Jardins des Tuiléries, before heading back to grab my bag and hop on the Roissy Bus to Charles de Gaulle.

Posing with the pyramid

Photobombed by Alice