23 August - Paris, France

After the usual endless flight via Dubai (21 hours plus a 2 hour stop over we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport to a very balmy 21º afternoon. We had booked a transfer to our hotel and it was great to see a driver holding a placard with our names on it. Forty minutes later we were settled into the Waldorf hotel in Montparnasse.  It's a great little boutique hotel. Very friendly people who speak pretty good English. It was too early to go to bed so we wondered down the road a little to find lots of places  to have a drink. After a couple of those we decided to share a pizza as well and then called it a night. In bed by 8pm and slept all the way through to 7 am the this morning. Our hotel room includes breakfast and it was terrific. Fresh baguettes and croissants, with a choice of ham and cheeses and lots of strong coffee - great way to start the day.

This morning we booked some tour tickets which gave us all day hop on - hop off on the "Big Bus", on of those double decker buses with an open top. With the temperature at 31º it was a fantastic way to get an overview of the whole city. After a brief spell at back at the hotel we headed back into town to catch up with our night tour of the city which started at 9:00 also included in our ticket. The night tour is scheduled so that at 11:00 the bus pulls up alongside the Eiffel tower, which then puts on a magnificent light display.