Paris

Paris was wonderful and full-on and stressful and hot!
It was about 30 degrees every day - this made everything quite intense and we were continually drinking water (evian of course!) and scurrying into the shade wherever we could find it.

We felt a little bit of pressure to see and do all the things Paris has to offer. As an indication, in our guidebook there are are about 20 things listed for London and about 35 for Paris (and we had about 10 days in London and 3 in Paris). Everywhere you turn is a magnificent sculpture or building, and there are so many museums and art galleries worth having a look at.

It's also quite emotional walking around Paris - there are so many things that somehow seem so symbolic of Europe etc - things that you have grown up knowing about, such as the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, that when you turn a corner on the street and happen upon it, you feel a little tearful sometimes (well Katie anyway!).

We ate crepes every day - often with nutella which the french seem to be obsessed with for some reason. We spent most of our money on entry fees etc so didn't really eat in many french restaurants, but still ate some good french food and lots of icecreams.

We really enjoyed the Louvre - it's an amazing building in its own right, but also has the most amazing collection of sculptures and paintings. As they say, you could spend days there. We saw the usual Parisian attractions: the Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysee, Invalides, Luxembourg gardens, Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and Sainte Chapelle, and also went to Montmartre and Versailles (yes, all in three days).

We're now feeling a little exhausted and are recharging our batteries with Cherry (Katie's sister) in beautiful Konstanz.