Bonjour Paris

We headed off at 8am for the Eurostar after a buffet breakfast at the hotel. Campbell outdid all earlier efforts with the drinking yoghurt and drank seven. The Eurostar check-in was similar to an airport one and we even got a stamp with a train on it in our passports. I was subject to a kind of confronting extra body search - a full rub all over rather than a pat down - not nice. The train was clean and fast and we were served breakfast in our first class cabin. The boys had a few games of blackjack, we all used the free wifi and the trip passed very quickly? I said 'Bonjour'to the waitress and she responded with a volley of French. Clearly my outfit had some French chic! We were met by a tour bus in Paris and driven up to Montmarte. On the way we had a tour of Paris, by one of our Paris step on guides, Balwinder. Our bus driver here is " Marmaduke". We are loving the names! The streets are too narrow to get a bus all the way up so we rode up the hill in a lame kiddy train "Le Petit Train", with commentary in French and English. The guy spoke so fast and with such a thick accent that we couldn't understand either language. Montmartre was an artist's area and we were shown the houses and scenes that inspired a number of painters from the early 1900's - Dali, Modigliani, Monet, Toulouse-Latrec and a number of others. The central square is full of artists selling their work. We considered a small black and white watercolour but decided against it. It was impossible to resist buying crepes from one of the restaurants. They were made fresh, folded in triangles and served wrapped in a twist of paper. I had Grand Marnier and sugar and it was amazingly good. Flynn decided to save money by ordering his with sugar only. Then he opened it up and put on his own Nutella from a packet he took from the hotel. He was quite chuffed to have saved the euro that we spent on Cambo's Nutella one. We couldn't walk past a gelato shop either, and the cones were drizzled with melted Nutella before the gelato was scooped on. We had a free afternoon, so after checking in to the Westin, we went for a wander. The buildings are gorgeous and we are in a lovely area next to the Tuileries. The smoking is horrible though. It was bad in London too - every third person seems to be blowing cigarette smoke. Our hotel room (a junior suite!) smells like someone has been smoking in it so they did a full linen change and brought an air freshening machine in while we were out. We do have opening windows onto the Main Street so hopefully the fresh air will dissipate the smell. Our dinner was at a small French Restaurant about 10 minutes walk from the hotel. We could order three courses off the menu. Josh ordered escargot, which almost everyone tried, and Jason and I had a beef fillet with truffle sauce that was pretty good. We are really enjoying the food options on this trip - lots of flexibility and very generous options (even the hundred pounds cash the other day to buy lunch at a restaurant of our choice) We walked back to the hotel with a few of the other tour people and called it a night. It was fun to lie in bed and hear the nighttime city noises and know we were in Paris.