I’m really starting to question the quality and purpose of my weakly provocative blog titles. Although they are always accurate.

Today was massive and full of awesome. Before I bore you with the details, just want to reiterate how lovely we’ve found French people to be. We’ve yet to experience any of their notorious “rudeness”, and we’re quite certain its all some sort of conspiracy created by less pleasant people, like the Maltese.

We started the day at the Eiffel Tower. Pretty fantastic! I still can’t believe it was built in 1889. We had thought we’d just walk past, but when we noticed there were no lines to ascend, we caught the elevator up and enjoyed the views (no regrets for not climbing the stairs, we spent the entire day walking!) It was quite busy and disorganised at the top 2 levels, but still a great view and a pretty exciting building to be inside.

We then crossed the river and wandered towards the Arc de Triomphe, picking up a quiche and a French-style hotdog which we ate in a quaint alleyway. In the gutter. But it was a clean gutter. This end of town really lacked the public spaces the rest of Paris has, and it felt a little too uptown for us. Our gutter lunch was a pleasant respite.

The Arc de Triomphe was another marvel, giving us a taste of Napolean’s legacy that we would further pursue later in the day.

Then we walked down the Champs-Elysees with its fancy shops and wide sidewalks. We did a little shopping (and I did a little waiting) and we both decided we were enjoying the sun so much, we were up for another walk and afternoon activity.

So we marched onwards to the Musee de l’Armee (Army Museum) which included the seriously oversized Tomb of Napolean. After paying our respects, we spent ages poring over the details of France’s military history from Louis XIV to Napolean III – deciding it was one of the most tumultuous, fascinating histories ever. My interest in the era is totally piqued and Marthese is keen to download a bunch of Sharpe novels for her Kindle.

Napolean’s tomb. Bigger than I’d expected…

Marthese was excited that the temporary exhibition was on Musketeers – specifically addressing their depiction in Dumas’ famous work! I was excited that she wore a hat with a feather on it.

Click here for more photos from Paris Day 3.
Click here for the full Paris album.