We bought Paris passes to use while in Paris – it covers the cost of the metro, entry to art galleries, museums and more than you can imagine doing with the time available. It also includes two days on Les Cars Rouges, a boat trip down the Seine, a climb up Montparnasse Tower and Arc de Triomphe – both of which give fabulous views over Paris. We became tourists and did them all – very happily and enjoyed them.

We sat on top of the bus in sunshine and were driven around in style – it certainly is a little quicker than trying to walk to all these places and you get to listen to some interesting commentary about the buildings as you pass them. You can get off the bus at any stop and the tickets can be used over two days.


The river cruise was a wonderful way to see the buildings along the edge of the Seine and see the bridges – some of them are stunningly beautiful and gleam in the sunlight.

Montparnasse is the tallest building in Paris and gives views in all directions. This was the first time I could see where Montmartre was in relation to Paris and see the little hill – it really is a little hill. They layout of Paris is incredible – long wide boulevards with similar architecture – the buildings are all built from the same stone with the same grey rooftops – we were able to identify different buildings and figure out where they lie in relation to each other. This helped me begin to feel like I understood this city.

On another day we climbed the Arc de Triomphe – 275 steps up and then the same down. With the 85 steps up to our apartment, we are covering quite a few steps. I am not convinced that I want to climb over 1000 steps to reach the top of the Eiffel Tower and the queues to use the lifts are long. Again, the views were wonderful, even though the morning was a little foggy.