Dear Auckland, we are sorry to hear you have had such a lot of rain recently (again!). It rained in Paris today too, most of the day. No floods to report, just muddy puddles here and there. And it was cold.

Our delay in arriving in Paris meant that we missed our pre-booking for the Louvre Museum. As the Louvre is apparently closed on Mondays, we arrived this morning ready to try again, fully prepared to join the queues for entry. There were no queues. The Louvre was also not opened today. Porquoi? I have no clue. But we were able to look through a window and see some of the magnificent sculptures below the glass-roofed exhibition room, which was number one on our “To See” list anyhow, so that was very fortunate indeed.

Cianne had told me that Musee d’Orsay was amazing as well, so we headed over there, only to be told that it was closed for an event and wouldn’t be opened again for another few hours. We were getting a wee bit cold and wet by this stage, so decided to jump to part two of our day’s plan – a visit to Mont Martre, beginning with Sacre Coeur. We stepped inside and I immediately exhaled – there was such an atmosphere of reverence and peace.

I would have loved to take a zillion photos inside, but there was a ‘no photos’ sign, and it seemed an extremely inappropriate place to be naughty!

Rachel and Mal, I can see why you love Mont Martre. The streets and the shops are so pretty. There were probably lots of sensible touristy things we should have looked out for, but the things we did head to (thanks to my ever-supportive and patient husband) were:

PAIN PAIN – an incredible patisserie which I have read about (Annie it’s in the Paris book you gave me). So good!

PINK MAMAS – ’cause I’d read about its amazing roof-top garden restaurant and had been super-inspired by the montage of gorgeous eclectic art adorning the walls of its beautiful staircase………. and it was closed until dinner. Of course it was.

The little corner shop which features in AMELIE (a lovely French movie)

And of course, Moulin Rouge.

And then we caught the train back to see poor, wounded Notre Dame.

By this time we were so tired, cold and our feet so squelshy-wet that we could manage no more, so back we went to Asniers-Sur-Seine for a dinner of bread, cheese (and wine that our host had left us). And a bowl of muesli.

P.S. Sasha, this is where your wee birthday present was bought from…

à bientôt