We were up and out early this morning, hoping to beat the queues and the rain at Notre Dame Cathedral. We did good too – there were zero people waiting at the Cathedral entrance when we arrived, and there was a mass on too, very nice. The Cathedral is stunning – I’ve been here a couple of times already, but always keen for another look. It’s one of the best examples of gothic architecture in the world. The stonework outside is just awesome – gargoyles, beautiful statues and carvings.

The queue to go up to the top towers was just getting started when we came out of the Cathedral, so we joined that and had about a 15 minute wait (google warned me that the wait can be hours during the day). We went all the way to the very top of the Cathedral for stunning views of Paris, and an up-close look at the carvings. The queue for the Cathedral was veeeeery long when we came down the tower. Winning!

It was starting to rain as we came down, so we decided to head to the Louvre shopping area to wait out the rain for a bit – there are some nice shops and a Starbucks there. After about an hour the rain showed no signs of stopping so we went back to the hotel. On the way we stopped at the fruit shop and pastry shop for some snacks.

At about 3pm the weather looked like it might be clearing, so we went off to find a laundromat and had a lovely hour with some locals and their clothes.

And then it was still fine, so we had dinner at our local restaurant before going off for some more adventuring – to the Eiffel Tower. There were a gazillion tourists there, and heaps of street vendors selling trinkets and selfie-sticks. We had a lovely walk through the park and then stopped for ice cream before heading home again.