Having left Barcelona at 9:30am, we finally made it in to Paris just before 10pm, pyjama’d (yes, that’s a real term!) the children, read their stories and put them in bed in time for us to get ready to go out, leaving our good friend in the apartment with the kids for the night.

Having walked a good half hour to the metro station, we realised that the journey was pretty complicated and would have taken about an hour to get us to the Eiffel Tower, so we decided to find a taxi to hail instead! Millie was in flip flops, or, as we were in Paris, Phillipe Flops (sorry, dad joke) and so walking quickly to find a taxi wasn’t the easiest of things to do. We were in the outskirts of Paris and it was a Friday night, so people were out and about and some bars were pretty full. For some reason, at least 3 different Frenchmen decided that they couldn’t make it to the bathroom and propped themselves up against a bus shelter, a lamp post and a road sign to relieve themselves. It persuaded us to get a taxi as soon as possible, so we managed to flag one down and made our way to the Eiffel Tower!

Our driver took us along the Seine-ic route, passing Notre Dame and various large buildings which must have been important as they were very well lit. We finally made it to the Eiffel Tower, paid our taxi driver around €20 and stood under the monstrous structure, in awe of it’s size and beauty.

Makeshift metal fences surrounded the tower, I guess since all the terror attacks they have had to be more vigilant. There were turnstiles that allowed people out, but we couldn’t find how to get in, so we began to walk around the base of the tower. Eventually, we found out we were about 10 minutes late for the final entry of 11pm to be able to on to the tower. Despite being disappointed, we weren’t going to let the disappointment spoilt our evening so we decided to find a spot to stand and take everything in. We walked onto the Champ de Mars, Millie regretting her footwear due to it being a bit muddy and me walking carefully as I was wearing white Nike Air Max’s! We were regularly approached by men wanting to sell us beers and champagne and I was tempted to buy a bottle just so that they’d leave us alone – can’t blame them for trying I suppose.

An American couple saw us taking a selfie and offered to take a picture for us. They were really friendly and we spoke for a bit. After a while we decided to take a walk to the other side of the tower, where there were stalls and bought some crepes. We sat along the bank of the Seine, when all of a sudden, the men who had been trying to sell us booze all evening ran down the steps with their goods and hid them in a closed restaurant’s outdoor area. We guessed the police had turned up and they were selling illegally.

We headed back towards the tower to catch a taxi back to the apartment, but not before FaceTiming my dad in Singapore to share the moment with him too. Despite waking him (they’d been up late the night before!) he was pleased to have been “with” us in Paris.

We had such a lovely evening in the city of romance, enjoying it’s most famous landmark. I will definitely have to take Millie back in the not-too-distant future so that we can climb the tower and experience the views. A fleeting visit to Paris, but pleased we managed to see the Tour Eiffel. We made it back to our apartment at around 01:45am, ready to get some rest for Disneyland with the kids in the morning!