We woke to a dull and gloomy morning after heavy rain throughout the night.

Jeanette and Ken slept very well awaking at 7.35am.

Ken purchased breakfast of crossaints and orange juice from the patisserie, which we really enjoyed.

We departed the hotel at 9.35am to walk to the Place de la Concorde as the starting point of our walking for the day.

This was a walk of approximately 25 minutes down Haussmann Boulevard to the St Augustines busy square then a right turn past the beautiful shops toward the River Seine. The weather is dry following a very wet and cold night, but it is cold at 12 degrees C and still windy. This is an easy and enjoyable walk through the beautiful residential and up market shopping area of the 8 th arrondisement or prefecture.

We cross the zebra crossing with traffic going in all directions, take photos of the fountains, the obelisk , then decide to walk through the Tulleries Gardens toward the Louvre, stopping regularly to take photos.

We have now walked from Place de la Concord through the gates into the stunning Tulleries Gardens taken a variety of photos of the art on display and are walking slowly toward the Louvre galleries, taking in the aromas of the gardens and appreciating the history. Simply amazing.

The weather is beginning to improve but the threat of late morning early afternoon rain has diminished.

We progress with many people and families swirling around us in excitement and laughter, it is wonderful and it is breathtaking.

We have thoroughly enjoyed this walk through history and we have now reached the forecourt to the Louvre museum.

There are people everywhere, all excited and gushing but the queues are lengthy.

We have previously visited the Louvre on several occasions, so today we are just visiting the forecourt, taking photos and enjoying ourselves.

But as much as we have enjoyed this time, our time is passing very quickly and there is so much to see and do. We are very familiar with the Metro underground rail system, but are also conscious of the lengthy walking involved within the stations as to entry, departure and with mandatory line changes, this is a challenging alternative.

Instead we decide to do the Cityseeker hop on hop off bus with us picking it up near the Louvre forecourt area.
It’s not the cheapest alternative, but time wise it will expedite our timelines to visit most of the attractions and monuments . We purchase one day passes for the red and blue lines, but not for the Bateaux cruise on the River Seine.

The scaffolding around much of Notre Dame conceals the terrible damage caused by the massive fire.

The. Rebuilding programme is scheduled for 5-6 years and is a mammoth undertaking in engineering and rebuilding.

We moved on still with a feeling of sadness.

We have enjoyed a terrific day and we returned to La Villa Haussmann at 4.15 pm and Ken then had a sleep, then checked in via Air France and KLM for our flight tomorrow to Singapore and then to Denpasar via Garuda and home to Melbourne.

Dinner tonight was a celebration of our holiday at a bistro nearby.

Our meal was superb, the Bordeauux Cab Sav just exquisite and a great finale to a wonderful trip.

Tomorrow morning we will pack and checkout with Blacklane picking us up at 3.00 pm to then drive to CDG for our flights.

We are very blessed a marvellous holiday. Everything worked well.