With anticipation we had booked our tickets through the Chunnel to experience a train ride underground through the English tunnel. Unfortunately it happened too quickly, while we were engrossed in our books, that before we knew it we were in Paris. The trek from the station to the hotel turned out to be very easy and we arrived at our hotel around 9pm (after departing our Iceland hostel at 6am). After a short walk down rue da Clichy, we settled for the night.

With only a short time in Paris, we were up at dawn, walking the streets, headed for the Louvre. The next few hours within the Louvre allowed us to see some amazing artwork. One of the highlights was witnessed through closed doors as we peeked at workers chiselling away to restore future exhibitions. With time on our heels we made our marathon trip through the gallery, making beelines for highlights, while taking in as much as we could along the route. Several hours later we left, having seen so much but just the tip of the iceberg. On our exit we were grateful for arriving early (with pre-booked tickets) when we saw the line of tourists yet to experience what we already had.

As we crossed the Sein across the "bridge of love", haggled by salesmen trying to sell us locks, we discovered the bridge overwhelmed with padlocks couples had locked as a sign of their live, on our way to the statue of St Michael for a quick bite and our rendezvous with our walking tour. The next 3 hours were spent learning about a small portion of Paris’s history passing monuments such as the Notre Dame Cathedral, back past the Louvre and ending through the Jardin des Tuilleries, surrounded by the Museu D'Orsay and halted by the Obelisque on the port de la Concorde. From here we made our own way across the river Sein heading toward the Eiffel Tower. Little time was spent here, just enough to absorb the size of the tower versus the line of people queued to climb its stairs, before we headed north toward the Arc de Triumph.

Having walked half of Paris we were desperate for food but everywhere we looked the offerings were either overpriced or REALLY overpriced. Just shy of our hotel doorstep we indulged in authentic Chinese in an authentic Parisian Chinese restaurant. After such a long day trekking through the city we were glad for a (basic) shower and bed. We were grateful for the bed but could have done with out the paper-thin walls and mules shagging in the other room.

We woke tired and cranky. We had to check out today so we packed up, pissed each other off and pissed off. But it was Paris so we spent some time Frenching in the street. Having left our backpacks in the hotel we legged it for the Musee D'Orsay. Arriving early we waited in anticipation for what we had been told was better than the Louvre. The next few hours did not disappoint as we walked among some of the best art around. Leaving late we jogged back to the hotel to get our luggage before catching the metro to the bus station. A few hours later we were on our way to Prague. The next 14 hours were spent entertaining ourselves, trying to sleep, waking, trying to sleep again, dawn breaking and then admiring the lush green of the country we were about to explore.