On our second full day in Paris we headed straight to the Eiffel Tower by metro determined to climb the 669 steps to the midway platform and then the lift to the top. Unfortunately it wasn’t the clearest day and we could barely make out the Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre where we would be spending time with Lara later that afternoon.  The Eiffel Tower is perhaps the first man-made structure the girls recognised as small children when they saw pictures in books (even though they just called it ‘Paris’). It really is special and graceful monument and Paris certainly wouldn’t be Paris without it. Having only previously visited in summer,  walking toward it past the bare winter trees gave it even a more melancholy and romantic look.

The girls were really happy to be up close and personal to it at last and after our trip to the top and back we stopped for a bite to eat underneath its wide arches before heading back to the metro once more.

Going north into the 17^th arrondissement by metro to ‘Roma’ took us to the Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres – better known as the Teacher’s College where Lara is studying.

We met outside when her class finished and walked to to her apartment. Along the way, I was interested to find us across a bridge that spans over the Montmartre Cemetery; built below street level in the hollow of an old quarry.  Far from morbid, I find cemeteries a facinating and this one dates from early 1800’s  is full of thousands of crypts and is a real respite from the hustle and bustle of Paris above.

After a warming hot chocolate at Lara’s apartment, we set out again to walk up to ‘bohemian’ and historic Montmartre. Montmartre is the highest point in Paris at 130m and affords great views over the city and is most well known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit. We walked up the steep staircases leading to the heart of the ‘village’ to the Place du Tertre, the central square and a reminder of the time when Montmartre was the mecca of modern art and still where artists set up their easels each day now for tourists.

Montemartre has been home and/or studios to artists such as Pablo Picasso, Van Gogh and Monet. After a quick look into the Sacré Cœur and a photo of the gorgeous twinkling Eiffel Tower we then headed down again to find somewhere more affordable to eat.

We stopped for dinner at a small Indian restaurant before Lara headed off to meet some of her friends for a night out.  Instead of the metro home we instead took the bus to hook back to the Trocedero for a close up of the twinkling tower via a turn around the Arc de Triompe .

Now getting onto 11pm and having been on the go for over 12 hours we headed again to the metro for our final trip back to the apartment stopping to pick up a momento of our time here – four mini Eiffel towers in ‘our’ colours.