Despite the bad weather conditions in Faro the plane from Paris landed with only 10 minutes delay on Saturday. After one week of city life the 4 girls and Mrs Fluckiger were happy to be back in the healthy countryside of the Algarve.

Paris was great, there is so much to do and to visit. A special thanks to all the people who made this event possible!
The group stayed in a cute little hotel in a quiet back street near to Porte d'Orléans, where the nearest metro station was located. The metro was our main means of transport and everybody had a go at finding their way through the city.

We were extremely lucky with the weather, it was pretty cold but we hardly had any rain. The first two days were even sunny, so we spent them exploring Paris on foot, as this is still the best way to discover a city at your own pace. We strolled through St Quen's flea market and had a long walk on the Père Lachaise cemetery, where we visited the graves of Chopin, Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison.

The city centre around Notre Dame is heavily invaded by tourists, but we discovered quiet lanes and beautiful shops on the neighbouring island of St. Louis. A contrast to the historical sites were the hyper-modern Centre Pompidou, and the new shopping centre Forum Les Halles.

As real tourists, of course, we took plenty of photos and climbed the Eiffel Tower, via the stairs though. We were surprised to see how well we knew all the main monuments after a couple of days and everybody got into Art Deco Architecture. A walk to Sacre Coeur was on the agenda as well and we enjoyed the great view one more time.

Museums were also part of our daily routine, we visited the Louvre and the Orsay Museum, which are the two most important ones in Paris. But we also went to the Museum of Romantic Life and visited the fist prison of Paris, La Conciergerie, were Marie Antoinette waited for her execution. The most impressive tomb is, without any doubt, Napoleon's grave at the Invalides.

We did not leave out the shopping either, and the highlights were the two beautiful department stores of Lafayette and Samaritaine. Everybody found something to bring home besides the memories of a truly exciting trip.

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