Montmartre and Bateaux Mouches

Oh it was a pricey day in Paris, for a Tuesday! Eight euros worth of fresh boulangerie products fuelled us for a day of Parisian sightseeing.

The van remained at the camp all day, and uncharacteristically we took the train. The previous day I had done a bit of preparation, checking the free metro map we were given on site, but to be fair I could have just used Google maps. It told me what station, where to change, where to walk. All very easy. Could have done it without having to know a word of French 🤔🇨🇵 how disappointing!

A 20 minute walk got us to the RER station at Maisons-Laffitte, where I spoke to a human to buy 6 x adult and 2 x child Île de France tickets which were valid for the RER and metro to get us in to the centre and back for €34.60.

It was 5 stops on ligne A to Charles de Gaulle Étoile – right under the Arc de Triomphe, then we hopped on Metro ligne 2 for 9 stops to Anvers (direction Nation) to get us to Montmartre.

Anvers was where I bought tickets for the funicular when I was in Paris in February, so it was easy to get my bearings.

We headed up Rue de Steinkerque and the kids were goggle-eyed at all the tourist toot on show at the roadside. A nice meander up the path, not the steps thankyou, and this is what greeted us:

He wasn’t keen on so much uphill trotting

We checked out the view, meandered around the shops and only spent 7€ on a football, but had an appetite.

We headed back to the Place du Tertre, loads of pergolas set up in the square.

We ended up in the Clairon des Chasseurs for refreshments and sustenance.

1 x hotdog cheese frites, 2 x cheeseburger frites salade, 1 x crêpe complet 2 x coca, 2 x bière €100.10

Crêpe complet. With an egg on the outside 🥴

All very pleasant and not much more than eating at the camp

We headed downhill to Abbesses metro station and bought 4 x metro tickets €8.40 to get us to Concorde, to check out le Rugby Village.

All the rugbyists were mightily entertained with the opportunities for merchandise, but not so much with the associated price tags. Begrudgingly, we parted with €10 for an England cap and €20 for an England T shirt, both of which were put on immediately.

We contemplated staying to watch the match on the big screens, but rainy weather and late night metro with the anklebiterz in tow did not appeal, so we moved on.

We walked from Concorde down to the Champs de Mars in the sunshine to head for a trip on the Seine.

Having previously been on Bateaux Parisiens I had checked out Bateaux Mouches, who seemed to do the same tour for a couple of euros less, so that’s what we did.

With the weather being quite showery we sat inside rather than on the top deck, but the boat was quite empty so we moved about inside and out to take photos and check out views.

Knowing what the queues were like, we decided to just admire the Eiffel Tower from the river. A good choice I think.

A leisurely hour on the river with commentary of the sights along the way and back cost us €15 per adult and €6 per enfant, so €42 altogether. Not too bad in itself, but it was adding up to be a costly day…

We took a walk up the Champs Elysées to see the Arc de Triomphe and head back to camp straight from Charles de Gaulle Étoile to save buying another round of metro tickets and enjoy the sights of the very fancy shops and decorations.