We THOUGHT we had our planning locked down……today we learned we were very wrong! Everything we had read suggested because this was not a busy time of year, it would not be difficult to line up for tourist attractions. And for some attractions, like the Notre Dame, tickets are only released the day before.

The cousins made an early start to fit in as much as possible and hit LONG queues everywhere they went. Online tickets for the Louvre were sold out, and the stand by queue was a very long line, so they moved on to Notre Dame where they found the same. They were able to enjoy a sit-down breakfast at a cafe they came across along the way, which was helpful because when they left the hotel it was zero degrees!

Ross and I both had really bad nights so decided not to push for such an early start. This was a good decision when we met our family for breakfast – Sam and Belle had both had horrible nights with sickness too. Abi and Ollie appear to be the only ones who haven’t had the flu we’ve been sharing, and I hope it stays that way for them because we have been quite unwell.

The healthier ones (Jarrod, Abi, Tom and Zac) went to find breakfast for all of us and returned with a selection of croissants and coffee. We then headed in with Jess to meet the others at the Arc de Triomphe. They had arrived first so Luke queued for tickets and the wait was not too long for us all. We all climbed the 272 steps and enjoyed some time in and on top of the monument.

After watching a presentation on the history of it, what impressed me most was that German troops as they marched through the city during WW2 did not march through it but around it, because they did not want to walk over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

From there we wandered down the Champs-Elysees for a while, and split up for lunch, some to fast food like Burger King or Five Guys, and some to Korean street food. Most of the cafes on the main strip had no seats inside, and it was too cold to sit outside – by 2pm it had reached the maximum for today of 2 degrees!

The wind was so biting that it freshened up the colds of those who were starting to recover, so most of us headed back to the hotel while Luke, Jarrod, Tim and Sam continued to explore. They continued on to Napoleon’s tomb and arrived at the Eiffel Tower in time to see its lights come on, and still made it back to the hotel before dark.

Being frozen to the bone, we were not keen to go out again, so ordered in some Dominos pizzas and planned our next move. Everyone ate in our room and Jarrod put up on the projector screen photos of the exploring they did after we returned to the hotel.

For the first time ever, there is a lot of pizza left over, which shows how many are unwell here! Zac being one of the ones who had recovered earlier on then went off to bed early, which is such a shame because I was hoping we could avoid reinfection.

We are horrified to find we can’t get Disneyland Paris tickets, nor Notre Dame tickets, nor Louvre tickets, and Jarrod’s plan to visit Villers-Bretonneux had the shine taken off a little when he discovered one of the museums is closed between Christmas and new year, and the other is closed on weekends!

He will still make the trek out there tomorrow though, but with a smaller crowd than initially planned because Luke is now feeling worse and Ross doesn’t think he will be up to it, even though they had planned to go with Jarrod. I will choose to believe it is a good thing that we haven’t been able to jam-pack bookings in so that we have some rest time…..because I don’t want to dwell on the devastating reality that we can’t get to Paris Disney!