After managing to grab an awesome deal to Paris and back on the Eurostar a while back, a group of 11 of us met up on Friday evening at Kings Cross St. Pancras. After grabbing a few craft beers for the train, suddenly myself, Una and Lozzie realised we didn't have the tickets printed, we all thought we'd collect them there. Anyway, after a panic and run around, we got them printed and made our way through security to find the train delayed by an hour anyway. At least they had a bar and cafe in the departure lounge, so we were sorted. The journey over there took just over 2 hours and from Gare du Nord station we walked down to the Best Western Hotel where we were staying as well as Lorenzo and Laura. After checking in and dropping our bags, we headed downstairs and over the road to BairRO aLTo, the cocktail bar which was recommended to us by the guy behind the check-in desk. After a couple there, we were joined by Lorenzo and Laura who had gone in search of food. We stayed on for a few before calling it a night, and handy having the hotel just over the road.

On Saturday morning the four of us from the hotel met downstairs and went in search of coffee and croissants near to Porte Saint-Martin monument before heading out to Pére Lachaise Cemetery which is famous for being the final place of Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Chopin and a whole lot of other famous people. After the cemetery we made our way to Notre Dame and since there was hardly a queue, decide to take a quick walk through which was beautiful inside. After Notre Dame we walked down to the Pont des Arts Bridge (the pedestrian bridge covered with love padlocks) where we almost landed up drenched in a massive downpour of rain, but managed to get under the bridge which provided some sort of cover for us until it had passed.

The others were on a walking tour of the city and were by the Louvre which was close enough for us so once the rain subsided a bit we headed over to meet up with them all. Uns and myself decided not to join the tour as I was quite keen to go up the Tour Montparnasse, the second tallest skyscraper in France. We spent a good few hours up the tower, watching the sun slowly set as well as a massive storm pass overhead and then watch as the lights of Paris slowly lit up the city. I think I prefer it to the Eiffel Tower as you get to see an amazing view of the city with the Eiffel Tower being in it too! It is apparently said that the view from the top of the Tour Montparnasse is the most beautiful in Paris, because it is the only place from which the sky scraper itself cannot be seen, which makes sense considering back in 2008, the building was voted to be the second-ugliest building in the world. As much as I would've liked to have stayed for the walking tour and the group dinner with the jukkas, really glad I got to see the city, the storm and the night lights of Paris from 210m up.

From Tour Montparnasse we made our way back to the hotel for a quick shower and change and thought we'd try the restaurant opposite the hotel, called Bronco. Even though it looked fairly quiet, we were still asked if we had a reservation which confused us at first but landed up filling up completely later on, and no wonder with the quality of food there! After dinner, while waiting for the others, Uns and I popped next door for a quick cocktail before meeting up with Lorenzo and Laura and heading off to the Latin quarter where all the others were. We did a bit of a pub crawl, starting off at Le Caveau de la Huchette which was in a downstairs cave-like bar and really nice but probably a little over budget for everyone (especially at over €11 a beer!!) - then from there we decided to catch taxis over to the Bastille area and found a bar that wasn't too busy which was perfect until they closed and then finally moved onto Havanita Café which was open until late.

Yesterday morning, after a fairly slow start, we checked out of the hotel and headed over to the Arc de Triomphe and and Champ Elysées. We had considered going up the Arc but instead we thought we'd do what the locals tourists do and enjoy a drink at a cafe along the Champ Elysées. We stopped in at Flora Danica and settled there for a good while until we had to make tracks back to the hotel to collect our bags and head off to the station to catch our train back to London. Somehow, Lozzie, Will, Paul and Caz got scuppered and weren't allowed to board the train, so it was just Uns and myself on the train. Luckily they could get the next train, but still a bit of a pain. Rather knackered today, even though it wasn't a massive weekend, it's always quite tiring going away and missioning about in another city. But yet another good jukkas weekend away!