Paris with friends

Nine of us set off (3 families, each with one child) by train, from Bologna to Paris in couchettes with Trenitalia's smart price offer (75 € each, round trip) to spend three days in Paris, one of them naturally at Eurodisney. After dropping our bags at the decent little hotel behind Montmartre that we'd booked online, we set off straight away for Montmartre and the Sacré-Cœur. After a snack of baguettes and cold cuts, we go to the Arc de Triomphe, where Massimo blissfully imagines the arrival of the Tour de France; a downpour is coming and we wait for the rain to ease under the awning of a trendy shop, then, tired of waiting, we decide to brave the water to walk to the Eiffel Tower.

Our boldness is rewarded and the sun even comes out, so we take the last river bus (not the guided-tour boats) and stay on board for the full loop, resting our little feet, for about an hour and a half, during which we see all of Paris's main monuments from the Seine. Dinner at a little restaurant near the Eiffel Tower lets us see the Tower, which on every hour from 21.00, lights up for a few minutes and keeps “sparkling”, to the delight of the children and the grown-ups too!! The second day is devoted entirely to Eurodisney, very easy to reach on its own metro line (when you buy your metro ticket you can also buy the park ticket, so you skip the queue at the entrance).

On the third and last day we decide to get to Notre-Dame and queue there to climb the towers and see the gargoyles up close (is that how you spell it?) and the chimeras (Quasimodo's monster friends!), very exciting and fun. The afternoon passes walking through the Louvre gardens, along the shopping streets and buying a few souvenirs, then we reach the station for the journey home.