Wow! Yesterday turned out to be much bigger than any of us expected. I'll start this update by saying that it's 9.45am, and everyone is STILL sleeping!

To be fair, we didn't sleep well the night before. We were too hot, and the pillows are VERY flat. We've all had to ball up clothes to prop our heads up now. I'm sleeping on my travel pillow - yes the bright pink, u-shaped, bean bag. Not ideal, but it seems to do the trick.

We started out by hitting up the boulangerie across the road for breakfast. 2 x almond croissants (Syd & Jess), a pain aux raisin (me), a nutella croissant (the big fella) and a croque monsieur (Johnny of course). I won best breakfast. I just ordered something that I'd never tried before, and then we all swapped bites. They were all pretty good, but the pain aux raisin was delicious, and crunchy and soft all at the same time. We sat on the Seine to eat, outside Gare Austerlitz.

We were heading to the Chateau of Versailles, and I'd hoped to get there a bit early. We could mouche around the front if we weren't allowed in early, was my thinking. Well, lucky we left early, because navigating the train station and getting the right ticket was bliming hard work, and took much longer than expected. Although, it wasn't rocket science, it wasn't the easiest thing to work out. But we got there in the end.

Versailles - well, so much to say. The queues were HUGE, but moved pretty quickly. We missed the Dauphin's rooms, which I'd liked to have seen, but we were exhausted by that stage.

The whole place is SOOOOOO huge that it's very difficult to see it on foot. I'd highly recommend a bike, or golf buggy. We did the foot thing, and missed 2 small sections that I'd have liked to see. But I couldn't have walked it myself, let alone dragged the kids along.

But it's definitely worth it, it was beautiful. The opulence, and to think that people actually lived here. I'd have loved it!!! And funny to think that one of the queens had to build a little get away from there.

We 'rested' on the train back to the Eiffel Tour. It was SOOOO funny to see the kids so excited about it!! They LOVED it (as did I!), and were smiling and laughing and giggling, they couldn't believe they were here. And that was just in the day!!!

There were heaps of men around selling flashing Eiffel Towers & keyrings, and if the police were on their way around, someone would send word, and they'd scoop up their wares, and move on with GREAT haste!! It was funny, but a bit sad at the same time. I feel bad that they'd have to set everything up beautifully again.

Anyways, we needed dinner by this stage. The poor kids, well, all of us really, our feet were killing us, and we were trying very hard not to be hangry. But they still let us walk and walk to find a good dinner option.

Boy did it pay off!!! We had an actual, real, sit down meal!!! Sure, it was pizza & pasta, but it was in a gorgeous, tiny, fancy restaurant, with beautiful, kind staff. There were only 2 people running the whole show, and we were served quickly and efficiently, and the food was excellent!!!!

Johnny had a ham & egg pizza, Jess had a margharita pizza. Syd went out of a limb, and had a spaghetti carbonara, which was not a cream based carbonara, but the actual real deal, with an egg yolk on top. Her face at the start was of "there's no way I'm going to eat this!", but then she got herself together and tried it, and LOVED it!!! "That was amaaaazing!!!"

The big fella got the prawn linguini, and I had a calzone, with ham, cheese & an egg inside it. When I cut into it, the cheese flowed out, with the egg on top. It was AMAZING!! And when I'd suggested it at the start, everyone was too scared to order it. I really only ordered it to get something that they didn't want to try. They were all stealing big slices off my plate by the end. Which was good, because I'd have felt horribly full if I ate it all by myself.

Then we scurried back to the Trocadero, with an hour to go before our lift up the Eiffel Tower. This is the best view of the Tower, apparently. It was certainly very impressive! This time we saw the tower illuminated. The kids went mental with excitement!! "This is what I've always wanted to see!!", "It's so beautiful!!", "Take a picture of me!!", and all the like, while jumping around! It really was gorgeous and a wonderful sight to see!

But we couldn't dither by that stage, and had to get back to the foot of the Tower to go through security and into the lift.

Never did you see us so happy to get into an elevator!!! The poor kids thought that they had to walk up. A VERY audible sigh of relief, and a few nervous giggles. Don't get me wrong, normally I'd have made everyone walk up, but gee, I'm glad that the only tickets left were the lift ones, I think the stairs would have broken us after the day of walking we'd had.

Up the lift went, along the leg of the Tower, and a minute later we were at the second floor, where we got out to the sea of lights of Paris. It was 10pm by this stage.

And that was when the twinkling of the Tower started!! More excited squeals from the kids!!! It was stunning and gorgeous and spectacular, and we were all so happy to be there!!!

I think this was one of the pinnacles of our trip so far!

After LOTS of photos, we splashed out on some souvenirs, and started the trip home. We got to the metro in time for the last train, but to find that they'd closed off the ticket entry points. That was kind of annoying.

So we booked an Uber, and much to Johnny's enjoyment, were delivered by a London black cab back to our hotel. He LOVES a black cab!! The streets were very quiet, and there was no coercion required to get the kids to bed. Snoring ensued pretty soon after.

In reflection, the kids seemed to have turned a corner. London was a bit arduous, with complaining and growling. They're not frightened anymore, and moaning about nothing being the same as at home, or being too tired to walk anymore. Today was a HUGE day, one of the biggest we've had so far, and while stating that they were tired, no-one complained or whinged. They tried new things, and embraced most of it with enthusiasm. They were a joy to bring on this trip, and I'm so glad we've made the effort. I think they actually might appreciate it, and come home with great memories, instead of feeling like they were dragged around the world against their will!!!

26,000+ steps. Probably 52,000 for Syd. Lol.