This weekend, Andrew and I did something crazy; we spent 12 hours in Paris. Saturday afternoon we caught the Eurostar, the next morning at 8am we returned to London. Crazy! The event was proposed and organised by the London Flickr Group.

With only 12 hours in Paris we had a jam-packed itinerary. A long walk from Notre Dame along the Seine to the Louvre. From the Louvre to the Champs-Élysées for a pit stop involving some much needed sustenance. After "dinner" we headed to the Eiffel Tower to watch the sunrise.

Andrew and I also managed to squeeze in a visit to a gallery. We were lucky that our travel date coincided with Paris' La Nuit des Musées. Once a year, all the museums in Paris are open until midnight with free admission after 18:00. This was too good an opportunity to pass up so while the flickerites headed up the hill to Montmartre and Sacré Coeur, we popped in to the Musée d'Orsay. Mum had declared this to be her favourite Parisian gallery but on our first trip to Paris we were unable to fit it in.

I'm so glad we took the detour! The d'Orsay has one of the best collections of Impressionist paintings in the world. It has rooms full of Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Pisarro, Sisley and Manet. It houses so many beautiful paintings. Wandering around the gallery I was feeling pretty impressed with myself. Earlier that morning, I'd been doing my normal Saturday routine of chores. That very evening I was in Paris, viewing the originals of classics that I know and love.

Of course that feeling of smugness had dissipated a little by 3am. By then my brain was mainly focused on one thing... sleep. Still, our all-nighter in Paris was worth it. If only to see Renoir's "Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette" and Monet's "Water Lily Pond".


More photos on Flickr...