Jardin de Tuileries

We managed to fight our way round the Louvre, battling not only to see past the Nikon lens wavers, but also battling with the various closed sections which made navigation of the vast place challenging.

Later, and after a wander through the Jardin, we headed to L'Orangerie to pay our respects to Monet's incredible panoramic rooms of lilies. Downstairs I found a couple of works by André Derain particularly appealing.

We caught the train from St Lazaire with a melee of Christmas shoppers clutching their bags, to the suburbs of Colombes and then found our way to the historic Stade Yves du Manoir. From the freezing stand, we watched Edinburgh Rugby huff and puff against a stuffy Racing Metro side, who came out winners 19-9. Bah humbug.

We had a table booked for dinner at 22:30 at Le Vaudeville back in the city but managed to get there early for 21.45. It was hoaching with Parisiens and we looked rather out of place...but they welcomed us and were soon scoffing some sumptuous food.