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Day 5: June 13, 2025
We started our day in the beautiful Palais Royal gardens, with a fountain playing, lots of blooms and art installations. Then we crossed over to the Louvre via the Napoleonic arch in the Tuileries Gardens. The Olympic Hot Air Balloon was being reinstalled (back by popular demand) which meant we couldn't look up the Champs Elysées beyond the Egyptian Obelisk to the Arc de Triomphe.
Free time for lunch then we headed up to the foot of Montmartre. We started out walking tour outside the Moulin Rouge. Some people decided it was way too hot for a walking tour (they were right!) and so they took the little tourist train up to the top. The rest of us slowly made our way up, via rue Lepic, the Love Wall, the Moulin de la Galette, the Maison Rose, the Vineyard and Place du Tertre where the artists work. We all reconvened outside the Basilica of Sacre Coeur and went inside to admire the Byzantine style mosaic decoration.
Dinner was half way down the hill, then we headed down to the métro to head back to our hotel. A very, very hot day!