When we arrived by train in Paris Jack and Sarah headed off to their AirB@B in the 11th and the rest of us headed to our home away from home in 7th.

The next morning Daisy and Joe headed off to Luxembourg to see Amy and Mac. They had two nights there and loved it.

On Sunday morning Matilda and I headed over to the St Ouen Flea Market in the 20th to catch up with Jack and Sarah. It was freezing cold. The coldest I have felt the whole time this winter. We had a quick breakfast and then meandered through the streets. The girls had a great time going through all of the vintage clothing and managed to come up with some great buys that they loved. I was pretty relieved when Sarah finally bought a big woollen coat as I thought she was going to freeze to death.

Till and I found this fabulous vintage couture shop … of course we couldn’t afford to buy anything but it was great to have a look.

Check out this dog … isn’t he gorgeous. Poor thing he must have been really cold. The funny thing is the jumper still had the price tag on it!

We found this great bar (above) and had beautiful oysters and champagne as a treat. Christmas is oyster season in France believe it or not and they were great.

When the markets closed we headed into the Champs Elysees and tried to find a decent meal at not too outrageous a price. Unfortunately on this occasion we failed … they had great wine though!

We headed back to our apartment and the girls and I ended up having a big night. Jack and Sarah ended up sleeping on the couch.

Next morning Andrew Martin arrived and we had a great breakfast out on the deck. It was about 0 degrees and we had to be careful not to slip on the ice on the ground but the sun was great. It was good to see Andrew who had just flown in and was staying with Jack and Sarah for a couple of days and then with us for a couple of days.

We all headed off for a walk to the Eiffel Tower, followed by coffee and then John, Till and I lined up at the Arc de Triumph and bought tickets for all of us to go up.

The view was great … I have never been up there before.

After that Till and I headed down into the Champs Elysees for lunch. The lights in the Champs Elysees were beautiful. We hung around so that we could see them all on and wondered down to the Christmas Markets at the end of the street.