Paris Day 0

I have been in Paris less than eight hours. Ten percent of that was spent in the queue for a metro ticket.

My first impression is that scaffolding is on everything. (Not everything, but it felt that way by the time we'd walked past the Louvre and through Place de la Concorde.) And also that the French haven't worked out that smoking isn't cool yet.

The only thing not scaffolded is the sun.

After the initial check in - air conditioning! - we walked past the Luxembourg Gardens in search of food and on turning left onto Rue Soufflot the Paris Pantheon came into view. Huge! Seemingly floating in the near distance at the end of the boulevard. This was Hausman, not an accident, but it's one thing to know about it and another to experience it.