John Burke's Paris 2000

Ah yes!!! Now keen visitors will remember me striking up a friendship with the resident musician in the restaurant last year.

As soon as I got into the place Arnauld (not sure if that's spelt right!) recognised me and broke off playing to shake my hand warmly. As soon as he could he thrust the sax at me - yikes this thing is not easy to make a noise with, let alone play!

Anyway a good time was had by the two of us - not sure about the others... Pass the mouse over the pic a couple of times to see us rock and roll! Sorry about the wobbly background - Dad moved between taking the photos!

Hmmm - is Dad's pensive expression due to my less-than-expert saxophone playing? Surely not! The restaurant is the Stables of the Silver Lion and offers superb food in addition to Arnauld's music. He is truly excellent on both the sax and clarinet.

We ordered a bottle of wine and enjoyed our meal. Arnauld tapped me on the shoulder as we started to leave. "Tomorrow - le saxophone, oui!" he said with a wink.

Ok folks, back to the coach for a look at Paris by night and we'll return to the restaurant tomorrow night!

First stop is the red light district of Montmarte with the famous Moulin Rouge, site of the first fully nude striptease.

There were roars of approval from the chaps on the coach, though to be honest the women were enjoying themselves also; "I'm learning something here..." floated from the front!

The Eiffel Tower is breath taking by night as the dull brown colour becomes a golden yellow in the spotlights.

The display read "An 2000" - The Year 2000. Last year we had seen it counting down the days to the new Millenium. In one of those unbelievable strokes of bad luck the clock stopped with six hours of 1999 left to go.

Behind us (right) the Palais de Chaillot was also floodlit.

Then at 11:00pm the Tower lit up as though on fire as thousands of tiny bulbs flashed and twinkled in a ten minute display for the Millenium Year.