Today is a crazy early start but actually it goes pretty smoothly without any grumping. We're even able to get an earlier fast train into Paris so it's a relaxed walk down the champs elysee towards the grand palace where we are seeing Taekwondo. Our choices of what to see whilst in Paris weren't completely random. Firstly the events needed to be on consecutive days, we wanted to see the finals of something so we could see medals being awarded and we wanted something in one of the central locations (along with being affordable) . The grand palace itself is a beautiful building and I hadn't appreciated that just opposite is the petit palace.

How cute, Liliya said she liked the look of that better because it had beautiful gold gates.

We took our seats around 8.30am for the taekwondo and I got my stairs goal for the day! We were 4 rows from the back so it was quite a workout getting to our seats but the view was still really good and the tiering was so steep that even the kids could see over the people in front.

The matches were both the qualifiers for the men's and women's quarter finals plus a pre qualifier so we saw 17 games in total where a match could be 3 rounds of 2 minutes. The first women's match was brilliant with lots of action and high scoring rounds. It was interesting to see the tactics used and the video challenges from the coaches. In the match between Chile and South Korea, Chile won the first match then looked like they also won the second, the Korean coach came running in to refut the decision, after a very long wait and lots of reviewing the footage the decision was over turned and Korea got the points. It was down to the final match and the Korean guy came out fighting hard and won. We didn't end up leaving until after 12.30 so I was impressed with the kids attention span as we were sat down for over 4hrs. Even I got taekwondo'd out by the end of it!

We had a couple of hours before we needed to be back at the south arena for the men's weightlifting and the petit palace had free entry into their art exhibition so figured we might as well especially as the temporary exhibit was urban street art and I know Robert has been looking at graffiti in art class at school.

Firstly there was nothing little about the petit palace and with just 45 minutes we told the kids we'd have to speed through, Liliya wasn't too happy about this as she said it would mean we'd miss things 😂

The urban art was interspersed between traditional art and statues with some pieces being modern interpretations of classic pieces so it was rather interesting. It was actually hard work getting the kids out!

The weather is still really hot so it was quite a trek on the tubes and trams to get to the arena and we only just made it. We were pretty much in the same seats as yesterday but noticed the rest of the venue was completely full. It's quite a small setting compared to the grand palace so there's a sense of intimacy about the atmosphere and the number of hench people (especially the ladies!) was impressive. Still no brits to support which is a shame but there was an Aussie and with Al being born there it gave us someone to cheer.

We knew straight away however he wouldn't be in competition for the medals since his starting weights were much lower than others. As much as the women's event yesterday was exciting this was another level. There were many more no lifts than the female competitors and more anticipation on who would make it into the top three. Italy were one of those going for a medal and of the six lifts they get to have across two different moves (snatch and clean and jerk) he only got 2 successful lifts. His third and final lift actually got rejected to start with meaning he wouldn't have scored anything for that lift. The coach appealed and amazingly it was accepted putting him in bronze position. Turns out in the last Olympics he also only had 2 successful lifts and also got bronze, quite a nerve racking way to win but gave a great atmosphere for the spectators. The Bulgarian who got the gold couldn't be beat after just his first clean and jerk lift so on his second lift he decided to aim for a new world record. Everyone got out of their seats to watch his attempt and it was brilliant to see him make it. The kids were certainly loving the whole thing and joining in with the singing and cheering.

After watching the medals ceremony they were still in good spirits so after having some tattoos done and getting a picture we decided to take them over to see the Eiffel tower.

I hadn't booked anything in advance as didn't want to overload our schedule. I had assumed it would be all booked up but we walked straight up easily. It was busier than other areas but still not as busy as I had expected. I think people were spending their time at the events and staying away otherwise. We decided to get the lift up as we'd already done lots of walking and it was quite late. The kids were so excited to get to the top. Once we were there they loved looking out at all the famous landmarks including the grand palace and the Arc de Triomphe.

We were even lucky enough to see a rainbow from the top.

On the floor below the kids liked looking at all the other tall buildings from around the world then we decided to walk down the steps rather than wait for the lift. We were lucky enough to see the Olympic rings on the tower which made for some lovely photos.

Amazingly the kids were only just starting to say they were hungry so we found the nearest McDonald's for something quick and easy, Al and I tried the Canadian maple burger. Their menu features items from other countries around the world as part of the Olympics.

Back to the train we went, it was a shame we weren't around the tower to see the light show but I didn't want to push our luck given how late it was.

We got back to the campsite and the kids were in bed for 11.30pm so they've done really well considering I recorded 27k steps!