Chateau de Malmaison, Moulin Rouge, Chocolate factory museum

The first Sunday of the month a lot of government owned museums and buildings are free to enter (during summer months not the popular ones like Louvre as it turns out :() and we decided to take advantage of that and go visit Chateau de Malmaison - the house where Napoleon and his family lived (later it became his wife's house). Unluckily for us it was pouring down with rain so we didn't get to enjoy the gardens :(

It is just outside of Paris and to get there we had to take 2 metros and a bus... finding the bus station at la defense was a bit tricky but we made it in time to catch the bus for the ~20 minute journey :) Luckily for us I made Mr. Special check the opening times before we went because he wanted to leave at 11AM but turns out the castle is closed for lunch 12.00-13.30 - just the time we would've gotten there -.- so I got to chill in bed for a little longer :)

The highlights of the castle were:

• Their bedroom (which was so dark and gothic)
• The fact that Napoleon thought that their bedroom was too far away from his study and moved his bedroom to a room right on top of it... It wasn't that far, but hey I'm not an important imperator who has to jump straight out of bed to work...
• Music room
• The vast grounds that we didn't stroll on because stupid rain :(

I think we spent two hours there in total.

The next weekend we finally decided to go and find Moulin Rouge! And I have to admit I was a bit wrong - only a bit, it's not just a random cabaret bar, but it actually has a big red windmill on top of it (mind you a couple of other restaurants have windmills too). And across the street there's a metro vent hole meaning that people (mostly girls in dresses or skirts) can stand on it and pose with the moulin while striking the classic Marilyn Monroe pose... :D I didn't do it... just in case you were wondering...

We also went through the Montmartre museum that had was Picasso themed (not his works on display :D but a comic about his life). Found out a couple of interesting facts about him, loved the way the house was built - doors everywhere, different levels etc. but overall wasn't too impressed (I'll state again I'm not a fan of art museums etc in general).

Then to the chocolate museum - we read mixed reviews about that (reading reviews and tripadvisor forums is now my favourite hobby :D) and must admit that for 8euros were disappointed - yeah you could learn the history and see a little demonstration how they make praliné chocolate and got to taste it later etc etc etc. I don't know what I was expecting... Something more - it was just too passive for me I guess.