Michelle Obama and Daughters Arrive in Paris

Not since the Kennedys' Paris tour of 1961 has France been so eager to see the US first family out on a sight-seeing weekend. Barack Obama arrived in Paris today ahead of tomorrow's commemorations of the 65th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings, accompanied by his two daughters on their first foreign visit since the presidential election.

Michelle Obama flew into Paris with Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven, on the children's first trip to Europe. The first lady and her daughters, who are on school holiday, will stay in Paris until Monday, staying at the US embassy not far from the Elysée Palace, where the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his wife, Carla Bruni, spend their weekends.

And while Sarkozy's attempts to get the families together for a weekend family photo opportunity – an important tool in the French president's media strategy – seems to have been thwarted, Parisians were not to be denied a sighting of Michelle Obama and her daughters out on a trip to the Eiffel Tower tonight. One potential trip that the French media had been speculating on had been dinner at Alain Ducasse's restaurant at the top of the tower, or a possible tour of Notre Dame. Read more at Guardian