Gay Parie

The flight was painless after the 14 hour trek of a couple of days ago. 6.5 hours, and it was all over, red rover. Our path took us over Bahrain, Baghdad, eastern Turkey, the Black Sea, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, and into France.

 

While not as large as the apartment (suite?) in Dubai, our Paris hotel still had 2 rooms, was very comfortable, and really lovely. The downstairs dining room and sitting rooms were small, but cosy, warm, and welcoming. I would definitely stay there again!

 

Our time in Paris started with a tour of The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower (including lunch on the first level), and Notre Dame – using a Seine River shuttle boat for transport between them. I thought we were doing a coach tour, and driving past all the major Paris landmarks as well, … but no. There was a statue of Joan of Arc in the street outside the tour office. Apparently you could spend 1/2 a year in the Louvre, looking at artefacts 24 / 7, and still not see everything that is on display! Needless to say, we only saw the most famous pieces in the hour we were allotted...

 

 

 

 

The evening saw us back up the Eiffel Tower for a night tour that took us all the way to the summit. Beautiful views over a lit-up Paris, tempered by the fact that we were all pretty tired after 4 huge days, and a freezing cold wind that ripped through you. Not so cold and windy at ground level....

 

The next day Calum and Cameron went to Invilades, which is the French Army Museum and where Napoleon (The general as Cam refereed to him) , among others, has his tomb. It was pretty interesting seeing all the armour and stuff.  It is also a military hospital that is still in use today a.

 

Danielle and I went for a trek up the Champs Elysee, past the only McDonalds in the world with a white 'M' (can't have any other colour of light / neon on the Champs Elysee except white), to the Arc de Triomphe. From there, it was on to the Chocolate Museum, where we got a DIY hot chocolate at the end of the tour. Dan chose plain ol' dark chocolate. I had a blend with cinnamon in it. Yummy!

 

Of course, we saw other landmarks, and some really cool little cars. Bikes...? How WOULD you classify them...?!

 

We all met up again afterwards and caught a taxi to the train station (Paris du Nord) where we boarded the Eurostar headed for London, and the next leg of our adventure...

Now stand by for Calum's pearls of wisdom....

Jo. x

Paris.. What did I learn...

1. For about $3 AUD you can get a can of Beer and a Salami Sandwich, then stand and eat it on the street and no one thinks you're doing anything out of the ordinary. Try that in Nowra...

2. I really feel dumb as I can only speak 1 language. Everyone here seems to speak at least 2.

3.  Going by the Cod pieces in many of the suits of armour I saw at the Invilades, those guys were certainly well equipped. I feel a little hard done by.

4. Paris was cheaper than I expected.. The Strong AUD helped but even still food and beer was remarkably cheap.

5. The French Stereotype , i.e. that they are all arrogant and don't like English speaking people couldn't be further from the truth. Everyone we met was nice, helpful and very polite (much more so than some of the tourists) .  In fact they couldn't do enough to help. All the unhelpful ones must work for Goodrich..... ;-) 

Thats all Folks....................