The City of Love - Paris

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23/11/06

Today was possibly the longest day of my entire life.  All i wanted to do was get to Paris, and it only took us about a 12 hour bus ride to get there!  When we arrived we checked into the hotel (the room was sooo small) and headed out on foot to see the Arc De Triumph.  It was amazing, it is in the middle of the craziest roundabout (there are about 10 lanes) i've ever seen with drivers just going along and just turning for the exit when they see it (crossing over about 5 lanes in the process)  Its sort of like that 'anyone in the way gets knocked over' saying.  Apparently, if there is an accident on the roundabout, insurance does not cover it!!

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So we climbed to the top of the Arc after about a thousand stairs, but the spiral staircase was pretty cool!  The views from the top were beautiful with the view of Paris by night, including the Eiffel Tower.

We then decided to go to the Eiffel Tower, when we got closer it was sparkling!  I didn't know this but every hour on the hour it sparkles for 5 minutes, so pretty!

We then ventured back to the Hotel using the metro for the first time too!

24/11/06

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We started the day with a sightseeing tour with our guide and also some French guides.  First stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral, it was absolutely amazing inside, the architecture was so detailed and it was massive.

We stopped off at a few shops then jumped back on the bus for about an hour sightseeing by bus (going past things like the Eiffel tower, shopping district and the Louvre).  After the tour we headed back to the Louvre to check it out - its a very cool museum (and i'm not really a museum person).  We went and said hello to the Mona Lisa - she wasn't as big as i'd expected, but she had a crowd waiting to see her.  We then went for a stroll through the shops, oh to have some money whilst in Paris!  The designer shops were massive and i wanted to go in so bad, but i didn't!

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We decided to go out when it was getting dark and heading down to the Eiffel to see if we could get some good night photos of it - we literally spent about an hour standing in the rain  trying to get a perfect photo.  We retired to a restaurant for some dinner where we met some more aussies and chatted to them for a bit.  I ordered a cheese burger and i got a patty covered in cheese - with no bun, hmmmmmm i hate not being able to read the menu!!!