Paris

Sacre Coer Montemarte
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After a quick ferry ride departing from the White Cliffs of Dover we made it onto French soil.  I was glad to get off the boat as I was feeling very very sea sick but a quick splurge in the duty free shop left me feeling so much better.

On arrival in Paris we dumped our bags in our tiny hotel room and then headed out to see the sights at night in Paris.

On route to Montemarte, which is the highest point in Paris, we drove past the Moulin Rouge which looks so much smaller close up.  When we arrived at the bottom of Montemarte it started to rain and it did not stop! However, we did not let this stop us as we climbed the billion stairs to the top of Montmarte!  The Basilique Du Sacre Coer (I think that it bascially translates to the church of the Sacred Cross) stands at the top of the hill and it is truly an impressive structure but we were to be in awe of most of the structures in Paris.  It was amazing to step inside this wonderful church and forget about the rain and noise of the bustling Parisian streets. However, I was disgusted to see the amount of chewing gum and graffiti littering such a sacred and historic building!  Despite that we were drenched we scoped out a place that sold crepes and wolfed a couple down before heading into the city.

Eiffel Tower by night
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Wet and cold we went for a drive through the city centre to decide what we would visit the next day.  Starting at the Place de la Concorde and then down the Champs-Elysess and then around the Arc de Triomphe to finish up at a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower which at the moment glows an electric blue at night and sparkles every hour for about ten minutes or so (I thought it was rather lovely actually).  We were glad to get back to the hotel to get out of our wet clothes and into a warm bed!

Mr Jones on his Fat Bike
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Crossaints for breakfast - of course!  After finally making way through the horrendous Parisian traffic we got to the city centre and went off exploring for the day!  We didn't have alot of time so we quickly raced up the Eiffel Tower only to make it to the second level because we were so unfit and we ran out of time.  We had heard that a great way to see Paris was on a Fat Bike Tour and it most definitely was.  We biked around Paris for about three hours with a tour guide that took us past  most of the major historical landmarks such as Napoleon's Tomb, Ecole Militaire, Musee Rodin, Hotel Des Invalides, Place de la Concorde, Le Grand Palais, Le Petit Palais, the landing strip where the Wright Brothers attempted the first flight and the Tuileries gardens to name a few.   During the tour we got a history lesson all about the Napolean and three of the Louis (XIV, XV and XVI) it was a great tour and we both learned loads about the very interesting history of the French.

Napolean's Tomb
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After the bike tour we headed back to Napoleon's Tomb to have a look at how such an important man chooses to be laid to rest.  It seems that Napoleon was rather clever and even in death he still commanded respect from everyone.  Not only is his tomb rather amazing as it is made out of eight layers of some of the world's finest materials such as marble and wood he had his tomb postioned in such a way that you could only view it from above so that you were bowing to him or from underneath the tomb itself so that you were looking up to him.  If that's not having the last word I don't know what is!

In front of the Lourve
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Realising that we were running out of time and would not see the Lourve!  The line was long and they say that even if you were to view every piece of art in the Lourve for one minute you would be there for nine months without a break!  So we went to Le Petit Palais (The Small Palace) to check out a few pieces by Cezanne (very cool) and lucky enough to be there while they had an exihibition by the famous photograper Patrick Demarchelier.  We managed to get in without paying which I don't know how we did but even if we had paid it would have been money well spent as it was a very special exhibition to have viewed.

Mr Jones in the Tuileries gardens
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It was disapointing to have not visited the Lourve but you could easily spend a month in Paris just to see all the wonderful things there.  We made it to the infamous glass pyrimad outside the Lourve and just wandered through the Tuileries gardens which are so tranquil in such a busy city.  A picnic dinner under the sparkling Eiffel Tower was rather special and then we headed off to a caberet show.  In hindsight we should have gone to the Moulin Rouge even though it was pricey but stupidly we opted for the cheaper option of a low budget caberet show around the corner!  It was bad but the only thing that was really good about it was the fact that all the girls were only wearing a very tiny sequined covered g-string so really it was only for Mr Jones's benefit.  He wasn't disapointed!

Where Napoleon's Tomb lies
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We were glad to get to bed as 12 hours of powering around Paris and the information overload was very exhausting but we were over awed by what we saw and would definitely go back there!