Day 12: Lucerne to Paris and Evening with Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower : Paris , France
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Our focus today is the journey to Paris, the 'City of Lights'. What better introduction than with our sightseeing tour and your first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower

We left Lucerne for another grueling road trip to Paris . We drove through Burgundy and Chablis vineyards

A First-Person Guide to the City of Lights and Eiffel Tower

Today I decided to be a flower box, I sat in the front row of the bus, with Chris. Our first stop was after 3 hours for lunch. I found the French to actually be pretty friendly, but I was a little overwhelmed by the trying to pick out food, I ended up with quiche. Actually, the most stressful part of the whole trip would be the first rest stop in each country, trying to order food.

Sunset @ Effiel Tower
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Back on the bus Dave gave us a history lesson on France, something about Napoleon . Dave also handed us all a Contiki survey to fill out (where we could offer our thoughts on the trip, would we take another tour with Contiki, etc.), two index cards, and two envelopes. The cards were for inspiring words, or simple thanks to Dave and Jezza . The envelopes were for their tips, which we would give them at the very end of the tour.

Would I take Contiki again? Maybe, as long as the tour wasn't as fast-paced as European Discovery was. But as Hans had told us over drinks at the hotel bar in Rome, European Discovery is designed with North Americans and their limited vacation times in mind.

Eiffel Tower at dusk , Paris
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We finally arrived in Paris, and once again we had a limited amount of time before we had to be downstairs for dinner, then a night tour of Paris, the City of Light, including a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

At 7:30 we finally got to Paris, we had 30 minutes to check in before dinner and our evening tour of Paris. The hotel was nice, but the rooms were smaller than a shoe box for sandals. We had a pretty good dinner at the hotel .

After dinner, which was pretty good, but not memorable, we began our night tour of Paris. Dave pointed out all sorts of highlights , including the Opera Theater, which is where the original Phantom of the Opera is said to have lived. We also drove through the Louvre ; Contiki buses are not meant to fit between the narrow columns. But with the amazing skills of Jezza, the bus squeezed through unscathed.

Priya and Myself at the Summit
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We also saw Notre Dame at night, as well as lots of military monuments. Naturally, we circled the Arc de Triomphe, but more about that later. It's time to talk about the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at the Eiffel Tower just as the sun was setting, which was going to make for some awesome pictures.

The Eiffel Tower dominates the Paris skyline being one of the highest points but in many cases you can't see it due to the density of the apartments and narrow streets in most locations throughout the city.

Eiffel tower : Paris , France
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When La Tour Eiffel was built by Gustave Eiffel in 1889 , it stood at a mighty 300m to commemorate the French Revolution for the International Exhibition of Paris . Of course, at that time it was the tallest monument around. Today, it isn't any more ( unless you're Dr Evil's mini-me ) but it provides a heck of a panorama from its topmost platform. Yup, there are 3 levels. The first two levels are die-hard step aerobic fans who are willing to pay 3.50euros and 6.50euros to burst their lungs climbing the iron staircase. The third level are for people who are only slightly smarter as they will to cough up 11 euros like any good tourist to ogle at the view from the top. Cost aside, the view of Paris, from its topmost platforms is FANTASTIC and it's worth being a temporary sardine inside the elevator.

Paris Opera House
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We were very lucky there was no queue and we were near the lift in almost 15 mins . The view from the Eiffel Tower was amazing, especially with the late dusk sky. I give credit to those who were afraid of heights, but still went up, as I know it wasn't easy for them. First we went to the very top, where we were simply too high up to see much. After wandering around for a bit, we went down to the second level where I got some great pictures.

We were given 2 and 1/2 hours to experience Tour De Eiffel . But we finished out tour within 1 and 1/2 hour .Getting a perfect picture of Eiffel tower is not easy and you need to walk a lot to go to a certain distance to take the shot .Since we had very limited time we wanted to have our personal souvenir with Eiffel within the given 2 and 1/2 hours .We were the only couple in our group to take that very photo that very evening . We did walked to Les Invalides to take a nice picture with Eiffel tower .

Paris , France
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We left the lighted Eiffel Tower after sunset and it looked spectacular. Afterwards, Dezza drove the coach to the roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe. Since there were no lane markers there and so the right of way was to charge through. Inevitably, many car accidents happen there. So Dave played the Lone Ranger song and Jezza did the giddy up gesture. We have been asked to put on our seat belts and Dave also mentioned that our travel insurance is not valid here . Eight lanes of traffic, no lane markers, no traffic pattern, and if you die here, no insurance policy in the world will pay to fly your corpse home. Every driver, including Jezza was insane to venture to that roundabout . We nearly died on the roundabout that circles the Arc de Triomphe . Well, maybe "died" is a bit dramatic, but it certainly was a crazy experience.

Place de la Concorde
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After that we did our drive around Paris, we saw a lot of things... The Paris Opera House, The Louvre, Notre Dame, Musee Rodin, Hotel de Ville, and a bunch of other stuff. We got back to the hotel around midnight and got to bed a little after 1:00am.

We stopped by the hotel's "Internet café" (two computers) in an attempt to check our email . Once again, the keyboard was completely whacked out by my standards. They weren't even real keys, they were like the buttons on a Speak 'N Spell, and a lot of the letters were in the wrong place .

Sunset Picnic in Paris
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It was time to go to bed if we wanted to catch a ride into Paris the next morning.