London to Paris

saturday 9th December 2006 london-paris up bright and early to get organised for our trip... decided to go for the backpack on the trip... got down to the london coffee shop for our signing in and weighing of bags, they have a limit of 20kgs, which is strickly inforced (ie a few people were over the 2okgs, walked back outside, dumped somethings on the ground and went back in and weighed in again... before repacking the original things into their bags!!!

i was good, mine was only 14kgs!boarded our "orange" contiki bus our home for the next 24 days! and by about 7:30 am we set off on our way to Dover to board the ferry that will take us across the channel and onto france..

The louve, notredam, moulin rouge and the eiffel tower!

took about 2.5 hours to get to the ferry, got to get our first stamp for the trip in our passports as we went through the french immigration, before boarding the ferry.. i was impressed at the size of the ferry, and the amount of cars and coaches that were on it, and that was just our level... there were about 7 more levels just as full.

piled out of the coach and headed up to the international restraunt to have a full english breakfast... our last for the next few weeks...The ferry crossing lasted about 1.5 hours... most of the time was spent on the top deck taking pictures of the fading white cliffs of dover, as they faded into the background. quite an impressive site to be seen.

boarded our coach again, and set forth into France!

took us about 4 hours to drive into Paris, arriving at our hotel around 6pm. dinner was provided tonight and what a weird one it was. entree was a weid cold rissoto like dish covered in tuna... even those that had no tuna reckoned there's tasted like tuna! the main was chicken and potato's(what was to become a common feature in the first half of the tour), and a dessert of a custard cherry like thing (possibly something french perhaps!)

after a rushed dinner we headed out on a "lights of paris" tour, which was hindered by so much traffic, and crazy french drivers, we ditched that idea and went instead to the eiffel tower. jumped the line and headed right to the very top... paris looks so pretty all lit up at night... i think we ended up spending about 2 hours up there, mainly in the que to get the lift down....lots of people illegally trying to sell you stuff... they just come right up to you and start hasseling you... and there's so many of them... did my first bit of bartering and got myself this silly glass eiffel tower that lights up and changes colours... from 20 euros down to just 4, and he gave me a few key rings as well!!!

got back to the hotel around midnight...hard to believe i'm actually in paris..

i forgot to mention about the lovely beds in the hotel rooms... i'm in a twin share room...anyways when we walked in... we were like ummmmmmmmmmmmm

they are two single beds, in a double bed frame.... so they're rather close quarters... considering if you're sharing with someone you don't know... guess we'll get to know each other quiet well! hahaha asked dave about it when we saw him, and he was laughing, and said they only get better!... some of the boys were a bit scared by the prospect of having to sleep so close to on another male!

sunday 10th December 2006 free day in paris Up at 7:30 thanks, to the brilliant invention of a french wake up call, organised not by us, but by the lovely tour manager... guess he thought if he had to get up so did we! headed downstairs to experience our first continential breakfast of the tour... lots of crossants, cereal, and baggettes to chose from. quick 30mins for breakfast and we were on the bus, off to finish our lights of paris tour (without the lights!)... shown most of the big sights before being dropped of at the Louve.

started to rain just as we were getting off the bus, so we all quickly hurried over to the Louve, so we did't get too wet... it stopped before long. headed straight in to see the mona lisa... must have been about 10am and there wasn't much of a line up to get in... had to go though a fair few corridors and galleries to get tothe famous painting, of the mona lisa.

now after all the stories i've heard about how small the painting was... i was actually surprised at how big, it actually was..... from what everyone says i expected it to be so much smaller..took an illegal picture of it.. lol i blame dave... he made it out to be a challenge to get a picture!

lol i was all lined up to get a good close up of it and this lady in front turns around and grabs my camera just as i'm exposing... stupid twit!just cause she was jealous!... no luck after that the "no photo" ladies were on the war-path... though funnily enough most of our group managed a photo or two!

from there i headed out and walked along the Louve (it's a huge building) up to the Notre Dam along the siene river, stopped to take a few photo's of the river!everywhere you turn looks like a postcard...

got to experience 1/2 a sunday mass in the cathedral which was amazing... it was in french though and i didn't have a clue what was being said most of the time but it was still and experience. they were all dressed up and it was so peaceful to sit in such a breathtaking church and think wow... (seems had we been 1 hour later we would have heard the english service! but hey we're not in england we're in paris... and they speak french here!)

wandered around inside before heading outside from some fresh air... there's only so much insense you can inhale... (my jacket still smelt of insence a week later!) got cornered by a crazy scam artist who had this sign and on one side it was in french, and he other was in english... asking for money... so we quickly ran away only to hear him yeling abuse after us!

headed back towards the louve, stopping to have a look at sainte chapple, which from the outside, looked like a really old church, the ground florr was rather dull and it was like, what's all the fuss about this place for, we headed up the stairs, and it was like wow.... all you could do was stop and stare... it was amazing, floor to ceiling stain glass windows, in all colours... just breathtaking, and they just lined the walls... the pictures i took so didn'tdo it justice...

just amazing walked back along past the louve through the palce De La Concord, where i atempted to have lunch... ordered a crepe and got a hotdog on a baggette... weird but then i never studied french!!! :O) (and no my japanese didn't help me at all on my trip!)

headed up and along the famous les champs-elysees (the french shopping district and the most famous street in paris, full of all the major fashion lables, and generally a place for the rich tourists to spend all their money) eventually reached the end, and the Arc De Triomphe. and the crazy round about to which has about 5 lanes yet no lane markings so cars go in any directions....also the place in which no car insuracne will cover any damages!!! decided not to risk running across and took the under road footpath over to the middle. climbed the 300+ stairs straight up to the top and had a look around... dave had been telling us how symetrical paris is and yet until that moment i never realised just how symetrical it actually is... as you walked around the top it all looked the same.... except for the section with the eiffel tower in it... amazing.

it was good to have a look over paris in daylight...by then it was getting late, so headed back to the hotel via the metro... interesting trying to buy tickets in french!... cant point to a machine! worked it out, and actually managed to navigate all the way back to the hotel, where we thereby couldn't work out which exit to use in order to get back to the hotel

hahahaha it was funny... we found this massive map, and we stood there for ages trying to even find out hotel on it.... hahahaha until tegan comes along and says hey didn't you just look on the list.. and we look, and there in the corner is a list of the hotels in the area, with map references!!!! go us! from there we were all good.. some how managed to get ourselves back to the hotel.

where we had an hour to get ourselves ready for Mouli rouge...now anyone that knows me... knows how much i loved the movie... now when i decided to go on contiki and realised they have the show as an optional i was going no matter what... and it was fantastic...

first we were given dinner, an entree of soup, i had a main of fish (it was really dry) and this amazing tangy lemon sorbet,with custard, cream and merange... mm yum...along with 1/2 bottle ofwine each... (though i heard from another group they had a choice of champagne as well) we just got the cheap white wine!then the show started around 9pm...could have done with a bit less of the naked girls, but the dancers were excellent, and the costumes they did wear were amazing... the colours and the detailing that went into them all... they had these acrobatics people in there as well, and some of the things they did, and the strength they had... OMG they were a highlight in themselves.

it was definitley and experience to remember.. and even though it was so expensive i reckon i'd go see it again... maybe with someone who would be as excited as me!

headed back to the hotel about 11pm.