Anyway, I'm going to blog about the last couple of nights which we spent in Paris so I had better get on with it.
Paris
We arrived in Paris in the afternoon and checked into the hotel before heading out to see the sights of Paris by night.
Cindy said that she and Derek (our driver- previously I have spelt it as Derrick, but that is incorrect) had a surprise for us. It turns out that the surprise was the Eiffel Tower lighting up, sparkling, and looking extremely impressive. Apparently it does that every hour on the hour over night.
The Arc de Triumph is (rather strangely, I think) located at the centre of an extremely busy roundabout in the middle of central Paris. This roundabout is wide enough for about four lanes of traffic, but it does not have lanes. It has no markings or traffic control of any kind because Parisians do not follow them. If we had not have been in a huge coach I would have been very, very scared going around that roundabout. We saw several near misses, but not an actually accident while we were there. Statistically, there is an accident every 8 minutes so we easily could have witnessed one. I am now really not surprised that Paris was the location of the car crash that killed Princess Diana (we also saw where the accident took place in our scenic drive).
The next morning Cindy took us to an included demonstration at a French perfumery, but I got a huge headache from the overpowering scents. One girl described it as a scent to knock out a cow.
From the perfumery it was an easy walk to the Louvre so that was what we decided to target next.
The outside of the Louvre is extremely impressive in and of itself - it is absolutely massive.
But, of course, this is a real case of 'its what's on the inside that counts.' To 'do' the Louvre properly it would take months so we had a strategy to locate and admire (well, I admired, Rob complained) a few key pieces - the very famous ones, of course.
We only spent about an hour in the Louvre which any real classical art lover would find absolutely appalling, but we had other sites to see as well.
We then went back to both the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel Tower to take in the atmosphere in daylight. We didn't go up the Eiffel Tower for two reasons. Number 1, Rob couldn't manage the heights. Number 2, its expensive (and as an added bonus there were massive crowds of Asian tourists trying to get up it).
We also went to see the Cathedral of Notre Dame. This may be my favourite of the many cathedrals, temples, and churches we have seen so far.
Speaking of temples, here is one that Napoleon commissioned to be built in the middle of Paris for his soldiers. We didn't go inside, but apparently at the front in a place of prominence where the crucifix would normally be positioned there is a representation, not of Jesus, but of Napoleon himself. Have you ever wondered why people say that French men are arrogant?
We went into the Spanish Quarter to experience 'the real Paris' away from the big attractions - the district where the university students live and eat. We had lunch at a little place frequented by the locals and had amazing baguettes.
No, we did not eat snails. I personally believe that small animals that cover their bodies with a mucus identical to our snot and position their anus above their heads should not be eaten. But that's just my personal feeling on the matter - you can eat them if you want. By the way, unlike frog's legs, they are not considered a delicacy over here and seem to be quite commonplace and are surprisingly easily found in restaurants and cafes.
After lunch we hit the largest department store in France. No, it wasn't me that needed some retail therapy. It was Robert. He spent just over $200Aus on toys. Collectible toys.
After shopping we wrestled with the highly confusing metro system again and made it back to the hotel in time to do our washing in the laundromat just down the road and have a nice relaxing evening.
The next morning (today) we got back on the coach and drove for the entire day except for the part when we were on the ferry over the English Chanel when we were sailing rather than driving. We are now back in London and have left our tour mates and our fantastic Cindy and Derek and now have to attempt to travel without a tour manager responding to our very beck and call and organising everything for us. Sigh :(
3 comments:
Enjoy the freedom of organizing it all and speaking the language like natives. Missing you lots
You've got Italy all wrong. Well Rome anyway. The forum is where they trialed different sorts of cricket wickets until they came up with the traditional three posts and two little bar things on the top (not a cricket fan obviously). And they are Cappuchino monks cause they drank lots of coffee and it is the place to go when you get sad cause there are starving dogs on the street and your dad says that he'll take you to find some bones for them. (You then get even more sad when you find out he tricked you). Glad your having fun. How long til you have to come home?
Did u eat Frog Legs, you didn't actually say? When my Dad went to France, he ate both snails and frog legs, but he said the frogs legs were hard 2 find.
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