Monday morning and we are off to Paris. Just after daybreak (which is about 4am) we were up and packed ready for breakfast and luggage collection at 5.15am. On the bus by 6.15 and through the streets of London we went. Traffic was slow it was –that- early! Anyway, we went through the English countryside (I can’t tell you a lot about it as I slept :-)) to the white cliffs of Dover. Yes, they really are white.



On board the ferry for 1.5hour crossing of the channel. Now I could stomach breakfast, this 5am stuff was just way too early for me. Leigh met a guy from Adelaide in the queue for Breakfast, he worked at Mitsubishi – small world, huh?



The channel wasn’t rough, tho I’m not sure you would feel it in a seven-storey building that floats on water. Onto another bus on the other side and through the French countryside to Paris. Again I missed a lot of this as I slept! But I did get to see Paris as we were driving in. We got to our hotel about 5pm, making for a long day but we had a tour dinner booked for the evening so, we barely had time to unpack, catch our breath before boarding the bus again.



At our table were Mary and her granddaughter (on a high school graduation present holiday) and Tom and Brenda (the honeymooners) all part of the London-Paris-Rome tour. The meal was great (tho no one was game enuff to try the snails), the company was good and the piano accordion player was very entertaining. A most enjoyable evening all round, completed by an evening tour of some of the sights of Paris – Concorde Square, the Champs Elysee, Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower all lit up etc. Paris is very impressive at night and all you hear about romance comes to mind.



The following morning was a sleep-in until 6.30 and we boarded the bus by 8.00. A daylight sightseeing tour this time which included a walk under the road to the Arch de Triumphe and the tomb of the unknown soldier, and a ride to the second level of the Eiffel Tower which provided a great 360 degree view of Paris. A pity it was pouring with rain coming in at 45 degrees. We got soaked in the process.



From here the bus was off for another optional excursion but we decided to go for a wander along the Champs Elysee for the afternoon. We even visited the patisserie recommended by our French tour guide and they were delicious. Hard to imagine the cyclists speeding along when all we could see where wall to wall cars, buses, taxis and people. Well, I thought it was crowded (but 3 people is a crowd to me) but compared to high season and good tourist years it was probably only half full. But they will be back here in about 6 weeks time.



Down past the movie theatre, where so many movies are on show, dubbed in French - many of which have alternative names for the titles of the movie - eg: "Anger Management" is called "Self Control" here - bizarre! Also amazing is the rather risque advertising - it wouldn't fly back home :)



The previous weekend had included a train display here and some of the carriages and engines were still here and we got to take a look at the train history of France.



For dinner we had a lovely meal at Le Bouquet d'Alesia - a Braserie in the busy square of Alesia. The waiter didn’t speak a lot of English and we barely knew please and thank you, but we managed to order something and convey meaning with hand gestures and single words. It was most enjoyable and an interesting meal. We didn’t exactly end up with what we thought we ordered but it was good food nonetheless.



Next morning I awoke with the start of a cold. Quite understandable considering that I spent most of yesterday in damp clothes. Not to be put off, after breakfast we set off with everyone else for a perfumery tour and then the Louvre. Leigh steered clear of the perfumery and I should have done the same. It was too overpowering for me and I ended up next door with a nice cup of expensive Earl Grey. The French guide spoke broken English at a million miles an hour, which required maximum concentration, but she was rather a funny lady and conveyed a lot with her hand gestures.

Onto the Louvre for a guided tour after we had lunch in the eatery. On our night tour we had circumnavigated the Louvre so we has some idea of exactly how big it was. I can believe it would take 4 months to make your way through all of it – and it doesn’t even contain the stuff from the last century or so as that is housed elsewhere. Ours was a one hour highlights package and we went underneath to the coach car park so didn’t have to cue to enter. We saw the Venus de Milo statue, some rooms of paintings (some of those things are huge) and last but not least the “Mona Lisa” – which is actually much bigger than you think because everyone has told you it is small so you are expecting postcard size when in actual fact it is about A3 size.



Back to our hotel to get ready for the evenings festivities. Tonite was a French meal completed by a typical French show. Yes, it did include a Can-Can dance routine. It was most entertaining and very funny. The jugglers and mime artist were very clever. As Tom said, it was better than expected, and we were expecting it to be good. It was expensive, but well worth it to get a real French experience. Good food, good company and good entertainment, what more could we have wanted!



Thursday morning and time to head back to London. The Trafalgar coach trip was an early start and going to take all day so we opted for catching the Eurostar back as that took only 3 hours. It turned out to be another travel adventure. The previous afternoon Leigh had rung up to book some tickets for us. After having problems with the French voice system he went to our hotel reception and they were able to get through to an English-speaking customer service officer. He asked for 2 one-way tickets and they asked for 270 Euros per ticket. He enquired about the 69 Euros per person round trip which they had been advertising while he was on hold. Yes sir, we do that. Leigh ended up buying the return trip tickets for the cheaper price, we just won’t take the return trip. There was no way the customer service office was going to try and do the best deal for you – you have to know the ins and outs and request your own best deals.

Leigh had asked about the time it would take to get to the train station, how to get there etc. We were all set. Except when we went to reception to order a cab the next morning, we found out they were on strike. Off to the Paris underground we went and luckily for us they were running (they had been on strike for the 2 previous days) and the train station was on our line so we didn’t have to change trains to complicate matters.

After a number of false starts at the train station we found the Eurostar area. You can buy tickets on credit card, get a receipt number and collect your tickets from a machine. But, as you can guess, for us this wasn’t working (and to this day we aren’t quite sure why – was it the foreign credit card number, an incorrect receipt number – who knows) so Leigh queued up at customer service while I bag sat. We rushed through customs and immigration and made it onto the train without too many minutes to spare. Just another of those travel scrapes that make holidays memorable :-)



We had already moved the majority of our luggage to our London apartment before the Paris trip, so we were able to get off the Eurostar and go straight there – so we could do some more washing!

So, I’ve been to Paris now and I don’t need to go again. Paris would be a fine place if it wasn’t filled with rude Parisians. Seeing those famous landmarks is about all the makes Paris interesting – it can be dirty and dingy in places, and some of the inhabitants can make you feel decidedly uncomfortable with the occasional exception such as the waiters and staff in each of the 3 places that we ate dinner. But because we look like tourists/foreigners, many other people give you a look of disdain for being on the same side of the street as them. Leigh even felt well outside his comfort zone in Paris which shows how bad it was as he is much more comfortable in a people environment than I am and Paris wasn’t to his liking either.