Posts Tagged With: Eiffel tower

Day 28: Turning 30! A picnic at the Eiffel Tower, dinner cruise on the Seine and Moulin Rouge 

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Mel

After a leisurely wake up (I resisted the urge to yell WAKE UP WAKE UP IT IS MY BIRTHDAY WAKE UP at 5am) we went on a mysterious Eiffel Tower birthday picnic adventure.

 We arrived at a spot down one end of the Champs de Mars and B had arranged for a guy (Australian!) from Paris Picnics to meet us with bags containing Chardonnay, cold meats, different cheeses, salad, fruit, a baguette and cookies. We even got a picnic rug….it was AMAZING! Delicious as well.

   
  

It was a wonderful experience. Big birthday brownie points for B! The card he got me was beautiful and I almost cried like a big sookie-lala. The sun even came out for pretty much the entire picnic so we spent an enjoyable couple of hours eating, cuddling and people watching. According to Facebook, it seems that at least 40 people were waiting for B to propose….lol. Good thing I wasn’t one of them then 🙂

After some resting time at the hotel (to digest all that food) it was time to get all fancied up for our dinner cruise on the Seine River and Moulin Rouge show. I booked this months ago with Paris Tours and we have both been looking forward to it for quite awhile. We got all dressed up with B in a lovely collared shirt and chinos (wow…not jeans) and me in my blue galaxy maxi from black milk and wearing my Murano glass bracelet from Venice.

   
   

The cruise was lovely, with delicious dinner service and some beautiful views out the windows.

    
   

Our driver took us on a tour of Montmarte before the cabaret show and we are both now very excited to visit Sacre Couer cathedral tomorrow and eat famous chicken in a restaurant nearby. Beautiful area! Amazing city views. 

Moulin Rouge was fabulous. The performance, the dancing, the free bottle of champagne (which I drank 90% of….weeeee!), the mini ponies and just all of it was brilliant! B’s only minor comment was that as we are so crammed in it gets a bit uncomfortable. So be prepared. Even with good tickets, you are basically a sardine.

   
  

What a fabulous 30th birthday I have had! 

Thank you my love 🙂 and thank you to all my friends and family who sent their best wishes via text, email and Facebook.

Sorry for trolling you on Facebook Lana hehe. It was fun though! 

Mel 

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Day 26: Paris – the Eiffel Tower and Catacombs (also known as “Mel versus snails”)

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Mel

The morning started relatively late (9am) with a wander from a nearby metro stop to the Eiffel Tower. Very pretty on approach!

   
 
Unfortunately, the up close climbing experience wasn’t so great! We had booked for lunch at 58 Tour Eiffel which is a restaurant on the 1st floor, this allows you to skip the line for the tickets (which was massive). That part was fab and we made it to the restaurant easily. The food was quite good although you were crammed in like sardines and they were trying to get service through pretty damn quick – about what I would expect really for a place like this. We had a fabulous view and the restaurant photographer took some lovely shots of us that u had printed out. 

After lunch we tried to get the lift up to level 2. After endless laps trying to locate it, we asked the restaurant for help and got a shrug. Then we found what we thought was it and the lift operator said yes, go in…but the lift doors didn’t open. Went back down to find out why and he laughed and told us to take the stairs. Mmmmm. 

There is 347 stairs from level 1 to level 2 of the Eiffel Tower. I know that now for a fact. I feel bad for the people with small children and in wheelchairs who would not have been able to manage stairs.

On level 2, the signs for the ticket machines were non existent so there was more wandering about until finally I could purchase summit tickets….then more lining up….but eventually we made it! Unlike 2012, there was no fog this time! 

   
 

Our comments about the Eiffel Tower:

Mel – too many people, so much rubbish around and the pickpockets were prolific. Terrible staff service really off putting. 

B says – give climbing it a miss and enjoy the wonderful view of it from other parts of the city. 

After our tower adventure, we caught the metro to the nearest metro stop to the  Catacombs for a brief rest (with French McFlurry’s) before our Catacombs tour. We booked in with Fat Tyre Tours based on my dads suggestion. Pretty glad we did as at 4pm on a drizzly November afternoon the line to get in was still around 3 hrs long!

percy’s first trip to the catacombs

No line for us though. We had an excellent 1.5hr guided tour through the winding, narrow corridors where the bones of 6 million people are buried around 35m below Paris.

   

lots of very narrow and spooky walkways

   
   
 

After a rest at the hotel, it was dinner time again. I think dinner time is my favourite time in Paris…so much good food. Tonight we went to Mollard and I ate escargot. In their shells! Here’s some actin shots of me attempting to conquer my fear of snails by eating them:

 

Mel versus snail – the epic battle


The food was very tasty and the wine came in an adorable baby wine bottle! Limited food pics tonight as I got distracted but B recommends the salmon and duck. 

  
Mel

P.S. Two more sleeps until I’m an old lady! 

P.P.S. Versailles tomorrow, looking forward to that. Hopefully the drizzling rain will abate for our visit. 

Categories: Europe 2015 | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Day 18 (Paris) and Day 19 (London)

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Mel

Well, where to begin!? Last nights post had all my daytime Paris photos, there were quite a few as we crammed A LOT into one day.

We woke up very early and instead of waiting for the coach, caught the RER (local train) into the city. We went to the Louvre first and were there at 8am to take some lovely morning photos and be first in like at the carousel entrance! Woo! We wandered through part of it and saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and a few other famous pieces. I spent quite awhile in the Botticelli wing. We then figured there was plenty of time to have a quick breakfast before catching the RER to meet the tour group at 11am to go up the Eiffel tower.

Ba-bow. Wrong!

Apparently the French definition of “quick cafe service” is “I will make all your food individually, one at a time and chortle quietly to myself whilst you wait”. Forty minutes later…we were running through the streets trying to make the Eiffel tower meet up! We were 8 minutes late but the tour manager waited for us 🙂 lucky!

We went up to the 2nd floor and the views were amazing. We also went up to the top but you couldn’t see anything due to the fog. I don’t care, I can still say I went to the top of the Eiffel tower! Errr I can also say I stuck my head out through the wire because emma is a terrible influence on me….all the other tourists up there thought we were hilarious.

We took a bunch of photos up, down and all around the tower then walked back up towards the Arc de Triomphe and stopped at a delicious little French bistro for lunch. We all climbed the arc (284 steps, with really bad asthma, possibly not my best idea) and the view was great. The history was amazing as well. Although still foggy we could take photos which actually had the Eiffel tower IN them. We used the rest of our day to walk down Avenue Des Champs Élysées and check out the majorly expensive shops I felt hideously uncomfortable even looking at, let alone walking into.

I had a nutella crepe omnomnom.

The tour bus picked us up at 4pm for a quick change of clothes before dinner and a show at Moulin Rouge. It was amazing. A woman jumped into a tank with no clothes on and a bunch of giant snakes! You can’t take photos inside but can outside so that was the best I could do. I was surprised there were so many male dancers. Afterwards, a lot of the bus went out to get drunk but I felt crummy and very tired so didn’t go, I have recaught the death cold going around! It was 1am by the time we got in from Moulin Rouge and we were up at 6am.

This morning it was time for contiki family goodbyes as lots of our bus stayed in Paris and then on to London. That was sad as I have made some really good friends but Facebook and mobile numbers mean we will be able to keep in touch. 9 hours later we arrived in London. The ferry trip was very rough but at least I got some amazing pics of the white cliffs of Dover, grandma will be happy.

We are staying at the royal national hotel again tonight before heading out to do one night with family in Potters Bar tomorrow…then back for 3 nights in London.

Tonight we went for a walk up and down Oxford street and ate £60 worth of amazing Indian food and delicious cocktails. Such an improvement over service station food and mass prepared meals! It is 10:30pm now and time for bed as we are both very fluey and my asthma is making me very tired. Damn contiki cough.

The blog shall continue until i leave London because although the contiki part is over, I’m still on holiday and having a grand adventure with lots of pictures for you guys at home 🙂

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Categories: Europe 2012 | Tags: , , , , , | 4 Comments

Day 17 (real entry) – Switzerland to Paris as exploring Paris by night!

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Mel

Ahhhh finally in Paris! It was a loooong drive. We left Lucerne at 8am (after a ten minute run in the rain with our luggage as the police yelled at our poor coach driver and he couldn’t park anywhere near the hotel). It was a bad night with a bunch of people on the tour getting written off and running up and down the hallway screaming from midnight to 2am. Get drunk by all means but have the decency to pass out when you do! I am now infamous as the person who called them all assholes haha.

The bus trip here was 9 hours (including stops) and was unremarkable. I slept a bit and coughed a lot (yay asthma) and we played I spy for awhile. As we drove into Paris we could see the Eiffel tower off in the distance but the weather is really bad and it was quite fogged in. Our hotel here is finally a decent one with a bit of space, wifi and a decent bed!

We decided a few days ago to pay some extra money and not share a room for our last three nights in London, just so we can have a little bit of space before the looooong trip home. I have to admit I’m looking forward to not having to time showers or bathroom share.

Tonight we went on a night time tour of Paris and saw some of the sights. It is still foggy but that didn’t make it any less awesome! Paris is very pretty even in a cloud of fog. We got to see the Eiffel tower at night and watch it sparkle! Tomorrow it is an early start to the louvre (we are catching the RER instead of waiting for the coach lift in), followed by going up the Eiffel tower, then the arc de triumphe, notre dame cathedral and SHOPPING! No catacombs as they are closed 😦 but it means I’ll have an excuse to come back to Paris.

Tomorrow night we are going to dinner and a show at moulin rouge! Hopefully my pretty dress still fits my fat ass haha definitely put on a few kgs eating all the delicious European food.

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Categories: Europe 2012 | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

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