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 🙂
Pre-show wine at Infamous (the Spiegel Big Top) in Canberra, 2017
Mel's Travel Blog 