France - Paris

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Paris is beautiful, by far the prettiest of cities we have visited. I really love it here and wish we had longer to explore the rest of France, it would also be wicked to be rich and holidaying here, they definitely know how to do luxury!
We haven't overspent too much but it would be so easy to go mad here.

We went hard for the first day in Paris and saw heaps of the sights:
Notre Dame - this was huge and really impressive but we didn't go inside, seen heaps of churches and there was a big queue so couldn't be arsed waiting.
Arc De Triomphe - this is mean, one of the best arches in Europe and beleive me we have seen heaps of arches (almost as many as churches!)
Catacombes - huge underground tunnels that house the bones from the Innocents Cemetry which they dug up in 1785 - they have arranged all the bones in patterns along the tunnels, really kinda disturbing but definitely not anything you could see in little ol' NZ so glad we went.
Hotel Des Invalides - Built in 1671 for old and crippled war veterans, it is freakin amazing a massive gold dome and beautiful gardens etc.
The St Chapel and Conciergerie - this used to be a royal palace but ended up being a prision, it's where they held Marie-Antoinette was held there until they chopped off her head.
We also found a cool little carnival and went on some rides and played a few shooting games... didn't win anything though, dirty carnies!

During our stay we also went up the Tour Eiffel, it took FOREVER to get up there, probably about 2 hours queueing all up, mean views but not sure it was worth that long a wait. This was definitely not the romantic scene you see in the movies, Adam and I were grumpy, sun burnt and over eachother by the time we got to the top, ha ha.

The Lourve was cool, we spent about 4 hours there but could have done longer if we weren't so tired. And yes of course we saw the Mona Lisa.

Bastille Day here rocked! We watched the parade during the day, so impressive, they even brought out the helicopters and tanks and all the men in the parade sang the whole way around. The soldiers are all in great shape, even the oldies, didn't see one porker the whole parade. After that it there was a huge free concert by the Eiffel Tower, so cool, they had Nelly Frutado and heaps of other people including this crusty as old French dude that they all loved the most - words can not begin to describe him - he was like a French Rod Stewart crossed with Gene Simmons (Kiss) with a really bad blonde perm, so funny - I'll put up a picture of him.
After the concert were the most amazing fireworks all around the Eiffel Tower, they were all in time to the music which they had blaring.
The metro ride home was scary, the fireworks finished at 12.30pm and the last trains were running at 1am - they were packed and people were going animal trying to get on. Luckily we were in a corner behind some seats so made it home ok, would taxi next time though!

We have pretty much just chilled out and wandered around today - we did go and visit Jim Morrisons grave though - the cemetry it is in is quite surreal with monuments, huge sculptures and tombs everywhere, spent quite a bit of time looking around it.

The food here is outstanding, we have brought heaps of our food from supermarkets and delis to make it cheaper but even their most basic food has been awesome.
We had heard that the French were rude and arrogant but have found the majority of people helpful and friendly, really vain but still friendly, ha ha.

Oh well better go, this update is huge and have to pack for Amsterdam - only a week to go til we get home... we are starting to look forward to it.

Love Ellen and Adam

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