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Published: November 30th -0001
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Us in Paris
We made it, YAH! We're off!!! After a few relaxing days spent in Warrington with Eileen and Angelo we set off in our big red van for France. During those few days we cleaned out the van (massive job it was) and bought the essentials like a tent, a camp stove and butane gas, 2 chairs, an air mattress and some groceries to get us by on for a few days at least. We also managed to have a bbq (yes the weather held out for us) at Doug and Pam's (friend's of Lew's Dad). Keith, Bob and Barbara also came which was great as we hadn't seen them since they were in Australia a few years ago for our wedding.
Eileen and Angelo took us out to dinner at a tasty Indian restaurant for our last night and we drove off early the next morning with a cooked breakfast in our stomaches and a packed lunch. It took about 6 hours to get to Dover and we parked the van and explored and went online to book our Paris accommodation. Before it got too dark we found a great place by the water at Dover to stop for the night and had 2
Hell of a Job
Yes proof, lew can clean... :) minute noodles for dinner. Then we froze all night!
Next morning we got the ferry to Calais which gave us the most stunning views of the "White Cliffs of Dover". It took about 90 minutes to cross and we got straight on the motorway headed to Paris, although we had 2 nights to kill before we had a room available. Our first night we stayed on a vacant block in a town called Compeign. It was great to get the stove out and cook our first real meal of spaghetti bolognaise. Although we didn't freeze in our sleep we we're woken a few times by the trains going past.
The next day we managed to stumble past the WWI Armistice Clearing which has a little museum containing the carriage where the WWI armistice was signed (it's actually not the real one, it burnt down in Germany). They had some amazing stereo photographs (two seperate images of the same scene viewed through a box making it look 3D), some quite graphic, but all giving an amazing insight into France and the allied soldiers during the conflict. We continued onto the town of Soissons which was quite surreal to walk
Holly with Keith and Bob
At Pam and Doug's for a nice summer BBQ. It rained for 2 weeks before this day and I´m sure it rained for another 2 weeks after... we were very lucky!!! around and still see so many potent signs of the war that once raged here.
Our second night we decided to get close to the hostel we had booked so we could get in there early. We ended up parked in a cinema carpark and took the chance to see Transformers. We took our dinner in with us which was banana sandwiches for Lew and a tuna salad for me. That meant when we came out of the movies we could just sneak into the van and go to sleep. We got up early and drove to our hotel, which took us about 2 hours, and then couldn't actually check in until about another 2 hours later so we had a nap in the van. We were pretty lucky as we found a park on the street which is free unlimited parking.
Once we checked into our hotel we had our showers and headed into Paris on the train to catch the end of the Tour De France. We spent a few hours standing around waiting but it was worth the wait to see the riders come through De Champs Elysees for the sprint finish. They actually loop
Paris Catacombes
A few of the thousands of skeleton bones piled high in the eerie Catacombes under Paris... around a few times so we were able to get a few shots of them hurtling past. We then wandered around a bit and because of the weather, ended up seeing another movie, Oceans 13 and then headed back to the hotel.
Our first full day in Paris we were flat out again. We saw the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre (with the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo) and Notre Dane Cathedral, which is actually more impressive from the back. We then found an internet cafe and tried to book tickets for the Moulin Rouge but they were sold out so we'll come back past on our way home from Germany. For dinner we bought a baguette and some ham, salami, cheese, olives, gherkins, sundried tomatoes and tsatiki and ate it all sitting on a blanket under the Eiffel Tower. How romantic.... The only interuption to the mood was the troups of men selling roses and wine and Eiffel Tower minatures. It was excellent and the sparkling light show at 10pm was pretty amazing.
Day 2 was more relaxed since we couldn't see the show. We did our laundry in the morning and visited the catacombes in
Exterminate, Exteeeeerminate....
A remote controlled Dalek, who wouldn't want one!!! the afternoon. The catacombes cost me 7 Euro and only 3.50 for Lew as he was a "young person" being between 14 and 26. They were increadible though. I can't imagine how many people make up all the bones lining the walkways but it was 1.7km of pathways, 131 steps down (20m below the streets). Afterwards we had a tasty cheese crepe each, which we ate in a park and then hit the internet cafe to catch up on some of these blogs. We're heading back to the Eiffel Tower for more baguettes and antipasto for dinner.
Hope you're all having as much fun at home.
-Holly and Lew.
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