Finally... Paris

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Thursday 3rd July
The earliest start we'd ever had, and probably the longest journey - best part of 700kms. Marzi carried out a quick photo shoot of the group (minus Glenn, of course) before guiding us into town, so that we could drop off David and Siew Ying before we headed onto the bulk of the trip. Stopped in Basel for a break, where 10 minutes turned into 40 minutes - this seemed a bit of a disaster, but somehow or other we ended up being ahead of time, stopping 1pm for lunch with 350ks to go! We arrived around 6pm, having already done the meeting on the bus. We soon had the tents up, but the guests were feeling pretty uncomfortable at this campsite - a lot of people staring, and the ablution blocks were set up a little strange. After dinner, we prayed for France, before heading up to the train station to ensure that we knew where it was - easy to find, and tickets seemed straightforward enough. Headed back to the campsite where fears about the showers proved to be well-founded, and shortly afterwards we'd called the police and agreed that from now on, no-one to go to the toilets/showers on their own. Thankfully we're out for a long day in Paris tomorrow, so we don't have to spend too long here.

Friday 4th July
8am breakfast, by 9am we're on the train into Paris. Group all successfully decamped at St Michael Notre-Dame, and it's real - finally in Paris (I've been meaning to come here since I started learning French at school... although that A-grade at GCSE is now 17 years ago and I'm not remembering a lot of it!). We successfully meet Marissa who'd headed in early with Steven who was up for an early flight. Walked to Pont Neuf where we got an hour long boat-cruise down to the Eiffel Tower and then back round Notre-Dame. That was really nice, and again the weather was beautiful today! Next we took the Metro to Place Monge, in search of a cheap meal in the Latin Quarter for tonight. We soon find Rue du Pot De Fer where there's lots of restaurants offering food for 10-13 Euros. We settle on L'Atlantique and book a table for 24 people for 5pm, and let everyone head off for whatever they'd like to do before then. Join a group walking past the Pantheon, through the Jardim de Luxembourg, past Notre Dame, the Louvre, Place de La Concorde, and up to the Arc de Triomphe by 4.40pm. Bit late, so "click" and down onto the Metro and make it to the restaurant 10 minutes late - one group was back early, but everyone else was even later - the last making it to the restaurant for 6pm! Eventually we're all sorted, ordered, and eating a nice meal for 11 Euros a head. A couple decide to go for the 14 Euro menu as it gives them the chance to try snails!

Security cards for the campsite were distributed amongst 5 groups - those getting the lift to the Eiffel Tower, those walking up/down the Eiffel Tower, those going to the Louvre (free for under 25s on a Friday night, open til 9.45pm), those heading to the Palace of Versailles and those leaving early to get back for sleep! Watch out for those Eiffel Tower timings. When we first got there it said the 3rd level was shut, so we were going to leave it, but then saw it re-open, so queued up and started our way up aroun 9.30pm. We weren't back down til about 11.30pm, and by the time we got to the train station, the last direct train had gone (the walkers had made it!). We found a helpful Frenchman, who said to go to Invalides, where we were there with 2 minutes to spare before the next train... which then decided to go from another platform, so we missed that! Fortunately got the last train at 00.40, and back at the campsite for 01:35 - not so much fun, especially with an early start in the morning!

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Photos

Eiffel Tower
(Coloured Blue for the EU Presidency)