Paris - October 4

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Paris - October 4

(Geoff) Wow what a day and what a girl!! We left Amboise this morning at 11:20 and caught the train for Tours. This was only a short trip so that we could connect with the TGV to Paris, Montparnasse (Paris has lots of Railway stations in different parts of the city, we are finding out!)

There was a short changeover time and and bit of pidgin French till we finally confirmed we were on the right platform and then it was on the train and away to Paris. The TGV is France's high speed train (I'm not sure what speed it does but the cars on the adjacent highway look like they are crawling along) and it wasn't long before we arrived. Then it was a matter of finding a taxi and getting to our hotel in the 11th Arrondissement.

What a relief to find, after all the staircases we had lugged those bloody cases up and down, Sue had managed to book one with a lift (that worked!). Now that it was nearly 3:00 o'clock, we went looking for a hole in the wall and somewhere to have lunch. It was amazingly difficult to find an ATM but finally managed to get some cash and found a lovely restaurant - just as well we had a main meal then as we had the Segway tour of Paris by night coming up.

Then a quick trip back to the hotel to get our things and off to meet up with the Segway tour under the Eiffel Tower. This took a while till we found an American guy on a Segway machine and then the rest of the people taking the tour also turned up. We went back to the shop, got some instructions and did a bit of training on these amazing machines. At first we were a little tentative but as time went on, we got better and gained more confidence. We had a great tour of the city centre by night, finishing up back next to the Eiffel Tower, this time lit up and in blue to celebrate Sarkozy becoming the president of the EU. At 10:00 the whole thing started sparkling and this continued for about 5 minutes - quite a spectacle. I recommend this tour to anyone coming to Paris. The machines are great fun and remarkably easy to control once you get the hang of it and checking out the lights and sights of Paris by night was great. Just remember to wear some warm clothes, gloves and a beanie, especially if the cold wind blows as it did for us tonight.

Afterwards, we managed to negotiate the Metro, including changing lines/trains and finally got back to the hotel at 11:30. Now time for bed -tomorrow we pick up the Paris pass and start on the museums.

Till then, Au Revoir.

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