Hitting Paris Day 1

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We woke up today and thankfully had plenty of time cos our train wasn’t until 12.30. So we slept in a bit and then made our way to the station. Dad was very excited as we were about to go on the “chunnel” which I have never heard as an expression used for this train but have always heard dad call it this. And he did Wikipedia it and it is infact the chunnel! Go dad! So over the years we have given him so much crap for it and we had to apologise! Anywho, we checked in and had a bit of a wait so all got frappes and mjuffins to fill in the time then hopped on the train. It was fast and ear poppy but just in a tunnel for most of it so relatively unexciting! I reckon they should make the tunnel glass so we can see under the water we’re going through – all the fishys etc! Even though dad made his way down the aisle to the toilet and got thrown so far he almost ended up on one of the other passengers lap, he came back amazed with just how “smooth” the trip was! Made us laugh but i was pleased to see he was enjoying it so much! It was only a few hours to the centre of paris which is pretty amazing! So, we got off the train and realised we had no idea how to get to our hotel. So i wandered up to the info centre and made friends with a lovely Parisian who was very helpful. He gave us a metro map and told us exactly what lines to catch to get to our hotel.

So we went down to the metro and I had in my hands the directions and what we had to do. I hopped on the train ad all of a sudden the doors slammed shut no warning onto mums arm and took off. I was on the train and mum and dad were not! It was a little bit of chaos and everyone was talking to me in French trying to help me with what to do! Then a lady did the international sign for “call them” and I thought “ahhh yes i have my phone!” So i decided to get off at the next stop. Tried ringing mum cos they had no idea where they needed to go. Unfortunately the call wouldn’t go through but thankfully in france they have reception underground so I texted her phone and told her to get on and get off at next stop so we could re-convene! So that they did! Was pretty unny but as we said thankfully it was me that got on first! Imagine if it was dad who was on the train, or left on his own on the platform! We would have been completely screwed cos he didn’t have a phone So from this point onwards we sandwiched him between us!!

We got to our hotel which was really nice and mum and I were so excited cos there was TWO doors between our room and the sofa bed dad was sleeping on so no ear plugs needed!! Faaaantastic! So we unpacked and decided what we needed to do today to fit everything into the schedule Patsy had prepared for us for the weekend! We were going to Moulin rouge at 11.30pm tonight so needed to keep moving and awake till then! So, we decided to go in search of the arc de triomphe! Dad decided he didn’t wanna come cos needed a break from walking which was a shame. So i looked up the metros we needed on the internet before we left and off we went. We got to the first metro stop where we thought it was and it was not! We were nowhere near it! So we spent about 15mins at the giant map figuring out what we needed to do! Naturally my amazing sense of direction got us there faultlessly! And we stepped out of the train station and there in the pissing down rain was the Arc de triomphe! Just in the middle of the road! We took some raining jump shots out the front, wandered over to it and it was 9.50eur to go up the top so we decided against it at the time. And decided to wander down Champs Elysees and find some dinner. We sat looking outwards into the street as most places do in Paris and watched the million diff colours of umbrellas pass us by! We ordered a pizza to share which was nice and had GIANT and I mean giant slices of fresh pineapple on it which was amazing! (see pic!) While we were sitting pondering life and people watching we decided actually we would go up the arc and we were so so pleased we did. It was amazing up there! Looking down at all those diff streets coming out of it in a star shape! It was incredible. And there were cars for Africa with no anes! So much honking and chaos! Such awesome views and such an impressive arc. We saw the Eiffel tower for the first time and took some pics with it in the background. Totally worth 9.50eur! After getting soaked we decided it was time to go and rescue dad and get organised for Moulin rouge so we got on the tube and headed back to the hotel. We were just disappointed we didn’t have time to wander down Champs Elysees at all other than dinner. Next time J

We got back and changed and taxied out to Moulin Rouge and joined the massive queue to get in! Such a late start time so we were falling asleep a bit waiting but we were really looking forward to it also. We got in and got seated in a slightly awkward lil corner but it was ok cos we could see the stage still and got given out free half bottle of champagne each! We couldn’t buy the tickets without champagne so we had a lot on our table! The show was pretty impressive. My fav part was the few slightly diff less naked girls acts that came out. There was a pair of boys who did acrobatics who were amazing. The costumes and everything were just incredible! So, we all enjoyed it alot and I was pleased cos we didn’t know what to expect cos I had heard from a few ppl that it wasn’t worth going, mind you also a lot that said it was great!

So, we hopped outside and we all starving so found a lil random corner store and bought some chippies to tie us over! Then started the mission of getting a taxi home. We tried for about 45mins to hail one and that just wasn’t happening so we gave up and found a taxi stand! We then waited an hour in the stand for a taxi till we were 1 person from the front and we realised we didn’t know the address of our hotel. So I was frantically trying to find the tube station we were near on the map, in the dark, large map with very small writing and my terrible eyesight! Not a good combination! Thank goodness i finally found it only after letting a few ppl infront of us! It was cold and late and we just wanted to get home as we had a big day planned tomorrow! So we managed it despite minor hiccup and were quick to bed! J

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