bonjour!

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bonjour!

(heading to Paris we set our tourist level to 100%!)(MISSING)

DAY NINE:.
With the alarm set at 3:30 we already knew we were in for a long day.. with the plan to be in the car at 4:15 the whole morning was last minute hecticness for the little bits and pieces we'd forgotten. Whilst dad and his brother where preparing to go to the UK mum, my little sister and myself where planning to have 3 days in Paris. Non of my family has ever been there so we intended to be hardcore tourists! Leaving home in the big dodge we arrived at the Amsterdam airport at 5:30 with an easy hour to spare, so that we could sus ourselves out and where to go. With it being super early, we decided some energy was in order so a stop at Starbucks was obviously the way to go. I ordered a chocolate muffin with chocolate and a hot chocolate supreme. I considered coffee, but with the little sleep i had, had i still intended to sleep on the train to Paris.
The speed train called the 'Thalys' which travels the distance in just under 3 hours averaging a speed at roughly 200km/h. We sat with the three of us in a little booth and closed our eyes as soon as we took off. I woke a few times, but i think it's fair to say i slept most of the train trip.

Arriving in Paris we were expecting a gorgeous 25 degrees and sunshine all day. Unfortunately.. that wasn't the case. With pouring rain and really cold weather, the dress i had arrived in wasn't quite going to be enough. We caught the subway from the where the train had docked to Bastille, which wasn't too far from the hotel we were staying at. Paris itself is insanely hectic, everyone is rushing around the metro stations and driving like crazy with there hands always on the horn! People where walking all over the place, or dining at the numerous amounts of cafes on the side walks. The buildings where all gorgeous and full of heaps of character and history.

Our first stop was 'Hotel Sully' to drop our bags off, being not allowed into our room because of cleaning we were left with not much of an option but to face the rain. Thankfully the man was kind enough to give me keys to a random room so i could dress to handle the weather. Leaving the Hotel we agreed that food was the first option, there was a nice little 'Boulangerie' (bakery) just a block or so down the road from us. We noticed that there was a sign saying 'under new management soon..' but we thought nothing of it. I ordered a hot dog looking thing, i was starving so i just went for whatever looked the biggest. it was a hotdog in a baguette with melted cheese over it, and it had been toasted and heated, IT WAS DELICIOUS! Mum and my little sister both went for croissants because it felt appropriate for being in France. As we ate that we tried to seek a little nook that we could hide in and keep out of the rain a little, but the idea was useless.

Mum had planned a little adventure in the area of the Hotel we were staying in just to get a feel for Paris and the sort of scene it has. We looked at some older buildings like 'Place Des Vosges' and the 'Musee Carnavalet' and 'Rue des Rosierr'. Whilst looking at all the buildings we ducked under cover to hide from the rain we stumbled upon a stretch of buildings dedicated to artists and all just beautifully unique art. Photo's weren't permitted but i tried my best to sneak a few through the window, it was all just to nice to ignore. From then we figured there was not much point hanging around in the rain so we took the metro to 'The catacombs' figuring that whilst it was raining we could go underground and stay out of it. But unfortunately it seemed like alot of other people had the same idea. The que for it stretched easily 2 blocks back! thankfully we'd only been standing there for about 5 minutes when a lady that worked there told us that they'd be closed at 4 and we'd never make it to the front. So that was the end of that idea. By then it was about mid afternoon and we headed back to the Hotel to bring all of our stuff up.

The hotel room we got given.. wasn't great, but it was enough to get by. Considering it was in the middle of Paris and we only needed to sleep there, we didn't have much to complain about. Seeing that we were all living on the 3 hours of sleep we'd had and whatever extra we had on the train. As soon as we made our way to the room we pretty much just collapsed in a heap and slept till about 7. By the time we woke we were all starving and it would start to get dark by 10:00pm, so we made our way to 'Tour Montparnasse' which was a big high rise building with a viewing platform. It overlooked the 'Eiffel tower' and the 'arc du triomphe' and all the buildings that had lights on them and along the road, it was quite beautiful. Before we made it to the 'Tour Montparnasse' we stopped for dinner at a little restaurant called 'Cafe Le Petit Pont'. Mum had a steak tartare with lemonade, my little sister had eggs briad and a lemonade and i had a paysan panine and a milkshake. Not really taking to much consideration of the cost of it, it wasn't until the bill arrived that our jaws sort of dropped. Our entire dinner had come to a whopping 69.10 euros! Calling it a special occasion and thinking nothing more of it we paid and walked to the 'Tour Montparnassee' the sun began to set at 10:00 and then we got told the every hour, on the hour for 5 minutes the 'Eiffel Tower' lights up, so of course we were going to hang around untill 11:00 to see that! And believe me, it did not disappoint. Once the light show had stopped, the top deck was about to close so that was our cue to leave.

We followed the elevator down and looked for the nearest bus stop, mum felt that taking the bus back to the Hotel would be a little safer than catching the subway underground at midnight. Luckily for us there was a bus running to a destination that was only a metro stop from the Hotel we were staying in. We finally arrived home, climbed our 5 flights of stairs and just died! We were so exhausted that i don't even think we made it to say goodnight to each other. But all and all we made a nice day out of one that was bucketing down rain. So it was a good start to the holiday!

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Photos

the lock bridge.
people go here, to lock up their secrets and throw the key into the river.