Paris - City of Blinding Lights

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New Years Eve is always a great occasion to get out and party and 09/10 was no exception. A group of my friends all planned to meet in Paris under the Eiffel Tower.

A couple of us opted for a coach tour to Pairs for 3 nights. It started with a ferry crossing of the English Channel. This was a bit of a non event as the famed White cliffs of Dover couldn't seen because of fog. Another group of friends took the shorter option and popped across on the Eurostar.

The first outing on our tour was for dinner in the latin quater of gay Paris. There was a real buzz about the area as all of the restaurants tried to lure us in, but finally it was a man with a crazy mostashe and beret that tickled our fancy. We had a set menu and some good french wine. I tried a snail, but preferred the French onion soup, steak and intensly rich chocolate mousse that I had. From here we did a night our of the sights of Paris: Notre Dame, Lourve, Av des Champs Elysees (avenue of diamonds and rubys) and Napolean's Tomb made a great impression - the Eiffel Tower was shy and was hiding behind the clouds.

Our first day of exploring Paris was New Years Eve, we headed out to Notre Dame and joined the million other tourists in a 2 hour queue to get to the top of the tower. The wait was well and truely worth it. The sky was heavy and gave a gloomy outlook over Paris that had the scary gargoyles in their element. The Eiffel Tower was still shy and hiding behind a layer of low cloud. We were begining to have doubts that it even existed, or that it would come out at midnight for a show. The eire feeling continued up the
stairs and into the bell tower, where you could easily imagine Quasimodo scurrying around. From the top of the cathedral there is a magnificent view of Paris.

In the afternoon our two groups merged and after wandering along the Av des Champs Elysees and past the Imperial War Museum we headed to the supermarket and pick up some €0.75 bottles of sparkling wine, totally champange in our eyes! We headed on to one of the hotel rooms and partied on for a few
hours. At about 10.30pm we armed ourselves with cheap wine and crossed our fingers that we would see the Eiffel Tower as we caught the Metro at about 10.30pm. We were in luck and joined the party to await the countdown at the base. At midnight there was a great lighting display on the Eiffel Tower,
it was lit up with all the colours of the rainbow, a very impressive sight.

New Years Day was a slower and more sedate affair, our tour group had a boat cruise along the Sienne River past all of Paris' highlights. We were also lucky enough to see a little snow falling, although it did make the day rather chilly. After the boat cruise we mainly spent the afternoon wandering the streets and just soaking up that oh so cool Paris atmosphere. In the evening we joined up with the others again and headed back to the Latin Quater for a great big cheesy meal of fondue, it was great. We tried
a local club that evening and managed to see waiters and bar tenders dancing on the counters, all cocktails coming out with sparklers in them and at one stage a sparkler was given to everyone in the bar (including us) and we all lit them for Black Eyed Peas 'I got a Feeling'.

For our last day in Paris we headed to the Arc de Triomphe, where we climbed up for another fantastic view of Paris, this time the weather was amazing and we had a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower, up the Av des Champs Elysees to the Lourve and across to the Sacre Coeur. We then took a wander down along
the Sienne river back up towards the Notre Dam. We stopped for a bite to eat in a patisserie and I got a citron tart that was so rich, smooth and yet so tart that I still dream about it.

We said our farewells to gay Paris, knowing full well that we will be back again soon!

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Photos

The Louvre
(photo had to be done)

Comments

[sue]

paris
wow yet another exciting trip you certainly pack in the sightseeing. keep it up enjoy reading about your adventures luv Sue