Day 14 - To Paris (omg) 31/12

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Waking up early wasn't hard this morning. We were heading to Paris. It was one of those impossible things and probably the icon of romance to myself and finally I was about to be there, for New Years Eve as well!

The sunrise was gorgeous and I have to say in the end the countryside is kind of more of the same. It does get a touch boring on the bus (which is horrible to say, I'm in France for heavens sake!!!!) Its the cramped seats I guess, and inability to stop whenever I please to capture the scenery as I like.

For lunch we arrived in a little town named Borne (pronounced Bon). Now if you are a cake person, like I am a cake person, you have now arrived to heaven, literally! I dont know what size this town is but the amount of little cake shops (ok there were at least three) was just stunning, and the variety! .... oh why can't I have at least one shop like that back in Adelaide???? Anyway, as far as the town goes, yet another beautiful example of the older style architect, and did I mention it has cake shops?

Joel and myself decided to buy one from some little shop we stumbled across. Seems weird that out of everything we just picked up an apple flan, but the point and hand signals worked and the way they wrapped up our cake just had me giggling as well! To tie it up in string was way too cute! Joel and myself shared the slice and we have this saying that the flan tasted more apple than apples! Out of all the amazing food we ate, singlely that would have been by far the top of the list. No words can fully describe the sensation of biting into a peice of those apples and the flavour that was extracted. Yes I'm a total cake person.

Borne was a morning tea break. We stopped at another petrol station for lunch and to continue the theme of cakes had to buy a raspberry tart for my lunch as the whole money thing was not necessarily worrying me, but I wanted to have a total blast in Paris.

Arriving in Paris was a surreal experience. We all soaked it up. We were to be heading to the Louvre, as that was the optional tour of the day. Driving past Notre Dame on the way (trust me the next day you will get to take all the photos you want of that building). We chose not to do the Louvre tour, because again the tour only would go for 1.5hrs, and honestly if you wanted to see that place and had to pay that much, you would be better off going to Paris a different time and spending a whole day in the .... um is it a museum? or art gallery? whatever it is 😊

In the end it worked out well as you will find out by tomorrows events. We got to wander around the area and see the top of the triangle thing that pokes out into the square as well as its under ground component, and just soak up the fact we were in france! There were a bunch of trinket shops along the road opposite the Louvre which had an array of products. We went back the next day and bought a bunch of T-shirts and key rings for home.

I did have a minor spat to my son during this excursion. When getting out of the bus and going up through the shops he noticed a McDonalds. So the whole time he was just wanting to get an icecream. It was kind of like, we are in Paris, and you just want to go to McDonalds????? You have got to be kidding me!

This day also proved to be an interesting day in that we get a time that everyone has to meet back at a set spot. When getting on the bus it was discovered that two people weren't on the bus. As we hadn't been told how to get to our hotel and all, it was a bit of a tis. We ended up waiting just over half an hour, which on New Years Eve, wasn't the best timing to do something like that, and when the girls arrived back their statement of we got lost in a toilet was well .... um .... I dont know, how does a person get lost in a toilet?????? Anyway ...

Heading off to the hotel it was dark outside and some of the lights were just amazing along the streets. There was a mixed reaction as to if people would head out into the city or stay back at the hotel for the bringing in of the new year. The way I looked at it, i was only ever going to have one new years eve in Paris, so I went out!

Upon arriving at the hotel which was the Forest Hill Hotel, our rooms were to say small was an understatement! The previous day we were required to fill in the overall view of the holiday including accommodation and then they give us closets to sleep in! we had to put the suitcases on the bed to see inside them and with two suitcases in the room it was just hard to move around. Another good reason not to stay in there for the night!

When we were heading out, another couple grabbed us and told us we had to stick with them as Paris could be dangerous and they didn't want us getting hurt. Catching the train to the Eifle tower wasn't too bad. It was slightly confusing getting to the correct train station but after having travelled the underground in Hong Kong, London and New York, it wasn't too bad. Two trains later and we were walking towards the Eifle Tower, as in the real life Eifle Tower thats in Paris!!!!!

I think my first sight of it at night will always be cherished. It was sparkling like diamonds!!!! They were having a light display, I'm not sure if they do it all the time, but every hour they had this fancy light show. At 9pm they had a special show and again at midnight. It took my breath away! I have to state whilst walking towards the tower there was a bit of a brawl taking place and it was kind of scary, but you keep walking and hope for the best!

I forgot to mention, Paris was actually freezing! Think it was only a degree or two at night and with a bit of wind it was like ice. I didn't dress appropriately 😞 (wasn't that I was dressed for night clubbing, i just didn't have as many layers on as I should have to keep properly warm!). The night was kind of a mist. The haze over the city provided a gorgeous orange glow that then made some of the photos even more amazing. We bought some tea at one of the little food stalls and spent a good hour or two at the tower before deciding to go explore some more.

We tried to cross the bridge directly opposite the tower to go up to the Arc, however for some reason the police suddenly decided to block it off just as we were to cross! Possibly another fight? We weren't sure so had to head down the river a way to get across. Some of the scenery was just beautiful! We ended up wandering our way down the long street from the arc to the big ferris wheel and oblisque (?). Was kind of funny, I was always being paid out over the amount of photos I was taking, the women we went with, man alive, she was snapping litterally everything!

We didn't end up staying out til midnight. With the fact that at times the place could be well a touch dodgy with a few brawls, we decided to get on the train before everyone else was trying to and got back to the hotel at 11:30pm. I didn't feel disappointed. I mean I did get to see Paris by night, and it was amazing!

Ok a Post publishing Add-It Note.

When we got back to the hotel at night time, they once again had free internet in some sections of the hotel. Once again I had a hell of alot of time connecting, and bugged the guys as to why I couldn't connect in their foyer. I think I was over stepping my welcome by the end of it because honestly at times I could get proper connect then other times it would just die on me. That night it was constantly dead. They suggested I go up to the Fifth or Seventh floor, just outside the lifts. Sure enough I ended up with pretty good reception up there, so was able to update everyone and the dreaded facebook with my gazzillion photos.

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Photos

Borne 4
how cute are the buildings!

Borne 5
yep more lamps :)

Borne 6
the cake shop we had to go in

Borne 7
Tied in string :) how cute is that

Borne 8
Worlds most amazing ever cake!

Borne 10
yet another cake shop

Paris
Apparently they must have had markets open and the result is all the fruit and veg boxes just sit on the sides of the roads. Thank heavens we have proper bins in australia for that rubbish!