Advertisement
Published: September 4th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Eiffel Tower
A view from the top When we first hopped on the bus with 50 other people our Tour Manager Kerith stood up and told us ' firstly you need to understand that this isn't a holiday, you will get grumpy, you will have long days and long nights and you will be exhausted' -that was no exaggeration at all.
We headed to the Ferry at Dover and arrived in Paris at our first 'Contiki Special Stopover' in the afternoon, we were greeted with a small glass of french champagne, had some dinner and then went on a short bus tour of 'The City of Lights' with a short stop to see the Eiffel Tower at night.
We learnt very quickly that Baz (bus driver) and Kez were serious about being at our meeting points on time because we left three people at the Eiffel Tower and they had to make their own way back to camp and it was only day one!!
A Contiki 'special stopover' means that Contiki have rented out an area of the campground. They set up a big Marquee and that's where we eat breakfast and dinner from -while we are staying in that campsite. Other times we stayed
French Restaurant
My table at the French Dinner (all the aussie girls) in Youth Hostels and sometimes were upgraded to Hotels - we always had a room with a bed and electricity so that's the main thing!
In each country we would arrive in the afternoon after spending the day on the bus then spend two nights and one full day in each place before hopping back on the bus again.
I really enjoyed Paris the second time around because I didn't have to try and cram in everything I wanted to see like alot of people did, also I wasn't suffering from jet lag so that was a bonus!! That evening back at camp we all got to know eachother over a few (too many) drinks so I decided the next day i'd try and pace myself as we had a whole month to go!!
We visited Napoleons Tomb, the Thinkers Garden and Saint Chapelle and that evening had dinner at a french restaurant where I had Escargot (I sort of figured I had to) and then went to a rather amusing and very americanised Cabaret Show called 'Nouvelle Eve'.
Next day we headed to the Beaujolais Wine Region, along the way we stopped at Fontaine Bleau
Louvre
The Louvre, and next to it the fountain that we washed our feet in a beautiful big Hunting Chateau and on arrival had wine tasting in an on-site cellar before getting ready for our 'Tight and Bright' party in 'The Cave' that evening. Little did we know this would be the first of a few 'Contiki' parties that we would be expected to dress up for.
So much for my 'slowing down the pace' as I was feeling a little slow the next day!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0329s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Trent
non-member comment
the cave
haha the cave i remember that place... everything is the same from when i did it