Day 2 - Dover and France

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Managed to drag ourselves out of bed at an unsightly hour again (by unsightly i mean 8am, a normal time of day for most people, but not a DJ and nightclub manager). We pack up and head off towards the ferry port, which we manage to find it surprisingly easily, and when we get to the check in gate there are no queues and it is really quiet. Turns out the reason it is so quiet as we have tried to check into the cruise ship port instead of our Dunkirque ferry port. We ask the guard nicely if we can go on a cruise seeing as we are here now, but he just laughs at us before directing us back round to the right entrance. Customs at the border are more straightforward than i thought they would be and more worringly, very easy to get through. We merely wave our passports at the guy as he asks us where we are heading then flags us through. Good to see our borders are being so carefully protected. The ferry is massive and the journey to France takes about 2 hours. Greg gets very emotional about leaving Britain behind but i think i got alll my crying out on Saturday night and feel ok about it (for the time being anyway).

Once we arrive in France, we type in the coordinates to Paris, and soon find out we have another 5 hours of driving ahead of us. I didn't realise it would be such a long drive and i don't think Greg did either. The journey is quite painless though and we drive through lots of picturesque little French towns before arriving in Paris, right in the middle of rush hour! It takes us another half an hour to get through the rush hour traffic and think Greg is about to have a heart attack due to the way the French drive, as they drive like absolute maniacs. I can see the veins in his forehead bulging and i know not to dare criticise him or say anything to annoy him at this particualr moment as he may be likely to kick me out at the side of the road. The drivers cut across lanes, buses just pull out in front of us without warning and motorcycles drive on the wrong side of the road when overtaking other cars and each lane is a free for all. Quite glad now i am not insured to drive here! Greg does an amazing job of getting is there in one piece and we don't even get lost once (sparing us an argument i'm sure). So far we have done approximately 850 miles, only another 1000 or so to go!

The hotel Villa Monsiour is an Andulucian style hotel and it's very stylish and chic. The receptionist is very friendly and speaks perfect English. It makes us feel ignorant that we can't speak another language fluently. Have to laugh at Greg as he can't get his head round the fact we are in France and not Spain, so he keeps trying to say "Si" instead of "Oui" and "Addios" instead of "Au revoir". The room itself is very chic indeed, it has blue glass lamps on the tables, coloured tiles in the bathroom and lots of iron wall art and decoration. The only downside is that there isn't even enough room for me and Greg to walk by each other at the same time at the end of the bed. Paris hotel rooms are tiny! Still it is lovely, and a great choice from the Gregster. What better way to start the holiday with some (semi-warm) champagne along with some fresh locally bought strawberries- delicious. Manage to finish half the bottle and it would be extremely easy to finish off the rest, but we decide we should keep the rest for my birthday tomorrow. There is a fridge in the room so we put the remaining champagne inside it and randomly i have a metal spoon in my bag (as you do) so i put it in the top of the bottle to stop it going flat (does this even work? i don't know).

We don't have any time to do any sightseeing today as we only arrived at 6.30pm, so we get ready and then head out for some dinner. We choose a nice looking restaurant at the end of our street. The waiter speaks absolutely no English at all which adds to the fun, but he does state he speaks Spanish and Gregs eyes light up (finally he can say "Si" and "Addios" without people looking at him strangely). The guy turns out to be from North Portugal and assumes we can speak perfect Spanish so we still don't understand half of the things on the menu as he is explaining them, which again adds to the fun. Greg ends up with salmon as a starter and i have a selection of cold meats, then we both have meat skewers with chips. Not exactly typically French or very posh, but tasty grub non the less.

We decide to brave the metro system to travel up to the other end of the city to see the Moulin Rouge after dinner. The metro system is a dream- very easy to manouvre and only takes about 20 minutes to get from the very South of Paris right up to the very North of Paris. The moulin rouge is good to see but the area itself is quite tacky and sleazy. There are a lot of dodgy people about and a lot of strip joints. We still stay for a beer (not in a strip joint) and nearly fall off my chair when the barman tells us we owe him nearly 14 euros for a medium and a small beer! Paris certainly ain't cheap and we knew that, but it still comes as a shock.

We head back to the hotel as we are pretty exhausted and by this point it is well after midnight, but we aren't too exhausted to finish off the rest of the champagne. Well, it is officially my 30th birthday after all!!

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Comments

[linz]

Bonjour
Hey Nic and Greg, very much enjoyed reading your blog, I don't know how you find the time to compose such a wonderful detailed script of what you have been up to! you are very dedicated to the cause! Makes lots of fun reading, thats for sure missy! Well done Greg on the driving, I know I wouldn't be brave enough to drive in Paris! Glad you managed to find your way around Paris. I remember seeing the Moulin Rouge - quite magnificent, although you are spot on about the other surroundings! Still ... when in Paris, you absolutely have to check out all that is there!! take care and can't wait for your next installment! Where are the photo's from your party Nic Nac?? x