Today we got up early and checked out leaving our stuff at the hotel as we were meeting the boys to go out to the Palace of Versailles. We had to catch the train to one stop, change then catch a different train for about 30minutes out to Versailles. This place really is grand. Louis XIV turned his fathers old hunting lodge into the largest palace in europe and moved his court here in 1678. It was the royal residence for more than a century until Louis XVI and his queen Marie-Antoinette fled during the Revolution. The palace and the gardens have an abundance of features including the marble courtyard, formal gardens and two smaller palaces outside; the main palaces glorious interior with the Queens bedroom, Salon de Venus, L'Opera, Chapelle Royale and the opulent Hall ... read more

Today was a free day but Leona gave us the option of Derek dropping us off early at the Lourve so we could beat the crowd. The tickets to get in were only 10euro and the line wasn't too long especially seems Mary and I found some Contiki people to jump in the line with. We went through security and then got our map to decide where to go. First stop: The Mona Lisa. We found a few other bits anz pieces on the way but this really was the only reason mary and I came in. We arn't big art buffs so we're too interested but we couldn't come and not see the Mona Lisa. It was kinda cool, but we could have been looking at a poster and couldnt tell the difference. It was ... read more

Today was a long driving day. We left the hotel at 9:00am for our short drive to Grasse to the Fragonard Perfumery. Here we were taken thought the process of creating new perfumes, and how they are made and the differences between them. It was really good. We got to see them packaging and making soaps and stuff aswell. At the end the tour guide lady ran through a range of their perfumes and we could buy them at discounted prices. I bought 3. After we drove for ages, stopping at one place on the way for lunch. Eventually we got to the hotel at about 5:00pm so we had about an hour or so in the pool before dinner. The Chateau was amazing. Absolutely stunning and we had big rooms, Marys and mine had two ... read more

Today we left the hotel at 9:00am for our drive to the French Rivera. We drove for about an hour and a half before arriving at our first stop off at Pisa. We had about an hour free time here to take our funny photos with the leaning tower and get some breakfast (as most of us really weren't up to eating earlier). Mary and I took our pics, bought some souvieners then headed to McDonalds, hangover cure! I'd been feeling very average earlier on the bus, not just from lack of sleep and too much alcohol but we were like last on the bus so we got the crappiest seats on the bus, the very back and in the centre. We all had our maccas and headed back to the meeting point for Leona to ... read more

Up early for Derek to drop us at the station at 8:30am. We had to catch two buses to get to the Colosseum for our guided tour at 10:00am. As it turned out we were about 20minutes early which was good because it gave us time to get some water as it was already about 35degrees. The Vatican Tour was good. we went trhough the Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basillica. The whole thing probably went for about 2hours, the only thing was that the tour lady had a very strong Italian accent so at times she was hard to understand. Also, because it was so freakin hot we got to the point where we almost got over it. In saying that, at the end when everyone decided to head to the pizza shop for lunch ... read more