Advertisement
Dear Peeps
Have been coming back to the apartment / hotels and just falling straight into bed so have absolutely no time to write about our adventures. I'm only writing now as I'm in my room sick with a cold! By the way, it's still freezing here. Today we had a top of 10 degrees!
On our last day in Paris we went to the Musee du Vin (wine museum) for lunch where the waiter gave Dad free cognac and then hit on me when Dad wasn't looking. The museum is based underground in an old quarry in the middle of Paris which was later used as a cellar for the restaurants based in the Eiffel tower.
We then strolled across to the Arc de Triomphe which mum and dad kept calling the Champs de Elysees (I finally explained to them that the Champs de Elysees is the actual street). Mum made it up another flight of steps to get an amazing view of Paris, I on the other hand may have done my hip...
We did a quick bit of shopping on the Champs de Elysees and are proud to announce that we did not get
Arc de Triomphe 020
Mum at the top of the Arc de Triomphe pickpocketed!
After eating out and getting absolutely trashed in our apartment we woke up the following morning and made our way to the airport to get pick up our car. We got a BRAND NEW Mercedes that only had 8km on the clock. I drove a couple of times around the airport which helped in practising to drive, but was more so because our sat nav couldn't get a signal and we were absolutely lost. The Merc has a built in sat nav so we relied on French directions to get us out of the airport. I am now very au fait with my gauche and adroit.
Driving on the right hand side is hard, mainly because it's very difficult to judge where the car is on the right hand side of the road. Got a few beeps from some cabs but finally made it out onto the highway. We started to sh!t ourselves when the sat nav started to take us into Paris, however we just skimmed the top of the city so it wasn't too bad. I finally made my way to Giverny, after getting lost and nearly crying after Dad yelled at me for my
driving!
Giverny is where Claude Monet lived and it houses his gardens, which are famously depicted in his water lily paintings. Our visit was quite brief as we were running late so we only visited the gardens and the museum and not Monet's house as the queue was huge!
After approximately 4 hours of driving we made it to St Malo which is on the North coast of France. Our hotel overlooked the ocean and was about a five minute walk from the walled city. St Malo is known for it's great seafood so I pigged out on a massive seafood platter whereas Mum and Dad were a bit more subtle with their seafood risotto and fish. Dad was scared to walk down the little alleys of the walled city but I just walked off and he was forced to follow! He was glad he did as beyond the alley was the rest of the town, a maze of narrow alleys housing a multitude of restaurants and shops. The town was built in approx 1100 but much of it was destroyed by the Germans during the war. You can't tell though, as the city seems so old and
is absolutely gorgeous.
Yesterday we woke up and made our way to Mont St-Michel, one of the main sites that I wanted to see in France. Dad went ballistic with the video camera so if you want to know all about the site just ask him to play the CD, he's captured every nook and cranny possible.
Mont St-Michel was basically an Abbey built on a rocky outcrop in the ocean that was established in the 6th century. It's amazing to think that people back then could have built something so magnificent when today it takes two years to build an overpass from Hoppers to Point Cook! Dad and I went crazy with the secret passages. They're everywhere! Love a secret passage.
We are now in Amboise and as I said earlier, I'm a bit sick so am moping about in the room. We visited Chateau du Clos Luce which was Leonardo Da Vinci's home in the last three years of his life. The home also has his gardens and many of his inventions displayed there. There were so may school children around that it was a bit hard to see much of it, however Dad and
St Malo.Mont St-Michel.Amboise 047
Mont St-Michel (me looking quite tall against mini door) I did find another secret passage. Ace.
Tomorrow we're going to head off to visit the large Chateaux in the area as it's been at least five minutes since we've seen some French opulence!
Peace Out Peepolas
PS: Mum and Dad just came back. Dad has once again been to the "Pharmacie" (the 5th time) and has brought me back some French drugs. Can't read the instructions so I'll just OD on them. He then offered me some booze as apparently they're across in their room getting pissed...again! Nothing like mixing alcohol and drugs. They haven't had one sober night since they got here. Their excessive alcohol consumption may explain the argument I had with them today. They're trying to tell me that Amboise is on the ocean...um it's almost in the centre of France. We just drove some 4 hours from the ocean! Crazy old people.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.317s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.1031s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
BeckyLou Yokel
non-member comment
Hip replacement?
So you may have "done a hip" huh..... or perhaps, more likely, you're walking with a severe limp after catching up with the waiter from the Musee du Vin??? LMAO! x