FRANCE Bonjour mon ami

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We made it to francais, and yes my thoughts on france first time round were a little harsh, but not overly. i ,ust say a big thankyou to a random french guy who helped us with directions at the station. in my experiences so far you are the only helpful french inhabitant i have encountered. on that note, if there is any parisians or other french inhabitants out there who wish to dispell my first impressions of the people of france as an internationally ignorant and unhelpful race then please get in touch.


Friday May 18

Today was awesome. our complimentary breakfast was somewhat peculiar. a roll, apple sauce in a bowl and jam with hot chocolate: strangeness prevails....
from there we continued to the grounds of the Louvre. we didnt venture into the ,useum because it is cheaper on sundays. After searching for a phantom tourist bureau we ventured towards the Arc De Triumphe along the Champs Elysee; which is a much further walk than it looks. the view from the top was worth it though.



the most famous attraction in Paris is, quite obviously, the Eiffel Tower. we had lunch under this grand attraction and then continued past Les Invalides- an old army hospital.

Saturday May 19

Breakfast was still peculiar so we skipped it and went to the supermarche. i actually ventured into Les Invalides today. it is the home to five different museums including artefacts from medieval times (this exhibit was fantastic), world war 1 & 2 and Napoleons tomb.

we spent so long in this place that it was time for lunch. where else but Tour de Eiffel. slept on the grass for a few hours until it was time to go get Pip ( friend we met on our Paddy Wagon Tour) from the train station. we got Pip checked into the Hostel qnd then ventured towards the Eiffel tower for dinner via the Louvre. dinner wasnt bad but i am yet to find a fantastic baguette in this country.



we watched the sunset and the lights of Paris come alive from the top of the Arc de Triumphe, a simply amazing sight to see. the Eiffel tower must sparkle it's lights for 10 minutes every hour.


Sunday May 20th

What a day today. we walked for 8 hours straight...crazyness!!!! the Louvre is the most amazing sight i have seen (except the Alps) i lost Brad and Pip somehow and walked straight through them again an hour later and i didn't even see them!! amongst the famous things i saw today were the Monna Lisa, Venus de milo, so many things i cannot remember. from the Louvre we had lunch...yet another baguette. after the Louvre we headed for the catacombes. Pip was treated extremely rudely by a police officer when asking for directions but we managed to find the place easy enough. the catacombes are a strqnge tourist attraction...the bones of 7 million parisians buried under the city on old quarries.

after the catacombes we headed for Notre Dame to check otu the archeological crypt of the ancient city. not that exciting to be honest. i have pulled older limestone out of my backyard.

SUBWAY - we managed to find subway in france and it was fantastic. it still doesnt compare to subba's back home but the bread is slightly wider and the fillings a little different

Monday 21st May

today we were forced to have a fairly lazy day because most things in france are closed on a monday. it seems a strange concept to close tourist things on any day but hey they do it. we got up fairly late and then decided to head to Montmarte, a really old part of paris and the location of the sacre couer - a church built in memory of the franco-prussian war. the building itself is fantastic and the architecture was amazing.

apparently asian food has become as parisian as frogs legs and snails (which we didnt mange to try because i didnt see any signs that said frogs legs and snails.

Tuesday 22nd May

final day in paris and the plan was to head to versailles and then to Amsterdam (where we have ended up going because we couldnt get accomodation in normandy) we woke up late, ran late and that really sums up the day. we managed to store our luggage at thew train station and then my ticket (2 day pass which had been working for three days, good old french) decided not too work so Brad and Pip ended up on the train to versaille without me. i managed to find a train to versailles and jumped on it. funnily enough the train pip and brad were on was the wrong one so they werent going to make it to versailles anyway. i got there had a quick look at the train station and then turned around to head back to the station to catch our train to amsterdam

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