Viva la France!

---

Amanda

We have arrived in Paris. C'est trés beau!

We have had a busy few days taking in the sights as well as giving Amsterdam one last peek. We saw a film in a lovely theatre in Amsterdam (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Then we walked through the red light district at night. It was a lot busier and brighter... and more wares were on display...

Since then... On Saturday ae travelled in the TGV (very fast train) from Amsterdam to Paris. I was a little surprised that there were no passport checks involved... At first I was very overwhelmed with being in Paris. I speak very little French and there was another culture to get used to... but I'm doing much better now. After we settled into our hotel (nice room - thanks Denise!), we went for a walk to see the Eiffel Tower... After a while we tried this with a map which was more successful. We have almost as many photos of it as of the wedding! It was just before sunset when we got there... We went all the way to the top and despite my fear of heights it was a wonderful experience (but a little cold). On our way down they turned on some flashy lights... so we have photos of that too. C'est très jollie!

Today we have been very touristy again... We visited the Notrè Dame, Musèe du Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Sacrè-Coeur and had dinner opposite the Moulin Rougè (and debated whether we could afford to see the show at €77 each)... maybe tomorrow... At dinner we found we met 8 other Australians and 2 New Zealanders.. We were also served by a very funny French waiter and I ate SNAILS (tastes like chicken). It has been a wonderful day but I must admit that I am in sensory overload... it is all so different from home and very interesting too!

J'adore le Paris!

Travis

Farewell Holland, hello France!

Ok, my list of things to remember if you visit Holland:
1) Watch out for bikes! (even more than in Japan).
2) Take an umbrella with you because it has a tendency to start raining at the drop of a hat.
3) There are no hills, but expect to climb lots of stairs... I think they overcompensated...
4) Shopkeepers will keep trying to get you to use up your change at their stores... be strong, you need your change for the toilets!

The Tuchinski (sp?) theatre in Amsterdam was nice... was restored to its former glory recently...

The red light district was more lively at night, still... I expected something more confronting...

Paris... what can I say about this city? I can see why people get entranced by it... certainly quite charming... I have found the people here to be more polite (or just less abrupt?) than in Holland, so at this stage am not sure where the reputation of the French being rude to foreigners comes from. Perhaps that would require a visit to the less touristy areas of France?

It's kind of surreal to visit such a monument as the Eiffel Tower... which I have seen so many times on tv and in movies... definitely worth the admission price to get to the top.

As a stark contrast to Holland, France has hills and they have a habit of putting tall things on top of them... In fact they seem to like big stuff in general, so they end up having even more stairs than Holland! I should be quite fit by the end of this trip 😊

The Louvre was huge... no way that you can see everything and process it all in one go... sensory overload abounds...

Tomorrow we will go see the catacombes and we'll see about Moulin Rouge... would be a shame to pass up the opportunity while we're here.

---

Photos

Sparkly Eiffel Tower
C'est très jollie!

Travis loves Milo
Venus de Milo, that is... but I don't think she'd go well with milk, lol

Traffic Jam
A view of the messy roundabout from Arc de Trioumph

Escargot
Amanda enjoying her dinner of snails

Moulin Rouge
A view of the Moulin Rouge at night.

Comments

[Laura]

real pictures?
Wow! I keep forgetting to look at your bpictures because they look like postcards. I think they're just an automatic part of the website. But then I caught the image of Travis with Milo and realized you must be taking the pictures. :) Hee hee. Hope you guys are doing well! We think about you lots!

[Rachel]

Fantastic!
Hi guys! You are probably back now, but it looks like you had a fabulous time! Your photos were really great - have you got the bug for more travel?!!! x Rach.