Exploring Paris

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I woke up excited today because we had a free day in Paris and the weather was perfect. After breakfast we all grabbed our things and jumped on the bus as Billy drove us into Paris and dropped us off just by the Eiffel Tower. Hannah and I rushed off the bus and quickly walked toward the incredible Eiffel Tower taking plenty of photos along the way. It was such a beautiful structure it was so much better than I had ever imagined. From a distance we could the massive lines of people waiting to go up so Hannah and I quickly joined the end. We planned to take the stairs as far as we could then take the lift right up to the top. We waited around 30 minutes before we bought tickets and began to make our way to the top of the Eiffel Tower via the stairs. We climbed 328 stairs to reach the first base, already I was amazed by the beautiful views. We circled the first base take photos then decided to continue up to the next platform.

We climbed another 340 stairs and finally made it to the second platform, by which time we were exhausted. But the views from here were brilliant, I circled the platform taking photos while Hannah had a bit of a rest to catch her breathe. Shortly after, we lined up in another massive line to buy tickets for the lift to the top. We finally got them to find we had to line in yet another line for the lift, however most of the people lining up didn’t realize that you needed to buy tickets where we just came from so it quickly got shorter as everyone left the queue. Eventually we made it into the glass elevator and were on our way to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The view from up here was just breathtaking. You could see the entire city of Paris in every direction it was absolutely stunning. We spent a while up here taking photos and admiring the gorgeous view.

We eventually made our way back down and took the 668 stairs all the way down to the bottom. What an amazing experience, something I wanted to do for years and it just blew me away. Afterward we decided to take a boat ride and go all the way down past the Notre Dame and back. It was more lining up for tickets and more lining up to get on the boat and we only just made it onto the boat, the people behind us had to wait. As we sailed down the river I took photos of the scenery as we passed it. We went under some beautiful bridges and then on past the Louvre. We circled the amazing Notre Dame Cathedral then headed back the way we came. We decided to get off at the Louvre and go have a quick look around outside. We wondered around to the front and I got some photos of the entrance with the unusual but impressive glass triangles. We didn’t actually have time to go inside because we had to get going to meet at 3PM for a bike tour around Paris. We bumped into some other guys from our group and we all walked back to the Eiffel Tower to meet for the bike tour.

After a long walk we finally just made it to the meeting point and meet the rest of the group who were doing the bike ride. We sat and listened to the guide talk about the Eiffel Tower and afterwards had a 10 minute walk to the bike shop. When we got there we dropped off our gear, bought some water and chose our bikes. Soon enough we were ready to go. Our tour guide was an American guy who told us to ‘Dominate’ the road and ‘Dominate’ everyone, we all thought it was hilarious. For the rest of the afternoon we rode around the streets of Paris, stopping every now and then to talk about different areas of the city. I really enjoyed it, it was good fun and all interesting what he had to tell us about this wonderful city. At the end he took a photo of us with our bikes in front of the Eiffel Tower then we rode back to the shop and dropped off our bikes. We walked back to the Eiffel Tower and sat on the grass in front of the Tower while we rested until we needed to meet back with the rest of the group.

After an hour of chatting and relaxing with a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower we headed to where we were meeting everyone for a picnic dinner. As Gavo prepared dinner we sat around chatting about our amazing day in Paris. Dinner was soon ready and one by one we lined up to grab some food, the one catch was that everyone had to try escargots. Most of the group did, but I managed to escape trying one. There were so many left that after dinner we had a competition. Four of the guys volunteered to eat as many as they could in two minutes for the chance to win a bottle of champagne. Perrin won by eating around 27 snails, he struggled to keep them down afterwards but was ok in the end. After the food was cleaned up some of us got changed ready to go out to a cabaret show in Paris. It was quite expensive so there were only a few of us who did it in the end. Around 10 of us were dropped off at the theatre while everyone else went on a river cruise. A table was ready for us and free wine as well, we took a seat and soon after the cabaret began. It was a great experience, with singing and dancing and naked woman everywhere. By the end we were all drunk and had an awesome time, we finished with a group photo with the host on the cabaret stage.

As we were leaving Jamie told us that he had some good news and some bad news. The bad news was that the bus had broken down, the electrics weren’t working but the good news was that we got to spend some time in a pub. We walked down to the pub had a drink and it wasn’t long before a replacement bus came to pick us up and took us to our regular coach to grab anything we needed, then quickly returned to the campsite. Some people stayed up drinking but Hannah and I were so tired we pretty much went straight to sleep.

Day 2:
Paris
0 MILES TRAVELLED // 285 TOTAL
Camping Du Tremblay

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Photos

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The stunning Eiffel Tower on a beautiful day in Paris

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The parklands around where the Eiffel Tower stand.

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A close up to the breathtaking Eiffel Tower in the centre of Paris.

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Awesome view from the second tier of the Eiffel Tower with the shadow in the background

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Stunning view over Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

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Another amazing view over Paris, with the Arc de Triomphe in the background.

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Yet another spectacular view over Paris from atop of the Eiffel Tower.

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The group on our awesome bike tour around Paris.

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View of the Notre Dame Cathedral from our boat on the Parisian canals.

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The Louvre Museum is absolutely massive, the impressive glass pyramid is the main entrance.