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Published: June 19th 2009
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Ahhhhhhhh what a week it has been! More life changing events happening and more chaos in my life. It has been a crazy time but all things happen in threes and my three happened in Pareeeeeeeee.
After an early rise on saturday morning Jen and I made our way to St Pancras Station to catch the eurostar at 6.55 am. As soon as I got there disaster struck as I realised I had left my passport at home. GRRRRRRRRRR
Jenny and Claire jumped on the train and I jumped in a taxi, raced home and raced back. The train had still not left the platform when I returned but I had missed the half hour before boarding check-in time. So I waved them goodbye and waited for the next train 45 minutes later. They would later meet me at the other end. Taking the Eurostar to Paris was a great experience. It was really lovely to go through customs so quickly and not feel the anxiety of the take off and landing in a plane. The train is soooooo smooth that I was asleep in an instant and before I knew it, 2 hours later I was in Paris.
Once the
girls and I met up we headed straight to our hotel where I would get to see Natalie, one of my best friends from Oz. She was on a work trip and decided to spend a couple more days in Paris so we could hang out. I was soooooooooooooo happy to see her that I almost cried. There was so much to catch up on and now that I am back in london I can't help but wonder if we caught up on everything we needed to. After our emotional greetings we hit the city and boy oh boy did we walk. Of course you all remember how much I love to walk. I have discovered that Paris has some pretty long streets that lead you to many different places only problem is you have to find your way back. We did a tiny bit of shopping..... well Claire and Jenny did. Nat and I just followed along yak yak yakking the whole way. We ended up at Laduree's (http://www.laduree.fr/); The home of the worlds best french macaroon and believe it or not there was a line that took us about half an hour to get through. But let me
tell you it was worth the wait. These macaroons melted in your mouth and the centre fillings were the perfect sweetness. I ate all eight in one sitting. Figured it's better to just eat the lot and get it over and done with!
After making our way through the line at Laudree's we did a quick stop at Fauchon, just another famous sweets shop and then it was on to the Champs Elysses. As we walked we saw loads and loads of people enjoying the sun and baking themselves in the parks. Lots of children were climbing statues, playing chasings and cooling themselves off in the water fountains. Once we hit the Champs Elysees we stopped at a very retro bar and drank cocktails while watching people pass by. By this stage it was 7pm and we were feeling exhausted. We caught the metro back to the hotel, I squeezed in a quick nap and then we headed out for a very memorable dinner.
We ended up at a tiny and very squashy restaurant called Hugos. It's food was lovely. We started with Foie gras, which is fresh goose liver then I moved onto lamb. It was delicious and we
were having a great time. It was so great I did not notice the slippery fingers behind me and the second bad thing to occur on this trip. Acouple had sat directly behind us, and we were really, really squashed in. After about 10 minutes they suddenly got up and walked out without ordering a thing. We did think it was strange but just assumed they were leaving because of bad service. Later that night I took my wallet out of my bag to pay and discovered I had no money in it. I thought this was strange but also thought that I had left all my money at the hotel when I changed my wallets over that afternoon. All was fine. Jenny leant me money and we moved onto the main strip for bars. I also had the opportunity to catch up with Sarah Limonelli who was also visiting Paris on route home so her and her friend Steph vcame and joined us for a few drinks. By 1 am we were all tired from our busy day of walking and decided to head home. Besides, Claire was wearing a short dress and was suprisingly getting hassled which I
would never have thought would happen in France. Getting home was an absolute nightmare. Taxi change over was at 1 am so there was not a cab in sight. We ended up having to walk all the way home and did not get back to the hotel till 3am.
The next morning I was the first one up. I was on the prowl for my money which I thought I had embarassingly left at the hotel the night before. I searched for over 1 hour, packing and unpacking my bag, stripping the bed and scanning the floor like a vaccum cleaner. But no sign what so ever. Claire had noted that she had found her bag opened to and suggested that someone had stolen my money. I decided after all my looking I would go with her assumptions and decided the 80 euros I was carrying was gone.
Trying to look at the positive we headed to the jewish sector for some yummy falafel and a peak in all the shops. Then Nat and I seperated from Jen and Claire and met Sarah and Steph at the Eiffle. Ahhhhhh the Eiffle. Last time I went up at night so it
With the girls
Catching up with Sarah Limonelli was great to go up in daylight. Nat forced me to walk up all the stairs because she refused to wait on the long elevator line and my fear of heights came back just a little. But once we made it to the first level we sat and talked for about 1 hour and this gave me loads of time to acclimatise. We went to the second level but the line to go to the top was way too long and I was satisfied with the level we reached (of course). Sometimes I still can not believe I jumped out of a plane! For some reason I don't think that it is the Eiffle Tower represents the symbol of love. When we made our way back to the bottom it was what we saw around the grounds that brought the city of love to my mind. There were hundreds of couples and friends relaxing on the grass and soaking up the sun. It was so nice to see families playing and guys playing their guitars. The feeling of love was certainly in the air and then.......... Nat and I walked into a big white mess!! Brides galore getting their wedding
photos in front of the tower. I think I counted 10 but there may have been more.The classic was the amount of white stretch limos decorated in red carnations that lined the road. People just stood and looked in shock. Every bride was wearing a puffy dress and I have never been so afraid of weddings in my life ha ha ha ha.
We met aup with Claire and Jen a little while later for cocktails then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Nat opened a bottle of champagne and before we knew it it was 10.30 and none of us felt like going out. We ended up getting an early night and were up at 4 am to catch the train back to London. We arrived back at 8 am and I was at work by 9 am. Kind of depressing actually. But I was pretty zonked for the next two days.
2 days later I did a random check of my bank accounts and discovered some unusual purchases on my card. Panick stricken I checked my wallet and sure enough the card was missing. 120 pounds at a take-away pizza place and 400 pounds
at the pharmacy, not to mention a few other transactions and someone had rung up 900 pounds on my card. It was at that point I realised I wasn't going crazy- I had my cash and a card taken from my wallet. Can't believe I missed the whole thing!
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