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The Louvre
Just had enough time to take a photo while the sun came out for a few minutes...I arrived in Paris about 5pm and went straight to the Hotel that Barry had booked for us. I had just walked in when Baz came down to check if I was there so a good deal of back slapping and manly hugs followed! It was really cool to catch up and hear about a few new developments from back home. Over the next few days we explored Paris together, visiting places I had already been to along with a few new ones for both of us!
We started our sightseeing the next day by walking around the Louvre for 3 of 4 hours. It is hard to imagine that you could have so much history and art in one place! The only problem is that when there is so much to see you feel like you have to see it all, or at least the more famous pieces, so we were constantly walking around the museum. Needless to say we were exhausted when we finally emerged out into the sun and had to head back to our hotel to rest for a while. On a side note we didn't have to pay a cent to visit the Louvre as
The Eiffel Tower
Not much explanation needed here... we bought tickets from some people just as they were leaving and sold them to another couple as we left 4 hours later! :P
Naturally any visit to Paris is not complete without visiting the Eiffel Tower so one night we headed over to check it out. Baz payed to go up to the top and I spent the time wandering around the base taking photos from different angles. We also walked to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed up to the top, enjoying the views out over Paris. Saw a guy get knocked off his scooter by a bus so that added a bit of excitement but luckily he wasn't hurt too badly. We also visited the Rodin Musuem and saw the sculptures "The Kiss" and "The Thinker".
We dedicated one day to visiting Versailles but only ended up walking around the gardens as it cost 20 euros to go inside. We walked around for a few hours, playing frisbee and getting told off for sitting on a wall and walking on the grass, and then came across a big lake with row boats. We hired one for an hour and set ourselves the challenge of rowing
The Eiffel Tower 2
For 10 minutes every hour the Eiffel Tower sparkles with hundreds of lights! to the end and back. This proved to be much harder than we had anticipated as the boat wasn't exactly designed for speed and the oars were made from metal. Our poor physical condition just made matters worse... However we did manage to accomplish our goal and returned to the start shirtless and sweating profusely! :P
For dinner in Paris we mainly ate food from Supermarkets but one night we headed out and found a nice restaurant to try the famous escargots. The waiter wasn't too amused when he realised we only wanted one entre to share so gave us little attention after that. The snails were surprisingly nice though and we both finished off 4 each down to the green juice in the shell! :P
Blois We had a few days before we were meant to be arriving in San Sebastian so we thought that we'd check out the small town of Blois in the Loire Valley. It is famous for its castles and beautiful scenery. I thought that the best way to explore this area would be to hire bikes for a day and cycle around to a few of the surrounding towns. Baz wasn't too
Versaillles
We didn't pay to go inside but really enjoyed ourselves just checking out the gardens! keen on this but graciously came along.
We set a fairly challenging goal for the day that included visiting two of the most famous chateaus in the area while traversing about 50km of scenic routes. Firstly we went to Chateau de Cheverny, about 20km from Blois, and spent an hour or so exploring the castle and surrounding gardens. Initially I had thought that we would be visiting actual castles that had been used to defend areas of France but when we arrived it became abundantly clear that these "castles" couldn't have defended a vegetable patch... The bulk of them were built as hunting lodges for the wealthy or were holiday homes for French royalty with too much money and little concern for the people. That's not to say that they are not worth visiting and I had a really good time doing the guided tour around Chateau de Cheverny.
Then it was a 20km bike ride to Chateau de Chambord, which turned into a 30km bike ride due to some confused French bikers and some terrible directions we received! (Definitely not due to our imcompetence at flowing clearly marked signs... :P ) The chateau was definitely worth the
Versaillles 2
"What is this?! A centre for ANTS! It has to be at least... 3 times bigger!!!" ride though and it was amazing to walk around inside reputably the most famous castle in France. It is made up of 426 rooms and is in the centre of the largest walled in park in the world! This was probably the highlight of France for me!
The next day we hopped on a TGV and headed south for Spain!
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Dad
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Paris on the cheap!
Well Joel and Barry... you have been able to see heaps of Paris with little expenditure! Reselling the tickets to the Louvre, going by bike, great effort! Loved the photos of the various chateaus. Amazing architecture. Looking forward to news of Spain! Blessings Dad