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Published: October 24th 2006
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Mum and I were off to through France for a week taking in Paris, Chamonix in the Alps and finally onto Nice in the French Riviera.
We started in Paris and had three nights at Le Regent in Montmartre where Liani, Heath, Luke and I had stayed on an earlier trip. The city of Paris is beautiful, there is something so charming and romantic about the city of lights.
On the first day we decided to take in the open top bus tour to give Mum an overall view of the city. Although I had been there before, I saw lots more of different parts of the city on the bus tour. After this we rode the tram back to Montmartre and climbed the many steps up to Sacre Coer. There was a mass taking place so we snuck in and Mum lined up for communion! That night after walking past Moulin Rouge we had a rather hot chilli spaghetti for dinner not far from our hotel.
On the second day we visited Notre Dame, the Louvre Museum and made our way to the Eiffel Tower. We went and grabbed a bite to eat before climbing just on dusk
and got a wonderful view over the whole of Paris from the second highest platform. Mum did extremely well considering she suffers from vertigo!!
Day three saw us relaxing and finding the artists colony - Terte de Place behind Sacre Coer. Mum had been keen to find this as it has been a famous part of Montmartre where all the artists gather and paint. We finished off our Parisian experience with a lovely meal and wine under the fairy lights at a tiny leafy café in Montmartre.
Next day we were off on the TGV train to Lyon for a connection to Chamonix for two nights. The accommodation I had booked was in Les Houches - a small village on the outskirts of Chamonix. On arrival we lugged our bags up the hill and found our accommodation for the night. It was in a lovely chalet right in a very picturesque village. After a good nights sleep, we set off the next day into Chamonix - walking (for what we expected to be an hour, yet turned into about three!). On arrival we were hoping to see Mont Blanc poking out from the clouds but it turned out
to be a cloudy day. At times throughout the day we saw the massive peak, but not for long enough to gain perspective on the enormity of the French Alps. In the afternoon we decided to ride the rack and pillion train up to Mer de Glace - one of the largest glaciers in the Alps. It was an amazing site. The lovely Montveners Hotel sits elegantly on a peak overlooking Chamonix, and if you had some money - this would be the place to stay!!
Next day we were off again (nearly missing our connection which would have meant another day in the Alps!) to Lyon for a connection to Nice on the French Riviera. Much to our dismay, the train was heavily booked coming from Paris, with people and all sorts of vegetables and household belongings! We spent forever trying to find our seat, ended up in first class, only to be moved again when the rightful seat holders got on next stop. Eventually we found our seats sitting across from two rather long legged boys - needless to say the long slow trip along the coast wasn’t extremely comfortable! Having seen this part of France, I
can now appreciate why it is named the Cote d 'Azure - the water is the most beautiful azure blue you can imagine. Nice itself is very busy and commercial, so after a long day traveling we found a lovely Italian restaurant for dinner.
Next day after a leisurely breakfast in our room, we caught the bus to Monaco and Monte Carlo for the day to see how the other half live! The coastline is gorgeous but extremely built up and highly developed. There is a huge amount of wealth in this part of the world and at times, the beauty of the place has been spoilt by hideous buildings and casinos. We went via the Monte Carlo Casino and took our pictures from outside, and took a trip up to the old town where Prince Rainier once lived and now his son Prince Albert resides. The area around the palace is quiet beautiful with loads of trees and small cobble stoned paths and magnificent views over the French Riviera coastline.
After eight days in France we arrived at Nice airport to go through very stringent security checks following an earlier security threat on planes out of the
UK to the USA. It was nice to finally board the plane and we arrived back in the UK safe and sound.
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