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Published: July 15th 2015
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France...what a delight! I finally decided to do some driving! Originally I thought it would be 30/70 split but since we arrived in Europe I haven't done any so 3/97 is probably more reasonable. Naturally I have been back seat driving the whole time we have been on the road so driving on the right wasn't too hard. It also helped I was pretty much on highways and quiet roads the whole time so no need to freak out until I have to give way to the right. It's a stupid rule the French have and sometimes they do it and sometimes they don't. For example if you are on a round about then the person on the round about stops, mid turn, and gives way to the person entering the round about, the Arc de Triomph is the perfect example of this occurrence. For obvious reasons when we visited, we walked.
Anyways before arriving in Paris we did have to make a quick stop in Eperney, not far from the nation's capital and the home of Champagne, Moet and Chandon, Mumm, Mercier and all that fancy pants stuff. A tour and a tasting at 10am was a perfect start
to the day before heading into Paris!
The sunset was amazing the first night in Paris and the Arc de Triomph rose to the occasion, that thing is incredible! We thought we walk, it was a nice enough evening. The walk took around 50 minutes down and the way back took around a million years, this night time walk was awkward from the beginning and progressively got more awkward. We started out walking through a park which was more like a forest. The forest had a lady that looked like a man, a ladyboy street walker! But then they appeared more frequently, and more trashy to the point where they were just wearing underpants. Not sure if anyone has have ever walked passed so many streetwalkers but it was awkward, I mean where are you supposed to look. Is it rude to ignore people? In this case, no, go for it as it turns out smiling at them will get you a dirty look back. Just keep walking. So we keep walking. Then there was a waterhole with rats as big as a cats. Probably beavers but they really looked like cat size rats. Just keep walking, oh another
streetwalker, just keep walking. Omg an abandoned house, then a gingerbread house. Then we are back to the wiz and what a happy site. Such a short story for a million year walk but it was weird....aaaaand we were only gone for an hour, where we walking backwards? Ah forget it, tomorrows a day in Paris!
We were staying in a Paris caravan park for 4 nights figuring free camping in Paris would be difficult. These next few days we ran around Paris, cathcing the Metro and trying to do as much as we could. Typical touristy things include the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomph, Notre Dame and Paris Catacombs. We didn't make The Louvre but did go to some nice places like the Luxembourg Gardens, Sacred Heart and the famous Pere Lechaise Cemetry which I hadn't heard of but super glad we went, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and Chopin are some of the famous peeps buried there. The highlight for me was definately seeing the Eiffel Tower glitter in the evening, it takes until around 10 for the spectacular scene as the sun stays up till very late in Europe. Nothing can beat it!
Before we leave
Paris there are a few pitstops to make. One is to Disneyland, omg omg omg yay it was so much fun, and the other to see my beautiful friend and her baby. It's so amazing to see old friends in a totally different city on the other side of the world. It also makes you miss them more when you leave.
But onwards, upwards and we headed to Normandy to view the D Day landing beaches. Ironcially, this area also turned into Eamons battle scene and the worst few days of his life (probably not the worst it for arguments sake)! The fridge went kaput, the hot water started leaking badly, nothing was going right. I hadn't seen Eams frustrated like this all trip, it was the same frustration as when Collingwood plays badly so you can imagine how bad it must have been. I'm pretty sure if we had a coffee table it the wiz it would have been destroyed. I don't blame him either, he is such a fixer that takes on all the responsibility and I'm useless I usually have no idea what's going on. Anyways we had no choice but go to a motorhome repair
shop. They plugged the hot water so we have to boil water for showers but at at least nothings leaking. They couldn't fix the fridge completely either but were pretty good guys, they gave us a free part and at least we have some cool. All Eamon wants is cold beer...
So as for the war stuff around Normandy there are whole heap of left over German bunkers, probably around 12 in one particular spot and they were massive. All the other beaches were just interesting to see and if you visit one of the many museums littered along the dubbed 'Operation Overlord' beaches you can see how they would have looked during the war and how many people died on their sandy shores. Pretty sad but they do look amazing now!
On a little less sombre note we are heading to the Loire Valley (Chateaux Region!) I'm writing my blog listening to all the Triple J Hottest 100s. Until we fix our laptop this is all the music we have which doesn't suck.
Will check in again in the next couple of weeks, god knows where we will be!
Later gators! X
P.S. Here's
a long fun fact/story. French people do not speak English. It's not like Holland or Northern Belgium where it's their second language. People just do not actually speak English. We have had to make a number of phone calls for Wizz parts which have just ended in "Merci, Au Revoir" which is "Thankyou, goodbye". It's all just too hard sometimes. Somethings though are just the same as at home - when paying for things at the supermarket you say "Bonjour" which is a good start. Then the lady will say something really fast "dbdjd chĂȘne soudĂ© such jibber jabba", we believe she is asking if you have a rewards card in which you reply "no". You pay for your things, say "Merci, Au Revoir" and leave. If she says anything else we usually just stare blankly....works a charm. There was this one time Eamon said "bonjour" instead of "merci" and I said "merci" instead of "bonjour"....and you don't realise until you have finished your conversation how retarded you must seem to them. But it's all fun and what's expected and suprisingly we have not found the French rude at all, but I'll confirm this a little later, there's still a
whole lot of France to go.
TL:DR
- Driving in France is stupid
- Champagne at 10am in Eperney followed by an amazing week in Paris
- Normandy D Day beaches explored
- Eamon is ready to kill the wizz, more broken stuff
- Shock factor, French people don't speak English
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