Lyon to Paris

Europe » France
August 7th 2007

Published: June 5th 2008

Edit Blog Post

kduncadunc

Fountainbleu

Beautiful, massive chateau.

We woke up expecting a long, busy day. Since we had taken it easy last night, waking up and being alert wasn’t a problem! We took an early service stop then drove until we made it to Fontainbleu.

Fontainbleu is an amazing chateau that has been used to house Popes and even Napoleon. After listening to Paul’s history, I have a lot of respect for Napoleon, despite his ghastly actions. Any time you can get people to follow you without question (as they obviously did with him), even if they don’t want to, it’s impressive. Anyway, we had time to wander around the immaculate chateau. The gardens were massive and were amazing! You could really get lost in the gardens and surrounding area. The buildings were actually being refurbished. Seeing the original colors made it pop even more. We were only there 45 minutes which hardly seemed like enough time.

After we left, we went straight into Paris! It was looking like rain, so we started our tour before going to the hotel. Once again, we got a lot of great history about the amazing city of Paris. These European cities amaze me- there is something gorgeous around every

Tour

Driving tour past Notre Dame.

corner. Every turn there is something else that will catch your eye! We drove by all of the major sites, stopping at a couple for pictures (namely the Eiffel Tower), then went to the hotel.

The hotel isn’t too bad tonight! It’s not too far away from the city centre, and it’s a nice hotel. It figures that we start and finish with really nice hotels! We ate at the hotel then set off for our night excursion to the Eiffel Tower. It was still light when we arrived, and it as raining a bit, too. The fact that it was raining ended up being beneficial for us, as the line to go up in the Tower was surprisingly short! We had a good time as we made our way to the top of the Tower. We joked around a lot in line, taking tons of photos. It was a gorgeous view from the top. You could see all of Paris. As we were making our way down, the sun was setting, and it was gorgeous. Bel and I got some delicious hot chocolate at the bottom of the tower…yum!!!

Anyway, we were told to meet Paul at

Eiffel

The Eiffel Tower.

10 at the base of the tower for a special surprise. At 10 o’clock sharp the Tower lit up and sparkled! It was amazing! Paul and Thierry met us with bottles of champagne and a speech as we all toasted what could be our last night together. It was nice! Apparently the tower lights up every hour on the hour starting at 10! Once we were all done taking in the sight, we started walking across the courtyard to get back on the bus. Of course the boys were all excited to see more street vendors. I think they ended up getting a whole sack of miniature Eiffel Tower key chains. I purchased a miniature glass Eiffel Tower that lights up, and got a couple of the cute key chains too. Super cheap souvenirs!

When we got back to the hotel, we all went down to the bar. After a few too many scotch on the rocks, I started mingling with some other tours that were down there. It was nice to chat with new people! There was one group that was just starting, and one was just finishing up their tour. Once the bar closed, about five of