Paris

To start with a little bit of house keeping, Mike has fixed the website (hopefully) so everyone can comment – come on guys, let us know how things are in New Zealand and if you are all coping with out us.

DAY ONE

After staying in luxury for a few nights, with Andrew and Claire it is time to get back on the road.

We rose bright and early in London ready and rearing to go for Paris.  Boarding the Eurostar at 0735 we were off, destination Paris, the city of love!

After a good train trip through the Chunnel, we proceeded to check into our hostel.  Everyone was very friendly, we were pleasantly surprised. 

The streets were scattered with dogs droppings and the city was a lot dirtier than we had thought it would be.

We dined at a French bakery for lunch which was yummy!

After sussing out the New York and London subway Paris was a peace of cake. . . .  we made our way downtown to the Eiffel tower.  Here we were hassled by hundreds (no kidding) of guys selling little statues of Eiffel towers, who knows how they make any money, there is no diversification of product whatsoever.

 

 

3pm we headed off on the Paris “Fat Bike Tour”.  The bikes were great, just like riding on a couch.  It was a great way to see the city.

Neopoleono

By the time we got back to the hostel it was 9pm, after gathering some ingredients for a home cooked meal.  The girls cooked up a storm in the kitchen while the boys went on the hunt for some beers.

We had a nice relaxing dinner in the hostel.

DAY TWO

It was another early start for us, we planned a trip to the Louvre and were determined to beat the crowds.  Breakfast at the hostel was cereal, croissants and bread (very nice although we are a little over the bread now).

Arriving at the Louvre early paid off we didn’t have to line up for too long.  This place was amazing, you could seriously spend days there and not see it all.  We took the token Mona Lisa photo, below.

 

 

Heading on we went and saw the Arc De Triomphe, madness roundabout with who knows how many lanes of traffic… There’s no lines!

  The 3rd needle on our journey, one last one to see in Cairo

There was one last thing we had to “tick”, actually going up the Eiffel Tower of course! 

We walked down to the Tower getting a little lost in the small Paris streets which was fun.  Once we arrived the lines were so long for a elevator up to the top so we decided to give the stairs a crack.  704 to the 2nd stage of the tower . . . . . We made it and the view was amazing. 

 

     

From here we caught the elevator up to the top of the Eiffel, the view from here gave Paris a whole other angle, it was amazing.

For dinner we dined out at a local French bar, this was interesting to say the least!

For an entree we ordered snails, as you do in France, these were not too bad.  We also ordered Herring – this came pretty much raw and we don’t think we will ever eat that again!

Desert was chocolate moose which was devine! or cheese, this was a quarter block of cheese with a whole French stick!

After eating far too much we needed to do a bit of walking so we walked up the Montmarte which was not far from our hostel.  The view of Paris at night was stunning.