More of Paris

First of all we’ll start with Andrew’s birthday. What a place to spend a birthday, the morning started with Jamie making pancakes in the van which were beautiful. We got into town at about mid-morning and strolled the streets of Paris for a while in 34 degree heat. We walked from the Arc-de-triumph all the way down to the Louvre which was amazing. It’s definitely a street full of beautiful people and expensive coffee’s. We had a picnic for lunch looking over a lovely piece of grass that we of course weren’t allowed to sit on, however it was still beautiful sitting on the benches.

The afternoon was spent walking towards the Eiffel Tower until we found a pub that was playing the Holland Vs Brazil world cup game. This is the part where we had our first dose of French price hiccup. The beer price was really quite reasonable on the board above the bar (2.30Euro), or so we thought.... We asked for a beer from the bartender which he replied, would you like to take a seat, Jamie said “yeah , sure”. When we sat down, they bought our beers over with a bill of 16.40Euro!!! After the initial shock, and a few expletives, we made our way back to the bar, used our Aussie charm and negotiation skills to bargain our beer back down to “Sitting at the bar” prices. We enjoyed a few extra beers and watched The Netherlands destroy Brazil with a lovely couple from Holland who we hope to stay in contact with. After the game we made our way to a local restaurant for some French food for dinner. We had Snails for Entre (absolutely brilliant!), Andrew had Steak Tartare for a main, Jamie had Duck, then we shared Creme Brulee for Desert (Topped with a firecracker and bought with the French version of Happy Birthday thanks to Jamie being sneaky!). After dinner we had a quiet stroll under the Eiffel Tower on the way back to our camp ground.

Yesterday we caught the train to the Palace of Versailles. We went into the Palace itself which was the home to the Kings and Queens of France. We’ve never seen such an opulent residence than this one, the 75m long hall of mirrors was stunning. The Palace was only topped by the gardens outside of it. These are really a MUST SEE if you come to Paris. They are the most manicured gardens we’ve ever seen and are topped with fountains everywhere! We were lucky enough to be in the gardens while they had all of the fountains working and also had classical music playing all though out them. We were shocked at the loudness and quality of music which managed to cover such a large area and you couldn’t even see the speakers, they were hidden amongst the hedges. Hate to think what they would cost!

Yesterday morning (being the first Sunday of the month) the Louvre had free entry for all. As we LOVE free things, we decided to get into town early and try to beat the rush. We arrived just before opening time and were greeted with a 300m line for the entry. Amazingly (because there was no ticket checking) the line dispersed within 10-15 minutes and we were into it. This place is ridiculous! We spent 4 hours walking around, and hardly scratched the surface. We managed to see all the things that were on our list, and got out of there just as the after lunch crowd was arriving (apparently an hours wait in line). This afternoon we went to, Notre Dam and the Catacombs which we unfortunately missed out on by 5 people because they shut! SHIT! Doesn’t matter, we’ll see the one in Rome... After that we (Jamie) did a little shopping on the Champs’ Elysee and purchased a couple more dresses (cause she’s obviously in desperate need for it..).

Today we've done the drive down to Blois which was nice. We're now having a relaxing afternoon getting ready for more sight seeing tomorrow.

A&J xoxo