Today is a free day in Paris. After breakfast we were given a choice of three drop-off locations; the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumphe or the Concorde. Figuring we’ve seen the Eiffel tower and didn’t need to go shopping down the path from the Arc de Triumphe, we got off at the Concorde which was closest to the Louvre. It ended up we were the only two people that wanted to get off there first, everyone wanted to start further away and head towards the Concorde. It’s great that I’m travelling with Diem, we havn’t disagreed on anything yet.

After we were dropped off, we went to run some errands. We first stopped by a bakery and had a second breakfast, being in France we just had to try the coffee and pastries ya know.. It was sorta difficult ordering since we didn’t know French and the Indian lady didn’t know English. So with a bit of pointing and nodding I got some cake-like flan, and hot chocolate (I thought it was coffee), Diem got some coffee and pastry. They were all very good. The flan was more like pudding pie, it was hard on the outside and pudding like on the inside, although not as soft as pudding, but softer than cheesecake. After we finished we found an atm, got more cash, then to the public phones to call home. Errands done, we’re ready to go to the Louvre.

We got a bit lost trying to find the entrance to the Louvre. We didn’t know it was under the pyramid. After going all over the place looking for an entrance we eventually lined up with a bunch of people at the pyramid. Some Americans behind us asked if it was the line in to the Louvre, we told them that we didn’t know but sure hoped so since it was starting to get hot.

We stayed in the Louvre for about 5 hours. It was just about enough time to see all we wanted but not even close enough time to really take a close look at everything that was in it. The place is absolutely amazing. It is so big and there are thousands of pieces of art. Dave told us that if we were to spend 1 minute on each piece, it would take about 9 days to finish. Fortunately for me, I’m not a huge art fan. We pretty much strolled through the rooms, stopping to look at the more famous pieces like the Mona Lisa.

The Mona Lisa is very popular, there were signs everywhere leading specifically to the painting. When we finally reached the painting, there was a huge crowd in front of it. Taking pictures near it was next to impossible. Both Diem and I ended up with nasty shots of our big heads in the foreground and the tiny Mona Lisa in the background. The painting is encased in a special glass case that allowed us to take flash photography, but the glass made the pictures turn out green.

I’m not too big into paintings, the type of art I like are sculptures, namely Greek, Roman and Italian. Some famous ones are the Venus de Milo, and Psyche and Cupid. I took tons of pictures, I even took pictures of ones I found pretty but didn’t know the names to. Good thing for digital. :P By the time we were done, my legs were aching.

There was no pickup today since we’re scattered all over Paris, so around 5pm we headed out to look for the metro to take us back to camp. It was very tricky and confusing. We knew we had to take the Red A2 line but it was so difficult to find. When we finally saw a stairway leading down with a red A symbol we decided to follow it. It was a metro station all right, but there was no one in the ticket booth and the ticket vending machine was broken. We stood around looking like idiots not knowing what to do until an asian guy coming out of the metro took pity on us and used his day pass to let us through.

Once underground, the nightmare started. It felt like an ant nest, everyone was in a hurry, speed walking past us, hurrying down the stairs, running, bumping, rushing, rushing. Diem and I walked as fast as we could, trying to read the signs and head towards the right direction before we get pushed by the mob elsewhere. I felt that if I tripped and fell I’d probably get trampled over. After about 10 mins of turning into new tunnels, going down stairs, and trying not to get run over we found the A line. We got our €1.30 ticket (at least it’s cheap) and proceeded down to the train tracks.

Aftere we got there we were lost again. We had trouble finding the right side of the track and the right train to take. they had announcements over the PA system but we couldn’t understand a thing. Trains were coming and going every 5-10 minutes. There were screens hung on the ceiling of each side of the track, all the cities were listed with a little light next to it. But it didn’t say when the trains would be coming. A train came but we decided last minute not to get on because the screen didn’t light up next to the stop we wanted to get off of. We were going to head towards the other side of the track, figuring maybe our train was on that side. After a few steps Diem turned around and looked at the screen again, and this time the light to our stop lit up! 30 seconds later our train came and we hopped on. Whew, that wasn’t TOO hard.

After we got off we found the bus stop that would take us back to camp, after an hour’s wait and a 30 min ride, we made it in time for dinner.

After a breakfast of fruit, cereal, eggs n potatos this morning, we piled into the coach to go back to Paris. We were first taken to the Chateau and the Garden of Versailles. The Chateau is huge! It took Kin Louis XIII 50 years to build. The place was great, the only problem is that all the rooms were connected by a door at the end of each side. I don’t know if it was originally built this way or not but to get to any rooms you had to go through all the previous rooms, like one long hallway. After a while all the rooms started to look the same.

At the pick up time three of the guys almost missed the coach because they were late. We learned that the coach doesn’t wait for anyone, you either be at the coach on time or you find your own way back, good thing I brought a $6 watch from Wal-Mart. After the Chateau we were dropped off at the Concorde for the rest of the afternoon.

We made our way to the Notre Dame for some pictures and to see inside the great cathedral. Like everything else so far, it’s huge. I kept thinking of the Disney movie, the Hunchback of Notre Dame… I wonder where the bell tower is… The stain glass windows inside are beautiful. There are a few really really big ones. I snapped a dozen or so pictures of the windows and archs before leaving.

We then had lunch at a café nearby. Lunch was extremely expensive, the club sandwich (ham and boiled egg on a baguette) I had was €7.80, and the chocolate crape I shared, €6.50. The cost of Evian water was €4.50 for a regular bottle and €5.00 for coffee. Man, how do people survive! I hope it’s this high just b/c it’s a tourist spot…My lunch was a good €13 without drinks… there goes my €5/day lunch budget for the trip…

After lunch we slowly made our way back to the bus, checking out postcards and posters along the way. I bought a few, but now I have to figure out a way to keep them from getting smushed… the posters don’t come with a poster container, they don’t sell it either. Gosh, if I set up a stand here selling only poster containers, I’d make a fortune!

The coach took us back to get refreshed for an hour or so. Afterwards we went back to Paris for dinner and cabaret. Diem, Ester and I didn’t go to the dinner because it was optional and we opted to go and wander the city and find dinner ourselves. We walked around looking at old postcards and letters dating back one hundred years ago. Esther loved the postcards and got a few for herself. I was a bit wary of it, postcards written by people long dead seems pretty scary to me. We also stopped to check out some antiques that people were selling in the little alleys. We found dinner at a pizza shop and met back with the group to watch the cabaret show.

The show, called la Nouvelle was pretty good, not as good as some vegas shows but it was a good experience. We each got half a bottle of champagne but most of us didn’t finished more than 2 glasses. By the time we were done it was midnight. After we got back, we grabbed a beer and then got ready for bed.

Got up at 5 am this morning, didn’t sleep too well the night before. It was warm, humid but dry at the same time. I kept waking up every 2 hours. By 6 we were downstairs with the rest of the group, there are 42 of us on this tour. We weighed our luggage (allowed 20 kg), loaded the suitcases and boarded the coach. And we’re off! Our trip has begun!

We took a ferry to France at the port of Dover, it was a very large ferry, holding tons of trucks, cars and most importantly our coach. Dave had mentioned that the coach would be with us everywhere, I didn’t know he really meant it literally, I thought we would change coaches every once in a while between countries.

Inside the ferry we found gift shops, cafes, bars, restaurants and a money exchange bureau. After exchanging for some Euros, we grabbed a slice of pizza and a juice. I’m not a juice drinker, but Diem and I were determined to stay as healthy as possible so that we don’t get sick, so that means eating my fruits and juices… yuck…

Contiki Paris Cabins

The 90 minute trip took us to France where we reboarded the bus and started the drive to Paris. We first stopped by the Contiki village where we’ll be staying for the next couple of days. It’s a very small camp, consisting of about 20 cabins. The cabin holds 2 people in each of the 2 rooms. The rooms are Tiny!! It’s just a room containing 2 bunk beds, that’s it. Once we got our luggage into the room there was no room wo walk. No wonder they only allowed one piece of luggage I dubbed it Camp Snoopy after some of the dorms at college.

After putting our stuff away we went out for welcoming wine, escargot (French for snails), and dinner. The escargot was gross, you had to pull the animal out of it’s shell with a toothpick. It looked like the big snails I use to see all over campus after it rains. The escargot was cooked and topped with some funky green, moss looking topping. I tried not to think or look at it before popping out the thing and swallowed it. Yum… not really….Esther wanted to make the experience memorable so she ate two of those suckers.

Inside of cabin

After dinner we went on an evening tour around Paris. We went all over the place, checked out the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triumphe, Eiffel Tower, the Concord and a whole bunch of other buildings, I couldn’t possilby remember all of them as Dave introduced them while we drove by. We all clambered to the side of the coach to take pictures through the window. Most of my pictures didn’t turn out so well with the glare from the window and all. I’m sure we’d get a lot of chances to take pictures tomorrow, but being first day and all we’re all pretty excited.

We had a stop at the Eiffel Tower for about 20 mins to take some pictures. The structure is huge, I’ve been to the Tokyo tower in Japan and I had thought it was about the same size, but The Eiffel Tower looks much much bigger. The coach dropped us off on the far end of the tower and picked us up underneath the tower. While we walked across the park towards the tower we saw the coach park underneath it, it looked so small in comparison.

We also took a spin around the Arc de Triumph. There are 12 streets entering and exiting the roundabout. Dave turned up the music and Richard took us for a really fast spin around the roundabout (a few times) scaring the heck out of all of us. It looked like total chaos. I thought we were sure to hit something. Especially those tiny two seater cars the French seem to love.

The city of Paris is really beautiful; most of the buildings are very old and have a lot of intricate decorations. Everything had a lot of detail, the windows, doors, walls…It sure would be nice to live here.

Sunset in Paris

By the time we got back it was quite late, some people stopped by the bar for drinks but I went back to shower and sleep since tomorrow is going to be another long day.