The Lourve

Eventually we made it through Jean de Tuileries, and into the area around the Louvre. We got heaps of photos (again) of the glass pyramid. I always associate the pyramid with "The Da Vinci Code" now, and being there was amazing.

Given that by now it was 8pm (don't let the sunlight fool you), we decided to head into the Louvre to have some dinner. The Louvre itself is not just the art gallery/museum that I had thought it was, and to be honest I was quite disappointed by its commercialism and the materialistic nature of it all.

We went downstairs on our way to the foodcourt, and of course stopped to take the obligatory photos with the upside down pyramid, again another icon of the Louvre. However, we were surrounded by Virgin Media, Esprit and a variety of other stores. Starbucks was just around the corner. Not what I expected at all.

Given that we still had an hour on the train to get back to Disneyland where we were all staying, we decided that after dinner we'd head home. A good thing too - I think we were all just about ready to sleep on the train!

Walkies

You couldn't half tell that we'd come from London that day, and that London was not as warm as Paris. We all had jeans, long-sleeved tops and jackets, so it made walking in the beautiful sunshine just a little warm. Having said that, I will never begrudge sweating after being so cold for so long!

Once we'd made our decision to not go up the Tower, Tour Guide Matt told us that we could walk down towards the Louvre and Notre Dame. I believe that the itinerary at that stage included a walk across the 'cool bridge', which ended up with us actually not walking over that bridge, but another one, and taking photos of the cool one.

We wandered along the side of the Seine, pausing now and then to marvel at various things, such as the group of homeless people who were using a big chunk of marble as part of their home. Only in France! We eventually went past the Palais National, amongst other things, and ended up at an intersection where if you looked left it was the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe, and if you looked right it was the obelisk, Jean de Tuileries and behind that the Louvre. Banana and I of course had to go and stand in the middle of the traffic just to take photos of each thing!

We also paused for a moment and considered hiring bicycles to continue our journey, but ultimately decided not to. We'd already seen how I wanted to get around - segways! So cool, and I wanted one! I had no idea where to get one though, so we kept walking :(

Next up

After getting to the right hotel, we checked in (early, I might add - another sign that the French's reputation might not be deserved), and then found out that actually we were one stop away from Disneyland using the overland train. Awesome.

We negotiated the use of the automated ticketing system, and found our way back to Disneyland in order to catch up with the others. Once there, and having located our mates, we left it to the boys to figure out what kind of train ticket we were going to need. After all, the rest of us being mere females, we couldn't have read the map or thought for ourselves!!!

That put us on the train into Paris, relying on Matt to tell us where to get off (sometimes a dangerous thing, to rely on Matt, but our tour guide was awesome). We got off at Charles de Gaulle, and realised that the metro trains, the equivalent of the tube, actually run on rubber tyres. Strange but true! I did take photos, but none of them have turned out clearly.

From there we came back up to ground level, just across the road from the Eiffel Tower. It was another 'wow' moment; one where I realised that I truly am living in Europe, and it's not all some kind of weird extended dream. We took about a bazillion photos - luckily Matt and Mil were patient with us tourists! They had been there before, which is why we were relying on them.

We didn't end up going up the Tower, as there was a huge queue, and with only a couple of hours in Paris, we wanted to see as many sites as we could.

Disneyland!

We arrived at the Eurostar station at Disneyland, and our first battle was to find our way to the hotel. Armed with the instructions from the hotel website, and my trusty printed Google map, we thought we'd be pretty set. To make sure, I asked a customer service guy which bus to get onto. Well, that wasn't as useful as it seemed. We found the right bus stop for the bus he'd told us, but it didn't appear to be useful in getting us to the hotel. Instead of wasting a good half a day trying to figure that out, we decided to cab it the first time, and we could figure it out after that.

Again, not as useful as it seemed. We waited in the taxi queue for one to drive up and over the gutter to get to us (not kidding), and jumped in. We hadn't even gotten past the bus stop when he stopped and asked for directions - first clue that we might have made a mistake getting this driver. He was honked at by several other cabs, so he drove off, seemingly in the right direction. WRONG! He dropped us off at another hotel, in the middle of nowhere, and charged us 12 euro for the privilege.

Realising that he was useless, we went inside and asked about where we were and how to get where we needed to be. The lady there knew where we were supposed to be, and she was in the middle of ringing the cab company that they always use, when another woman came out and told us that she would drop us off in their courtesy coach. It was great - didn't cost us anything, and dropped at the door. By this point we were wondering about why the French have their reputation!

The City of Light

A group of us decided to head to Paris for the first bank holiday in May. There were 6 of us altogether, all Aussies, and two of the girls were celebrating their birthdays, so our main destination was Eurodisney.

Because Banana and I were late additions to the trip, we weren't on the same trains as the others, and we didn't stay at the same hotel. That didn't matter - we were excited enough about going abroad as it was, and by train no less!

I had to get up bright and early (OK, dark and early) to be on a train just to get to London by 6.40 at the latest. Banana and I had made plans already to meet on the platform at one of the tube stations, so that we didn't have to face bank holiday crowds at St Pancras on our own, having not been there before. We met up (although Banana didn't recognise me with my newly blonded hair), and headed over to St Pancras.

All was going well, and then Banana just about fell over when one of her favourite bands, Keenan (not sure if I spelt that correctly) came off a train. She wasn't overly excited beforehand, but she was then!

Anywho, she picked herself up, wiped the drool off her face, and we were off to DISNEYLAND!