So we travelled by train from Belifeld, Germany to Paris. It seemed that every time we travelled it rained and the days that we spent sight seeing were fine. We arrived in Paris on the 27th December in the late afternoon, found our hotel and headed out for a look around and dinner. The 28th December was spent on an open topped tour bus making our way around this beautiful city. Although, I must admit we didn't spend much time 'up top' as it must have only gotten to a maximum of 3 degrees the whole day.
The photo above is of the Ponte Neuf which means the 9th bridge, famous for being so very old!
The main highlight of the tour was reaching the Eiffel Tower, JP had been so very excited to see this icon of Paris, although he did get a little upset when he saw the size of the queue.....2 hours we waited in line just to buy the tickets to go up! His diappointment was mainly due to the fact that we wouldn't be stopping at the restauant up the tower for lunch. It was immensely cold with the only relief being the toilets which were heated. Another eye opener for the kids was the number of Africans selling knock off Effiel Tower keyrings. Every time a police man came within cooee of the queues there was a mad dash (even to the point of knocking tourists to the ground) to get away. Explaining to the kids that these people were probably illegally in France and therefore not wanting to stick around. The other eye opener was the very large machine guns that the police were carrying.
As you can see from the photos from the viewing deck we had fantastic weather for sight seeing.
We walked back through this part of Paris to the Champs Eleyese and the Arch de Triumph were we had dinner at Chez Clement, the front part of which is all glass and right on the footpath of the Champs Eleyese. A magic dusk, the photos of which don't do it justice. You really had to be there. As the sun went down (around 5pm!)
the lights that were strung up the trees lining the street came on. There were even some lights in the trees that looked like icicles! Just Magic!
Jarrod ordered snails as frog legs weren't on the menu. As all of us tried the snails we can't blame them for Jarrod throwing up that night! I think it was a combination of fairy floss, snails in a rich butter/garlic sauce and the beautiful creme bulee that was consumed. Poor Steve had to deal with the clean up as I made a quick exit stage left to fetch new bedding, I even sat outside the hotel room until all had been cleaned and de-smelled! Ugh!
