Hi guys,
Apologies again for the delay in blog update. It just means this one is going to be an absolute cracker, no pressure.
So when I left you last I was about to head onto contiki. And what an incredible two days it has been since then. A 5am wake-up running into our french roomies coming back from their soiree. We jumped on the coach and went straight over the white cliffs of dover, through customs and onto the english channel for the 1 and a half hour ferry ride to the sunny shores of France (debatable) I very quickly found out that we were in a completely foreign place as they drove on the wrong side of the road, looked at you weirdly when you started talking English out of habit and you had no idea what each road sign meant. However, this was a blessing in disguise as it forced me to pick up quickly what I had left behind in yr 11 french and it is surprising how much i remembered. Although most did understand english they appreciate it if you give the local language a try and fair to say a couple of the contiki-ers were relatively impressed. We arrived in Paris, hit our hotel, had a rushed dinner, left two people behind for being late and we were off to the Eiffel Tower for night one. WOW!!! What an incredible sight, driving through Paris at night, all lit up. We passed through the louvre courtyard and past the infamous glass pyramid, along the river seine past notre dame and war museums. It is just such a beautiful place. The set up makes it almost impossible to drive around but in the hands of our trusted driver Chris we made it for an hour wait and a 5 minute lift trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower and get blown away (literally and metaphorically speaking)
Day 2 consisted of free time in which we were allowed to explore Paris at our own pace and see whatever we most wanted too. My group voyaged up the Champs Elysees, did some shopping whilst listening to Parlez Vous Francais? certainly some odd looks there. Visited the Arc de Triomphe which also provided an incredible view of Paris and its construction. The most treacherous round-a-bout in the world and you can understand why. There are NO LANES!!!! You just go wherever, whenever and hope someone else stops. This provided some entertainment in itself. We made it down the other side of the busy street, bought un chocolat chaud et un croissant (hot chocolate and chocolate croissant), got caught in a terrential downpour before making a b-line for the Mona Lisa and the Louvre. It is such a phenomenal place and one more that I can tick off my growing bucket list.
Notre dame cathedral was next and this was one of my highlights so far in the trip. A gothic cathedral, it contrasted so much to the cathedrals we visited in london and provided for an eerie but beautiful space with some incredible stain glass windows and similarly impressive stone work.
To end what had been an incredible day already, we dressed up and were off to the MOULIN ROUGE!!! We sipped $80 bottles of wine and ate caviar and duck, sirloin steak and the best mouse i've ever tasted!!! And this was all before the show even started. Dancers and dancing were impressive but I found that the acts in between scenes were brilliant!! Jugglers, acrobats, swimmers who dove into a pool and mucked around with snakes, comedic actors. All made the night one to remember. And yet it was only young. The party moved next door to an Irish pub where its fair to say yours truly comprehensively started and destroyed a dfloor after a few too many sips of french wine and with the night danced away we arrived back at the hotel at 4 and ready for a decent nights sleep.
What an amazing couple of days, and it only gets better. Today we're on the coach travelling off to Lucerne, Switzerland. Can't wait for the next set of stories to come across.
One fun fact for you and what an incredible one it is:
-If you were to spend 4 seconds looking at each piece of art in the Louvre it would take you 9 and a half years to see everything!! Wow, mind blown!
So until next time, watch this space.
Dillon
P.S Photos are coming soon i promise
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