The travels of Tim and Megan: Paris, France

Saturday

Our weekend in Paris was brilliant. After an early start on Saturday morning and a slight hiccup, as our train broke down for half an hour just before Paris, we arrived around lunchtime. It wasn't long before we got to put those high school French lessons into use when we had to ask a local how to get to the street that our hotel was on. Success.

We quickly dropped our bags at the hotel and headed for the Champs-Elysees. We didn't realise how massive it was, it took us ages to walk the length of the famous avenue. Although we were stopping in at a few of the massive stores along the way.

Tim got beaten up by a cake from a little patisserie. We stopped to check out all the chocolate and sweets in the patisserie and Tim decided to buy a French tartlette. It was delicious, but it crumbled, collapsed and then pretty much blew up in his hand, leaving him with chocolate all over his hands and face...very amusing. Once we finally got to l'arc de triomphe, Tim managed to convince Megan that it was a good idea to climb the few hundred steps to the viewing platform at the top. We are glad we did, as the views of Paris were amazing.

We then headed to the Eiffel Tower, and we had already decided that we would not go up the tower on this trip, which turned out to be wise, as the queue was a few miles long. After lazing on the grass beneath the Eiffel Tower, we got some dinner at a nearby restaurant and then headed to the Stade de France. Another train breakdown meant we were kept about 15 minutes longer than necessary packed in like sardines in about 35 deg (they don't seem to do air con in Paris) listening to a girl with the most annoying American accent you have ever heard, go on and on and on and on...

The Stade de France is a fantastic stadium (other than the fact they don't serve alcohol inside). It has a capacity of around 85,000 - 90,000, and on Saturday night it was almost full, with 80,000 screaming French fans and about 16 Ukranians. This is the venue for the Rugby World Cup final later this year, and it really does put Eden Park to shame. Despite no Thierry Henry or Patrick Vieira, it was still a strong French side that took the field and Frank Ribery (the next big thing in French football) had an amazing game. He was everywhere and he scored the first goal in a 2-0 victory for the home side. France now top their group and are well on their way to qualifying for the finals of Euro 2008! We also acquired a French flag. The stadium had left about 20,000 French flags on the seats for the fans to wave, and wave them they did. It looked awesome.

Sunday

Sunday morning started with a bit of a sleep in, as we were both knackered. After a croissant and juice for breakfast, we went on a one hour boat cruise on the River Seine. It was great way to see some of the sights and to get our bearings. After a very French lunch (filled baguette and pain au chocolat) we wandered past Notre Dame (again massive queues) and walked around the two islands in the centre of Paris. There were hundreds of little boutique shops from chocolatiers and ice cream parlours to second hand bookshops and craft stores. Very cool. We must say that our French speaking skills were pretty good. Tim wore his French football shirt on Sunday, which meant the shopkeepers all assumed we were French. Most of the time we could figure what they were saying, but we got caught out a few times!

We then walked past Le Louvre (that place is enormous!!!) and got a photo by the glass pyramid. There is a big garden right next to Le Louvre, and we lay on the grass there for a while enjoying the sunshine (it was beautiful weather the whole weekend, almost too hot at times!).

Then we had a final walk down the Champs-Elysees, checking out a few more shops, before we picked up our bags and headed to the train station and back to London. We are already planning our next visit!!!