If you had told me a while ago that I would be in Paris four times in one year I would have told you that you were crazy! But luckily for me that is exactly what happened! This time was only the third time as and we were back again because our west loop (through Spain and France) started from Paris. We were lucky enough to grab a quick day in Paris before we were off again!
The downside of this whole thing is the time wasted between cities. We had a fourteen (14!) hour bus ride between Munich and Paris which was definitely a bit of a struggle. Luckily for us we had an amazing tour guide who just let us sleep and popped on movies when we were about to go crazy from boredom. The best part about Busabout is that they play movies that are related to either the city you have been in or cities you are visiting. This time we got to see the Moulin Rouge and the Da Vinci Code so seeing all the sights in those movies sort of got me excited about being back in Paris. On our way into the city we had a bit of a guided tour on the bus where we got to see all the sights, the beautiful old buildings, the pretty parks and all the big sights so after being in the city for less than an hour I was already in love with it again.
I have to admit I wasn't expecting much from this visit - i honestly thought I'd use the day to look for jobs and organise the next leg of our trip. Turns out I was completely wrong! After a quick bite to eat we passed out in our beds after an exhausting ( I dont know why cuz all we do is sit down) day on the bus. The next day we decided to head into the Notre Dame as this was the one thing that I wanted to do but hadn't yet had the chance to visit inside - due to public holidays and other pressing tourist attractions. So far we hadn't had much luck with the weather but on our one day in Paris the sun was shining and the skys were clear and I couldn't have asked for a better day to see the view from the top of the Notre Dame. Caroline decided to give it a miss so she went and did the other Parisian thing to do and have a coffee and croissant while I climbed the 400 steps up to the top. It was a beautiful view over the city and I actually preferred it to that of the Eiffel Tower. At the top of the tower everything is so birds eye its just specks on the ground but at the top of the cathederal it is high enough to see beyond the main buildings but you are at a better level to see the sights - plus the Eiffel Tower is in your line of vision which makes for some good photos. While I was up there I saw the bell 'emmanuel' and saw all the gargoyles. Im desperate to read the Hunchback of Notre Dame now that I have been there - well either that or watch the Disney movie - because it was referenced so often throughout the whole place. Inside the cathedral was beautiful but not one of the best I had seen. I much preferred the one in Prague (aren't I spoilt now?) but it was still a nice place to visit.
While standing in the line for the Notre Dame I experienced one of those small world moments - I ran into a guy that i went to highschool with. Who would have thought we would run into each other in Paris of all places. That's the second time its happened now (the first one was in London) and I kinda have the feeling it probably wont be the last. It was shame because we only had a few moments to chat before he had to run off but it was still a cool experience all the same.
After the Notre Dame we had a quick walk around the Latin Quarter and saw all the cool shops and funky cafes.
We then headed to the Arc Di Triomph as Caroline hadn't seen it up close. It was fun to stand there and watch for a few minutes while we spectated all the crazy Parisian drivers. We didn't witness a collision though which was a bit of a disappointment due to the average of it happening every 6 minutes but we did see a few near misses. The tour bus just drove on there like Kamakazies and people on bikes and scooters weaving everywhere. It was intense and if i had a picnic and somewhere to sit in the shade I could have stayed there all day.
We headed along the Champs Elysees and had a bit of a browse along the shops before we headed to Louis Vuitton which was one of the high end stores that Caroline wanted to visit. We had to line up for 10 minutes before we were allowed into the shop. Once we were in there we had a bit of a browse. It was intense - there was a separate level called 'females universe' which held all the shoes, bags, wallets, keyrings etc. They even had their own library with books about Louis and all the history. They even had their own luxury bathroom. It was an experience to even be in there - even though I was wearing my pluggers, t-shirt and shorts. Not the classiest attire to visit one of the most famous fashion labels!
After Louis we spent the rest of the arvo wandering the famous shopping street but I was a good girl and resisted buying. We headed back to the hostel where we ran into a few people from our bus and decided to have a picnic by the water. After stocking up on cheese, dips, crackers and drinks we headed down to a canal nearby our hostel and sat on the edge and feasted away. It was nice just sitting in the sun, chatting and relaxing and basically just taking in the summer in the city. There were people out playing soccer, walking their dogs, picnicing and basically just lazing around. I could have easily spent the rest of the evening there but me and Caroline had to go back and get ready because we were heading to the Moulin Rouge!
We had been umming and ahhhing for a million years about whether we should go while we were in Paris. It was a bit of an expense and were we really that keen? After getting tickets through Busabout for 88 Euro (which included a bottle of champagne) we thought we couldn't pass up a bargain like that! It was lucky we decided to go when we did because it was booked out all week except for that night! The only downside was that it was the 11pm show so we had to stay up nice and late just to get in. We got all dressed up (well as dressed up as one can get when she has no clean clothes in her backpack) and headed to the Moulin Rouge where we had a bit of a wait before getting seated. I was so extremely under dressed (its cocktail attire - boys can't wear jeans) in a black summer dress and flat shoes while all the girls around me were wearing cocktail dresses and heels. It didn't really matter in the end though because I was more excited about the show.
Once we got seated we were lucky enough to grab a place right next to the stage so we got right up and close in the action. We got given our bottle of champagne (yay! real french champagne!) and settled in to see the show. It was so incredible. I don't really know how to describe it. There was so much going on - the costumes, the dancing, the singing, the boobs everywhere! This is going to sound pretty dumb and feel free to laugh but it didn't really occur to me that all the singing would be in French. I don't know why this was a surprise to me but needless to say I had no idea what was going on in the storyline. I know it was a love story but apart from that I couldn't tell you a thing. Another thing I didn't really realise was that there were guy dancers in the show. I've always just assumed it was all about the girls in their skimpy costumes and stuff. The boys were definitely a nice view in their skimpy costumes thats for sure!
It wasn't all dancing and singing though, the show included other cabaret acts. They had a juggler, acrobats (the kind that do all those weird lifts and balancing on each other king of thing) and a ventriloquist. The ventriloquist even had a real dog on stage that moved its mouth when he wanted it to. It was some sort of mask but it freaked me out a little bit because I had no idea how it was happening. The worst (yet sort of the best) part was when the stage was pulled back and a huge water tank came raising out of the ground. The water tank had four HUGE snakes in it trying to tread water. One of the girls then jumped in and did this dance/twirl thing with them for a few minutes. It was so freaky! I was so close that I got splashed so you can imagine how it felt to see those huge snakes up so near to where I was sitting. Im not usually scared of snakes but it made me feel a little queasy!
Overall the show is definitely worth seeing because they rock out the traditional Can-Can like no ones business. Even the boys jump around and do the splits like crazy and I have no idea how they can bend that way. It was definitely one of the highlights of Paris but lets be honest there aren't really any low lights in this incredible city. Unfortunately the next time I will be in Paris it will be for less than 24 hours but I'm sure that there will still be something fun to discover while I'm there.
The next stage of our trip is definitely one of the things I am most looking forward to as I haven't been to any of these places before and I have been wanting to visit Spain for years. The best part is that I am now more or less up to date with my blog and i am hoping to keep it that way. Unfortunately for some reason this computer decided to not read my camera so I can't do any photos. One day I will edit these posts with photos so that they make a bit more sense. I will also one day hopefully sort out all the punctuation and spelling mistakes made - I can only blame the crazy European keyboards! So please forgive the massive massive amounts of text and my extreme blabberings but seriously no words or photos can do justice to this experience. The only way for you guys to understand what I'm on about is to come here yourself! Until then I hope you can live vicariously through my adventures!
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