Parlez-vous Francais? Oui!

"London to Athens" Contiki Tour, June 2011, Post #1

Actually, the real answer to that question is "non". Forgive me, I shouldn't tell lies in my blog titles.

Following on from my previous post, we finished up our brief stay in London on June 10, 2011. I can remember waking up on the first day of our Contiki tour and panicking that we had slept in. It was bright light outside, and we had planned to get up at 4:30am. But this was just me not being used to the crazy sunrise times in the UK: bright daylight and 4:30am are two things that simultaneously occur in a British summer, apparently.

In any case, we weren't late, and we got to the meeting point for the tour and checked in. At 7am, the bus departed and headed south for Dover, where we would catch the ferry across to our first stop, Paris.

As we glided across the hazy English Channel in the late morning, we decided to get stuck into our Contiki Tour the right way: with a bit of a boozy breakfast!

We got to hang out on the deck and see the infamous white cliffs of Dover as they floated off into the horizon, eventually docking at Calais at 11:30am (12:30pm France time).

From there, it was back onto the bus to head for the heart of France and, if you believe the hype, the romance capital of the world. We enjoyed the scenery of the green countryside of northern France before arriving at our "hotel" (it was a budget one) in the outskirts of Paris around 4pm.

After a quick rest, we met for dinner at the restaurant next to our hotel (nothing special, so no photos!) before jumping back on the bus for a tour around Paris.

We spent about 2.5 hours touring around the city, with our tour guide, Lee, explaining the history and stories behind some of the more noteworthy landmarks and buildings. As I mentioned in the London post, the architecture around the city was just incredible, and really grabbed my attention.

We stopped off halfway through the tour to have a proper welcome to France: with a glass of champagne and a serve of escargot! Honestly, I don't know what all the fuss is about; I mean, they are nice, but the snails themselves have basically no flavour, and mostly what you can taste is the garlic or herb butter/sauce in which they are served. Definitely worth a shot, though.

Down the hatch!

The next morning, we woke and piled onto the bus to head for the Palace of Versailles; the "house" King Louis XIV had built for himself after deciding that the Louvre simply wasn't big enough to house both his ego and his money. No, I don't know if that's actually true!

The Palace itself was huge and incredibly immaculate, but the line to get inside and look around was stupidly long. A couple of people from our group managed to cut the line and go inside, but most of us just opted to stroll around the Palace Gardens, which were another level of massive. Filled with perfectly manicured gardens and artworks scattered around the place, we enjoyed a leisurely morning of luxury.

Late morning, we found a little Creperie just outside the Palace grounds and enjoyed a very tasty French crepe; I opted for a breakfast-y style one with ham and egg - delicious!

At 1pm, it was back on the bus to head into the city for a bit of free time, walking around Paris. We visited the Notre Dame Cathedral - another absolutely stunning feat of architecture.

We then crossed over the River Seine and walked around the gardens at the front of the Louvre, opting to save the trip inside for the next day when we'd have more time. We admired the big glass pyramid before heading to the other side of the gardens for a walk up Rue de Rivoli.

After dinner at the hotel, we came back into the city to admire sunset by the Eiffel Tower. A few people from the tour joined the line to go up to the top, but most just stayed down at street level. After the sun had set, the Tower gets lit up with a sparkling display of lights, which was very cool to watch!

Once we were done being cultured and touristy, it was time to get a little bit Contiki-y... we went out drinking! We headed for the nightlife district and piled into a bar called O'Sullivans (very French, right?) which was just next door to the Moulin Rouge, proceeding to get a little messy for the first time of the tour.

The next day, feeling a little seedy (but it was totally worth it), we had a full day of free time to explore Paris by ourselves. We were dropped off at the Arc du Triomphe and climbed the stairs to the top, taking in the amazing views of the city.

The Arc du Triomphe lies in the west of Paris, on the north side of the Seine. From the top, the city appears to head out in the wheel-and-spoke pattern, centred at the Arc. It's actually not that much of a feature in the city's layout, but in this immediate area, it looks pretty cool.

Directly to the south of the Arc, you can see the Eiffel Tower, sticking out of the landscape like a sore thumb, while to the south-east extends Avenue Des Champs Elysees, home to the biggest shopping and brand names in Paris.

The view from atop the Arc du Triomphe.

After returning to the street, our tour group splintered off into a few smaller groups. We made our way down Champs Elysees which terminates at Place de la Concorde, the location where Marie Antoinette lost her head a little over 200 years ago.

On the other side of the Place de la Concorde stands the Jardin des Tuileries, the peaceful gardens that lead you through to the Louvre. Whether or not you're interested in art (I'm not), everyone has to visit the Louvre when in Paris! We headed inside and spent the best part of 2 hours admiring some of the most famous and expensive sculptures and paintings that the world has ever known. We, of course, saw the big ticket items of Venus de Milo and the infamous Mona Lisa. Perhaps what she's smiling at is the hundreds of people pushing a shoving to get a glimpse of what is, actually, quite a small painting? Hehe.. honestly, I found it to be a bit underwhelming.

From the Louvre, we strolled up the Seine for a while, checking out a few of the trinket stalls and bridges along they way, including Pont Neuf - the oldest standing bridge, covered in ugly faces - and the Pont des Arts - the infamous bridge where tens of thousands of people had previously locked a padlock, symbolising their unbreakable love with their significant other.

Pont Neuf

Pont des Arts - the "love lock" bridge

In the evening, we all got dressed up and headed out for a fancy French dinner at Noces de Jeannette. After filling our bellies with some more escargot, a bit of duck and some pastry, we attended a cabaret show at La Nouvelle Eve, just near Moulin Rouge (but better, according to our guide).

We couldn't take photos or videos during the show, out of respect for the performers, but it was very lively and enjoyable!

Later in the show, the performers pulled three guys out of the crowd to come up on stage. There were three Contiki groups in that night, so it was a deliberate face-off. I was selected, despite trying to hide in the shadows, and gingerly walked up to the stage. We were informed that we would be taking part in a dancing competition. Now... I can't dance to save my life. But having downed a few free champagnes, I somehow managed to do alright! My saving grace, though, was that my tour group was 90% female. So, when the time came for the judge-by-cheering, of course, my tour group were the loudest!

And so, I was crowned the winner. I was handed a souvenir t-shirt, but the main prize was my "bride": one of the dancers came running out in half a wedding dress (the top-half was missing...) and kissed me on the cheeks and forehead. We then went backstage briefly and returned with a toy baby to show off to the crowd! Overall, a thoroughly embarrassing but incredibly fun experience!

At the end of the show, we made a second effort at O'Sullivans, drinking and dancing away what remained of our final night in Paris. One of the very cool things that seemed to be commonplace in Paris at the time was the way they did Jägerbombs. Several of us would order at once, so the glasses of Red Bull would be lined up side-by-side, and the shot glasses of Jägermeister would be sat on the join between two glasses (with an empty at the end of the row for the last shot glass. The bartender would then squirt lighter fluid around the bar and set the whole scene ablaze. Then, one drinker, or maybe the bartender, would knock the first shot glass in, causing a chain reaction down the line. And when the fire burned itself out, it was down the hatch!

After a fantastic couple of days in Paris to start off our tour, we got up the next morning and shuffled on to the bus. It was time to move along; next stop, the wine regions in the south of France.