.: 24th March 2003

We were soon back on the bus again for a 5-6 hour drive to Paris. Coming into the city of Paris I could see the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Couer silhouetted on the horizon. I got quietly excited.

We went straight to the campsite where we were greeted by a bunch of Contiki reps waving madly at us. We unpacked first and checked out our cabins. They were actually pretty good. Four to a cabin and with our own shower and toilet ,though they were in a bathroom no larger than 1 square metre. There was no shower curtain so when you had a shower, the whole bathroom became saturated!  The pillows were marginally better than the ones at the Royal National. Must be a Europe thing.

Out at the Contiki tent we got to try some escargot swallowed down with some rose champagne. Actually the snails were better than the champers. Covered in a thick garlic sauce they didn’t taste that bad, bit chewy, but still nice.

We settled in and then went on a quick orientation tour of Paris at night. Went past Notre Dame and some other major sites before stopping for a photo stop at the Eiffel Tower. We also went up to the Arc de Triomphe. Not only did GT take us up there, he actually took us onto it!!!  Dave blasted out Basement Jaxx’s Where’s Your Head At? It complimented the action perfectly. See on the Arc de Triomphe, the cars that are already on there must give way to the cars coming onto the roundabout from 12 different avenues!!! On average there is an accident every 12 minutes and once you enter your insurance becomes void. So here was GT hooning us around on it in a bloody great big bus!!! Better than any rollercoaster ride. He later said he saw a scooter go straight into the back of our bus. Hehehe.

That night we attempted to have a go at the bar but failed miserably and went to bed after only a few drinks.

.: 25th March 2003

Next morning we were up early for breakfast. Everyone hoed into their cereal and toast. When we were finished they then decided to tell us that there was a hot meal of bacon and eggs coming as well.

It was then back on the bus for our day in Paris. First stop was Notre Dame. As we got off the bus we were greeted by a one legged man frantically waving at us. Dave waved back, they had obviously met before. One legged man was so excited to see a big coach of tourists that he nearly fell over. He was selling books of postcards. Most of us bought one. Only €2.

The Notre Dame Cathedral was awesome. A marvel of great historic architecture. Inside it was huge. Little open rooms surrounded the inside of it. Each had different types of décor that included statues, paintings and sculptures. I took a bit more time than the others. Narelle was waiting for me outside when I had finished and we went and had a look at some of the souvenir shops lining the side of the street. I really wanted to buy a beret and throughout the day I tried to get other people to buy them too so they could be our drinking hats. Nobody bought one. (I bought one the second time I came back though :) We then went to the back of Notre Dame (which I think is the best bit) and waited around for the others.

The bus then picked us up and took us up to the Arc de Triomphe again. Not as crazy as the night before, but still fun. Once we were dropped off we had to make our way to the middle. Seeing there was a pedestrian subway you would think it would be quite easy. But that was on the other side, we now had to cross a few side roads. Luckily most had pedestrian crossings (not that the French know how they work).

Standing under the Arc de Triomphe you realised how big it actually was. It was huuuuuge! It was built by Napoleon as a celebration of one of his conquests or something. It is in fact one of three arcs that are lined up in a row. The first being the Arc de Triomphe Carousel which sits just outside the Louvre. The second is the Arc de Triomphe which lies at the end of the Champs Elysées and the third, a modern day version up in La Defense.

We got a group together and got our cheaper tickets to climb up to the top.

I have never climbed or seen so many steps in my life. The steep spiral staircase just kept on going. I finally reached the top and had to sit down for a good 5 minutes before I could even look over the edge. It was an impressive view though. But I think it would be a lot better at night, especially looking down the Champs Elysées – or the avenue of Diamonds and Rubies, because of the lights of the cars going up and down the street at night. I liked that description.

Dave told us earlier that we may be approached by Asian people wanting us to go buy stuff at Louis Vuitton which would later be sold on the black market. The shop knew about this and therefore set a buying limit of one bag per person. This is why these people wanted tourists to buy them. I thought this would have been a one off thing but lo and behold, whilst walking down the Champs Elysées we were approached. I told the guy I would do it for €15 which he said yes to. Adam and were about to do it but he pulled out and I didn’t want to do it by myself. We later found out that the store does not accept cash which led me to think that I can use my Visa card and claim frequent flyer points when I come back to Paris. I also found out you can make a lot more money than €15.

We continued our walk down the Champs Elysées, stopping every so often to look in the shops. At one stage, Adam spotted 2 army guys brandishing huge guns. One army guy looked about 16 which Adam thought was hilarious. He wanted to get a photo with him and dragged me along for backup. We walked up and tried asking if we could take a photo. For some reason they didn’t understand but when I Frenchified it, (I said photographique instead, I don’t even know if it's right hehe), they understood and we got a firm “Non”.

For lunch we stopped at this deli that was down one of the side streets and had some baguettes. The queue was all the way out the door so we figured it must be good. We then went and ate them in an small park down the road. Someone decided we should go have a look at the Opera House which was apparently within walking distance. Even though it was a long walk, we got to see a lot of interesting things along the way. Once there we took the obligatory photos before heading down to Place de la Concorde, our pick up point.  We were early so we went for a stroll along the Seine and over to the Pont Alexandre III (bridge). All the while I kept noticing the increase in the amount of police presence. They were everywhere, all wearing full body armour and some even had tear gas throwers with cans strapped all over their back in the buses. Lining the streets there were police cars, vans and buses full of cops and inside you could even see all the semi automatic weapons. We figured that there must be a war protest about to happen.  They had now barricaded off the Champs Elysées. Adam and I stood out in the middle of it taking photos of ourselves with no traffic around.  Something unique. We stood around for awhile taking in all in. It was pretty surreal. Two cops came along and I asked them what was going on. They said they didn’t understand. I asked in French and they said something along the lines of a small protest, not very big. I bet he could speak English. We waited around some more trying to take photos of of the police without causing a scene. Then we ran back to the others to tell them what was going on. It was kind of exciting. Would have been more exciting if something actually happened because we never saw any hippies that day. I later heard that the US ambassador was visiting Jacque Chirac and because of the tension between the US and the French at the time and they had taken extra extra security precautions.

Back at camp we had to hurry to get dressed for our night out in Paris. Dinner was at a nice little Parisian restaurant. While walking there I was amazed at the effort taken by  some people to get a parking spot. Cars were parked against the kerb with literally only a few centimetres between them. I have absolutely no idea how they got out and an explanation at the time, that they just keep on going forward a bit, then back a bit over and over, just seemed impossible! Since I work in a Parking Enforcement Department I was surprised at how the Europeans parked. They would park absolutely anywhere. Tiny median strips would become car parks and cars would even park right on the corner of roads, right over pedestrian crosswalks. I couldn’t believe it! The guys from work would have a field day here!

Anyway, back in the restaurant we were ordering our dinner. Chrissy decided she loved snails so much that she ordered them as an entrée. The rest of us opted for Quiche I think. For dinner everyone at our table (except Katie who ordered Beef Stroganoff) ordered Duck l’Orange. Mine came out with the feathers still on it. But after I pulled it to pieces it was ok I guess. Not really a fan of duck. We were then serenaded by the piano accordionist, Caroline. After awhile, or maybe after a few drinks, she started singing songs we knew, or songs we could pretend we knew, and she would dance around playing away.

After dinner, because the show had been cancelled we had the better option of going up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It looked great from the bottom, much better at night, but up the top, honestly it was pretty average. The view would be much better at sunset, for some reason Paris has great sunsets (I think it is the pollution). We went straight up to the top level first but unfortunately we could not go out into the outdoor section which just completely sucked, so I quickly made my way down to the second level which was open air. I had taken my tripod with me so I hope I have some good photos (I don’t, half the film got wiped). Afterwards, we went back to the bus only to find a few people missing (including a Contiki rep) Dave tried ringing the guys mobile but he had it turned off. We waited around and contemplated leaving but eventually they returned. Katie, Narelle and Angie had followed the Contiki Camp Rep, Dazza, right past the coach, down past the end of the park and out into the streets of Paris! He got stick.

.: 26th March 2003

Another early start, time to get used to it. Today we were on our way to the Chateau de Cruix in the Beaujolais region of France. First though we were treated to a quick tour of the Louvre as it was closed the day before. We parked underneath the Louvre and went in the back way which saved us from any lines out the front. There was security going into the galleries and for some reason they stopped Narelle, who had a backpack just like the rest of us, and told her to put it in the baggage room, bastards. We did not have much time, so we made a beeline for the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. We eventually found the Mona Lisa amidst a sea of people taking photos. You weren’t supposed to use your flash let alone take photos, but no one gave a rats ass. I’d always heard that the painting is much smaller than you think but really when I saw it, I thought it was bigger.  We’d pretty much run out of time by this stage and thought we would not have time to find the Venus de Milo but on the way back we ran into some of the others who told us where it was so we made a quick dash there to have a look. My favourite piece though was the statue of Nike (headless winged statue at the top of the stairs).

Back on the bus we had to wait as Dan was missing. After awhile he still had not come and Dave was willing to leave. Phillip (Dan’s mate) actually got off the bus with their bags. He would have done that just for him. Just as we were about to leave though we saw Dan running from the other side of the Louvre car park.

Next onto the Chateau.

It was a long drive to the Beaujolais region. Stopped again at a few auto services for munchie food and a stretch. We soon knew when we were in the Beaujolais area when all we could see were little burnt grape vine stumps everywhere. We arrived at the Chateau just as the sun was setting which gave the whole area a nice warm glow.

After throwing our bags in the room we walked around the corner to a winery. Inside were huge barrels of Beaujolais grog and all the Contiki reps standing around. They taught us how to appreciate wine. This usually consisted of swirling the glass gently savouring the bouquet, then admiring the way the wine falls back to the bottom of the glass to find out how much alcohol is in it. Finally take a sip through your front teeth and swirl it around in your mouth. This process, properly done would take just under a minute, however our tour typically completed this task in a few seconds. While everyone was nibbling on the cheese and crackers I was introduced to Digger who was from Perth as well. As no one from the tour was from WA I thought this was great so we had a chat for a little while. I then went and refilled my glass. I don’t like wine very much but this was free, and not that bad, although the connoisseurs on the tour disagreed.

Back at the Chateau, Narelle, Katie, Chrissy and I were sharing a room and we got the best room of the lot. All the rest were pretty small compared to ours, though they did get the all the views. That night everyone came to our room for pre bar drinks. We pooled all our duty free alc and most people that passed by our room came in for a drink. We eventually headed downstairs to a basement area underneath the Chateau that had been turned into a nightclub called The Cave.  We were only there for a few minutes when the fire alarm went off. We had been told earlier that there may be some safety tests performed as it was the start of the tour season. So we stood out in the cold for awhile as our names were checked off. We found we had a new person on the tour called Bob but he was no where to be found ;)

Back in The Cave things started to get interesting. Matt B demonstrated his fondness for dancing Irish Jigs and then someone started dosie-doeing around making everyone participate. When the song Nelly – Hot In Here came on the shirts came off. Two Contiki reps started the trend followed closely by Ben and Jon. GT was unwilling at first but he soon had his shirt ripped off and he made little attempt to keep it on. Digger came up to me later and said “Whats a Metro’s girl like you doing here?” (Metropolis or Metro’s is a club I frequent at home). I was completely dumbfounded and asked how he knew. He said he had seen me around. That was pretty weird.

Things got blurry after that all I remember is falling on my ass on the dance floor for no apparent reason, then stacking it up the marble stairs, then having an eye rest while laying half over my bed (I had not passed out to all those people that saw me!) Big blank after that until the end of the night. Phillipa and I were the last to leave The Cave, we went up and sat around in the hallway for awhile with a few of the others. Paris and Sarah got a shock when they finished their showers and tried to walk back to their rooms with little on.  Jon thought this was great though.

.: 27th March 2003

The next morning I found I could not walk properly. That’ll teach me for dancing 5 hours straight with hardly any breaks. And it just happened to be the day that there was an organised picnic to the ‘Top of the World’ (a.k.a – big long fucking trek up a big fucking mountain/hill). Kylie and I started out near the front of the group which was spread out over about 100m of road. But as soon as we hit the first big hill people started overtaking us. By the time we reached the town of Thiezé we were at the back of the group. We made it to just outside of the town when we decided to have a little sit on a wall. My feet were killing for some reason and when I took my shoes off I realised why. I had not worn socks and now the backs of my sneakers were covered in blood from huge blisters. Mmmm tasty. I tried hitching us a ride to the top but all the nice people were driving down the hill so that idea was short lived. Instead we went and sat in the middle of town for awhile. Kylie had her groups stash of wine, oops. The much raved about pub was closed so we only had a small deli to get lunch from. I opted to buy a bottle of Eau de Vie (French for Hangover 45%, actually its Water of Life (Life my ass)). I also bought some plaster bandaids as well. Very much needed. We sat around in the shade for awhile outside the closed pub looking through the previous nights collection of photos and video footage. Very interesting.

Suddenly the Church across the road started ringing its bells. Thing was it didn’t stop for at least 3-4 minutes. Then another one up the road started going. I don’t understand it. In the end we wandered back to the Chateau for some quiet time. We sat out the front in the sun on the grass with the Reps who were having their lunch. But shortly enough the crowds came back and that moment was ruined heh. One of the reps had a mobile that had ringing tunes like a cat meowing or a dog barking. A local dog had followed us back and the rep was crawling around after it making the mobile meow. Was pretty funny, guess you had to be there.

That night was a quiet one. The Cave wasn’t open. Some people made a go of the bar upstairs though. I myself had another Kodak moment. I was going down the marble stairs (I’m not having much luck with these stairs), and I’m thinking to myself, it would hurt if someone fell down these, when what do you know, I stack it just as I get to the bottom. Luckily it was only Adam and Kerry who saw. But then Ben and Matt B gathered around and it became more of a dignity injury than a physical one. I hadn’t had that many drinks, I swear!!  

.: 28th March 2003