Paris 16/10/12

After a late night to bed it felt like we had no sleep before the alarm went off – ready for breakfast and back into the foyer by 8.30. Today was the first day we woke to dark skies and heavy rain that looked like it was set in for the day; however by the time we headed off it had started to clear to a reasonably sunny day but cold. We boarded our coach with a new local city guide (Jerry) and headed off for our City Tour! Paris is a world class city which has probably more familiar landmarks than any other city in the world. We were given an insight into many of these as we traveled these streets. It was much busier around town this morning than it was last night.

Our first stop was at the Notre Dame Cathedral which is one of the most notable monuments in Paris. It is over 800 years old and was completed over a period of 200 years. At one stage it was in a stage of total disrepair and close to the point of being demolished, but was later saved by Napoleon who himself was crowned Emperor in 1804 inside the Cathedral. Beautiful photos were taken here to be added to our memory of Europe!

We wandered back to the coach where we continued on our tour. One significant site we drove past (morbid as it may be) was the infamous tunnel where Diana’s car crashed! It felt quite surreal to enter the tunnel and drive past the actual spot! Other significant landmarks passed were Arc de Triomphe (a famous monument in Paris that honours those who fought for France, in particular, during the Napoleonic Wars and it also includes the tomb of the Unknown Soldier). The Place de Opera (which was started in 1862, but it wasn't completed until 1875, partly because an underground lake was discovered during construction. The small lake still exists under the opera building. It was the hiding place of the 'Phantom of the Opera' in Paul Leroux's famous play). The Champs Elysees Avenue which is the most famous street - and one of the most expensive strips of real estate - in the world, with every possible shop you could want, and the Palais du Louvre was constructed as a fortress by Philippe-Auguste in the early 13th century and rebuilt in the mid-16th century for use as a royal residence. In 1793 the Revolutionary Convention turned it into the nation’s first national museum. the richness and sheer size of the place (the side facing the Seine is some 700m long, and it is said that it would take nine months just to glance at every piece of art here. The Sacré-Coeur is located on a very touristic spot in Paris, the Montmartre hill. The view of Paris is wonderful from the entrance of the basilica. The architecture (a white building with several domes) is also unique and beautiful.

These were just some of the sights on our tour, ending with the on that I think everyone knows best – Eiffel Tower, famous because it has an amazing architecture, very daring for its time (built 1887 to 1889), well calculated and very resilient. We stopped here for the customary photo and the opportunity to take in the enormousness of this structure!

Our tour concluded at Rue de Rivoli where we had 45 minutes free before our next tour. We had lunch in a Self-Serve Café followed by general shopping and relaxing as best as one could amid the tourists and the gypsies/con-men etc.

We joined up with another Cosmos tour and then journeyed to Versailles – Sun Kings Palace. This is the beautiful restored Palace of Louis XIV, the sun King. Our local guide took us through this amazing palace – albeit very quickly – explaining each room as she went through! Very opulent and enormous rooms with teach one leading into the next! The hall of Mirrors was just stunning – photos do not do it justice. Then onto the gardens outside which were 2,000 acres of stunning, well maintained gardens, fountains, statues and mazes all viewed with music playing from speakers that were well hidden from view.

The coach headed off at 3.00 to bring us back to meet up with our group, though the Paris traffic was just as bad as peak hour in Melbourne and we ran very late! A quick chance to freshen up before we were off out again once more. We headed off to a gorgeous restaurant called L’Escarmouche for our farewell dinner with the group. They had been a great bunch of people – and with the exception of 2 couples (dubbed – The Honeymooners and Mr & Mrs Stinky!). Our tour guide Patricia had been just brilliant, especially dealing with the above mentioned couples as well as being so very passionate about her job and having the ability to tell a story about anything and making it sound so real. We will remember this group for a long time to come. We had a delicious 4 course meal with lots of singing, chatter and fun - Walter finally got the sing-song he so badly wanted!

Once we had finished, we headed back onto the bus for a final drive through the city of Paris at night – our final stop being at the Eiffel Tower for the famous ‘o’clock 5 minute sparkle’. Simply gorgeous! A memory of this view will stay with us forever.

Back to our hotel we came and everyone headed off to their rooms to pack bags in readiness for tomorrow, when some will stay on in Paris, some will fly out to other destinations and some of us will continue onto London!