Date: 7 May 2003 Adventures of gamblegirl - Paris Part I Bonjour Ju ne parle pas francais. Translation - I can't speak French and BOY did I find THAT out!!! So for the first of the long weekends in May (sorry if this email is full of typos but the key board is really bad!!), I went to Paris with my three Musketeers - Lisa, Matt and Kelly. 3 beautiful days in Paris... It turned out to be an adventure that's for sure.. Incident No 1: Our train (the Eurostar of course!) was booked for 7:25 on Sat morning. We got there with half an hour to spare only to find that our tixs had not been confirmed by the travel agent. After repeating some French of our own, we had to pay £200 to get on the next train. Originally we got the bargin price of £60. So in total, the whole train ride cost £260. The upside was that the poor guy felt so sorry for us that we got free passes to the Lounge. Loaded up our pockets we did!!!! Food, drink, you name it. It was cool riding in the Eurostar. So fast, everything went by in a pretty blur. Going in the tunnel was a bit freaky. Not scary freaky but Oh My God I am under the sea freaky. Incident No 2: So we tried to get the train to where our hotel was. Almost got fleeced by some guy that was selling yesterday's tix to dumb naive passengers (that's us!!) Luckily we were saved by some Poms who must have also seen the words tourist stamped on our heads. So we caught the Metro. Urrrrggggh was a crappy underground is that. Jeez, it makes the tube look like the bloody Ritz. The trains are dodgy, it's grotty. And it was one of our main forms of transport. Yep, i know the word to exit in French is Settie (I think that's how you spell it!) Arriving at our hotel, we tried to check in. So happy are we that the guy speaks English that when he told us that we can't because there is no water in our rooms, we were at the point of just laughing. That meant that we had to relocate to another hotel that he'd booked for us. Tiny, is what I'd use to describe the room. Lisa and I had single beds but it might as well have been a double!!! they were that close together. So we decided to go out and do a bit of exploring and get some food. By now it's about 3:30ish. Incident No 3: Armed with a phrase book and a dictionary, we tried to order some lunch. Hee hee. 40 mins it took to order lunch!! What did we get - some sandwiches!!! I got a cheese sandwich (cambert and some other kind of cheese which ws real yummy) and Lisa got a ham and cheese sandwhich. We were so struggling with the menu that this American woman - and not very kindly either. She was quite put out over it - had to break it down for us. After lunch we went and saw the Arc de Triomphe. How spectacular is that. Damnit shrink it so that I can fit it in a photo!! Wow!!! Then we trudged on down Avenue des Champs Elysees which was pretty - and pretty long before swinging right to go to the Tour Eiffel. WOWOWOW!!! The view. We went to the top around 7:00ish and stayed there, watching the sunset and the lights go on. It was very pretty, the colours, the view. I hope my photo's turn out okay. Which brings me to Incident No 4: Getting home. Dead tired and literally falling asleep on my feet, we couldn't find the bus station to get back to the hotel. Turns out that we could have caught the bus at each street that we were on. So at 11:00ish at night, we were walking around looking for the bloody bus station. Went to bed literally crashed Next morning went to the Lourve. The Lourve itself is a piece of art. Just incredible and because we went on the first sunday of the month, we got in free. Holy Moly Batman (PS. sidenote, saw Knight Rider in French. Knight Rider is bad enough in English, in French - bloody funny!!!) Saw the Mona Lisa, the works of Michelangelo, Aphrodite. It was amazing. From the Lourve, we went to Notre Dame. That was pretty impressive. They love a big church in Paris that's for sure!!! Tired, we stopped for a breather and had some thing from a local Pattiserie. Okay I struggle with French when it's slow (should have paid more attention to Peter!) when it's a scary woman shouting at me - I am running scared. The only thing I understood was when she shouted at me to sit down! Okay no arguments here!! After a bit of a kip (just recharging the batteries because my little footies were tired) we went out to dinner. It was just fantastic. The food in Paris was soooo nice - not like the crappy food in England. I had scallops, a Prawn risotto and crepe suzzette for dinner and a glass of French champagne (had to!). Yummy. Our final day it rained. But it did not stop these little troopers. We went to Monte Mart (????? No sure of the spelling - man I hate this keyboard) and saw the Sacre Coeur. Runs a million rings around Notre Dame. You had to sit and take in the moment. Mind you after all the stairs you had to go up..... Went on the merry go round like a little kid. So much fun. Then off to the Moulin Rouge via the sex street. Now that was an education. Amusingly enough there was a lot of internet cafes on that street. Dudes if you are going there for porn - why not just go straight to the strip show!!!! Which brings me to Incident No 5: I dropped my camera. It was the most distressing 20 mins of my life. I couldn't find my camera anywhere!!! We were sitting at the metro station and some guy walked by saying camera which I paid no attention to. Then when I got off at the station, I realised that I didn't have it. Luckily Lisa was calm in the moment, for we went back and luckily someone had handed it in. So to Kell, Matt and Lisa - thanx guys. So Paris was interesting - what did you guys do on the weekend? Cheers Bec PS. What is this wet stuff that falls from the sky? PPS. If my folks don't get this, can someone pls forward it on to them. I am having probs emailing them PPPS. I miss NW and my COSMO!!!!! The mags over here are full of Posh Spice and Liz Hurley but they love them!!! Pretty ordinary!!! Love you all Love and kisses from your neighbourhood freak!!!!