The final and longest leg of the journey was a day trip up to the city of love; Paris. Not quite sure why, but a few of the boys & I held pretty low expectations of the French capital, so it was a pleasant surprise when we arrived and were given our maps and to-do list for our free time roaming around the city. It is such a pretty city, known as the city of symmetry, and that's exactly what it comes across as. Climbing the Eiffel Tower all the way to the top not only gave Joe, Louis & I a great physical workout but a chance to view this city from a birds eye view. 328m up in the sky, it gave us the opportunity to see how well set out and maintained the city is, no construction or high rise building in sight. The rest of the day involved visiting the Arc de Triomphe, situated in the middle of a 5 lane, unmarked round-about, where there is a car accident every 15 minutes on average. It is seriously crazy; it made driving through Eastwood shopping arcade of a Saturday morning seem like a walk in the park. Our next point of call was strolling down the shopping haven that is the Champs Élysées (which apparently is a busy street). After realising we were too poor to even look at the price tags on many of the designer stores items, we moved on to visit the museum where Napoleons tomb is held, all 7 of them! Only thing we missed out on was the Louvre, as it is closed on Tuesdays for some silly reason. Nonetheless, a big day of walking and climbing but was definitely needed to see as much as possible of what this great city has to offer.

Our final night as a group together which was to feature a farewell 4-course dinner, followed by a Cabaret show in the towns red light district (which resembled Sydney's Kings Cross in so many ways). However, the night started poorly, with Jack being hit hard by the stomach bug that had affected Louis & Doug previously in Italy & Joe in Switzerland, and seemed to be sweeping through the group (I'm counting my blessings as to how I've avoided it & the 'contiki cough' so far and still feel fresh). Not being able to keep down even water, Jack called it a night to go home and rest. This left extra meals at the table for Louis, Doug & I, as we feasted on garlic snails, french onion soup, duck a l'orange, beef burgundy and fish. Helped down with some red & white wine, it was an awesome dinner & a great social way to interact with the group once last (sober) time before finishing up. The remainder of the night saw the boys and majority of the group move on to the Cabaret show, which I've heard was a great experience and have witnessed through video footage Louis getting into a dance competition on stage through audience participation. He really does not need a second invitation to get up in the limelight in situations like this. Whist the group went to the Cabaret, I got myself some drinks and went with a few boys to visit the Eiffel Tower by night to witness the light show. A very chilled environment and pretty special scene; one to tick off the bucket list. At midnight it was all to a pub to meet back with the rest of the group for one last night out.

That concluded the Contiki part of the trip. An early start the next morning to send our farewells to each other for the rest of the trip led to a few watery eyes. Didn't really hit us boys till we got on the plane at Orly Airport that it had ended and reflected on how great the 18 days had been & the awesome crew of people we had forged friendships and memories with. Visiting cool cities such as Munich & Paris, beautiful scenery and daytime fun in Hopfgarten & Lauterbrunnen, mixed with crazy nights out throughout each of the 7 countries; it has been a blast. The post-Contiki depression has set in and we have all arrived safely in San Sebastián for a much needed week of detox and relaxation by the ocean to recharge the batteries for Ibiza next week.