Today I started my Topdeck tour! From what I've seen and the people I've met, I think I'm going to like it :) We said goodbye to the white cliffs of Dover (England) and caught the ferry to France. Later that afternoon we arrived at our camp site, situated just outside of Paris. We had the usual orientation of how thing work, how to set up tents, etc. I'm kind of getting worried about choosing the camping option. It'll be fun and everything, but I'm pretty sure I'll get sick of setting up tents, etc. That night we headed into Paris for a tour of it at night. We saw all the sites while getting some information on them. The best was driving down the Champs-élysées and seeing the Arc De Triumph all lit up right infront of us. We also stopped under the Eiffle Tower and was there at the right time to see a light show on it. It was quite stunning yet so sereal and hard to believe that "omg, I'm actually in Paris!"
I'm just going to put it out there, the French are bloody nuts!!! The way they drive!!! The round a bout which the Arc De Triomphe is located on has thirteen exits around it and once you enter that round a bout your insurance stops, so therefore if you have an accident your not covered. We thought been in a bus we'd be okay, but the French really couldn't care less and they just cut and zoom infront of the bus. They also have a thing called bumper parking and often we would see cars parked with bumper bars actually touching eachother. They believe you can fit into any carpark, no matter how small. They'll even physically bump and nudge other cars to make themselves fit. It's crazy!
Our next day we got dropped in the city and were left to fend for ourselves. We did so much walking that we pretty much saw everything possible to see. We went in the Notre Dame which was pretty impressive. We then walked to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa which you would think is quite big, but actually it's tiny. I think what I was most impressed about in the Louvre was walking with my head up, looking at the roof the whole time. The detail and paintings on the roof are unreal. We then walked down the Champs-élysées, I brought a baguette and ate it while we headed towards the Eiffel Tower which is where I'm currently sitting under right now and writing this blog. Funny story about the Eiffel Tower. Later in the day, we were told to buy alcohol for a cruise we would be going on later that night. So we found a bottle o and I brought a six pack of beers. We got to the Eiffel Tower and the rest of the people I was with went on a bike tour so I was by myself for a few hours. I decided to kill time by going up the Eiffel Tower, however I got to the line and was told I wasn't allowed to bring my six pack up!!! Well I wasn't going to ditch them so I decided to stash and hide them in my bag. I must've hidden them pretty good because I got through two bag checks with no one finding them. So I was pretty proud of myself however that faded pretty quickly when I realized I was in the line for the stairs. No way was I going back out and risk loosing the beer so therefore I battled up 671 stairs logging a bag filled with a six pack which was frikin heavy! I eventually made it to the second level and by this point was wrecked and so gave in and took the lift to the top. When I got to the top I was pretty proud of my efforts and figured no way did I log these beers up here for nothing so therefore I deserved one. Well it was pretty spectacular. How many people can say they've had an illegal beer on top of the Eiffel Tower overlooking the spectacular views of Paris. Definitely a memory that will stay with me. I then made my way over to the Arc De Triomphe and stood on the corner watching how crazy the traffic is. They say there's an accident every five minutes within that round a bout but sadly I didn't actually see any, just a lot of near misses! I then headed back towards the Eiffel Tower to meet the rest of the group for dinner. We had a picnic dinner under the Eiffel Tower which was a huge feast! And, I actually tried an escargot, aka a snail!!! We then went on our river cruise which took us up the Seine River. I was thankful I still had my beer, minus one. It was a nice relaxing way to get to know each other a bit better. After that finished, we all wanted to keep drinking as it was one of the boys birthdays so we got the bus driver to drop us off at the Irish Pub down the road from our camp site. It was a fun night, minus the walk home. What should've been a thirty minute walk, ended up been an hour and a half. We totally got lost and missed the turn off to the camp! There was also an incident which ended up with a girl on the tour possibly having a cracked rib so hopefully she's okay. Overall a great day in Paris!! Even though I got less then three hours sleep, it's okay because the next day was a nine hour bus ride to Switzerland so I lounged out on the back seat of the bus and slept like a baby.