A Tale of Two Cities

Hello everyone ... The theme of today is A Tale of Two Cities, as this is the day we travel from London to Paris. The day started early, as we had to have our bags packed at our door ready for pickup for 7:30 am. The tour had a walking tour scheduled for 7:30, so we tried to get up early for breakfast. We managed to get an early start, however, the service was slow and we didn't make it. We ended up going back to the room and waited for our 8:45 departure.

We left the hotel and made are way to the train station to board the Eurostar train. Our guide Mike took the bus with us and pointed out some sites on the way to the station. We got there, past through security then waited for about an hour before we boarded our train to Paris. The train left at 10:40 and the first thing we did was turn our watches ahead an hour to Paris time. On the train, we had an interesting breakfast, though for us it was lunch. I say interesting, because we soon discovered that Pork Sausage in France is not quite the same as at home!!!

We arrived in Paris and met up with our Paris guides, Thomas and Elizabeth. We boarded a bus and took a mini tour of Paris. The bus made two stops. We first stop at a great photo spot for the Eiffel Tower. The tower is even more beautiful in person, then it is in pictures.


After our brief stop, we then made our way to a park where we stopped to play Petanque. Petanque is a French version of Bocce ball. We tied our game 5 - 5. I was lousy, but Kirstyn seemed to get the hang of it. We then made our way to our hotel, the Hilton Arc du Triomphe. We had a couple hours until supper, so Kirstyn and I joined another mother and daughter and walked to the Arc du Triomphe.

We got there in time to see the changing of the flowers on the grave of a soldier used to commemorate all those who died protecting there country. We then made our way back to the hotel just in time for dinner. Dinner was interesting. In honour of Disney's new movie, the chef made us Ratatouille. How sweet. After dinner, Kirstyn and I were on a mission to find Virgin Records on the Champs d'Elysee. We found it and Kirstyn finally got the CD she wanted. It is by a French singer named Emily Loizeau. It's not bad actually. We also found the Disney store. We were kind of tired so took a taxi back to the hotel and now I am writing this entry. I have to get some sleep soon, as tomorrow we have an 8:25 start. Tomorrow is Notre Dame!! Will I climb the steps??? You'll have to wait and see!