Eight Days in France

DAY 1 - July 21st

HELLO PARIS

We heard a lot about Paris before we arrived - everything from "it is the most romantic city in the world", and more commonly, "it is over-rated, very dirty, the people are rude" etc etc. As soon as we arrived we knew we fell into the category of Paris lovers. We made our way by taxi to the 18th district, Montmartre, where our cute little hotel overlooking an artists square awaited. Montmartre is beautiful - everything you would expect of Paris's artists quarter. Narrow cobbled streets, buskers, cafes sprawling onto the footpaths. We just loved it. We arrived mid afternoon and wandered around the area before meeting a couple of Rachael's friends for some drinks and the ever essencial "when in Pari" snails. They looked disgusting but were suprisingly delicious, with a buttery/herb coating.

View from our bedroom

Robbie, Nicole, Bol and Rachael enjoy one of Montmartre's sidewalk cafes

They're better than they look - honestly!

DAY 2 - July 22nd

EXPLORING GAY PARI

After a hotel breakfast of chocolate croissants and cream cheese baguettes, it was time for the three of us to set about exploring Paris. We headed straight for its most famous landmark - the Eiffel Tower. Up close the tower is massive and the queues to climb it are equally big, so we decided to skip the ascent and simply took some piccies from the ground. After the tower we took a stroll along the River Seine to the Louvre which is unbelievably huge. We spent several hours perusing the exhibitions and barely made a dent. Of course we checked out the Mona Lisa, which as everyone says is much smaller than you would expect. After the Louvre it was the Notre Dame and then back to Montmartre for a relaxing evening. After this day of seeing so many beautiful city scapes and buildings, Rachael declared "Je t'aime Pari" - and has been saying it constantly ever since!

At the Eiffel Tower

The three explorers

The Petit Palais
Out the front of the Louvre

DAY 3 - July 23rd

A rainy day with a VERY silver lining
We spent today exploring our district - Montmartre, which must be the most picturesque area of Paris. For anyone heading to Paris I would definitely recommend finding a hotel in Montmartre. Rachael became our tour guide for the day, because Montmartre is where her favourite film is set: Amelie. So she led us around the district trying to find landmarks shot in the film, like the cafe, fruit shop, metro stop etc etc. Problem with this lovely tour was that it was raining all day -- but that didn't stop us trudging around. Part way through the day we stopped for some lunch and I was given a HUGE surprise. Rachael presented me with an early birthday present. I couldn't believe it. She gave me a ticket to the real Moulin Rouge to see a show with her. I had been saying for days how great it would be, but it was something I could never afford. Little did I know she had already planned to buy me tickets before she even left Adelaide. I was soooo excited. So after many hours in the rain getting wet and cold I raced back to our hotel to get ready for our big night out. Rachael lent me some shoes and a skirt, because there was no way my backpackers clothes would suit the occasion. And she even straightened my hair for me so I really fit the part! We headed to the show where Bol proceeded to take photos of us out the front before we went in, as if we were celebrities or something. The show was amazing. All the singing, dancing, costumes, elaborate acrobatics. We watched in awe as we sipped our expensive real French champagne. Twas a night I will never forget.

One of the cute streets in our district

The Sacre Coeur

The Montmartre cemetery

Beautiful summer weather

Apparantly Amelie walked through this tube exit in the film
The Moulin Rouge, where the wind machine means everyone can feel like Marilyn Monroe

DAY 4 - July 24th

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

This was the day we said farewell to Paris and hit the road for a tour through France. We hired a van (which turned out to be more of a big car than a van -- so we struggled to sleep in it as planned!) and headed out of Paris towards .... well we didn't really know where. On our way out of the city we dropped into Paris's main cemetery to quickly see Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde's graves. Then we drove and drove and drove and found ourselves nowhere near the Champagne region we wanted to visit ... so we eventually stopped and bought a better map and then drove and drove and drove ... and still weren't very close to Champagne ... so we changed directions and drove and drove (direction south) until midnight when we decided it was time to sleep. It wasn't as boring as it sounds - we did see some beautiful scenery - but it certainly hadn't been the easy road trip we planned. But that was okay. We had a seven seater van (I loosely use this term) to sleep in the pit stop for the night. Bol and I crammed into the boot area while Rachael tried to sleep in the front seat. The result was this: about 1 hour sleep each, a lot of shivering as we had no blankets (not good when we already had colds) and a very grumpy three people when the sun greeted us at dawn. The road trip had really begun now! And it had seemed like such a good idea :)

On the road again


Jim Morrison's grave

One of the cute little French towns we passed on our journey



We passed gorgeous views such as this

And then finished it all off with a sleep in the back of this! Cosy.

DAY 5 - July 25th

THE DAY AFTER

So with little sleep, sore throats and runny noses, we headed off on our second day of our road trip. We had spent the night near Lyon and decided to drive to the very south coast of France where we had heard the beaches were beautiful. Despite some stressful moments in the car trying to read maps and follow the ridiculously sparse French road signs, we visited some cute little towns like Orange and Avignon before reaching the coast. Despite my assurances that "it wasn't that bad sleeping in the car" and "we really should do it again to save money", Bolly and Rachael decided that we would stay in real beds from now on during the road trip. So we settled ourselves in a little beachside town called La Ciotat and enjoyed the luxuries of a hot shower, blankets and pillows. We didn't arrive until it was almost dark and so after freshening up we went out for a great pizza meal overlooking the water. Then, with our eyelids involuntarily closing due to our previous night's lack of sleep, we decided to call it a night.

The Arc de Triomphe in Orange

Lovely scenery along the way

The streets of Orange

DAY 6 - July 26th

LET'S HIT THE BEACH
What to do when in southern France? The answer is easy really. We had finally made it to our destination and so we decided the only thing to do was spend a day with not too much driving, and a lot of swimming and time in the sun. We finished it off with some wine and cards. And that was about it for the day!

Our so called van
The beach at La Ciotat
Views over Cassis

Back to the relaxing holiday times

DAY 7 - July 27th

SO THIS IS HOW THE RICH DO IT
Day 7 was Rach's day in the drivers seat and we hit the road to see how the "other half" live. We spent the day weaving along the coast stopping at Monte Carlo, Monaco (where Rach pretended she was a race car driver), Nice and Cannes (where we stopped for a swim). The entire stretch is filled with condos, palm trees, flash cars, luxury boats, cranes -- I guess it is a bit like the Gold Coast of France. Not necessarily my sort of place to live but definitely interesting to check out for the day. The photos below show a bit what it was like, although it is hard to take photos from the car as it is all wizzing by.

Go Rach, Go

The Race Track

At Cannes

DAY 8 - July 28th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Despite my love of sleeping in, we decided to get up at 5am on my birthday to hit the road so that we could arrive in our next destination - Annecy, near the Swiss border - by early afternoon. We packed up the car and hit the road. It was great beating all the traffic and we made good time as we sped along the highway. After a few hours we decided to exit the highway and take the regional road, which turned out to be a top decision. The scenery we encountered as we got nearer the Swiss border was absolutely stunning. Mountains with snow peaks, deep gorges and water hundreds of metres below us. Along the way we stopped for breakfast and Rachael gave me presents she had bought over from my family in Australia. It was so nice to get cards and gifts from home, so of course I got all teary in the middle of McDonalds. That's the way Em! But all in all we had a great time. A no stress day on the road where for once we didn't get lost and we actually made it to our destination by just after lunch, giving us time to spend a lazy afternoon perusing the lakeside town before heading out for a birthday dinner of mussels and cheese fondue. Just perfect.

Annecy is just about the most beautiful town you could ever visit




At my birthday dinner



The Annecy Lake

Spectacular views along the way

And so ends our Eight Days in France - and all three of us have determined it is a beautiful country we would be happy to return to one day soon. Next time we will be a little more organised to avoid roadtrip stress, as I think we tried to see too much in too little time .... but it is all part of the adventure, isn't it?

Next stop Geneva.

Barcelona

After hearing so much about this city it was hard for it to live up to the expectations we had for it, but we had an awesome time absorbing its colour, vibrancy, and checking out the wide range of bars, street performers and strange and unusual people on offer. What really made Barcelona great for us though, was catching up with old friends. We had a week of catch up drinks and fun times with mates from across the globe. We spent the first few nights with our friend and old London housemate Ben Cullen and our mutual friend Brooke. Then a newer friend Rachael Will joined us, which was followed by my good mate Alex Ouwens all the way from Sunny Adelaide. Then finally we were joined by Em's best mate Rachael Bannon. Wow! Now that's alot of friends to play with. Wicked! Most of our time was spent either swimming at the beach, which had water filled with gold glitter, walking through the winding alley's or having a few bevvies at our apartment in the city centre or at one of the many local bars. We visited the main Gaudi cathedral which, known for its ugliness, was beautiful in a strange way. We took an elevator to the top of one of the spirals, then walked across a small walkway to the next adjoining spiral and then down the spiral staircase to the bottom. From the walkway between the two spirals you can see the whole of Barcelona - great view and enough height to get the old vertigo going. Well worth the adrenalin rush. For a bit more adrenalin the walk down the spiral staircase, all of some 400 stairs, is a rush in itself. The centre has no railing so if you lost your footing and slipped you could in fact fall down the middle to a very painful death!

Overall our week in Barcelona was a great time to spend with old friends. It really makes travelling so much more fun when you have mates to share the experiences!

Me and Ben Cullen.

Em and Brooke.

Em, Me, Alex and Ben.

Rachael Bannon, Rachael Will and Em.

One of the Busy streets off Las Ramblas.

Las Ramblas at night.

The Gaudi Cathedral.

View near the top.

Watch your step mate!

Me on the balcony of our apartment.

Beach babes.

Las Ramblas at dusk.

On set of some commercial we happened to walk past.

In the gothic quarter.

Me showing the barman at a some small bar how the alcoholic drink absinth should be prepared.