PARIS

Guess what this blog is about??

So, on Tuesday, my host Mum Claire took Emma and I to Paris!!! We awoke early to catch the fast train, the TGV, from the station in Montpellier, Gare Saint Roch, at 7:30. The train certainly is fast ( i think over 200 km/hr) as countryside flashed past our windows. At Nimes, we had to evacuate the train and then the station for 30 min - very annoying!! (Bomb scare i think, announcments were in French) So we got to Paris at about 11:30.

So we took a bus from the station into the centre of Paris, the Bastille. From there we hopped on a double decker tour bus, had great views from there and headphones for info and history in English was useful!! It took us around to la Seine, and we walked along there, over Pont Neuf onto 'La ile de la Cité'. Along there, past the police place (huge!) to Notre Dame. From what I saw in a day, Notre Dame would definately be my fave place after the Eiffel Tower. It is stunning, inside and out and I wish we had had half a day to spend in there. Unfortunately, i couldn't get any good pictures of the inside, because it is so dark, but i think Emma got some that were ok. The windows, walls, stations of the cross, little side bits (what are they called??) were all so detailed, painted or carved or both! Wow!!

From there, we grabbed a sandwich for lunch and got back on the tour bus for a trip around Paris, past all the major sites; We hopped off at the Eiffel Tower. We took the lift up (Emma and would have prefered to walk but Claire wanted to take the lift) to the top. The veiws were breathtaking. The day was quite clear but still the landscape faded to a haze in the distance. Then we went to the second level; walked down to the first, and back to the ground. It was great as you could see all the famous places that we didn't have time to visit.

From there we jumped on the metro (an experience in itself) and got off at the Arc De Triomphe. We didn't climb it :-( but walked all the way down the Champs Elysees. By this time, it was almost dark and it was all lit up, very pretty!!

To be continued... (Time for school)