Big Adventures, Little World

Waking up at 4 in the morning isn’t fun, but for the end reward it was definitely worth it. We made our way from home bright and early and got to the hotel in Central London just before 6:30 before we headed off to catch the ferry to France. There wasn’t too much to see during the drive but as we got to the ferry we came up to the White Hills of Dover, although didn’t really have the best view because there was so much fog. By the time we left on the ferry at 10:30 the fog had cleared up considerably though and we got some great views as we sailed off to Calais in France.

Once we arrived in France we got on to our bus, and started the drive to our campsite in Paris. It was a long drive to get to Paris, and once we reached the campsite we were still a bit outside the city so hadn’t really realised how amazing the city truly is. We got our tents setup and had some dinner made by our on road chef and I was surprised by how good the food was. I look forward to some of the other things that he cooks us through the trip. After we finished up dinner we were taken into the heart of the city for a driving tour on the bus.

We saw some pretty amazing things on the driving tour and our tour guide gave us some information about the things as we went as well. Some of the history of the country just blows my mind. It just doesn’t compare at all to Australia. Most of the buildings in Paris are older than the whole country of Australia! As we drove off it was still light outside by soon the sun was setting and we found out why Paris is called the City of Lights. Everything is lit up and it just looks beautiful. Even all the old buildings full of history are all lit up and provide some really spectacular sights.

Our tour started as we drove down the Rue De Rivoli, the second most famous street in Paris which is full of shopping all along there, but so expensive. Some of the stores even require an appointment to go in them.  As we drove a long we saw some amazing sights like Musee Du Louvre (The Louvre), Palais Royal (Royal Palace), Jardin Des Tuilleries (Tuilleries Gardens) and the Place De La Concorde where beheadings used to take place and the streets ran with blood. We kept driving along and onto the most famous street in Paris, The Champs Elysees. Again which is full of ridiculously expensive shops but some really amazing buildings as well. Sometimes the Champs Elysees is known as the street of rubies and diamonds, because looking down it from Place De La Concorde all you can see at night is the brake lights from all the cars on one side and the headlights from all the cars on the other side. It really does look like it as well, and is quite a bizarre thing to see. As we got to the end, there is the Arc De Triomphe, which was ordered to be built by Napoleon so that his troops could walk under arches as they returned home from a battle that they had won. It is also surround by the most dangerous roundabout in the world, which has 10 lanes with no lines marked and 12 exits, but somehow people seem to navigate their way around it with ease.

Our driving tour kept going to the highlight of the night which was no doubt the Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower) which was light up completely and is really one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen. We parked illegally out the front so we could all get out and take and few photos, as well as get harassed by gypsy folk trying to sell you crap. In the space of 5 minutes we got asked about 3 times if we wanted to buy things. Luckily our tour guide had warned us that they are most likely trying to set you up to pick your pocket rather than actually sell you things, that’s just a bonus for them. We got back on the bus and as we drove off the sparkling of the tower began, which happens on the hour at night for about 10 minutes. It looks really cool but kind of takes away from the tower itself as the all you see is the sparkling and don’t really see the tower itself. We continued our drive to start heading back to the camp and we drove down by the river Siene, and passed Notre Dame, but unfortunately saw no hunchback. We kept going and eventually made it back to the camp at about midnight. It had been a long day and all I wanted to do was get some sleep, so we crawled into the tent and got some much needed rest. That was until I woke up to the sound of pouring rain, which was a bit of a shock considering the heat during the day. The tent wasn’t leaking at all, so I fell back to sleep until morning, ready for another full on day.