The night before we departed, I had booked to stay at the Royal National Hotel which is where Contiki is based, purely for convenience in the morning. After a slight mix up of my room and booking, I was moved to a double room with no other room mate which was great. Yesterday morning we met the bus at 06:00 - a nice early start. After having our passports and documents checked, we boarded the bus and were introduced to our tour manager - Natalie (aka Nats) as well as our bus driver - Dainan. From London, we headed to (the white cliff of) Dover where we boarded the ferry across to Calais, France. The ferry was massive, mainly used to transport vehicles across - much bigger than what I thought.

From Calais we continued driving until we got to Paris. We arrived early evening, around 17:30 or so. After unpacking our bags, we were taken on a sight seeing bus trip of Paris, highlighting all the important views and sights - but still from the bus. After our sight seeing trip we headed home for dinner and drinks at the local pub - starting to get to know one another.

Today we were up early and all headed off to the Eiffel Tower. Now with my fear of heights I expected to shit myself... excuse my French... haha... ha... get it? Nevermind. Anyway, after standing in a 2 hour long queue, we eventually went up, the first lift takes you up to either level 1 or 2, we went up to level 2. From there, you catch another lift up to level 3, the top. The height of the Eiffel tower stands at over 300m, and for only a metal structure with a sort of cage on the top, it was pretty damn scary but an awesome view nonetheless. I did alright up there, not nearly as frightening as I first thought.

After the tower, we headed off to the Arc de Triomphe, the famous archway and round-about in Paris.

We looked around there a while and then ran walked quickly to the other side of Paris to the Notre Dame cathedral. We didnt go inside, just took a few photos and used a few minutes to relax. With the heat wave in Europe, walking ridiculous distances wasnt easy - but hey, we're in France... who cares? :)

By now our hunger had set in so we headed off to McDonalds (or Mackers as the Ozzies call it) for lunch. The best thing about McD's in Paris - you can have a beer instead of a soft drink. Which is exactly what I did - big mac, (french) fries and a beer. Damn Im cool. For dessert, I had a crepe - basically a thin pancake... very common in France and around Europe.

But anyway, from there we went across to the Louvre, one of the biggest art museums I've ever seen. Cos of our lack of time, we didnt look around inside that much, got to see the Mona Lisa, the Madonna on the Rocks and the La Venus de Milo sculpture. I dont know how much more we wouldve wanted to see but got to see the more important exhibits.

After that, we changed into more formal attire and headed into the heart of Paris for a really nice Parisian meal at the Les Noces des Jeanette - garlic snails for starters, fish for main course, then dessert... really good. As well as that, we got complimentary French wine and there was also some guy with an accordian playing popular sing a long songs.

After dinner, we had a show booked at Nouvelle Eve - a theate just next door to the famous Moulin Rouge... same sort of show, just a fraction of the price. It was a typical cabaret show, and I got selected to join in part of the show - which was great, mainly helped out by the wine earlier and the champange during the first part of the show :) I also got a certificate to prove I was part of the show. With beers costing 7 euro each, we didnt adventure past our complimentary bottles of sparkling wine.

Afterwards, some of the others went to town, the rest of us went back to the Contiki bar where we're staying. After a long busy day, lots of sightseeing and a few drinks in the evening and at the bar, Im off to bed... Au revoir!