Paris, c'est magnifique!

Ok, so hopefully I spelled that right! For those of you non-French speakers out there, it says, "Paris, it's magnificent!"

So I've been back on this God-forsaken island that I currently live on since 5pm & how I miss the continent already! (Mostly because it hardly rained while we were there & the food was edible!) But alas, I'm not in Paris anymore, but I can remininsce & bore you all with my stories.

Where to start?

Well, we left late Thursday evening to take a bus to Dover which is a LONG way away, about 6 hours from Swansea. Now the group of people on the bus was American ... all American ... annoying Americans ... drunk Americans. Yes, they were drunk on the bus & SANG all the way to Dover. And they were not good singers either. Nor did they sing good songs. By the end of the journey, those of us who were sober were ready to kill them. Sadly, we didn't. We got into Dover at 1am to take the ferry across the English Channel 1:45 to Calais in France. The ride would take 2 hours. Connor, Jordan, Robby, Raquel, Michelle, & I found a relatively quiet place to lie down & sleep, until these school children high on sugar came into the cabin. Jordan informed them that it was a "quiet" cabin, so they left & we tried to sleep. The ride over was very choppy, not at all comfortable, but much better than the ferry back. We got into France around 4am, hopped back on the bus, & drove to Paris. We got to the hotel, Hotel Sibour a block away from the Gare de L'Est (train station), around 10am. Couldn't unpack 'cause we couldn't get into the rooms until 2pm.

So the 6 of us plus Diane, who joined up with us (& roomed with the girls), hit the metro to go to the Arche de Triomphe. Well, Michelle & I got a little confused & we went to the Arche de Defense instead which was okay because we got to see it & we found the Marche de Noel (Christmas Market). After that we walked across the Seine & to the Arche de Triomphe which took forever. (Never listen to me when I say something is not too far to walk too. I generally lie!) We didn't go into the arch, but we did take lots of pics. From there we went to the Eiffel Tower. Everyone but Michelle, Diane, & I wanted to go up the Tower, so the 3 of us ditched out & went to the Rodin Museum to see some cool statutes (i.e. The Thinker). We took some fun pics there, of course.

From there we went to the Latin Quarter to check out stuff. Namely Notre Dame. There was a choir concert or something with a lot of priests going on when I was in there, so I have some audio of the singing. After N-D, we walked over to Le Grenier de Notre Dame, but it was closed. (Le Grenier is were my "fiance" works.)

By then it was getting late & we had to meet the crew at the hotel for dinner. So we went back to the hotel to shower & unpack a little. We ate dinner - nothing exciting & I don't remember what it was called - & then decided we wanted to take an evening cruise on the Seine. Well, I forgot where Pont Neuf was & didn't realize it until we had walked down to the Louvre which is quite a distance. Everyone was getting grumpy because we hadn't slept since 8am the day before, so we had been up for more than 36 hours. By then it was 10:30, we turned around, found Pont Neuf & they went on the boat ride while Diane & I opted for bed.

On Saturday, we got up at 9am, ate breakfast, then headed out to shop. Went back to the Marche de Noel, hit up the Latin Quarter, & Chatelet. Went to the Musee d'Orsay where the Impressionists live. Found Riadh at Le Grenier de Notre Dame as he was closing & he proceeded to take the girls shopping. I must say, you can't help but appreciate a man who VOLUNTARILY takes 3 girls shopping. So he walked us to Chatelet to show us where the bigger stores were - i.e. H&M. H&M was incredibly crowded, so he & I sat at the bus stop & talked while Michelle & Diane shopped.

By 5pm, we were all tired. Riadh went home & we headed back to the hotel for a nap. After a glorious 1.5 hour nap, we met up with the guys again to go to dinner in the Latin Quarter. We went to a "French" restaurant where our waitress was quite rude to begin with, but apparently Connor has this great Canadian personality that wins just about everyone over & he managed to get her to smile. Once she cracked, our service was much better. Attribute it all to Connor, the snails, & his bread/butter addiction.

Afterwards, the guys & Raquel decided to go dancing (it cost 20 euro to get in & 11 euro a drink!) while Diane, Michelle, & I opted for some last minute shopping & then bed. The clubbing group didn't get back until 4am when I heard them come in.

The alarm went off at 8:30am on Sunday & we all groaned & hit snooze. Made it down to breakfast at 9:15. Got on the bus at 10. Hit Calais at 12:45pm where our ferry was delayed because of bad winds. We caught the 11:50am ferry at 2:15! The waters were SO incredibly choppy & I swear I will never go back to the continent by ferry! After a most unpleasant ferry ride, we landed at 4:15pm (we gained an hour), got back on the bus, & headed to Swansea. We watched Family Guy & The Island on the way back. Got back about 10pm, despite our hour delay in Calais.

Didn't spend much money. Actually, I think I spent less than 100 euro the whole weekend which is quite impressive for me, especially since it is Paris & Christmas! I will post pictures soon. I'm waiting to get some from everyone as my camera is still not focusing properly. But definitely be on the look out for photos as we have some fun ones. :-)