Mugged!

Ok, now that we have your attention (seeing as NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON commented on our last blog entry) we weren't actually mugged. Bek and I are just feeling a little lonely without you all.

BONJOUR!

Ok so we got up nice and early (9am) to catch our flight yesterday, but before then we managed to fit in a visit to the recycling machine. It's so cool! We think more Aussies would recycle if they had one of these babies at home. We took a video, but due to the faster-than-a-speeding-turtle internet speed, we can't actually show you. Sorry. You put the plastic bottles in a cylindrical hole, and it spins the bottle and reads the label with a blue laser scanner, before the bottle drops out of sight. Very awesome. It even gave us 0.75 euros (in paper form) which we kindly donated to the next fortunate recycler.

We caught our flight to Paris, meeting a lovely Parisian lady (Annika) with her 5 month old (gorgeous) baby named Sumaya. She helped us when we had collected our baggage on the other side, showing us which train to catch and where to go (not to mention how to work the 23rd century ticket machine). So helpful - we would never have made it to our hotel without her. God just blesses us at every turn. So we fought our way through the crowds (and I mean fought) to get out of the subway and into relative daylight. Every single person in there wanted out at the very same time. It took us some time to find our bearings, even with the map that Bek has just about memorised - so glad one of us has a sense of direction. It also took us a very long time to find our hotel, but by george I got to speak some French! Un petit peu. :D

At our hotel, thanks to our ever helpful travel agent Jason, we had no hotel voucher. We also have no hotel voucher for Switzerland. (ok, there is a tiny weeny possibility that I have mislaid it somewhere, but it is highly unlikely.) Anyway, the lovely man behind the desk said it was no problem, we're here for 5 days, sort it out later. You look tired, oui? Oui. Ok, next weird thing was the elevator - so strange! It fits (literally) one person, one luggage. It is barely a door width, length and height. So if you squeeze, you could fit 2 people (no luggage) but they would be nose to nose, and they couldn't be Johnstone sized. Unfortunately, we're on the 4th floor (5th for those Aussies who don't start at floor 0). So we took it in turns. Hotel is nice, but very cramped. The hallways are one person wide, and the rooms have mirrors in them to emphasise space. But a really nice view of the Parisian streets from our window/balcony.

That night we had a little walk through the city, and bought some champanya from the supermarket, and had a night time view of Notre Dame. Very pretty. We also went down some gorgeous little side streets, where various shopkeepers tried to sell us bouquets of red roses, or entice us into their restaurant by dressing up in sombreros. We eventually settled on a little French place with escargot on the menu. We had 6 little snails in their shells, with green pesto-garlic sauce. I had to have a little tuition on how the tong-minifork thing worked, which Bek delighted in getting on film. I got my own back when I offered her said snail, which she then tried to spit all over the table. She didn't really like the taste. She managed to swallow it, with some difficulty and a mouthful of martini, but declined her other 2. I actually quite liked them, but in my eagerness to get the last little snail out of his shell, I grabbed him too tightly with the tongs, and he went shooting across the table into the wall. Very amusing, and the waitress thought so too. So our tablecloth was a mixture of martini and snail juice. Believe it or not, it is not our embarrassing moment of the day.

So today we slept in again (feeling a bit like old ladies with all the travelling), missed breakfast and sadly our next door neighbour the bakery was not open, it being New Years Day (Happy New Year everyone! *insert sound of party whistle noise maker thingies*) so we had to travel some distance to be fed. We came upon some markets, with a poisonnerie (we stayed clear of the distinct fishy smell coming from inside), a fromagerie (which wasn't open) and some fruit and vegetables. We almost got away with not speaking French, but the fruit guy found us out while we were smiling and oui-ing at what he was saying. We bought some fruit, and some pastries for brunch. You should see all the sketches and paintings all along the touristy areas, they're so beautiful we wish we could take them all home. We got a much better look at Notre Dame today, there was a huge crowd outside it, with a massive line the size of Spain heading for the entrance. We eventually found the end of the line, with the help of some lollies we bought from a stand along the way, but it moved rather quickly. Especially with the gypsies harrassing everyone with 10 Eiffel Tower keyrings for 2 euro along the way. Inside Notre Dame was absolutely stunning. The most amazing church we have ever seen - high ceilings (crane your neck style) and amazing stain glass windows. Just spectacular.

After the Notre Dame Cathedral we walked through a hundred little souvenir shops, all next door to one another, all selling pretty much the same thing. Not sure how they stay in business. We walked all through the city, across the river Seine and back again. For dinner we had something a little more palatable for Bek - cheeseburgers, and laughed at our very snooty French waiter who insisted on speaking to us in French every time he came to the table, even though we were clearly not French. He even gave us English menus, but still asked us for our order in French, and then seemed a little surprised when we asked him to repeat it in English. Every time.

After dinner we found our way to the Pantheon, which is just as spectacular as Notre Dame on the outside, but very cryptic on the inside. Little pun there folks, for those of you who didn't know (like we didn't) the Pantheon is one big crypt. Grave. Dead centre of town. Everyone's dying to get in there. Ok I'll stop. It is pretty impressive. Hopefully on one of the tour things we do tomorrow, we'll get to go inside and see if it's as awesome as outside. Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and other wonders of Paris for tomorrow!

Au revoir!

Love,

Bek and Belle

Ok, here's what you were waiting for. Embarrassing moment of the day - yesterday, in fact. And yes, it is Bek's once again. Of course. Ok, so Bek has this nice green fuzzy jumper. And she was wearing it yesterday on the plane. When we waiting for our luggage, I went to go to the toilet, and Bek called me back, laughing herself silly. She had noticed something attached to said green fuzzy jumper, and pulled it off. On closer inspection, it turned out to be the velcro detachable headrest cover from the airplane seats. :D