Walkies!!!!

Well today we had a slightly heated discussion as to what to do. Mum wanted to go shopping again in the other department store Printemps, and I wanted to walk around Paris so we could see the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysee and all the shops and markets along the way - I won. Poor mummy.

We walked about 3 kilometres up a steady hill from our hotel (near Galleries Lafayette) to the Arc de Triomphe - we did stop for a rest once along the way. The Arc is such a huge monument, it has this atmosphere of awe even though it is in the middle of the biggest roundabout I have ever seen! The road around it, if there were lanes, would be 8 lanes wide I would say, and twelve, yes TWLVE streets intersect there. So the traffic is crazy, and catching a cab there is hilarious as they weave in and out of all the traffic - as there are actually no lanes marked so you can drive wherever you like and cut across from the very middle to the very outside part right in front of a million cars (all honking their horns at you), its fun!

We tried about 7 times to take a self portrait with the Arc in the background but never got a decent shot, then a lovely Pommy couple asked if we would take a pic of them, so we did and then they returned the favour, It was funny, you had to wait for juuuust the right time to take the pic when there were no buses in the way - it does take some patience.

Then we headed down the famous Champs Elysee (yes Beck and Dan, its a busy street!).

Standing in the middle of Champs Elyees looking towards the Arc de Triomphe



And then looking in the other direction towards the eye - if you look closely you can see it right at the end

 It is SUCH a long street, and also very wide, with stunning, stunning shops strung alongside of it. Gucci, Yves St Laurent, Chanel, Prada, Versace, the list goes on and on. Every huge fashion house you can think of along here - and many others you have never heard of, but are equally as opulent. It was teaming with people! Every couple of shops, there is a brasserie where you can have something to eat and drink, or a patisserie to grab one of Paris's incredible pastries - I am addicted to the raspberry tart, well also the caramel.chocolate tart, oh and the lemon meringue tart, and .... well, you get the idea!

About halfway down the Champs Elysee there are market stalls on either side - and millions of people sauntering along. There were lots of warm hats, scarfs and gloves - its bloody freezing here! There were cheese stalls, preserved meats, lollies, waffle stands, crepes, and all sorts of things. But my very favourite are the vin chaud stands - hot wine! Yuuuum!!! You can get red or white, and it it so hot you cant drink it right away, it is also kind of mulled I think as it has a spicey, fruity kind of flavour. Writing this is actually making me want to go down and get some more - it was TO DIE FOR! Not to mention drinking something hot on a freezing day is also fabulous.

If you look closely you can see the steam rising from my hot wine!!

So we reached the big eye (ferris wheel thingie) and mum chose not to go on it as she had been feeling a bit queasy form all the smells from all the stalls - and I suspect from all the hoards of people. So we walked through the garden that runs along the Louvre towards the Louvre Museum, hung a right and continued to walk along the Sein river.

By now we would have walked perhaps about 8-10 kilometres and mums legs were getting tired. I offered to stop there and catch a cab to the Isle de Cite, where our friends Sam & Nadi suggested we have a look - Notre Dame is there too. But no, mum soldiered on and we walked all the way along the Seine, across one of the lovely bridges and made it to the Isle.

See the Eiffel Tower in the background?!?!

Notre Dame has a haunting prescence, and we did want to have a look inside, but due to the line-up of people waiting to get in, and the fact that it looked kilometres long, we chose to just look at it from the outside - we had been insde the stunning Rheims Cathedral the other day anyway. Would you believe I didnt take a photo of the front?!?!? What was I thinking!?!? Anyway, I did take a pic of the side as I thought the spire was pretty awesome. Oh well, there are plenty of pictures of Notre Dame on the internet and Im sure they are a lot better than any I could take with my little camera.

We needed to rest mummy poor legs - and my feet were pretty sore too, so we chose a lovely brasserie opposite the Palace de Justice, which made a loverrrly backdrop for a piccie.

The gold on the gates seriously are that gold, I havent tampered with the colour - its just an incredible place!

We had amazing food - as we have become accustomed to in Paris, with a basket of bread brought to the table (great for my wheat intolerance, oh well thank God for zantac). Then we decided to walk off the isle, back to the right bank to catch a cab home form there. But it was all so gorgeous that we had to keep looking. We walked past I think city hall, there is an ice skating rink set up there for the Chrstmas season, just lovely, with hundreds of people lining up to strap on some skates and fall ass over you-know-what. It was great to watch, and gave such a feeling of romance and wonder to the place - the whole city feels like that really. We ended up walking back to the Louvre before getting into a cab, so I figure we walked something like 15 kilometres - no wonder our legs were tired! Also, me thinks walking with your legs half frozen in ze -4 degreez teperature makes ze muscles not work so well, no?

We reeeeally reeeeeally wanted to go out at night finally, but of course, after such a huge day of walking, we ended up collapsing - in fact mum fell asleep at 7:30 pm and didnt get up until 6am the next morning. I managed to take a couple of pics from our hotel window - you can juuuust see the Eiffel Tower from here.

Later I was writing the blog as mum was sleeping, and housekeeping knocked on the door to bring in some cute little chocolates (they do that every day) and she didnt even stir. How funny. Me thinks we walked and walked and walked tre tre too far!!!

Ah well, a good sleep will enable us to sample more of what Paris has to offer us tomorrow.....

Bonne nuit xx

Did Somebody Order Snow?!?!

Well, after absconding from the Moullin Rouge show and going straight home, we were determined to make the next day fantastic! I called reception and put in a wake-up call for 5:45 am to give us time to get ready before heading downstairs for our gourmet buffet breakfast and running off to the tour starting at 7:30am. You'd be surprised how long it takes to get ready when you have to think about the various layers you will need in the various places - you have to be a scout and be prepared, when outside it can be -7 degrees, and inside (particularly the bus) it can feel like 30 degrees!

As I wrote in the last blog, we fell asleep as soon as we got back, then at 5:45am (or so I thought) the phone rang and I answered it - "bleh, blah bleh blah bleh blah" is all I heard - I assumed he said the time and that it was time to get up. "Merci" I replied, and sat up like a limp celery stick that has been left out in the sun for days. I was exhausted. Mum was much the same. But, we got up and started getting ready. I jumped in the shower first hoping there were healing powers in the water that would wake me up - well, a girl can always dream. I got out the shower, put on my watch - and noticed the time, its was 5:00 am!!!! Damn it!!!!! The wake up call was obviously lost in translation and we were woken at 4:45 am. Ugh, too late now. Never mind, we slowly got ready, headed down for breakfast at 6:30 then cabbed it to our tour. We got on a lovely double-decker bus and we were on our way!

As we headed out of Paris city, we saw snow on the ground, cars with ice on them and buildings with white rooftops - it was really cute! Mum and I were so excited as we had been hoping and praying we got to see snow (I had never seen it in my life). We said "Yaaaay, we're going to see snow today!! Woo hoo!!". As we got further out of Paris there was more snow, and then more, and then MORE! It was actually snowing when we arrived in Rheims - yaaaaay!!!! I was like a little kid I was so excited - the snowflakes were so big!! It was gorgeous.

Oh yeah, and the champagne vineyard was awesome too - but the snow!!!!!!

Anywhoo, enough of the snow (sad face), we went to Mumm cellar where they make the wonderful champagne. We went down down down, about 15 metres below the earth (mum was a bit panicky at times) and learnt how they make the champagne - very interesting. They had about 15 million bottles of champagne there currently ageing - thats right, 15 MILLION! It was amazing.

We then headed back up to have a taste of the champagne - now it was mum's turn to be be excited like a little kid - "Yaaay, champagne!!" She had a glass of the brut, I had a sweeter one. We tried each others - and they were soooo good. Pity we only got one glass each!

Then, we got back on the bus and they took us little further in Rheims and showed us the most stunning gothic style church, Rheims Cathedral. It was surreal! Sooo huge, soooo high, and sooo stunning. It is 38 metres high (higher than Notre Dame!) Apparently it is one of the greatest momuments of gothic art and architecture - google it, its fascinating. It is the traditional coronation site for all French kings.

Not a great picture but this is the huge organ (Im not being rude! hahaha) that is centuries old!

After our tour of the cathedral we had 2 hours free time to wander around Rheims and have some lunch - umm, it was snowing, freezing and the wind was so cold it would probably freez your champagne if you were drinking outside! So, we spent the whole time luxuriating in a lovely French restaurant with champagne, sumptuous meals - and of course dessert.
 

Walking around the city of Rheims (not for too long - it was sooo cold!)



I had homemade profriteroles

Mum had a peach & champagne thingie (cant remember what it was called)

Our next tour was to be to the Moet & Chandon cellars, but it had been snowing so heavily that the road we needed to take to get there was closed!! Nevermind, the tour operators quickly made a plan B, and we went to Taittinger (pronounced Tatangie) cellar instead - which I think was much better anyway as it was AMAZING!!!

In case you havent seen enough snow - this is the scenery from inside the Tattinger cellar

The Taittinger cellars are situated above the magnificent 4th Century Roman cellars which at one time belonged to the Benedictine monks of the abbey of St Nicaise, which was mostly destroyed by bombing during the war. Another interesting place to google. We went down, down, down - even further than we did at Mumms, we went 25 metres under the ground - mum was rather terrified, but I stayed away and let some sweet lady talk her through it (she wasnt too bad). This place is amazing. Kilometre upon kilometre of tunnels with gazillions of bottles of champagne (19 million actually), all built in the 13th century by the monks, and still strong and functional today. The knowledge of the people back then - before the computers and instruments we have nowadays astonishes me!

Bottles as far as the eye can see!

We went back up - I think mum was the very fisrt in line!! Hahaha. We had a glass of champers - and it was sooo good I had to buy some!

 A 2hour snowy, slippery bus ride back to Paris and mum and I were back in our PJs ordering room service by 8pm - too exhausted to go out to a nice restaurant/bar as was the plan.
 

A glass of champers, some pizza and we were off to la la land again, recouperating for our next Parisian adventure.

Bonne nuit!!  xx