Up at around 7am, showered and dressed, we hit the dining room for the usual selection of rolls and croissants and extremely strong coffee. We were joined by the talking croissants, and once again, the conversation seemed to centre around rabbits!
Last night, we arranged with Dawn and Linda to travel with them, on the metro to get a day time look at the Eiffel Tower - Katie and I also wanted to see the Arc De Triomphe and visit the Louvre again, to get some photographs of the glass pyramid. So, at 9.45am, the four of us set out for the nearest metro stop - with help from some of our fellow students, we worked out that it would cost us 12 euros, for enough tickets to take the four of us round for the day (4 each) - after being shown how to operate the ticket machines we attempted to purchase the tickets - somehow we ended up with 8 tickets each, plus 4 euro's change.
Heading for the Trocadero, we knew we had to make one change, and managed that - but on the second leg of the journey, with the part of the train we were standing in packed with a vast amount of commuters, we discovered just before we got off that some bastard had managed to get into my bag in the crush, and stolen 90 euro. I was absolutely sickened - and furious. It took me a few minutes to pull myself together - thankfully, I had money I could draw on for emergencies, but it took the shine off the start of the day:(
We had a fantastic view of the tower from the marble steps in front of the Musee de Cinema - such a shame that after 2 days of blue skies and sun, today was so dull and overcast - still, didn't stop us clicking away and taking some snaps.
As we crossed the Pont D'lena, we spotted a bride posing for pictures on the bridge, with the Tower behind the wedding party - was gutted that we couldn't get the clearest of view to sneak some good photographs !
I later played with some of the shots in photoshop, using selective colourisation to create some different effects .
I like this silhouette effect of the Tower and one of the several stone statues around the area .
I also used a long exposure to try and capture the movement of the carousel in action . . .
At this point Katie and I decided to part company from Dawn and Linda, as they wanted to head to Montmatre, and Katie and I wanted to visit the Arc De Triomphe, so we said our 'Goodbyes' and Katie and headed firstly for a walk underneath the tower -
- before heading back in the direction we had come from, consulting our maps for the best route to the Arc. The queues to actually go up the Tower were so long, that we had decided against that activity.
Back at the marble steps, the con men and women - who had annoyed us earlier- now became a real pain. A large group of people were wandering round, carrying clipboards that proclaimed them to be both deaf and mute, and were trying to get people to sign their name and details on the clipboard. We had started off politely saying "Non, merci" - but now we had progressed to a not so polite instruction as to where these pests could go ! It was like trying to escape a plague of mosquito's - at one point Katie and I were almost running up the steps, with a group of maybe 4 or 5 of them at our backs. Then one rather large fellow appeared in front of us, stood there blocking our way - and dared to reach his hand out to touch my camera ! Big mistake, and still feeling pretty upset over the earlier incident with the pickpocket, this guy got the full benefit of how pissed off I was. I smiled, he thought his luck was in, moved up close with the damned clipboard, and when his head was maybe 6" from my mouth, I bellowed 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!' down his ear.
And a miracle occurred - all of a sudden his hearing came back - it must have done, 'cos he leapt 2 feet in the air when I screamed at him. And not only that, he also regained the power of speech - as did the rest of his fellow 'deaf and mute' friends - 'cos all of a sudden, all of them were jabbering away and pointing at us - sadly, it appears they didn't appreciate this sudden ability to hear and speak - 'cos I am pretty sure that what they were saying wasn't particularly nice, judging by the tone and expressions ! Ungrateful Gits!
However, this did persuade them to let Katie and I continue on our way without any more pestering - and I sure as hell felt a lot better for letting out the frustration over the earlier incident!
The Arc was another 'wow' for me - again, so much bigger than I expected . . .
We spent a while here, before deciding to find somewhere to eat lunch - en route we passed a group of guys entertaining passers by with some street dance -
We then wandered on and eventually came across a little Chinese restaurant, where we tucked into a really nice lunch - at the end of the meal, the very dainty hostess attempted to lift my back pack onto my back - and nearly collapsed under the weight of it! After checking the map, we then decided to stroll up the Champs Elysees towards the Place De La Concord, then on to The Louvre - camera's busy the whole route.
It took us a while to notice that part of the front of this building was covered in boards painted Tromp l'oeil style - trying to figure it out, I came to the conclusion that its just a way to hide renovation work under an attractive cover?
We eventually arrive at the Louvre and spend some more time taking photographs - including some more street photography pictures
By now, feet were killing, so we decided to grab a taxi back to the hotel - and get ready for our last night at the local :)
After careful consideration, I have decided that the events of that night most definitely belong under the banner of 'what happened in Paris, stays in Paris' ! Suffice to say that numerous Desperado's were consumed - along with a delicious meal including a desert of crepes - flambé crepes in mine and Katies case - with numerous shots being provided by the hosts, and lots of pictures being taken (and video's - but I won't go into that here ! )
Eventually, after an absolutely brilliant night, we headed back to the hotel, and settled down for our last nights sleep in Paris.
Friday 18th March 2011
Up for our last breakfast, by 7am - cases packed, and room checked to make sure we hadn't left anything behind . More talking breads at breakfast, and more rabbit talk - but by this stage, it would have felt strange if there hadn't been!
It was at this point that we found out that we would have to vacate our rooms at 9am, not 10 as we had previously been told, so after breakfast it was a mad dash to get all our cases downstairs in time - I think most of us were pretty sure that if we didn't, we would all be kissing our 20 euro deposit 'goodbye' !
Ray turned up with the coach by about 10am, and we loaded up, for the start of the mammoth journey home. At the ferry port, we missed a ferry again by minutes - and spent a pleasant hour waiting in the rain, or sat on the coach, as there were no cafe's or shops at Calais. Onto the ferry - this time we were on the new 'Pride of Burgundy' and we headed on deck to wave goodbye to France. To the restaurant for lunch - was looking forward to the veggie curry, but the server informed me that they had taken it off the menu 2 days before (BOO!) and settled for fish and chips and being entertained by Charlie duck
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