Paris!

Since we started talking about having a white Christmas in France, we also decided that what better place to spend New Years than in Paris? I mean, who wouldn't want to be in Paris for New Years? It was only a short stay in Paris since it's quite expensive for hotels - especially around the festive times, and we didn't need all that much time to take in the wonders of Paris. We just wanted to check out the main attractions, eat Macarons and Crème brûlée and watch the Eiffel Tower as the clock struck midnight on New Years. So we decided that three nights was enough for us to tick those off the list and since we live quite close, we figured that we would be back again soon so there was no need to stay longer.

The morning came where the driving gang packed their car, had some breakfast, squeezed into the car and set off from Saint-Maurice to the big, beautiful city of Paris. Roy and I had a couple of extra hours to take the morning easy and get ready at a nice pace before we had to jump on the train to Geneva airport to board the plane to Paris. It was a bit nerve-racking sitting in the airport listening to the announcements because it was rather foggy out on the runway. Every ten minutes or so there was an announcement saying that such and such plane was delayed or such and such flight had been changed to such and such gate. But luckily for us, our plane was still scheduled to leave on time and at the same gate. An easy, comfortable fifty minutes later and we were landing at foggy Charles de Gaulle airport where we disembarked and weaved our way through the maze of an airport to catch the metro into the city. We asked the information desk where the metro was and with a few hurried words and exaggerated gestures she pointed us in the direction of the train. We went up what seemed like fifty escalators and passed about five hundred signs that pointed us to the metro where we lined up to buy our ticket. After a small wait and a confusing few minutes trying to work out which ticket to buy we had our little piece of cardboard and headed off the the gates where we were stopped by a man who was sporting a rather fashionable beret and had in his possession a very large semi-automatic weapon. Something serious must have been happening down on the train platform. They told us that we had to go to a different terminal to catch the metro. What was going to be an easy six hours of travelling turned into much longer as we navigated our way through the terminal to get to the correct metro platform. Before too long we were sitting on the train amongst other travellers making our way into the city. 

A few line changes on the metro and we finally made it to our hotel where our fellow travelling buddies were waiting and ready to head out into Paris. We checked in, dumped our bags, freshened up and met everyone down in the lobby to begin our quest to find a suitable restaurant for a dinner to cure all of our grumbling tummy's. We settled on a Moroccan restaurant which wasn't very far from our hotel. We sat down at our table and perused the menu. It all looked so great and it took us a while to decide what we wanted. After deciding on our meals we waited patiently for the waiter who was a little more interested in the football game that was on the blaring television than in taking our orders. Eventually he came, took our orders, set our table, gave us some water and returned to his beloved football match. A while later we heard the kitchen bell ring signalling to the waiter that there were meals ready to be taken to hungry customers and since we were pretty much the only customers (besides some locals who were also interested in the football match) we figured that they were our meals ready and waiting on the serving shelf. A few angry bell rings later and the waiter finally awoke from his football induced dream and fetched our food. He loaded bowl after bowl after bowl of food onto our table and we watched in amazement as the plates and bowls kept coming and finally they were all there and we stared at our food wondering how to eat it. There was a huge plate of cous cous, a pot of vegetable soup and tagines of different varieties. It wasn't really what we had expected but it filled the void in our hungry stomachs. The next challenge was to gain the attention of the waiter again so we could pay our bill and be on our way but the football was still on so it was quite a challenge. Eventually we decided to stand up which got his attention and we were able to pay and leave.

The night was still young so we decided to catch the metro to the Arc de Triomphe where we walked around and ogled the huge, beautiful thing. After a few laps around we bought some admission tickets and walked the spiral staircase within it's walls up to the top to take in the view of the beautiful city around us. We were entertained for hours watching the traffic weave around the bottom, admired the lights that lined the Champs-Élysées and waited patiently for the minute-hand to hit twelve so we could watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle in the night. This is what we had come to Paris for. It was beautiful!

Here's some beautiful photos taken by Dr Mitch.

After we had spent hours sucking in what the city had to offer, it was closing time for the Arc and the girls were itching for some Crème brûlée. We took the metro back to Gare de L'est and found a restaurant near our hotel for a late night dessert. It was just the first night and we had already seen some great stuff. Time for some rest before a big day of more sightseeing and sweet eating.

The next morning we woke up at a decent hour, met in the lobby and headed out for some breakfast. We ended up frequenting the restaurant next door to our hotel since the breakfast was cheap, the service was good and the croissants were super fresh. After we ordered our petit-déjeuner, we watched the waiter run out the door with a plastic bag and return with that bag full of fresh, buttery croissants. After our fill of breakfast, we hopped on the metro and headed for the La Tour Eiffel. Unfortunately the lines to go up were huge so we opted to give it a miss and decided that admiring it from the bottom would suffice.

Our photographer ended up being the subject this time.

After a quick walk around the Christmas markets near the Trocadéro we found the nearest metro station and headed to the Notre Dame for a gander. It was here that we met up with two more friends which brought the group total to eight.

Another metro ride and we were waiting in the long line for the Catacombs. After about an hour of waiting in the line that wasn't moving very quickly, an employee from the Catacombs came to tell us that they were closing in an hour and it was unlikely that we would make it in. We thought that we should wait a little bit longer to see if anyone ahead in the line lost faith and made the line a little shorter but we soon conceded defeat and left the line to do something else. Roy and I split from the group and went to Cimetière du Père-Lachaise - somewhere I had been itching to go for a long time so I could see the grave of Jim Morrison.

The footpaths of the largest cemetery in Paris were lined with gargantuan, ornately decorated tombs which house the remains of families. I had never seen so many huge and beautiful, yet creepy looking tombs. It was amazing walking through and admiring them.

After winding through the many paths and admiring the large tombs and graves we discovered quite a few people standing around one grave in particular and at that point I knew we had found the grave we had been looking for.

James Douglas Morrison - the front man of The Doors - The Lizard King!

We also visited the graves of Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf.

It was starting to get dark and I'm not one to hang around in cemeteries after dark so we made our way to the metro so we could meet back up with the group at the Sacré-Cœur. After scouring the crowds for our friends, we decided to ring them and figure out a meeting point where we were quickly reunited. We walked around the huge building to find a spot where we could watch the Eiffel Tower as twilight disappeared into the night. Unfortunately it was quite foggy and the view wasn't very good so we wandered around the shops in search of macarons and vin chaud. It was getting close to the hour and every hour the Tower twinkles so we went back to our spot and waited to watch it do it's thing. We got a little restless waiting so I decided to entertain the group with my rendition of the Tapkey Masti dance from the bollywood movie - London Dreams. This dance regularly comes out when the six trekkers get together. The dance tied us all over to the hour and we watched patiently for the lights. The minute had reached twelve and then..... we could very faintly see a slight twinkle through the fog. It wasn't really worth the wait but it was fun all the same.

After we'd finished admiring the grand Basilica we descended the stairs, braved the crowds to the main street and walked along to find the famous Moulin Rouge! We had thought about trying to get tickets to a show but they were sold out so we admired it from the outside - along with heaps of other tourits.

The night finished with us returning to restaurant nearby our hotel for some italian food and a Crème brûlée. More of Paris to come in the next post!

A visit to a Chateau and a pyrotechnic display in the skatepark

After a fantastic white Christmas is France the six travellers descended on Saint-Maurice for a bit of a relax in between travels. Something fun I discovered in the supermarkets before we left for Les Houches was the fact that they sell small fireworks so people can have their very own pyrotechnics display at New Years. We stocked up on some so we could have some fun of our own. As soon as the sun ducked behind the mountains and the sky become dark and starry, we rugged up in our jackets and walked across the road to the local skatepark with a shopping bag full of fireworks. There was still some snow scattered about and in the middle of the park was a flat platform which was covered in snow which provided the perfect place for us to set off our fireworks. Our photographer set up his tripod and camera so he could capture the sparks. Four of us stood ready with our matches to ignite our fuses at exactly the same time. We stood in awe at our 15 second light show and admired the colours that spewed out of the top. Luckily we stocked up so we had multiple shows all to ourselves. 

We had planned on going to Zermatt for a day of exploring but the weather forecast said that it was going to be cloudy and since it was a huge effort and a significant price to get there, we decided to go to Montreux instead to admire the lake and to check out Château de Chillon. Our travelling was a little disjointed because not all of us fit in the car so Roy and I caught the train up and met the rest there. We started off exploring the castle together, finding nooks and cranny's and reading engravings on the walls. We also saw Lord Byrons name carved on a pillar in the dungeon. Lord Byron was a famous British poet who went to the castle to write a poem called The Prisoner of Chillon (1819). 

After a while we split up because the guys wanted to look at things a little more thoroughly and us girls were happy walking through quickly and having a quick glance at things because lets face it, once you've seen a castle.. you've seen a castle. None of us are history enthusiasts or castle fanatics so it was just nice to wander through quickly and have a gander. Girls being girls we spent the rest of our time in the gift shop and the cafeteria (if you could even call it that - a few tables and chairs and a couple of vending machines, but it was warm so that's all that mattered). 

I must thank Mitch again for the use of his fantastic photos! He creates great reminders of all of the holidays we go on with them.