Road Trip- Day 2

Day 2

after a bit of a sleep in we decided to ge up sometime around 1030am... headed downstairs and got a map, and headed off in search of the train station that'd take us into Paris!

found it and asked the guy in the tickt booth how to get into the city!

hahahayou could see him sitting there thinking why did i give them any inkling that i understood them! and his co-workers were sitting there behind him having a good laugh...

but we did managed to get directions on how to get to the notre dam area and set off on the train...

after one change, we managed to find ourselves getting off the train and at the station the guy had said too!

there were about 4 different exits to get out... and being the tourists that we were we had no idea!, so we picked one, and worked our way to the surface...(actually i should say that Alex managed to lead us to the outside world, and was pretty pleased with himself! ;o)

we came out in this huge shopping center complex and headed off to what we assumed was the notre dam in the distance...

went in to this huge church and walked around it... assuming it was the famous notre dam...it was really light and airy, and there weren't all that many people in there, which i thought was a bit strange, but then i thought thatsince last time i was there it was in the middle of mass, and it was packed, and dark... anyways after walking all round for awhile we finally realised that the church we were in, wasn't in fact notre dam... but St Eugine! hahaha

but it had an awesome organ at one end... that would be amazing to hear!

lol after re grouping and getting our beaings again, we headed off in the right direction, and came upon the "real notre dam!"

it was a lovely hot sunny day... and there were swarms of people everywhere...had our premade sandwichs while sitting looking at the church... mmmm they were surprisingly good! and somehow managed to survive being swung around in alex's bag!

it was here that KT got hit up for the first time by a begger!

hahahathis little "bosnian" woman came walking along showing a picture of her son, asking for money!

must have seen Kt and thought easy target! :OP

headed into have a look around the church, got talking to some french art students who were in there meant to be drawing the colums but prefered to test out their english with me!

lots of charades!

it's definitely one impressive church.... though really dark inside... the stain glass windows are amazing to look at, and it being so sunny outside made them stand out even more...

headed out of there past the scary man who had these bulging eyes...

why is it that beggers place themselves at the entrances and exits to major tourist places!

i did want to take a picture... but that wouldn't be nice...

met up with KT and Alex outside and we headed off to visit the Louve...

now the louve is this massive building that seems to go on and on forever... and after walking for what seemed like forever we eventually we made it to the entrance.

thankfully there wasn't much of a line up and we got through the security check rather quickly...headed in to find the toilets...

lost alex for awhile... eventually found him, he'd wandered off to and had found himself a seat!

needless to say katie and i had been waiting for awhile just outside the toilets...

hahaha katie even got her own brush with the law as she decided to sit on the floor, only to be told moments later thatshe had to stand up!

hahahahow rude... they should provide seats if they don't want people to sit on the floor!! hahaha

eventually decided that paying 9 euros to (as alex put it) take an illegal picture! wasn't the best option for that money!,

so left there and headed down through the Jardin du carrousel, and down through the Jardin des Tuileries (a huge park) which had people everywhere

my favourite being the people relaing in chairs by the fountains, with their feet dipping in the water... was almostlike being at the beach, french style...

were tempted by some gelato at one of the stands, and got passion (passionfruit) and caramel flavoured gelato, and it was soooooooooooooo good......... mmmmmmmmmmm passionfruit!

sat and watched the people go by... before heading up and along the famous shopping street (Les Champs-Elysees) few stops along the way.

one being at the crepe shop along the street, where alex and i had nutella crepes, (with like half a jar of natella on each!. mmmmmmmmm yum!) and Katie went for the more traditional citron version, which was equally as nice...

nothing like trying to oder food in french!

headed up the street and to the Arc de Triomphe (the crazy roundabout... that alex managed to drive around the night before!)

lol and after terrorising poor katie in saying that we had to run across it all 10 unmarked lanes... to get to the middle

finally relented and let her know there were stairs that went under the road!

so we went under and across...sat underneath it, watching and waiting for some accidents to happen! (sadly nothing did)

though there was lots of police around, and one guy got pretty much made to strip on the edge of the roundabout... and they patted him down (seems there was some sort of rally going on that day)

decided to head down towards the eiffel tower from there, and after navigating ourselves around the roundabout, headed off to find it..

love the little smart cars!

went in search of the mini statue of liberty, and left Katie and alex behind under a tree.. was gone a fair while and still didn't manage to find it.. (though it does exisit, have since found it and we missed it by a bridge!)

though i had an amusing time taking random self portriats of me and the tower!

hahaha lol i have like 20, and most don't actually include the tower!

hahaha

caught back up with katie and alex and we headed down towards the bottom of the tower...

it began to rain, tried asking the guys with the guns where the statue was... lol charades again, and one guy sent us in one direction (which actually turns out he was right, we just didn't get how far we had to go!)

but walked and walked for ages and still couldn't find the bugger!

with sore feet all round, we decided to abandon the mission of finding the statue, and headed to the train station, to head back

managed to get the right train, but going in the wrong direction! lol so got off and got back on the right one!

only to find ourselfs flying past the stop we wanted to get off at...look like we got an express!

hahaha

anyways eventually the train stopped and we got one heading back..and managed to get back to the correct station...

i'm sure katie gave a sigh of relief as we did! :O)

had a french dinner of maccas!

french fries in france! :O) and got to have a mythic chicken burger... (mmm yum... so much better than what you get back home... but it's only to be found in europe!)

before heading back to the hotel for some beer!