The trip to Paris was on one of these trains called a TGV, which are Europe’s high speed trains… And it did clock up a massive speed – nearly 400km/h! The ride was pretty cramped but, much more room on the slower trains… But we did get to Paris real quick… I spotted this guy on the train too who I know I’ve seen before – think he’s famous but still trying to work out who it was 
- When we arrived at Paris it was pretty mad, lots of frenchies running around everywhere, and we didn’t know exactly where to go to get to the hostel (real bad directions on the website)… And after discovering the tourist office was closed, we went downstairs and found the Metro (the underground train network) which was setup nearly exactly like London’s tube… I’m so glad I went to London before here, and now know how the tube works cause it made Paris heaps easier
- After 3 train changes and over an hour hauling our luggange around on some dirty, massively crowded trains, we finally made it to the hostel which was kinda out whoop whoop and in a pretty rough area… And the hostel was pretty dirty and smelly, probably one of the worst I’ve been in
Not the best start for 4 nights in Paris… - The next day we decided to hit up some of the main touist attractions, and our first stop was Notre Dame, which was pretty sweet but not as big as I thought… I think Westminster Abbey is actually bigger… Also got approached by heap of these people who looked like Gypsies who ask if you speak English… to which I said yes to the first lady, and she gave me this note which pretty much asks for money… Just seemed sus so I just said I couldn’t read it…
- After lunch (good ol Subway) we found a building called the Pantheon which reminded me heads of the capitol building in DC… Also had a wonder around Luxembourg Park which was nice
- The next day we headed off to the Louvre, which was pretty cool… Lots of huge, impressive paintings, statues and even the walls and roof were covered in elaborate works… Walked through the french, italian and greek sections and also saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo – check the pics
- After that we did the long walk down the Champes Elysees up to the Arc de Triomphe, stopping at some nice spots along the way… When we got to the arc there was this military parade too which was very cool to see… They played the French national anthem a few times (which is the tune of the Brisbane Lions club song) so I sang the Lions tune, which got some weird looks
- Jumped on the Metro and headed over to the Moulin Rouge, which was interesting to see… Got some pics before spotting an Aussie pub down the street so we wondered in… Probably the most un-aussie bar I’ve ever been to… I think they served Fosters and VB therefore could call themselves an aussie bar… Rather silly
- The next day was the Eiffel tower, which was very impressive to see… It sure is one big hunk of steel Got a few good pics, and also came back at night and got some cool night shots… I wanted to try and climb it at night but they closed the entrance just before I got there
After hitting up the main touist bits and pieces, it was time to head outta Paris and onto Dijon – the mecca of mustard!
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