Today we got the TGV from Paris to Nice, which took most of the day. We arrived in our first ‘hot’ city – 30+ degrees. We had a walk around the cafe streets before baguette and brie (and beer, maybe the first lagers of the trip) on the beach for dinner. Nice has a great feel, I really like it here. I can’t think of anywhere in Australia that I have been that compares. It is built up, with lots of cafes and bars, but there are no huge skyscrapers. There are some really beautiful old hotels on the main beach strip.

July 29 – Day 17

We went to Monaco for the morning on the bus, which cost 1 euro – maybe the cheapest thing we have paid for in Europe so far :). It was meant to be a quick trip, but took about an hour. We ended up getting to Monaco at about midday. In Monaco, we got on ‘Le Petit Train’, because it was so hot, and got a good overview of The Principality. We had some drinks and a bit of a wander, but it was too expensive (and hot) to do much else. When we got back to Nice we spent a while on the beach swimming and relaxing, which was a welcome change from our usual pace. We then went out to a really nice dinner on the beach, another walk through the streets, and back to the hotel.

July 30 – Day 18

Today I was in bed from 11am for 24 hours. The pharmacist said it was heatstroke. It was nasty. I haven’t written much about Nice, but I really enjoyed it (when I wasn’t sick). There are a few things I was reccommended to see that we missed out on which is annoying.

We got up this morning at 5:15 and got the 5:40 bus to the airport. Blech. We flew from Edinburgh to London City, spent an hour and a half getting from there to Heathrow, waited a few hours before getting on our plane, then ages (over an hour) on the tarmac. We finally got to Paris Airport at about 6, then got the metro and managed to find our hotel. Yep, a real hotel! We had dinner, and are back in the room now. We are staying in Gare du Nord – I don’t know if I like it yet.

July 25 – Day 13

This morning we got the RER to Avenue Des Champs Elysees, and walked up to the Arc de Triomphe, where we planned to meet Rob, Simone’s dad, who had flown over from the UK to spend the weekend with us. We bumped into each other in the tunnel under the Arc, in a huge crowd of people. We had a nice lunch in a cafe on Champs Elysees before heading off on our biggest day so far, with Rob as our guide. First, we walked down Champs Elysees, and visited the Louvre. We spent some time looking around, and visited some of the masterpieces (Mona Lisa and Venus De Milo). Next, we crosed over to the island and had a look at Notre Dame, which was impressive. After some crepes, we continued walking to St Germain, where we enjoyed cheese and wine. It was a delicious rest stop. Shop owners in the area have decided that their produce is more important than anyone wanting to drive down the street, so the tables and chairs come out, and people eat and drink. I loved the feeling on the street here, everyone is happy and relaxed. We started heading towards the Eiffel Tower, still on foot. After a little scenic detour (wrong turn), we reached the Tower late in the afternoon, when it was looking very impressive. After looking at the tower and being hounded by souvenir salesmen, we continued back over the Seine, to Rob’s hotel. We then went out for a delicious dinner in a little French restaurant, which was a very welcome change from our normal dinners. After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel. Looking at the map, I figure we walked at least 15-17km in 8 hours. Very sore feet!

July 26 – Day 14

We didn’t even sleep in! We were off to the Palace of Versaille first thing in the morning, with Chocolate Croissants in hand. It is an amazing display of greed. I preferred walking around the gardens, and the view of the palace from outside, however The Hall of Mirrors was very impressive. The amount of gold and marble built into the palace while France was starving is incredible. We stayed at the palace into the afternoon, and said goodbye to Rob. We had found out that Le Tour was finishing while we were in Paris, and thought we should try to see it. We headed straight to Des Champs Elysees from Versaille, on a fairly empty train. As it was getting into the afternoon, we thought it may have already finished, but it became clear it was still on when we climbed the stairs out of the station. People were standing on roofs, window sills, and in trees. Anywhere to get a better view. We saw the bikes go past a few times, as they loop around Champs Elysees at the end. I loved the festive feeling in the crowd of Le Tour, it was like a huge festival. Very fun :)

July 27 – Day 15

As per Rob’s suggestion, we headed to Montmartre in the morning to see the sights. It was really pretty, but overrun with tourists. There are still a lot of artists in the area, and lots of nice art. It was raining on and off, so we were in and out of cafes. After Montmartre, we headed to the Canals for lunch and a drink. It was raining pretty hard at this stage. We had a really nice cheap lunch, but there didn’t seem to be much happening. To finish off the day we headed into Paris for some Shopping. I think Simone had fun. We also checked what we had to do to go to Nice the next day, which was a good idea, as we departed from a different station than the one I thought we did. We didn’t like the area we were staying in Paris, and I think we would have enjoyed it more if we had stayed in a better area. It was hard to find good cheap food without going a long way, and we never really felt safe around our hotel.