I went back upstairs and did my best to motivate myself to go on this walk. At about 10:00 AM, I headed downstairs and asked the receptionist to order a taxi. I went outside and waited. About 10 minutes later the taxi arrived. The meeting point was Place St Michel. The receptionist told me it was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, but I didn't want to chance it as I wasn't feeling well and would no doubt get lost.
The taxi driver obviously took me a long way around, it took about 20 minutes and cost me 20,00 Euros. I got out and waited with the other crowds of people at the meeting point. I wandered down the road a little bit and found a shop that sold Red Bull and got one. I needed something to get me going. Eventually the tour guides showed up and we all lined up for tickets. I took some photo's while I waited.
The groups split into 3. There were 2 English language tours and 1 Spanish group. Our tour guide Onno introduced himself, he was from Holland. We went around the circle and said where we were from. There was a lot of different nationalities. There was a beautiful blonde girl from Australia just behind me.
We walked around and saw the church of Notre Dame, some fantastic bridges, The prison where Marie-Antoinette was imprisoned during the French Revolution and lots of other amazing monuments and buildings.
Paris is a pretty cool city as far as monuments and historical sites go. I personally thought it was a little crowded and 'hustle and bustle'. There are so many statues and monuments here you need a few days to enjoy them all. This is a Western European city with a very Eastern European feel to it.
We made our way to what I think is the most impressive thing in Paris, The Louvre. The louvre is enormous. It is by far the most impressive building I have seen in Europe so far. I also started talking to the girl from Australia. I hadn't been in the mood for talking due to my hangover, but the walk had pumped some blood through my alcohol stream. She was from Queensland as I joked with her, "a professional student" to which she replied "More like a professional deferrer".
After the Louvre, we took a break and I bought some souveneirs, after waiting 2o minutes to use the toilet in Starbucks. While waiting I spoke to a guy from Holland. There is a gold statue to commemorate Joan Of Arc, who was burned at the steak for bothering to do some great things for her country and a pillar that Napoleon had made of melted down artillery from defeated enemies.
Next we came to a huge park that served as the gardens of the Louvre when it was the palace for the royal family. from there we had a view of what is called Triumph road and is home of the Arc De Triomph. Onno showed us a little photography trick here involving zoom and taking a few steps back.
In the park a woman approached me and handed me a ring she 'found' on the ground. I was still tired and wasn't thinking and put out my hand. She gave it to me and then asked for money. I ended up giving her some change, just to go away. There are a lot of scammers and pick pockets operating in Paris. I have heard that Rome and Paris are the worst cities as far as this activity goes, probably followed by London.
From the park we headed up to see the square where King Louie and Marie Antoinette were executed by the guillotine during the French Revolution. It's fairly impressive and from here you could also see the Eiffel Tower.
Afterwards Onno took us to a restaurant and I sat with a group of people. The guy from Holland that I spoke to at Starbucks, his friend and a girl they had met at their hostel, and a guy from the Czech Republic.
We ordered some food but the restaurant wanted 10,00 Euro for a coke, which is fucking ridiculous, so we just had water. I had a cheeseburger which cost 15,00 Euro. Afterwards I got a taxi back to the hotel. The fair was 15,00 Euro or something. I gave the taxi driver a 20,00 Euro note and I watched as he quickly dropped his hand to the side and then tell me I only gave him a 5,00 Euro note. It was definitely a 20,00 I gave him but knew I couldn't prove it, so I had to give him another 10,00 Euro.
Paris is cool to visit, but there are so many bad things here. Even in Prague and Budapest I never encountered such deliberate acts of scammery. I guess because I didn't say anything, he assumes I didn't know. I did know, but I didn't want the hassle of what might ensue if I called him on it. It wasn't my last 20,00 Euro but if I wasn't so taken by surprise, I would have told him that I knew I gave him a 20,00 because that was all I had. Lesson learnt.
I went upstairs to the room and slept for an hour or so as I was extremely tired. I'm not sure what was happening but my head was throbbing with my pulse. It was a weird feeling and when I woke up it was gone. I decided to go back up to visit Benoit and Marie for dinner. They welcomed me in. They were meeting with their wine dealer but happy to have me come in and stay. Marie made me try 3 of the new wines they were going to purchase. The wine dealer was a nice guy too and he explained a little bit about each wine.
The wines were really nice. Benoit suggested a few dishes for me to try and I agreed. He even gave me 2 dessert recipes because I told him I like to cook. He made me laugh with a story about his time as a Frenchmen living in England and not knowing English very well. It involved him, going to the store and asking for a baguette. Very funny. Marie forgot to add the dessert onto my bill and in the end told me it was free. I said goodbye to them, in case I didn't go back the next day and they gave me their email address.
I went and got 6 cans of Carlsberg from the store across the street and went back to the hotel room to update the blog. It cost me 13,00 Euro for the 6 cans. I drank 3 of the beers. I think it was around midnight when I went to sleep.
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