(this narrative began shortly after I finished my first tour - the British Isles - when I flew to Paris, France from London, England, and then started my second tour - the continent of Europe. It began in Paris, went southeast to Rome, Italy, then northwest to Amsterdam, Netherlands. After reaching Amsterdam, a few of us went back to London on the Eurostar train and then flew to our respective home countries from there. Those who didn't go back to London, flew to their respective home countries directly from Amsterdam.)
Saturday October 1 to Monday October 3, 2016:
Saturday October 1 to Monday October 3, 2016:
Yesterday (Saturday), we met our new tour director,
Rosie Brito, and later on at 5:45 pm, I met my new travelling companions. We left our hotel in Paris for a special
welcome dinner with wine, followed by a CRUISE on the Seine River for a first
impression of this splendid city.
Today (Sunday), we had to wake up early (for me,
6:30 am), have breakfast at 7:15 am, and leave for an excursion at the
Versailles Palace (or, Palais du Versailles, in French) by 8:15 am. This excursion is to be the first of eleven
in total. This palace was occupied over
time by various kings of France, for example, King Louis XIV, King Louis XV,
and King Louis XVI. In addition, their
wives who were queens of France lived there too. It is an enormous palace with eight hundred
rooms in it! And, there is gold leaf
everywhere, inside and out. This was
done to show off the king’s huge wealth and power. Our tour, with a local guide, took an
hour. Then, we headed back to our hotel
and arrived at about 12:00 pm.
Since we had a bit of time to eat, I had a light
lunch (a crepe normande) at a nearby café, The Beaujolais. We were going to be leaving our hotel again
shortly for the Paris city tour. We
drove around Paris during the tour for at least an hour, again with our local
guide, looking at the major landmarks, such as, L’Opera, La Musee du Louvre,
and the Arc de Triomph. Unfortunately,
we could not drive up the avenue Champs Elysee today because it’s Sunday and
the avenue is always blocked off to vehicles for the day.
After looking at most of the major landmarks of
Paris, we were taken at last to the Eiffel Tower (or, Tour Eiffel, in
French). This would be my very first
visit to the Eiffel Tower! We took the
lift up to the second floor (at least one hundred feet up) where we were left
on our own to wander around for however long we wanted to be there. By 4:00 pm, I left by going down in the lift
and walked the short distance back to our hotel. I was tired by now, so I rested until 6:15
pm, which was when we were supposed to leave for our second excursion, the
Moulin Rouge show, including dinner and wine.
We had to sign up for the first two excursions, which we had done, but
we haven’t paid for anything yet. That should
happen in the next day or so.
I must say that this show was truly amazing! We had been told by Rosie, our tour director,
to expect a wonderful show. She said
that this show is very good and entirely professionally done, and she was
right! These agile young men and women danced
and sang (to orchestral music) and did some very impressive acrobatics! There were other acts too, such as an expert
man-and-woman roller skating team, a male acrobat, and a ventriloquist. The whole show was the likes of Cirque du
Soleil to me, for some reason, even though I have yet to see that particular
show. One of the most interesting acts
in the Moulin Rouge show (that Rosie said she did not like) involved a small
pool of water that appeared from beneath the stage, full of live
snakes! A girl was thrown into the pool
and the snakes just coiled themselves around her body! I marvelled at the fact that they did not
even attempt to hurt her. However, it
was still very frightening to watch this act.
When we left the show at its finish at 10:45 pm, we
made our way (as per Rosie’s instructions) over to our bus, which was parked
about a block and a half away. Once
onboard, we had to wait to get clearance, as, we were blocked in by other
buses. When we finally got back to our
hotel, it was 12:00 pm, a rather long day packed with things we’d done in Paris
today on Sunday.
Tomorrow morning (Monday), we have to wake up early
(for me, 6:30 am), put the baggage out the door at 7:15 am, eat breakfast at
7:15 am, and leave for Lucerne, Switzerland at 8:15 am. We will have left Paris and are going to stay
overnight in Lucerne tomorrow night having travelled all day to get there.
copyright 2016 - Anne Shier
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