Hamish Fraser
The week in Paris was fun, started off with a lengthy train ride from Beaucaire. We arrived at hotel Gay Lussac to drop off our luggage then headed out for a evening walk to the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and Champs Elysees. The fellas headed out for a few hours for free time to check out the shops up the Champs Elysees. We the headed to the Arc de Triomphe but were turned away because of our lack of reservation. That concluded our first day in Paris. The following day the group returned to the Louvre and we spent 5 hours admiring the artwork and sculptures dispersed around the gallery, including the Mona Lisa. Later that night we went the a mall to top up on food and buy ourselves dinner, followed by us heading up the only hill in Paris to see the Sacred Heart church, which was nice as it looked over all of Paris.
The next day was Bastille day, so the fellas headed to the Champs Elysees to see the grande parade thrown by Paris, which showcased every military plane and vehicles imaginable. We then headed to the Army museum (delayed by a day due to Donald Trump occupying the museum the previous day). The museum and temple in which Napoleon Bonaparte is buried were very impressive. Later that night we headed to the Eiffel Tower to see the opera concert and fireworks display off the tower, definitely one of the biggest highlights of the whole trip for all of the guys. After the show the metros were all too busy to consider, so we trekked for about 40 minutes back to Gay Lussac. On the 15th July we visited the Pantheon then caught the train out to Versailles and walked around the palace and gardens, a few of us managed to find ourselves a free golf cart ride down to the canal and rented a boat for half an hour. When we got back to Paris, we were given about 4 hours free time to do what we wanted, so a group of about 14 of us headed up the Eiffel Tower, after about an hour of waiting in line, which was one of the highlights of the trip so far for me. The following day we went to another art gallery, which was genuinely quite impressive because of Van Gogh's works, starry night and his self portrait. The visit to the gallery was followed by an hour train ride to Chartres to visit the Gothic church which resides there. When we returned to the city we were given more free time to shop up the Champs Elysees. The group managed to figure out the metro system ourselves and arrived back at the hotel at 10pm, concluding our final night in Paris. Today we headed to the main Paris train station to begin our travels to London, which takes us to now, on the train from Paris to London.
The next day was Bastille day, so the fellas headed to the Champs Elysees to see the grande parade thrown by Paris, which showcased every military plane and vehicles imaginable. We then headed to the Army museum (delayed by a day due to Donald Trump occupying the museum the previous day). The museum and temple in which Napoleon Bonaparte is buried were very impressive. Later that night we headed to the Eiffel Tower to see the opera concert and fireworks display off the tower, definitely one of the biggest highlights of the whole trip for all of the guys. After the show the metros were all too busy to consider, so we trekked for about 40 minutes back to Gay Lussac. On the 15th July we visited the Pantheon then caught the train out to Versailles and walked around the palace and gardens, a few of us managed to find ourselves a free golf cart ride down to the canal and rented a boat for half an hour. When we got back to Paris, we were given about 4 hours free time to do what we wanted, so a group of about 14 of us headed up the Eiffel Tower, after about an hour of waiting in line, which was one of the highlights of the trip so far for me. The following day we went to another art gallery, which was genuinely quite impressive because of Van Gogh's works, starry night and his self portrait. The visit to the gallery was followed by an hour train ride to Chartres to visit the Gothic church which resides there. When we returned to the city we were given more free time to shop up the Champs Elysees. The group managed to figure out the metro system ourselves and arrived back at the hotel at 10pm, concluding our final night in Paris. Today we headed to the main Paris train station to begin our travels to London, which takes us to now, on the train from Paris to London.