Reflections of Paris

Firstly, it's been almost a week since the day and night from hell and now I'm not quite so sore about it I can think about the good bits: we had the opportunity to see some beautiful Scottish and English countryside. I particularly loved the Yorkshire area, which is remarkably like the Adelaide hills. The romantic in me is tempted to believe that it is my ancestral Yorkshire roots that account for my love of the Adelaide hills, but my dominant realistic side tells me that it is more likely the fact that my first memories are of living there...

Anyway, Paris: it's a beautiful city, full of beautiful people...and everyone is so goddamn skinny. You can tell who the tourists are because they're the fat ones. In fact, the 'fat' French women are about my size, so I've been feeling like a real heifer. Absolutely everyone smokes, including in restaurants, which is totally gross, especially after experiencing the smoking ban in London, which by the way rocks. Most people do speak English, but not all, so George's high school French has certainly come in handy.

We did all the usual touristy stuff: Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower (don't recommend this - it's really not worth the fight with the bunch of animals that are tourists), Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Champs d'Elysses, etc, as well as some more interesting experiences, such as drinking with a real life Bohemian in Montemartre and getting not only free glasses of wine from a very generous bartender, but a free 1 litre bottle when we left!

Yesterday we went to Epernay and did a tour of Moet et Chandon, which was awesome. We got two glasses of some of the best champagne in the world and toured part of the 38km of underground cellars. This is highly recommended! We then went to the tourist centre for some free tastings, then back to Paris for our last night there.

This morning we got up early and went to see Sacre Coure (big church which looked nice for the 5 seconds I saw it before being kicked out, presumably for wearing shorts - thanks, religion, for spurning me yet again), and the Moulin Rouge, which was a little disappointing, then rushed to get our train to Bordeaux.

Speaking of which, I must go because internet is free at our hotel and there's only one computer and people are waiting!