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[ColdSun]

and thanks again for a nice update

[peep]

Thanks for all your kind comments.

Last day of the trip report is below and the last videos will follow shortly (day two at the bottom of this post).


Friday 20th February 2009

Our last day at the Val d'Europe Etap hotel started with breakfast (of course, what else?). We then collected our luggage and left the hotel for the RER. We then had a 20-30 minute journey to Gare du Nord station where we left our luggage in this locker evil facility.

We then caught the RER and Metro to Notre Dame.

Patrick outside the Metro station








Sam outside Notre


Patrick and Mike




It is such a large building. The architecture and stain glass windows are amazing and inspirational. We only wandered around the ground floor and we didn't pay to go to the top. As we exited the building the bells began to ring, that was good timing. We took loads of pics of Notre Dame before getting back on to the Metro to the Eiffel Tower.









We weren't too sure if we wanted to go up the tower or not and with one of the corners closed for refurbishment the queues were massive. We were also getting strained for cash so we decided not to in the end. Instead we spend ages taking photos and walking around the general area.















We then grabbed another Metro train to Arc de Triumph. We spent some time staring at it but we then got sidetracked by the French traffic. No offence to anyone but not only is this roundabout badly designed (no clearly marked lanes) but the drivers just seemed to do what they wanted, some even stopped for no apparent reason just in the middle of this fast moving traffic. Fools.













We then walked down The Avenue des Champs-Élysées which was really, really long. We stopped off at McDonalds (yeah I know, eww, but tight for money meant extremes) for lunch. I was a lot better than we anticipated and tasted so much better than in the UK, they even have beer on tap, this amused me. The meat in the burgers actually tasted of meat and were satisfying.

On our way down this avenue we stopped off at a cool looking Peugeot showroom as they showcase futuristic cars. It was really cool and one of the cars was shiny.







Our next stop was Virgin Megastore, yay, it lives! It was a really large store and we took our time looking through the vast choices of CDs and DVDs.



We then spotted the Disney store which we decided to enter, we didn't see any merchandise we hadn't seen before but the decorations were amazing. The store not only had a chandelier but some beautiful paintings of classic Disney animations around the top border of the shop interior. It was a bit of a quick in and out because it felt like a sauna inside.

We continued down the Avenue as Patrick said that the Luvre museum was at the end. We saw a lovely building on the way which housed a pastry making tutorial place. It was tempting to enter, but we didn't





Sam and I also started to get a bit bored so we began to make silly conversation which was anything but making sense which confused Patrick and Mike. What were we discussing? The contours of the pathway and how it goes up and down, yeah it doesn't get much more thrilling than that.

The next thing we came across was Cleopatra's needle. The area was really nice, some awesome fountains and some cool buildings. We spent some time here just taking pictures and making up silly stories as to what the hieroglyphics say. I believe it is something to do with birds eating other birds.





A little further and we had entered the gardens that join on to the Louvre. We saw benches so we decided to take a break in our lengthy walk. We then discussed the nature of the bench and the difference between ponds and lakes. Yeah, we must have been really bored.

Once again we didn't actually enter the Louvre but we just stared at it and it's glass pyramid.



We went through a walkway and not only did we find the Metro system but we also found some locals on rollerblades playing football. It was odd but satisfying to watch, they were all really good but after a while they started to pack up, so we headed for the metro.



We went back to Gare du Nord because we were exhausted and just generally too tired to come up with any good ideas on what the hell we should do. After ages we decided that a cafe would be a good idea but instead of actually going to a cafe we ended up walking around the area for ages. It isn't exactly the greatest area of Paris and does beg the question as to why Eurostar chose this as their Paris terminal.

For some bizarre reason we ended up in the McDonalds opposite the station. We just grabbed a drink (and a McFlurry for moi ) and sat down upstairs. After a little while some French girls sat down next to us and were eating their meal. I went to use the loo and when I came back they were having a discussion with Mike, Patrick and Sam. That was an odd moment, turns out the conversation was even more peculiar. Not only could we speak minimal French but only one of them could speak some broken English. It was a massive lol moment for all six of us. We did get to understand most of it like where we were staying (Val d'Europe) was the same area they lived in and the university they are going to come September is near Patrick in the UK. It was such a surreal discussion but it really the made the day.

After sitting in McDs for ages we headed back into the station to grab our luggage. We then got on our Eurostar back to the UK, au revoir France!

It was a good day, very random and lots of walking but it was just sad that it was the end of the trip.

Hope you enjoyed reading my trip report!

The video trip report of day two is now available HERE

I advise that all my videos from this trip are watched in HD (if poss).

[The Butlin Boy]

Fantastic report Peep, thanks for sharing it. I'm glad you all had a great time at DLRP, Futuroscope and Paris (all in one week! ) :wink:

[ColdSun]

great update and fantastic photos... I just looove Paris