Today I visited Paris’ top tourist attractions including the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe and the Sacre Coeur. An afternoon spent appreciating art, architecture and ticking off bucket list experiences in France.

Up and at em!

Breakfast in the hostel left a lot to be desired, but a coffee and some fruit will suffice. French free time on the menu today! Another “What to do in Pairs” Google, and some tips from our guide helped me shape the order of the day:

Onto the bus and followed my group to the obelisk of Luxor for 9.30am as our meeting point. I would have loved to be in line for the Louvre already, hoping to spend the entire day looking at art (of course paying Miss Mona Lisa a visit), however I knew that would chew through my whole day. Having a set departure time really sucked, leaving no time for city exploration or having a look in shops and cafes for the real Parisian experience.

I politely joined a couple who were interested in visiting the Louvre, or having a look at the line at least, to try and estimate if it was worth our time, maybe nobody was visiting today? but continued walking to the Musee d’Orsay after our photoshoot. Saw some Van Gough, and Monet’s water lilies, I spent a few hours here.

Walked to Arc de Triomphe, couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to get there, to the middle of the roundabout, with all these gates and signage that said crossing the road was illegal. I figured out there were tunnels and crossed right under the road to join the line. I didn’t even know you could climb it, let alone go inside, there’s even a tiny museum complete with a scale Arc de Triomphe, at the top!? Climbed up to look at the view, was pretty impressive, and considerably cheaper than the cost and climb to the Eiffel tower, plenty of pictures and even a cheeky facetime for mum.

I wandered the main shopping drag that afternoon, up the shopping parade, and returned to the obelisk. Hopped on the Metro to returned to the hostel. A brief drive and we arrived at the heart of charming Montmartre and climbed the stairs up to the Sacre-Coeur, cursing myself for wearing a long dress and pretty but useless walking shoes, the view was spectacular!

Had a Parisian dinner with French onion soup and tried escargot again. Oddly enough, the one and only time I had eaten snails was aboard the Ovation of the Seas in the middle of the South China Sea, but they still went down a treat! There was plenty of free wine consumed while we dined with several other large groups of young ‘Contiki-ans’ in the restaurant. I couldn’t help but feel awful for all the other diners, certainly more atmosphere than they bargained for on a Thursday night!

Our boozy dinner lead straight into a cabaret show at the Moulin Rouge, with even more wine and champagne on each table. I sat right up the front by the stage, but angled away so I wouldn’t be up for a volunteer stint (hopefully). There were several acts for the night, but all equally as talented, was a really great show.

We carried on after the show, well into the night, but the bar was over-crowded with all of the tour groups from dinner, and thus we made our way home in a cab.

Another huge day on my feet, I was out like a light.

Hilary