The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Paris, Eiffel Tower & The State of Origin

Apologies for the break in posting... been way too busy!

Ok now Paris.... We arrived in Charles De Gaulle airport about 7am after a 13 hour flight from Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Airlines which is definitely a lot better than Air Asia! We got food and drinks throughout the flight and our own TV with a heap of movies and games. I managed to get about 7 hours sleep but Bec unfortunately only managed about two!

It took us abut 40 minutes by train to get from the airport to the accommodation, that we had booked online the previous day, in an area called Montmartre which we picked only due to the fact that it seemed to have the cheapest hotel rooms! In saying that we got a small hotel room with a sink and shared bathroom for 59 Euro per night... like $75 AUD which was over tree times what we had payed for a luxury place in Thailand! We looked into dorm style backpackers but unfortunately they start at 30 Euro a night per person, so cheaper for us to rent a hotel room! In saying that, the hotel called Hotel Montpellier, was quite clean and definitely in a good location as it was surrounded by cheap retail, heaps of cafes, across the road from the Anvers Metro station and only 900 metres from the Moulin Rouge.

After such a long flight we had a rest day after strolling the streets waiting for check in time at our hotel. We managed to find a little fruit market where we bought beautiful strawberries for under $3AUD/kg.

On our second day in Paris we caught the Metro in to see the Eiffel Tower. For anyone who has not been to Paris before, the Metro may seem a little daunting at first with so many stations and so many different lines, but once you actually take a little time and read the Map and work out where you want to go it is pretty easy... It took us perhaps one unsure trip to Eiffel Tower before we felt like we could very easily (and cheaply!) get anywhere in and around the city.

Once we got off the Metro at the station which was conveniently labelled as the stop for the "Tour De Eiffel" it was hard to not find our way around the streets, as we could see a few hundred metres the massive Eiffiel tower standing way about any other buildings in Paris, and after a few minutes walk we arrived at the base of the tower which was enormous even compared to what we thought it would be! The four bases of the tower seem like they are about 100 metres apart.... however weaving around the bottom of the tower was the ticket queue....

Before we went to the Eiffel tower we did a little bit of online research into the best stop to buy tickets and luckily for us this lead us to buying tickets to climb the stair of the first two levels rather than taking the elevator. The tickets were cheaper and there was no line up what so ever. The ticket booth conveniently sold tickets to take the elevator from the second level to the top, so we headed up the staircase which was quite easy and took perhaps 5 minutes. I would hate to think how long the people in the line to get the elevator would have taken...

The first two levels of the tower were huge! we spend perhaps 20 minutes on each level walking around and reading the information provided about the construction and history of the tower. Definitely worth the read. as it included information like how each bit of the tower was made off site outside Paris and brought in via horse and cart, which totaled in something like 3 million horse and cart trips.

Once we got the the second level of the tower, luckily for us, the sun started to make an appearance and the fog which had covered the city started to dissipate. Indeed by the time we caught the elevator to the top of the tower we had a great view of the city and could make out the Notre Dame and the Louve. Once again the top tower had a lot of information about the tower, including the fact that it is actually 2 metres taller than the Q1 at the Gold Coast... which make you think it is not that tall, but the thing with Paris is that there are no real tall buildings really, so it make the Eiffel tower look monstrous!

One the way back down the tower we had a surprisingly cheap lunch at one of the restaurants on the first level before heading back down and getting the Metro back to Montmartre.

Coincidentally this day in Paris coincided with the State of Origin Game One, so after some more quick internet research, we headed to Cafe Oz which was a 15 minute walk from our hotel to catch the game which was being televised at 6pm (so we had to make sure none of us found out the score throughout the day!) Cafe Oz Boulivard was a nice big pub, but we were a little disappointed at the Aussie turnout for State of Origin! There were even some Aussies there dressed in maroon who left before the match started! What ended up being annoying was the fact that despite the game being advertised on the Cafe Oz website, the bar staff working probably would not have played it if we had not been there as they were fairly unaware that they were meant to be showing it! In the ended when they turned it on just before 6pm the game was actually already 15 minutes through, with NSW ahead :) ..... missing the first 15 minutes made the staff a bit apologetic which resulted in some free food and half price drinks and free shots at the end of the match, so all in all a fairly decent day...

OK... now for anyone wising to see the Eiffel tower lit up at night... a bit of advise... In summer it does not get dark until like 10pm! So catching the Metro to watch it lit up at 9pm is pointless... We headed all the way in to work out that we would be waiting for two hours to see what is meant to be a beautiful sight! And after the big day we had, we bailed and headed back to our hotel with the intention of seeing it another night!