The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Paris - Picnics, Moulin Rouge and being sick....

Day three mission in Paris was to find somewhere cheaper to stay... mission failed..... after a little sleep in and a morning looking online for hotels, hostels and through couch surfing, there was nothing. Unfortunately we had timed our visit to Paris on a public holiday, and everywhere was full and the couch surf hosts were mostly out of town or already hosting people, however through my searching on couch surfers i got in contact with a French member who decided to host a couch surfing picnic in the pack at the Louvre due to the beautiful sunny weather, so at about 6:30pm we headed on the Metro to meet up with this group.

We arrived in the park surrounding the Louvre for a 7pm picnic in the beautiful sun and met people from France, Belgium, USA, Canada, Argentina, Germany, Latvia and several other countries and enjoyed some good conversations, food and drinks. we ended up staying until late in the night and watched the light show on the Eiffel tower and walked around the Louvre complex which was amazingly lit as well before heading back to the hotel at about midnight.

Day four in Paris saw us shopping. After booking Moulin Rouge tickets for that night we discovered that the dress code excludes jeans and sports type shoes. It was a fairly quick shop due to the fact that we were right next to some cheap retail stores, and i ended up with 2 shirts (after mistakenly buying a short sleeve shirt), pants, a belt and a pair of dress shoes... might more than I would be able to fit in my backpack!

Even though we were only 900 metres from the Moulin Rouge we decided to take the Metro there and back for our 9 pm show. We had decided to get the ticket with champagne rather than the dinner ticket because the price was outrageous and the report of the dinner were not great, so we ended up finding a nice cafe/restaurant right next to the theatre and had a great meal. Unfortunately by this time I was starting to get the first symptoms of the flu... but it was early enough along to still enjoy the night... Just before 9pm we filed into the theatre which was pretty much exactly as I imagined it, or perhaps a little bit bigger, and sat at our table with two other couples in Paris on holidays.

Now what to say about the Moulin Rouge... We had heard very mixed reviews, and there is way more negative feedback online than positive, but I was surprised with how much i enjoyed it. The dancers were exquisite, the choreography was all that i expected and the stunts and acts were all very entertaining. I would have to describe it as a "once in a lifetime experience" as due tot he price i probably wouldn't see it again, but it is definitely worth the price (95 Euro) to see it for the first time. The biggest shame is the fact that due to the rules against photography we only really have our memories to go on. I would recommend the Moulin Rouge to anyone who goes to Paris who has not seen it before as it truly is spectacular.

After the show we headed back outside to get a photo of the 'Scarlet Windmill' which is the major icon of the theatre and managed to meet some other Aussies travelling in Paris who chatted with us for a fair while about both our travels.

Downside to going out to the Moulin Rouge...... getting sicker.... pretty sure drinking champagne didn't help and Bec and I both came down during the night with a very annoying flu which kept us in bed for the next few days. Luckily food was a short distance away, as was the chemist to buy some drugs!