Paris Revisited

Fiona is here and we have been showing her the best Europe has to offer, well a bit of it anyway. Peter and Fiona took off to Paris last Thursday in 'The Beast'. The drive takes about 5 hours if you take the motorway, but about 12 hours if you don't. Peter has some tips for those of you ever contemplating driving into Paris:

• do not arrive in peak hour
• do not arrive during a heavy thunderstorm
• do not visit the day major school holidays in Europe start
• know where you are going or at least have a rudimentary map
• speak French, so you can ask for help.

Needless to say, Peter is speaking from the experience of having violated every one of these! He reports that the French approach driving like everything else – with a carefree attitude & scant regard to road rules. They considerately do not hit one another & do not toot.

On the Saturday, Jess flew up to Paris on EasyJet, the Virgin Blue/JetStar equivalent in Europe. That night we went to the Moulin Rouge - a late night as we couldn't get in until the 11pm show. Despite Paris being a 'city that never sleeps', the metro does sleep between 1 and 5am, meaning we had to get back to the hotel by taxi. Not so bad as the prices were reasonable compared to Geneva. Actually, any price would probably be reasonable compared to Geneva!

Earlier on the Saturday, we visited the Louvre, a first for all of us. We were typical tourists and made a beeline for the Mona Lisa. Time limitations meant we could only have a quick look around. Wow, the Louvre is certainly amazing!