Trek to Coniglia

The 4th of June: 

 

We all had a terrible nights sleep, and so woke up hardly rested and eager for breakfast. We ate our fill and then began what we were told would be an arduous trek up the mountain to the next town. 

The first section of the walk lead us through small dirt tracks through local winery’s and up makeshift rock stairs. I felt rather invasive unlocking gates to what looked like houses along the way. Eleanor, who is afraid of heights, did not overly enjoy the trek along cliff edge paths – and had a little freak out early on. Bravely she kept on and made it through the whole walk, which when I think of it in relation to my fear – spiders – I would probably refuse to go along a spider lined, two hour long walk. So I was proud of her. 

The walk was not as tough as we had expected though, and the views were beautiful. For the first part of the walk the weather was overcast, and looking out we could not distinguish where the sea and sky met, which was disorientating. The sea was beautifully clear and enticing however, as it is from all angles, and the wildflowers provided delicate colour to the paths. Although all three of us have had foot/ankle/leg problems recently, only Eleanor was in pain, which was much better then all three of us struggling. All of us could feel our leg muscles working hard up the seemingly endless flight of stairs though. 

At one point, we had a group of people behind us that would not stop complaining, which was frustrating in such a beautiful place. They refused to fall behind, as we had expected they would have, so we eventually just let them go ahead – sparing our ears of how hungry and tired they were.

The downward decent into Coniglia was difficult, as they paths were rocky and uneven, and our balance was greatly decreased on the downwards slope. We arrived safely though, although very hungry and our rumbling stomachs lead us to a nearby open air restaurant where we all ravenously ordered carbs. Unfortunately I do not enjoy seafood pasta – it confuses my taste buds too much, leaving me feeling disgusted and unable to eat the meal – so despite us being in such a wonderful sea side location, I ordered the pasta without seafood. It was terribly disappointing for actual Italian food. The other two enjoyed their seafood pasta though – damn taste buds. 

 

 

We were not game to attempt to trek back to Manarola again, so we waited at the train station for train back – which seemed rather ridiculous, as we were only going up one stop. And we had to wait for at least 45 minutes. Once we did get back we headed to a different gelato shop to the one we had been to the day before (needed to test out them all) to purchase our daily gelato. I think we all preferred the first shop. While we ate our not-up-to-expectations gelato, we sat down by the sea, watching people jump into the beautifully clear water and feeling tempted. We knew it would be cold – which was clarified by dipping our feet in – yet there was still temptation. Until the wind suddenly changed and the clouds rolled in, then we headed back to the hostel and suddenly noticed how sunburnt we were. The evil downside of the warm weather. 

We had thought we had the room to ourselves, but just before dinner another girl came in, who was to sleep in the extra bed. We awkwardly had to attempt to pack our things away, as they had taken over the entire room. Including a washing line of underwear – welcome stranger! She was nice though, and after dinner we walked with her through town and saw the sun setting over the mountains of Cinque Terre, which was obviously a very pretty end to the day. 

 

Beautiful Manarola!

The 3rd of June

 

I managed to sleep in for the first time on this trip. The alarm went off at 9, and yet when it did I thought it must only have been about 7. I think 8 has been my latest other sleep in this far. 

Our train didn’t leave for Cinque Terre until 11:50, so we sat at the train stations coffee shop and snacked on some breakfast, before catching the two hour train to Manorola. 

A ticket inspector got on at some point, and we were thinking we were doing a wonderful job this ride, actually having tickets to pass over. But apparently we hadn’t validated them – we didn’t know that we had to, or even what validation required. It didn’t matter, and we each got a €5 fine. Another lesson learnt, validation is a must. 

Once we arrived at Manorola we began the uphill trek to our accommodation, which was quite an effort with bags in tow. 

When checking in was completed, we headed back down to the town centre, taking in the sights along the way, but with our aim being the gelato store we had passed on the way up. We each got a cup with two flavours, and it was delicious. Sweet tooth satisfied, we continued our exploration through the town. It was all so beautifully picturesque. We strolled along the cliff paths, until we hit a sign that blocked us from going any further due to damage from the mud slides, which was disappointing. As we walked back towards town the sun came out from the clouds it had been hiding behind, and the water looked even more appealing – if only it was warmer! Three young people did jump in though – to a crowd of cheering onlookers. We realised if we were to get in the water at any point, we would also have to do so in front of a crowd, which made it seem less appealing. As did their exclamations of how cold the water was. 

 

 

We headed back up the hill to a shop we had passed earlier, which advertised sailing tours we were interested in. I also got very tempted by the paragliding option. On closer inspection we saw the sailing was only available on Thursday and Sunday, and we were only in town from Monday to Wednesday. Figuring it didn’t hurt to ask, we enquired as to whether any other companies did similar things – and they ended up planning us our own sail on Wednesday, for just the three of us. It sure pays to ask. 

 

Back at the hostel we had a nice nap before dinner – which was surprisingly delicious for hostel food. While in the eatery we met two nice young lads, Ben and Brian, one from Ballarat and the other from Canada. It was our first real mingling of the trip, and was good fun – until we all got kicked out at 10. Party poopers. 

Onwards to Italy

The 2nd of June

 

Our last two days in Switzerland were terribly uninteresting due to the horribly miserable weather for both days making everything difficult and our motivation non existent. Although we did get to briefly go wedding dress shopping with Georgie – which was pretty exciting! 

 

We were catching the 7 o’clock train to Milan so we had a wonderfully early rise, and left our Swiss home – waving goodbye to a still half asleep Georgie and Scott. Frustratingly it was one of the rare train trips were I found it practically impossible to fall asleep on the train, despite only having four hours sleep the night before, and so endured the entire four hour trip before eventually arriving at Milan station. Once there, we met up with Kara, got organised and purchased our tickets to Genoa. And then endured another two hour train trip. I am very accustomed the train travel now. 

Once we got off Genoa station, we had the problem of figuring out where the hotel was, and how to get there. Unable to access wifi we went to the information desk, asking him to tell us where to go. He provided us with a very poor excuse for a city map and pointed out where we should be headed – apparently the street was right near another station. Knowing which station we where headed for, we walked over to the ticket machine to buy a local train ticket – only for a local to tell us it was easier to get there by bus. When asking if we should buy a ticket for a bus from the machine, she told not to bother because they never check. We got onto a bus, ensuring with the driver that it was heading in the right direction, and sure enough, after just a few stops a ticket inspector climbed onboard. Happy €43 fine. We learnt two important lessons – always buy a ticket and never listen to locals. 

When we reached our stop, the driver yelled out to us to get off, as he had agreed to. However, from where we got off we could not see the station, and so were completely lost. Seeing a McDonalds across the road, we headed in, expecting free wifi. But wifi required an Italian mobile phone. Also, I got locked in the toilets. The handle decided to no longer control the locking mechanism, and I was desperately twisting and pulling on the door, wanting the outcome to change. It got to the point where I starting eying off the alarm on the wall – and wondering what sort of outcome it would produce. Just as I was starting to stress, someone heard the commotion and came unlocked the door from outside. And stared at the stupid tourist as I ran away. 

Once I was freed from the toilet, we wandered back out onto the street, terrible map in hand. We asked a local old lady if she knew which way to go, and she was pointing in a particular direction -and speaking a lot of Italian, which could not be understood. We followed her pointing direction – only for Kara to realise it was completely the wrong direction, and have us backtrack again. Eventually we found the station, where we had to buy a proper map. But we still could not see the street label. We asked at information for help, and a grumpy old man would provide us with directions from the station, but was unwilling to point it out on the map. We did finally locate our hotel though, and it was immense relief to take off the backpacks. 

After some Internet time, and a quick shower each to feel a little less gross after our sweaty backpack walk, we decided to head out for our first Italian meal. We stumbled across a nice looking place, and I was relieved to see that the prices were much more reasonable then those in Switzerland. Or Paris. 

We ordered one of their delicious cocktails each, and a pizza each – with the plan of sharing some different flavours between us. They were all wonderful, and we were presented with a free serving of a fried breadcrumb like dish. We feasted on our pizzas, and nearly finished all three – feeling very full. We decided to order one more cocktail each, and yet when they delivered them to us they included a free pizza, which we definitely didn’t need. Feeling very obliged, we attempted to eat some – but didn’t make too much of a dent.  

Once the cocktails were finished off, and our stomachs were suitably bloated, we headed to our hotel, as jet lagged Kara was desperate for sleep. 

Lugano day trip

The 30th of May: 

 

Although the day was fairly missable in Zurich, we followed the sun to an area of Switzerland that would provide some sun for us – Lake Lugano in the Ticino region. 

It would be a three hour train ride there, so we rose early to catch the 7:30 train. And then slept the whole way there. 

We arrived in Lugano to the wonderful glow of sunshine, and were eager to immediately get out and enjoy it. As soon as we were out of the train, we noticed our first dilemma – the train station was on top of the towns mountain, and getting back would be less then enjoyable. 

We wandered down through the town towards the lake, taking in the beauty of the town, and noticing that all the shops seemed to be shut – apparently it was a public holiday. Luckily restaurants were still open, and we found a wonderful pasta one. I ordered the special spaghetti – and it was the greatest pasta I had ever eaten – the Italian food adventure had begun! 

With our piles of spaghetti devoured, and our bellies full, we strolled along the lake, deciding we would rent a paddle boat. Although we were sure we would be terrible at navigating the little boat, we were actually rather successful and really enjoyed our time on the water in the sunshine. Burnouts were attempting, by paddling as fast as we could in circles – but they were rather unsuccessful attempts. 

 

 

Our laborious boat ride earned us a treat, and we both purchased some beautifully delicious gelato, which we ate as we sat by the lake and talked about our primary school days together. 

By 4 O’clock we decided it was time to head back, seeing as the return journey would take another three hours – and so the up hill trek began. As we meandered upwards we reached a flight of steep stairs, and a numerous amount of them. It was a trying task that Eleanor’s knee did not enjoy. When we reached the next group, Eleanor found a longer route which wouldn’t require more stairs. Another train and another nice three hour nap. 

The lazy day

The 29th of May:

 

Day three in Switzerland brought late rising and bad weather. Once awake, we had a lazy start and began researching options for getting to and from Croatia and Greece. Croatia is so frustrating to plan around – you would think it was on a different continent. Despite Croatia and Greece being almost right next to each other, no train line connects them, their are rumours of buses – but no information able to be found, ferries must go back to Italy before heading to Greece and flights also go via Italy. Eventually we decided on flights and booked them – and then started looking up accommodation. 

 

We looked up weather in Switzerland, and everywhere was forecasted to be just as cold and rainy as where we were – all day long. So we made the lazy decision to have a lazy day at home – our first lazy day of our holiday. And it was wonderful. 

For lunch we wandered into town to find somewhere cozy, and ended up having lunch at a German cafe. The fries over here are much better then chips at home – like McDonalds fries but slightly thicker and much crunchier – prefect. I had a blt sandwich to accompany my fries, and Eleanor had a snitzel. 

On our journey home, we felt like stopping at the supermarket for desert – we bought more cheese, biscuits, raspberry tarts (which were amazingly delicious) and rose wine. We went home to enjoy our snacks on the couch, in pyjamas, with movies. Such a wonderful relaxed afternoon. 

In the evening, when our bellies felt very content, and we were almost at our limit for cheese, Georgie and Scott came home with ingredients to make raklet – a traditional Swiss dish comprising of melted cheese on potatoes and whatever else is lying around that can be eaten with melted cheese. By the time we had finished our servings of that we were feeling very cheesed-out. 

Scott had got a new car that day, so after dinner we all went for a ride down to a bar in town and had a few drinks together. On the way back, they made sure to take us via the street of hookers, for a ‘cultural experience.’ Along the one street there were at least 30 females, most dressed in g-strings, and not all skinny enough for such a show. It was certainly an interesting experience – and not at all what is expected from clean cut Switzerland! 

 

The Swiss alps experience

The 28th of May:

 

Luckily, our second day in Switzerland was also rather nice weather, and so we knew we should make the most of it while it lasted, and planned a day trip to Mt. Rigi. Up and going at 7am we headed off for the train which would get us there. 

Exhausted, I immediately fell asleep once sitting on the train and only woke up to Eleanor excitedly telling me we were there and to look at the mountains around us. I was instantly excited too, knowing that we would soon be standing a top one of the mountains above us, and looking down and out at the world around us. 

We made our transferral from the station to a the small mountain train that would take us to the top, already admiring views from the base. As the train began to ascend the mountain, it was an awe inspiring experience. Each metre higher we crept, we could see more of the valleys below and the mountains above us. One by one, white peaks came into view as head swivelled in all directions to take in every sight, from those far away to the waterfalls that fell down the rock face next to us. 

When the train reached the top everyone jumped out to take in the incredible view. It was a surreal moment – it didn’t feel completely real – more like we were all looking at a poster, despite it simultaneously being so much more then a poster could ever encapsulate. 

Although to this point I could do nothing but complain that Europe has had such a long winter, it finally had one positive aspect. There was still a small amount of snow on the mountain, which we found pretty exciting. We got to stand on it, sink in it, touch it and Eleanor fell on it. It was only my second experience of snow, so I found it pretty exciting. The day we were there though was lovely and sunny, and the snow was quickly melting around us. The beautiful clear day meant we could see all the mountain peaks around us – we were very lucky to get that! 

 

On deciding to walk the last steep few hundred metres to the top of the mountain, in order to look over the other side, we both required a rest period half way up. Eleanor has a bad ankle and I pulled a muscle – or something – in my foot the day before. It looked like a dismal effort, but we enjoyed our rest stop of morning tea, admiring the view before us. After our recuperation we made it to the top and could look down over the lakes and towns below.  Everything was beautiful. 

 

 

We descended the mountain down the other side, this time, without being filled with excitement over every new sight, we realised how slow mountain trains travel. Eventually we made it to the bottom, and our connecting boat to Lucerne arrived at just the right time. We chose a seat on the back deck in the sunshine, and ate our lunch as we cruised over the beautiful water and past gorgeous mountainous land until we arrived at Lucerne. 

Once at Lucerne was cruised amongst its quaint streets and browsed through shops – looking in numerous book shops for a Swiss copy of Alice in wonderland, but only finding boring novel versions with no pictures.

 

 

We then stumbled across a certain chocolatier – which was the most appealing one we had discovered so far. I bought a bag of mixed chocolate and Eleanor a box of assorted biscuits, and we headed to Starbucks to enjoy our sweet treats overlooking the lake. Neither of us could finish our snack, but we both felt pretty sick in the attempt. 

 

On the train bound for Zurich we both had a lovely nap again and on arriving we once again stopped to buy our pre dinner cheese. We had a lovely time enjoying cheese, olives and wine with Scott, and by the time Georgie got home, ready to cook dinner, we were all feeling very full – and struggled to eat our meal despite how nice it was. 

Now a Swiss miss!

The 27th of May:

 

Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers. Our train to Zurich was due to leave the station at 6:15 – so we were up at 4:30, and out the door at 5, with the plan to catch a train to the required station. Only to find that the station was still closed and trains were not yet running. Starting to get worried, we headed out to the bus bays to check the bus maps and timetables, and figure out if we could make it in time for our train. At this time I started to notice the few taxis driving past, and that they were all already occupied – and we had no number to call or phone to call one with. Looking very lost we headed over to a bus bay and joined a crowd of locals waiting for the train.

Then a man came over to us, dressed in the train network uniform, because we obviously looked that confused and out of place, and started asking us, in French, where we were trying to go. Despite the language barrier he managed to understand which station we wanted to go to and we understood he was offering us a lift there. Thank goodness for being female. He gestured to his car, and seeing he was wearing a professional uniform, as were the other two men, had a company car and we were desperate – we allowed him to help us with our bags and jumped in. Luckily one of the other men spoke English, so we spoke to him along they way, and managed to ask him what was happening with the protest the day before. Apparently it was an anti gay marriage protest.

The lovely lads dropped us off at our station, and so we were there nice and early, with enough time to eat breakfast before jumping on our train.

 

The train ride wasn’t overly long, but it frustrated me that despite being so tired I wasn’t able to sleep on the train – only get to the beginning of the dreaming state, only to open my eyes again. But eventually we arrived in Zurich – and once again I needed wifi to get directions to where we were staying. We headed to a Burger King, only to discover that Switzerland does not provide free wifi – so I had to pay. Thank goodness the family we are staying with have wifi. 

 

Directions semi sorted – though still completely confused – we managed to eventually catch the right train and arrive at Georgie’s. And once again there was total relief when the backpacks could be taken off. I am so glad we haven’t had to be lugging them around much – so far. She was – as completely expected – as wonderfully lovely and welcoming as always, and made us up a beautiful lunch. But best of all – it was sunny! The first actual sunny day we have had in our time in Europe. 

So once lunch was devoured and things sorted, we jumped on the train headed back for the city centre so we could explore Zurich. 

 

Of all the places we have been, Switzerland is most like home. Staying with family in a homely environment also helps, but it is so much more relaxed and so much less congested then London and Paris. The houses have yards, the buildings are more frequently only one or two stories high, and the buildings are a mix of old and new. It feels very much like it could be an Australian city, except for the beautiful lake and mountain views and the German inspired decor. And the public trains – they are far more luxurious (and surprisingly less crowded for a European city.) 

We wandered the streets and lazed with the locals in the sun by the lake. Chocolate was one of the main items on our agenda – so we bought some lovely fancy chocolate truffles from one of the fantastic chocolatiers here, and enjoyed them with a Starbucks frappe each. 

 

 

 

On our journey home we decided to stop into the supermarket, to grab some Swiss cheese to try. And we were stunned. The supermarkets here are huge – and the deli type sections are amazing. They have self serve hot food, salad bar and fruit stations as well as seemingly endless amounts of wonderful cheese, deli meats and wine. And their chocolate section contains all the good stuff – especially Lindt, my favourite. But the selection here is incredible, Lindt have multitudes of great flavours including cookie dough, caracal brownie, strawberry cheesecake and cherry liqueur. Just to name a few – they have just about every chocolate flavour I’ve ever heard of. And more. So I stocked up on a few blocks – and plan to buy a fair few more to send in my box of stuff home before I leave here. I wish Lindt had that selection in Melbourne!

Once back home we tried some of our delicious cheese and chocolate, and then had some lovely dinner and wine with Georgie and Scott. I am loving Switzerland. 

Our final day in Paris

The 26th of May: 

 

Our final day in Paris. 

We awoke and took off at a reasonable time of the morning, bound for Versailles. 

We took the train we knew would get us there- only to get to the changeover station and find it blocked off. Strange. 

So we had to manage a packed train on an alternate route, before walking with the crowd towards the palace. And arriving at the line – the first line. We had to wait an hour in the first line for tickets, and then in the second line to enter the palace for half an hour. Eventually we got inside. And it was immediately impressive. 

The castle, for a house, was huge – but didn’t seem as large set out as a museum, and it was easy to forget it was used to live in. It was also hard to believe how old it was – built in 1624! The rooms were impressive, but it was sad, and completely due to the amount of visitors that pass through, that it wasn’t in perfectly maintained condition. The roof painting impressed me more then anything, because I never expect such intricate art on the roof. Or art on the roof at all. Art isn’t on the roof of many places I go. 

Every thing was very cute, grand and old. I think my favourite aspect was that the king and queen had separate bedrooms, but with secret doors into each others room. And all the chandeliers. But to me, the garden was much more beautiful than the palace. 

We wandered some of the 800 hectares of garden, all immaculately maintained with a very royal feel and fancy music playing throughout. We made the trip over to Marie Antoinette’s quarters, only to realise that Eleanor had lost her ticket – so we just got to peer through gates from then on. We continued walking the garden paths, with the eventual intention of heading out, and somehow managed to walk out an exit point and ended up walking along a street that ran alongside the palace walls. I am still unsure of how that was managed.  We followed the walls back to the front palace gates, as we had forgotten how to get to the train station, so that we could follow a crowd. 

 

 

 

We returned to our hotel, got ready for our dinner cruise and set off on the train to port de la Bordonis. Only to arrive at the station to find it closed off – we couldn’t get out, so had to travel on to the next station and walk, while I worried about being late. But we were seated and ready all in good time. 

Feeling very fancy, at our window seats on a $100+ a head dinner cruise in Paris, champagne was served out. 

We perused the menu as we sipped champagne in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower – Eleanor chose the prawns for entree, duck for main and panacotta for desert – while I opted for salmon, veil and a strawberry tart. The food was fantastically delicious – especially my veil (and I’m not a big meat eater, but it was the best thing I’ve ever eaten!) and the wine served along with it was expensive and beautiful. We got a bottle of white and a bottle of red to ourselves, which we thought was pretty good. As we ate and drank like kings, we drifted down the river, and watched Paris go by. 

 

 

 

We noticed, that many bridges were barricaded completely by police – further strange happenings. We asked the ladies sitting next to us if they knew what had happened to cause such a reaction – apparently someone had shot themselves out the front of the Notre Dame earlier that day in protest. Of what he was protesting we did not know. 

By the time our boat docked, Paris was lit up with lights of the night, and looked incredible. 

 

 

 

Our dinner cruise had been the prefect last night in Paris – elegant and beautiful, just like the city itself. 

 

I think I will miss Paris. But not the cold. It is strange though that it has only been just under two weeks that we have been away, because although I am not yet home sick, it feels like I have been away from home for a lot longer. But still a lot longer to go. 

Switzerland bound now! 

More Parisian adventures!

The 25th of May: 

 

As our time is Paris was drawing to a close, we decided on the things we still needed to complete – and set off to get them done. 

Our first stop for the day was the Notre Dame cathedral. But sadly the line was not as short as it had been last time we walked around it. We waited in line, thankfully not in rain, as people were shuffled in. Then we walked through the doors into the silence area, which was a hard rule to follow. A service was being conducted, and I found it strange that they would let hundreds of people wander around while this was happening anyway. 

The inside was very old, very grand, and very pretty – all as expected. Although I always feel guilty being in religious places when I am not religious myself. 

 

 

 

We exited the church, believing we could then walk up the towers to the top – but apparently the towers don’t open until 2 O’clock – disappointing – and it was only 11 at the time, so we decided against waiting. Instead, we headed in the direction of the famous Paris flea market, and ate – shamefully – McDonalds in the area. 

The search for the market then began, as we knew the area but no specifics. Just as we thought we would not be able to find the elusive market we stumbled across a street of antiques (heavenly for me!) and followed this along to a suddenly expansive array of streets filled with various market stalls. However, just as I was inspecting some lovely old teapots the sky, suddenly, opened up. Rain poured down – and kept us trapped in an antique book and clothing shop for about half an hour until we could walk to the nearest train station. 

Unsure of what to do next – we took the train towards the area we explored on our first day in Paris – our favourite area. And we managed to walk right into the district. Better then that, we walked into the normally priced shopping district rather then the streets lined with Prada and Louis Vuitton. The downside – buying became unavoidable. We both found handbags we loved – and why not? We can say we got our handbags in Paris! Eleanor, who absolutely loves clothing with tiger pictures on it found an amazing tiger dress, and I managed to find a houndstooth and leather jacket (I’ve wanted a houndstooth jacket for years but only ever find them at $200+). We were both thoroughly pleased with our spending splurge … And a feeling a little guilty. 

Before leaving Paris we felt it was compulsory to try escargot – so headed into a brassiere that had ‘famous snails’ written on the menu to order six of them, and a cocktail each. When the snails were placed in front of us, we both sensed the hesitation that I would assume would always come with eating snails, before courageously wrestling with the utensils and wrangling a snail out. And then putting it in my mouth. And then chewing.

The first taste was only of the garlic sauce, and the texture was not too weird. Once the garlic disappeared seemed to come the weird lumpy sections, which I quickly swallowed instead of chewing so I didn’t have to think about what I was chewing on. The final taste was very grainy and dirty. Not as bad as I expected though. 

 

 

 

 

We managed our way through three each, before wasting down the dirt with our lovely cocktails and heading back to our hotel for a good night sleep.

We are always tired and there never seems time to catch up.. 

Must do experiences: the Louvre and the Moulin Rouge!

24th of May:

 

Apologies for the delayed post. I had written this entry, and then when selecting the text in order to copy, I accidentally hit delete. Which on an iPad means gone forever – and I was so frustrated by this, that I refused to write it the following days. But I will attempt to write it again now.

 

We had great plans of getting up early and heading to the Louvre in order to beat the crowds. But the early rising didn’t happen – and neither did a quick getting ready time. We arrived at the Louvre at around 10am, and yet still seemed to have avoided a queue. Or somewhat. The weather was still cold and drizzly, as we waited half an hour to enter the building, battling on as the only line members without an umbrella. Eventually, we walked through the doors into shelter and warmth. And another line. 

Once tickets were purchased we were ushered into the museum. It was completely different to what I had expected. The building itself was very grand, from marble floors to intricately painted ceilings, and was a marvel of its own right. The first floor of the museum consisted of artefacts from various European countries – everything from statues to mosaics and reconstructed pots. 

It was only the third floor whose walls displayed the paintings I expected. Many beautiful paintings were hung side by side, and yet, from the moment we entered the painting floor, it all seemed a lead up to the Mona Lisa. I had heard, from other people who had been and seen her, that the painting was much smaller and seemingly less artistically marvellous then they had imagined – an anticlimax. Going in with this expectation however, the Mona Lisa was actually a pleasant surprise – being bigger and more impressive then I expected. Standing by such a famous piece of art was actually a strange experience – like it couldn’t actually be the real thing. The lady standing next to be began to cry with joy at getting to see it – and suddenly it seemed time to find Eleanor. Eleanor had not had prior warning and was thus, underwhelmed. 

 

 

Wandering back into the cold of the outdoors was an unpleasant experience, so I finally invested in a beanie and scarf as we scavenged through souvenir shops and ate our baguettes. But the bad weather turned us home again. 

On our way, we stopped at a patisserie and bought a delicious cake each – a double chocolate profiterole for me, and a lemon meringue tart for Eleanor. 

 

 

Then we waited in excited anticipation for the evenings events – the Moulin Rouge. 

After eating some pasta salad from the local supermarket for dinner, we both eagerly got ready on time to ensure we got there early. And we did. Excitedly we took photos and talked up our anticipation, hovering around the entrance. As no one else seemed to already be waiting, the cold drove me to the Starbucks across the road for coffee. It was the best coffee I have ever had. I didn’t know the French were so good with coffee! 

With my drink finished we noticed a few more people standing around the entrance, waiting for the show, so went and joined the line. Only to have the security tell us all to leave and come back in half an hour. We returned after only ten minutes to see a line had formed – very glad we didn’t wait longer! Although we then waited outside for at least an hour – were finally let into the warmth, and waited a further hour there. 

The interior of the building was as expected though, wonderfully done and in the expected colour of red. When we were lead through to our seats we saw this theme continue – the walls, floors and stage backdrop were all lavishly red. And each table had a single red lamp on it – causing the entire room to be lit in the colour. 

Champagne was popped and served, and we toasted our glasses to the awesome show we were sure we were about to see. And we did.

 

 

As expected of such a famous, high quality show, the costumes and backdrops were outstanding and props – including a giant glass water tank, pythons and Shetland ponies were incredible. The show also included acts I hadn’t expected, including a couple that were extremely strong with wonderful balance (think her balancing on her head, on top of his head), a ventriloquist who provided comic relief, and three men who did a ‘cops and robbers’ skit including many flips and tricks. I liked those three guys the most.

Of the expected cabaret show the singing, which was half in English and half in French, was flawless and the dancers were wonderful. My only negative point would be that – considering the shows expectation – the dancers timing was annoyingly a little off at times. 

 

Another wonderful day in Paris!