Today was an extremely long drive, but it would be the last as Paris was our last stop. It was crazy to think that my time in Europe was nearly up, and I was going to have to say goodbye to the awesome people I'd been travelling with, in the end we kind of felt like a family...(gosh that is so cheesy!)
We arrived in Paris early evening, and were greeted by rain and darkness. That night our amazing bus driver offered to take us on a tour of the city to see it all lit up, and I much say the city is absolutely stunning. I feel that it was extremely helpful to do the bus tour, because the next day when we had free time, I new roughy were different landmarks and streets were in relation to each other.
Did you know that Paris has one of the largest roundabouts in the world, it had 8 lanes, with no lines, and you must yield to incoming traffic! Another must is to see the Eiffel tower both at night and during the day! I first saw it that night off in the distance, and it happened to be during the light show, when he iconic tower was sparkling, captivating the gaze of people all around the city.
The real spectacular moment happen when we all got out to explore, the moment I saw it up close was the first time in my life that my breath had actually been properly taken away! It was so much larger that I had ever imagined, and at the moment I thought "GIRL, YOU'RE IN PARIS!!!!" It was one of my favourite moments of the trip. When you go to see it, go stand in the centre right underneath of it and just look up! After taking tons of pictures and trying not to get completely drenched from the down pour of rain, we all loaded by onto the bus and went to finish the tour.
The next day was insanely windy, and we had tickets to go to the summit of the Eiffel Tower! When we arrived we were told that it was too windy to go the very top, but the second platform was still open. The views were unreal, it's something everyone should see at least once. From there, an optional tour of Fragonard's Perfumery was scheduled, which was also really, really interesting, and again I would definitely recommend doing!
After we had free time before the bus would take us back to the hotel. I walked the Champs Elysees and walked through the Christmas markets that lined it, I took pictures in front of the Louvre because I didn't have enough time to actually go into it, and I went and put a lock on a bridge. The original love lock bridge is now boarded up, because all of the locks have ruined structure, but on just about any bridge you can find locks!
Then a group of us went to a Parisian cafe to warm up, I ended up 4 euros for water, to justify I kept telling myself that it was some kind of special Parisian beauty water...
We then got the bus back to the hotel and got ready to go out to the Moulin Rouge!!!!!!! Seriously, if you ever come to Paris please go see the Moulin Rouge, it may be pricey, but you get every cent of your money back. The show is something that everyone should see at least once!
That ended the last day of the tour! The next morning I woke up at 5:45am to catch the metro to the airport to fly back home, and my travels were done. Overall this trip was the best thing I've ever done, I've come home a new person, more confident, happier, and realizing that there's so much out there to do and see! Thank you for reading about My Contiki Travel's I hope it inspired you to be spontaneous and take a trip you've always dreamed of taking!
"Travel is the only thing you can spend you're money on that will instantly make you richer!"
