BadgerWockie Travels

Au revoir Paris

19.10.2010 - 19.10.2010 -19 °C
View Honeymoon on MazC's travel map.

And so we come to the end of our honeymoon journey, after nearly five weeks rushing around Morocco, Dubai and lastly Paris.

There is industrial action in Paris at the moment (strikes in relation to the proposal to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62) so we're hoping to catch our flight home tomorrow, or at least make it to the airport.

See you all soon!

Maz and Steve

Posted by MazC 19.10.2010 07:41 Archived in France Comments (0)

Louvre and death by chocolate

18.10.2010 - 18.10.2010 10 °C
View Honeymoon on MazC's travel map.

Monday had been set aside for our Louvre visit since we arrived in Paris, so we bounded out of bed bright and early (slight fib) and made our way down to the Louvre, around a 15 minute walk from our apartment.

After navigating the ticketing areas, we spent the morning wandering through exhibits and puzzling out the operation of the audio guide machine.

Louvre

Obligatory Mona Lisa shot

Louvre

We both managed to navigate our way around to the exhibits we both wanted to see, but I have to say we both found it quite overwhelming in size, the number of exhibits and the number of people and tour groups rushing around.

We ducked out for a bite to eat and stumbled across (Steve points out I made a bee-line for) Angelina's, which serves what I regard as the best hot chocolate I have ever had...better even than Koko Black.

Angelina's

The hot chocolate was in fact so good that Steve now shudders when he hears mention of chocolate...in any form.

We ended up not making it back into the Louvre, needing as we did a nanna nap to process the sheer volume of chocolate from our systems. I highly recommend Angelina's for anyone heading to Paris. Nom.

Posted by MazC 19.10.2010 07:34 Archived in France Comments (0)

Tour Eiffel

And how much Maz hates heights...

17.10.2010 - 17.10.2010 10 °C
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Sunday we decided that we would finally do it and male our way to the Tour Eiffel, brave the queues and make the ascension. Another factor we had to brave was the cold. You may have noticed in our photos that we are wearing pretty much every piece of cold weather gear we own...in every place we visit. This is because it has been ridiculously cold, something neither of us really thought about or packed for.

Anyhu, after lining up for about an hour, we made it up to the second floor of the Tour, all the while Maz keeping a death grip on the elevator poles.

We blustered around the second floor for a little while, although Maz explored the heated gift shop while Steve braved the elements for photos.

Tour Eiffel

Hot chocolates on the first floor revived us some more, so much so that Maz braved the stairs to walk down.

Tour Eiffel

After we recovered some more on the ground we made our way to the start point of our French Revolution walk, which took us on a fascinating journey through the years leading up to and during the French revolution.

French Revolution Walk

Another early night due to the cold!!!!

Posted by MazC 19.10.2010 07:25 Archived in France Comments (0)

Sacre Coeur and gourmet walk

16.10.2010 - 16.10.2010
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We recovered slowly from our Versailles bike ride on Saturday morning, which meant we didn't leave the apartment until midday...oops.

We made our way up to Sacre Coeur to view the magnificent basillica on the hill.

Sacre Coeur

The basillica was amazing but we were less than impressed with all the souveneir touts hassling us, so after wandering through the inside we made our way off through the streets for lunch and utlimately back for some Berthillon icecream (I'm really going to miss it!!!)

We had booked a walking tour of the 17th district with a local guide through the Paris Greeter service. Francoise took us on a walk through her local foodie haunts, complete with covered and open air markets, wine cave and seafood restaurant run by another Francoise.

Suffice to say, dinner was well taken care of Saturday night...mmm cheese.

17th district

Posted by MazC 19.10.2010 07:19 Archived in France Comments (0)

Versailles fun

15.10.2010 - 15.10.2010
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Back on the bike a mere 9 hours after we hopped off, we started out on the tour to Versailles by train and bike.

There has been some industrial action in Paris in relation to the government's proposal to implement an older retirement age, so our train terminated earlier than expected, given us an opportunity for more riding through the suburb of Versailles.

First stop was a market to pick up lunch supplies and, in our case, breakfast...mmm crepes!

We then headed into the gardens of Versailles where we enjoyed lovely scenery and a good dose of history from our tour guide Ned.

Gardens of Versailles

We stopped at one end of the Grand Canal for our lunch of olive bread, cheese, dips and red wine, very civilised!

Picnic spot

Then onto the Chateu itself for an explore.

Versailles

For me to use in next OHS seminar!

Versailles

We had a frantic ride back to the station to make our train in time, then a very packed train ride back to Paris, complete with our bikes in the doorways of the train.

Back to the Fat Tire Bike Tours office and then home for an early evening and lunch leftovers for dinner.

Maz and Steve

Posted by MazC 16.10.2010 02:48 Archived in France Comments (2)