We are now in Switzerland, the past 3 days have been a whirlwind! We started Paris by having dinner at our hotel. Kirsten was really excited for some french wine, bread or cheese! But was so dissapointed when they put a plate of turkey, tomato and french fries in front of her. After dinner we got back on the coach (bus) and headed off for our paris by night lights tour. It was absolutely gorgeous but Kirsten was so exhausted she was nodding on and off and finally woke up for good when we got to the eiffel tower. The tower was incredible, we got there just in time for the light show. We were there for about 2 and a half hours, got to go to the top and everything, but almost missed our bus going back to the hotel because the lines were sooo long. That night we were pooped from a full day of travel and took it easy in preperation for moulin rouge the next night.

Our day in Paris was amazing! We saw so many things! We started at l'arc de triomphe and climbed 200 and something stairs all the way to the top. It was without a doubt, the best view in Paris, just the right height to be able to see everything. We then moved on to the champs d'elysees which for you sheltered people is a street in Paris with big name stores all along it. It is a street for looking, not for shopping. We then took the metro to the opera house which is a beautiful building no longer being used for operas. We also saw la gallerie lafayette (a huge designer store in france, its basically 20bays) it was unfortanetely closed as it was a sunday. So we got back on the metro and headed to la cathedral notre dame. We arrived a few blocks away and started walking towards it but then had to make a detour as there was a beautiful foutain at the corner of the street. This aussie Ben we were with also spotted a little alley packed with people, cafes and stores. So we went down the alley and ended up finding amazing souvenir shops and great crepe places. Notre Dame was incredible as well, Kirsten was in awe and Allison took 5 thousand pictures.. (partly because Kirstens had died on the way) The cathedral was covered in stained glass, statues, and beautiful architecture. We really wanted to go up to the bell tower but we didnt have enough time. We walked back to the alley and bought some crepes for lunch, then went and sat down on this ledge and ate them. While sitting there Kirsten realised there was a huge group of peoples standing by the fountain with the serian flag. (she didnt know what flag it was, Ben did) and wondered allowed if it was a riot. Almost instantly a riot broke out and there was police everywhere, including a swat. We then realised why there had been a dozen police vans parked on the street beside le cathedrale. We booked away from there, as looked like shit was going down. We walked down a path beside the seine river all the way to the louvre passing many bridges, each with its own unique story. We passed a bridge called le pont royale which napolean had made with all of his friends faces sculpted onto it. After that we came across le pont solferino (we think anyways, there are way too many bridges to remember.) This was one of the coolest parts of Paris, walking up to it you think it has a golden fence, but when you get up close you see that it is a wire fence with thousands of padlocks on it. People come to this bridge when they are in love and write their name on a lock, then lock it to the bridge and throw the key in the river, symbolizing their love lasting forever. People say that Paris is a romantic city, and this was by far the most romantic thing I've ever seen. There was one we found that said "she said yes!" with the date he propsed. It was soooooo cute. We kept walking after the bridge and made a full circle to la champs d'elysees where we walked down a different street and found Marc Jacobs, Celine, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Versace, Chanel, Chloe, Jimmy Choo, Dolce and Gabana, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Fendi, Prada and Nina Riccy. It was getting late by that time so we got back on the metro, going waaay to far by accident and making our trip an extra half hour.

We got back to the hotel with 45 minutes before we had to leave for Moulin Rouge and ran around the room, trying to get ready for one of the nicest places we'd ever been too, exhausted and straightenerless. We did it, but made a pig sty out of our room. Walking into moulin is how we would picture an old school movie theatre, red velvet carpet, big goldenpicture frames, golden hand rails and a coat check with huge black canapes, and a black granite counter. The inside looked just like in the movie, red lights on the table, almost endless wine and table after table after table. Every aspect of this concert room was incredible, unfortantely we weren't allowed to take picture though. Dinner was great! We had smoked norwegian salmon and a vegetable/couscous mix with bread and of course lots and lots of wine and champagne. There was also a waiter who was so impressed that we spoke french and hit on allison everytime he was at the table (apparently he came to the bar afterwards) The costumes were so extravagant, with feathers, sequins, buttons, sheer, lace, beads etc. The girls wore thongs and beeds as shirts, not covering anything. This took a little away from the show for Kirsten, but she still loved it! Allison wasnt fased, she loved the costumes. Their were men in shiny skin tight clothes and a ring bearer who started all the madness. Throughout the show there were a few breaks from the dancing and singing were 2 amazing acrobats performed, along with a hilarious mime and fantastic juggler. The show had animals as well, from boas to other snakes to mini horses that pranced around with the dancers. The show lasted about two hours and we headed to a pub beside it called something irish... we were too intoxitaed to remember. It was an amazing night, our tour guides were dancing on the bar (pantless, to sexy and i know it) we were poppping bottles, doing train shots and birthday shots to our new bff bryn. While sitting outside the boys were being harassed by a rose salesman who insited that they buy a rose for the pretty ladies. Eventually they gave in and Allison recieved a bouqet of 3 roses. One of which we have no idea where it came from. Finally we decided to call it a night and took a taxi back to the hotel. That was interesting.. trying to tell the cab driver where to go when our hotel was too farth north to be on the map, and with a couple of drinks in us the thick france accent was impossible to understand! We eventually got there and managed to wake up with enough time to chuck everything into our suitcases and run to the bus.

That was Paris, we can't wait to go back.

ttfn