A brief encounter with Florence and Nice

Bus-ing about

After the bus picked us up in Rome we headed to our first stop Aviano.
Aviano is a cute little town on the top of a very large hill. So large in fact, that you can only get up by Funicular. It's a cable car thing that goes up the side of a hill.

A cable car full of hot hungover types is probably the last thing I needed.

No, I don't know why Sam isn't wearing shoes.. stop looking at his feet, look at that view!

The town itself was beautiful, it was the Italy I had always imagined. Windy cobbled streets, old buildings and beautiful Italian food.

I had the best coffee I have ever had on that (very large) hill, followed by the tastiest gelato imaginable. Hangover cured.

We headed on to Florence and made friends with a chap named Alex. We all decided that we should have wine and cheese when we got to our accomodation.
When we arrived at reception, they mentioned it was 38 degrees, and the rooms were tents so therefore had no air conditioning.
There was only one thing that could lift the mood.
Wine and Cheese.

Cheeese!

Alex had a theory that we should only drink bottles of wine that cost 1 - 2 €.
So that's what we did. We drank a few bottles of Italy's finest (cheapest)  - and ate about four blocks of cheese.

I've never met a man more excited about cheese

Throughout the evening our table became longer.
Alex, Sam and I met an Irish couple Gavin and Avril who were at the bar to watch Ireland play in the Euro Cup.

Then met another couple Chloe and Beau who jumped on to our table.
Then another Aussie couple Cassie and Rob from Queensland who also had a cute black dog they were missing terribly.
Then a group of about six English girls joined the end of the table. It was clear to us then that we had to play a drinking game. And that we did. With red wine..

At the end of the night I got lost trying to find our tent and lost Sam in the process. This is what skulling red wine will do to you.

The morning after cheese and wine night was as you would expect.

But we had to put that behind us because we were on the bus to Nice with a whole different group of people.

The journey took a detour at the leaning tower of Pisa so we could take ridiculous touristy photos.

I'm trying to flick it so it's straight again.. get it?

We drove on through Monaco and discovered its pretty bloody hard to move there. Just a lazy million euros to apply and even then you might not get in. Might just stay in Barwon Heads for the moment.

We saw Grace Kelly rock, where princess Grace's car went over the cliff.

And then we arrived in Nice, a picturesque beachside French town.
We didn't see a lot of Nice, but I promise we were there!

We went to a tiny restaurant La Mamas, where the owner only spoke French. It made me excited to head back to Paris again!

The next day we were on the bus to Barthelona..

Paris

Day one in Paris was by far the best day. ever.

First of all we are in Paris, I probably don't need to go on  - But I will.
We arrived on the train from London late Saturday night, our hotel was only a short walk away and it is perfect! Very cute room on the top floor of an old building in Montmartre.

We went for a late dinner (which is totally normal in Paris) to an Italian restaurant with a menu only written in French - It doesn't have to make sense. There was a fair bit of guess work involved but in the end it was delicious.

On Sunday, our first full day I went for a run along the streets of Paris and it was amazing, hardly anyone was about, I felt like I had the city all to myself.
All my life I've wanted to be here and here I am.

After crossiants for breakfast  I checked the map and Sam and I headed on foot to the see the Louvre. After about half an hour of walking Sam checked the map and realised I'd directed us in the opposite direction to where we were meant to be going. Sam took charge of the map (possiby for the best).

We arrived at the Louvre and I was that excited, until I saw the line.

The Louvre, and the line..

We didn't go in, plan is to go tomorrow morning before it opens to see the best bits (Mona) and then get moving before the crazy crowds begin (lets just see how that pans out!)
Then we wandered on to the Arc de Triumph, munching on crossiants and sipping coffee that I had ordered in French - they totally thought I was a local! (no, they didn't)

Bouyed by my successful beverage order I even asked a frenchman (in French) where the toilet was and got a response, after that I'm pretty sure that I am French - oui!

Poor Sam had no idea that we had to walk down the Champs de Elysees to get to the Arc, he didn't complain.. but after walking around two shops I started to get the feeling that it was enough when he said "Oh No! the boyfriend chair is taken!"
On to the Arc, we didn't climb it, I negotiated with Sam that if he climbed the Eiffel Tower with me we could view the Arc from below.
At this point my feet felt like they were going to fall off, and I'm sure Sam felt the same - because he was wearing thongs.. No comment

So  we stopped in at Laudree for some macarons, it was the sugar hit we needed. We added the left over macarons to our bag of picnic goodies and headed to the lawns beneath the Eiffel Tower.

Baguttes, macarons and red wine beneath the tower was probably the best way to spend the afternoon.

And then we climbed the Eiffel Tower, we went to the second viewing area - not the top. But it didn't matter, the second I started climbing the stairs I had the biggest grin, and it didn't go away.

From red wine beneath the tower to a celebratory white on top the afternoon  was unbeatable.

Given that we had walked about twenty kilometers that day already we decided to get a taxi back to the hotel and get this, the driver only spoke French and we still managed to get to the right place.. That'd be my excellent linguistic skills coming into play again.

With tender feet we wandered around Montmartre to find another cute little Italian place called Michelangelo's the food and the wine was fantastic. A picture of the Mona Lisa hung on the wall, so maybe don't have to go back to the Louvre..

The owner was so sweet, he gave us a free shot of something before we left.. Not sure why maybe because we were the only tourists there.

The next morning we headed to see the Sacre Couer Basillica, luckily we we were all over the tricks they play to get you to pay them money. The string trick - where they go to shake your hand and then tie string around your wrist/finger and don't let you go until you pay - was attempted on us about ten times, they really should communicate better.

The view from the dome of the Sacre Coeur was amazing, even after climbing the Eiffel Tower the day before. We had to climb teeny tiny stairways that went on for ever (did I mention I'm slightly claustrophobic?)

We also visited the church and the crypt, I'm not religious but it was pretty astounding. All the sculptures and alters and even the grandness of the ceiling.. There was writing on some of the sculptures, and the stone that made up the building, can you do that? I'm pretty sure if you are the guy that writes I was here on a statue of Jesus in a Basillica bad things will happen to you.

Then the camera ran out of battery... (yeah, that's not going to happen again)

After returning to the hotel to charge the camera and discuss who's responsibility camera charging is we headed to Galleries Lafayette. I wanted to have an outfit that I could refer to as 'oh this old thing, I got it in Paris..' you know, like a wanker.

Sam didn't know what he was getting himself in for - neither did I. Everyone there was insane, it's like they had never been shopping before.

After we'd navigated through six floors of insane pushy women we reached the top which had a fantastic view of the city. And I had another photo with the Eiffel Tower behind me (there will never be too many photos of me with the Eiffel Tower, maybe for you - but not for me.)

The shopping experience had scarred us both, so we sat and had lunch and drank red wine and champagne before heading back to the louvre.

The line was so much smaller and we saw Mona! I'm quite sure that the insane crowd clamouring to take photos of her had come straight from Galleries Lafayette.

It was our last afternoon in Paris and our feet were achy from walking the halls of the louvre, so there was only one thing to do. Sit in the street and eat Nutella crepes.

And on the way home I got my Parisian outfit..

Staying in Montmarte meant that we hadn't seen the Eiffel Tower light up at night so dinner on our last night was right out the front, with a prefect view. The food was delicious (it would want to be, it cost us a whole days budget) and we saw the tower light up and got more photos with it (I told you, there will never be too many)

Im sad to be leaving Paris, it was exactly what I had hoped it would be, but there is so much more to see, I'll be back Paris..
Au Revoir