Day Seventeen: Being in a protest

We had some baguette sandwiches for breakfast again (I think I may become obese from all the bread!) and went into town. We caught a different kind of metro than we had been catching before (which had been a double decker underground train) which was more like the London and Tokyo tubes. A man got on and started busking in it! He had music on and was playing along with his tuba, it was so cool! We got off at the louvre station and found a ticket office which had a tiny line because apparently noone knows about it, bonus! Didn't have to wait hardly at all. We went in after that and walked past millions of people lining up, suckers! We went straight up to the second floor (it has about 5 floors but the highest is 2... crazy french!) where most of the paintings are. We saw heaps of famous ones and it was awesome, we must have spent a good 1-2 hours up there before we got hungry.

We went to go back down into the mall type bit where there are restaurants and there were millions of people on the other floors! We were lucky in the painting bit! We got a bit lost but found the way out in the end and went to go get food. We ended up getting McDonalds because it was the easiest thing and we wanted to try it anyway. They have wedges here as well as fries so we got both of course, yum! I got a wrap and Quentin got some kind of chicken burger. It was way more filling than I am used to McDonalds being! I was sad that we didn't see this other burger chain called 'quick' which we keep seeing everywhere because we want to try it. It has burgers with such imaginative names as 'long-long chicken' and 'giant max'... sounds good right?

After lunch we headed back in to look at more stuff, we had to go see the Mona Lisa since we were there but also got to look at some more paintings. There was one by Turner which was my favourite of the day. We also went to see Napoleon's Apartments which were amazing! Super super fancy, he had like velvet wallpaper and millions of chandelliers and stuff, it was so cool. We looked at a bit more but then we were tired of it, and it was also hot so we went out and sat outside for a bit laughing at all the people taking exactly the same photos of themselves "touching the top of the pyramid" which makes everyone look stupid. A protest came past while we were sitting outside but we didn't know what it was about. There were heaps of police vans around and also police in riot gear but the protestors weren't doing anything so I'm not sure what the police expected.

We decided to go look for a supermarket and get the train back so went out some way and started walking. We accidently joined the protest and decided it would be an easy way to walk around the streets without worrying about crazy french drivers running us down since no cars could go where the protest was. They had heaps of signs and flags and stuff which said things about anti-fascist (we hoped) and anti-homophobe (we hoped) and some other stuff. I looked it up when we got back and apparently that was the kind of prootest it was, heaps of left wing people were protesting because someone in their party (??) had been killed in a confrontation with some right wing skinheads.

After we got out of the protest we tried to find where we were to get back to camp and it turned out we had to go a bit further, and ended up back where we were last night! We needed a beer after all the walking so got one from a super friendly french guy at another super long happy hour and then came back to camp so we could do our blogs, and decide where to go tomorrow! It's pretty sweet not having any plans but we do need to get a map so it is easier to see where to go to next.

View from the Louvre

Mona Lisa, seen it

In the underground part of the louvre

Fancy pants apartments

I am tourist!

Protest we accidently joined!

 

Day Sixteen: Seeing all the things

This morning we got up and it seemed like it was going to be a hot and nice day (we should have known it wouldn't be!) so we got ready, had baguette for breakfast with cheese and tomato and salad, pretty much the best breakfast, and went into town. This time we walked down towards the arc de triomphe again and got a tour bus. It was one where you can get on and off as much as you want during the day, and they have four different routes which you can go on. We went on the first route (green) for a bit which went past the eiffel tower and then up towards the north area of the city where we got off the green bus and went across the road for some lunch at a pizza/panini/antipasti type place. We got a vege panini and some vege pizza to share and they were both so good! Apparently eggplant on pizza is really delicious! They also had sundried tomato, roasted peppers and some cheeses, maybe some other stuff too but totes good.

We got on the yellow bus line after that which took us around the north type bit which had moulin rouge and about a million sex shops! One was called sexy shop and one was called sex-o-rama. They had other funny names as well but I can't remember them. They had a lot of peep show places as well and X rated video places, I'm pretty sure you would not want to go in there! They also had heaps of costume hire and wedding dress shops in this area which seemed a bit weird, but who knows. Maybe it is normal to get sex things and a wedding dress! They had commentary on all the buses as well which was cool so we learnt some things.

After yellow we got back on green for a bit and went down and to the east of the city to get on the blue line. We got some coffee first though because it was a bit freezing and also rained a bit and we were not totally prepared. Also the wind had broken our umbrellas (worse than Wellington!). The blue bus line was the most boring because it went around lots of parts that didn't have much going on, and didn't have lots of old architecture like the rest of Paris we had seen. Luckily that part was only for about and hour. After that we got off where we would go on the next route but needed more coffee so had a look around the bit of the city we were in which was near Notre Dame, and was called the Latin Quarter. They had heaps of amazing looking food places so we decided to come back there for dinner after going on orange route.

Weird thing, in Paris all the kebabs come with fries inside them! Why was this never an option in Wellington? It is obviously the best idea! Anyway I will have to try that but haven't yet. We went on the orange route which was pretty cool as well, heaps of old architecture and stuff. Then when we got back to the dinner part we had a look at all the restaurants because I wanted to get something French. A lot of the places have set menu's for different prices, like 10 Euros, 15 Euros, 22 Euros etc. We didn't think we would be able to eat heaps so we went to a place which had a 10 Euro one and was still three courses. I had french onion soup for a starter and Quentin had ham (Jamon here) and cheese crepes. They were both pretty good but the soup was a bit salty for me (crazy right!) but they give you heaps of baguette so it was good. Then Quentin had spaghetti bolognaise (pretty sure that isn't French but oh well!) and I had bouef bourgignon (or however you spell it, I have no idea) which was super tasty. It was kind of like the inside of a pie but had the added bonus of potato. We both had chocolate mousse for dessert which was well good. I wondered if they made it properly and it had the raw egg whites in it but didn't want to think about that too much because it grosses me out.

After dinner we went down the street to a bar to have a beer since everywhere seems to have happy hours for about 5 hours! We ended up having two beers and then thought we better go or we would stay and drink all night! We got on the metro and went to the eiffel tower. It wasn't dark yet because it basically never gets dark in France. It is a bit light when I go to sleep and defo light when I wake up. Kind of weird and annoying. Anyway we hung around there for awhile and it did actually get quite dark (since it was around 11pm by then) which was cool because we got to see the tower all lit up. We had to get going after that though because the last shuttle to the camp is 11.45 and we would so get lost if we tried to walk back there!

It's a bit rainy!

There are millions of fountains here

Panini is French?

Pizza!

Moulin Rouge for reals

Sexy shop

Look Suz and Ganny, KFC in France! First one we have seen, they love McDonalds more.

Some cannons and stuff

Eiffel tower, we are there!

 

Day Fifteen: In Paris!

This morning we packed up and headed to Paris, which isn't far from Versailles, like maybe 20-30km or something. We stopped at a bakery type place on the way where the girl didn't speak any English and I obviously don't speak any French but I still managed to get two kinds of bread with cheese in them and two tiny coffees, yay! We drove to the campsite in Paris which is pretty sweet since it's actually inside the 'ring road' around Paris which means it is super close to things. They also have free wi-fi, a shop and a restaurant in case we need things.

You can get a shuttle a bit closer into town to near a metro/bus/train station so we got on one of those and decided to walk into town from there, and see the arc de triomphe on the way. It's way bigger than I expected and you can climb up it if you want but me and Quentin were not too keen so we kept heading down the road which was now the champes de elysses which is a pretty famous road with heaps of restaurants and fancy shops, and which also is where the tour de france ends next month. We walked down there for awhile and saw heaps of people begging and lots of them had dogs with them. They dogs looked happy though so I wasn't too worried about them. One had some tiny puppies drinking the milk from the mummy dog, so cute!

We also saw that the employees of Virgin had taken over a store on this street, and also 8 more across France (or Paris, I can't remember) because all the stores were being shut down and they hadn't been paid (something like that) so now the employees were occupying it 24/7, crazy! We were hungry by that time so started looking for somewhere to eat. Everytime we do it means we will end up in a place where there are no restaurants or anything! So we headed back the way we came and went into a pub type place and got some cheeseburgers and fries and beer, not very French but oh well. Their fries were super good though.

After lunch we headed to the Musee d'Orsay to see some famous arts. That was pretty sweet, there was so much to see though and we were getting tired so we only stayed there for a couple of hours and then went back to the camp to have some soup for dinner because it was getting cold and rainy. Apparently it was meant to be the first day of Summer but the weather here is super unpredictable, like worse than Wellington and that is saying something! Quentin and I can never seem to get it right!

Oh also I thought that French people always having baguettes was like a joke or something... turns out it is actually well true. So many people are carrying around baguettes all of the time, and eating them on the street, and every single place seems to sell them, I'm pretty sure baguettes are everyones favourite in France!

Arc de triomphe

Lunch, nom

Employees have taken over!

The grand palais

A bridge

Eiffel tower!

Day Fourteen: Sippin on gin and juice

We decided to stay another day in Versailles since the thunderstorm kind of killed our exploring part of the day so we had breakfast at the camp before going back out. Luckily it wasn't raining anymore but we thought it might so we put on our poncho's and took our umbrellas (thanks to the 1 pound shop in England, which is way better than the $2 shop!!) and went into town.

We walked through heaps of streets looking at the cool old buildings and all the restaurants, I saw two Japanese restaurants, called Fuji and Sakura, a thai restaurant called Ban Mai Thai, some Italian restuarants, Lebanese restaurants and Moroccan restaurants, oh and a sushi place called Kate Moss Box Sushi Box... weird name. Also there were French places obv but it is super hard to read their menu's even though I know what most of the food words are, because I don't know the joining words at all!

We ended up getting lunch at a bakery type place which may be a chain, or there might just be a lot of places with a similar name, I'm not sure. Anyway for 7.50 Euro you can get some sort of sandwich, some sort of desert and a drink so I got a vege baguette and an apple tarte tatin and Quentin got a goats cheese, mozzarella and tomato panini and a chocolate eclair. We wouldn't usually get a dessert since we know we won't be able to eat it but all these cakes and stuff in France look amazing! Plus we are trying to try all the French foods. Everything is so good! The chocolate eclair has chocolate mousse inside and is super rich, it reminds me that I don't like eclair pastry though. The apple tarte is amazing but so sweet I totally can't eat all of it.

Luckily it hasn't really rained so after lunch we head back to the gardens to try again. We considered going into the palace but after seeing the number of tour busses and the lines of people to get in we decided it wasn't worth it. We walked down to this big lake type thing which is in the middle of the gardens where you can hire boats and get a boat to go out on the lake. People were loving the fact that I was rowing Quentin around. We saw a fat as American lady making here two daughters row her around, and some arabic looking people trying to row and failing, also some Japanese girls who hadn't even made it out of the area that you get your boat from because they were just taking pictures of each other and didn't actually know how to row! Also I saw lots of ducks and one had heaps of ducklings which were soooo cute! They were racing each other.

After we went rowing we walked around some more but the we were getting tired so we went back into the town bit to get some liquor so we could go hang out in the sun. Also France is blimmin hot the whole time, so we were ready to sit down. Even when it was a thunderstorm it was hot. Anyway, we got some gin and juice, but no ice because the shop guy did not know what ice was. I tried to explain it but all he could think of was ice tea which I did not want. It was super sunny by the time we got back to the camp anyway so we just had warm gin and juice and worked on our tans. Maybe a little too well since we may both be a little pink now. We need to get sunblock!

I had tuna salad for dinner and Quentin had "laksa noodle" which was a box meal thing from the UK, they have a million convenience foods there, I can't wait to try heaps of them! They probably have heaps here as well but I can't read the labels and I don't want to get something weird like fois gras or escargot! I am trying to think of some classic French foods I can try while I am here though, so far all I can think of is Coq au Vin! Oh and crepes. I will keep thinking though.

Pretty cakes are pretty!

Delicious vege baguette

2 kinds of cheese!

So yummy

Get out of my rowboat

Lady of leisure!

Up in Marie Antoinette's estate

Sippin on gin and juice, laid back

Day Thirteen: Our storm was totes not as intense as yours Wellington!

We woke up this morning and it was still a bit rainy. The bathrooms here were locked so we decided instead of hanging around we would find a McDonalds so we could get coffee and use their Wi-Fi to decide what to do today instead of walking around in the rain. We were looking at campsites near Paris since we want to go there tomorrow and saw that there was an aire in Versailles which looked nice and we wanted to go there anyway so we are going to head there now, and to Paris tomorrow.

We got to Versailles without too much trouble/messing around, although we had to pay a toll on one of the roads it was only 2 Euro so that was fine. When we got to Versailles we actually found the place we wanted to stay straight away which was crazy, it seemed way too easy! It is about a 1-2 minute walk from an entrance to the gardens which are attached to the Chateau and about a 5-10 minute walk into the more town area so it's basically awesome. The guy working there is super nice, he doesn't speak much English but is totes friendly. He spent ages mowing all the grass in the afternoon while smoking and driving over tree branches, crazy French! We also saw a guy who may have been Mario.

After we booked in and parked and everything we were starving because we only had chips for breakfast! Luckily we had got supplies yesterday to make giant baguette! It was our first baguette in France and it was delicious, it had red onion, capsicum, cherry tomato, lettuce, wholegrain mustard and brie (from the amaze cheese aisle at the supermarket) and was the best baguette ever! We also had wine. Apparently wine is super cheap here, I have seen it for as cheap as 1.95 Euro a bottle! We wanted to get a good one though so got one that was around 5 Euro (heeeeeaps were cheaper) and had a thing on it which looked like an award, not that either of us could read it! It was good anyway.

After lunch and a shower we headed to the gardens to look around, it had been super hot and sunny most of the day, even though it had rained last night, but as soon as we got to the gardens it started to sound thundery. Apparently my hair was all standing on end from static electricity which I'm pretty sure it had never done before! Anyway we ignored that and the ominous clouds and kept walking around checking out all the statues and sculptures and what not. It started to rain quite a bit so Quentin decided to run back to the van to close the sunroof (it would be no good me trying since I really do not run!) while I walked to the place you can hire boats to meet him. I was just minding my own business taking photos when it became a massive thunderstorm with mega lightnings and super wind and it was blowing me into hedges! I kept walking to where I was going to meet Quentin and then a concerned worker came past and gave me a ride in his truck. Luckily where we were meeting had a restaurant which already had heaps of people sheltering inside since the storm was so sudden. I waited there until Quentin got back (we were both hard core soaked but we weren't the only ones!) and while we stood there waiting to start going back to the van we noticed that the restaurant was giving everyone who was leaving black sacks to wear, so cute! A black sack brigade was about to leave when the biggest and loudest thunder I ever heard went, and we all got massive frights and they ran back into the restaurant! They left soon after though and so did we. We kept trying to see the lightnings but missing them.

When we got back to the van we had left out towels and chairs and stuff which were soaked but we sorted out the bed and got changed into P.Js and had vegetable curry in bed and then watched the first Bourne movie which was funny since it was obviously way older than I remembered, you can always tell by their computers! I have just finished a book about computer hackers which was pretty interesting, it's called Ghosts in the Wires I think, something about being the worlds most wanted hacker, but I didn't understand heaps of it since I am not good at computers! I never thought I would be a fan of e-readers but Kindle is totes the best, I am reading so many books!

Big baguette and wine!

Quentin loves big baguettes!

Sweet sculpture in the lake

Entrance to the Chateau

Tree sculpture hit by lighting, there was also lightning happening at the time

Some sweet storm clouds

 

Day Twelve: France is cray-cray!

We woke up this morning and didn't know where we were since we had arrived at night and driven for awhile until we found an aire which is a place for trucks and campers and stuff to spend the night. We had already set up the bed so when we got there we just went to sleep. We woke up to an amazing view of the French countryside and there was a place there which had a shop, cafe, toilets etc so that was good.

We had some coffee and marmite toast for breakfast, yay for NZ marmite! It survived the journey. Then we headed off South. We set the GPS to avoid toll roads (which is heaps of roads) because they can be expensive and also we wanted to drive through the country rather than just on motorways. We spent the morning driving through all sorts of little towns and seeing heaps of cool stuff. We tried to work out what the road signs were saying but the most popular ones seem to be the ones which show deer jumping (haven't seen any deer yet) and people riding horses (haven't seen that yet either). We were in the countryside and got hungry so stopped at the next aire which was in the middle of nowhere, with fields all around and a river with some big as fish in it. There were also ducks and ducklings, so cute!

We had some sandwiches at a picnic table there and then kept driving south. At about 4 in the afternoon we accidently arrived in this massive city! We thought it was going to be a town but it was not. It was super hard to drive around because French drivers are crazy and they don't seem to stick to their lanes or indicate! It turned out to be the town where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake! After a failed mission to find the information centre we went to a McDonalds to use their Wi-Fi. McDonalds is our new best friend for using all their internet because we didn't know where to buy any internet from before we got here.

We decided to head to a place called Pont d-le-arche for the night because they had an aire there next to the river (Seine) which looked pretty. We managed to get out of the city alright, although we really want to know now how many accidents the French have compared to us because they are crazy! We got to near where we wanted to go for the night and found a supermarket (my favourite!) so we went in there to get a converter charger for the van and some food. They had a double aisle of cheese, it was amazing! Also all their wine is super cheap so we got some food and wine for tomorrow, and got some petrol and went to go find the aire.

It was not easy. The road signs and stuff in France are the worst! So we drove around for ages looking for signs and trying to figure out where to go. Like actually ages. But anyway we found it eventually and it was so nice there! Heaps of trees and ducks and stuff. Also a cat and a man were sleeping on the riverside (not together). The man may have been a bum. We made our first camper friends with the people parked next to us who were from England and were super nice. They said they come to France all the time in their camper but it was their last night on this trip.

We made some pasta for dinner and went to bed to read since it was really late by then and we were tired from so much crazy driving. In the night was the actual biggest storm ever, so much thunder and lightning, it was crazy! Super loud but also cool, and no rain came in which was good. Better than a tent!

Our view when we woke up

French people freaken love McDonalds, they are always there!

Lunch break

Also wind turbines are everywhere

Where we stayed for the night (cat and man not pictured)

Across the road from where we stayed

 

Day Eleven: To the continent!

Quentin managed to outsleep me again this morning! So I did some research on where to stay in France once we arrive, and found a seaside place which we will try and go to. When Quentin got up we had to pack everything up and sort out all our baggage before going to get the van. We got breakfast in the station at a place called Pret a Manger which is a chain store and is everywhere. It was good though, we shared a tuna and cheese toastie (with capers, yum) and a hummus and salad wrap with creme fraiche. We had the first actual good coffee since we got to England as well, usually they seem to put too much milk and not enough coffee.

After that we had to go on a tube, then another tube, then a train, to get to where we were picking up the van. A lady from the hire place came and picked us up from the town where the train stopped which was helpful since we had heaps of bags/all our possessions with us! Oh, when we were on the tube we saw a lady who looked at lot like Jocelyn Wildenstein (not sure if I spelt that right!) with all the plastic surgery and stuff, and she was wearing really weird like dressed up clothes and also a weird thing like maybe a fascinator.

After we had done all the paperwork and stuff for the van we went to a place down the road which was like a shopping centre to get some food (especially chips) and other stuff for our journey. We got a new duvet and pillows and stuff because we didn't want to hire the stuff from the hire people. By that time we were pretty hungry because we had got too excited and forgotten to have lunch at a proper time so we had McDonalds. Apparently you call it a 'meal' instead of a 'combo' here, and a cheeseburger meal doesn't exist. The English are strange, how can you not have a cheeseburger combo when it is the best one??

We headed to Dover after that, and were thinking about going into France via the tunnel so we turned off where it said from the motorway and actually went to the entrance by accident! We didn't know how to get out, and also didn't have a ticket but a lady helped us and we continued on to Dover to check it out and go online to find out about prices for the tunnel and the ferry. It turned out that going in the tunnel would cost something like 185 pounds for some reason so we decided to ferry on the way there and maybe tunnel on the way back.

Once we had booked the ferry ticket we went and got some dinner at Tesco (my favourite) and went up to Dover Castle to eat. I love Tesco because they have a million ready made things that I want to eat like sushi, salad and sandwiches, which are all my favourite. Today I had a falafel and pumpkin salad with couscous and yoghurt dressing, it was good but I think I like the nicoise better. Quentin had a vintage cheddar, pickle and vege roll which was good and seemed to be the right size for a man(!). Also we had iced coffee which is jokes the whole time because it comes in a cup as if it is a real coffee. We first saw them in Japan (where I was scared of drinking them in case they had fish sauce, but they were ok) but they have them here too. I wonder why not in NZ? At least NZ has Nippys!

After that Quentin made us drive around for ages looking for a ferry office which didn't exist (seriously, like 45 min!!) because he didn't believe me that we would go to the ferry terminal. Finally he went back on the internet and found out that I was right so we came to the ferry terminal to wait for our ferry (lucky we weren't in a hurry!) and now we are waiting in line for the boat while I type this. We will be waiting a couple of hours because the tickets to go late at night were less than half the price of going earlier so we thought we would hang out. We have made up the bed in the back and it looks super cozy, I am excited to sleep in it! The van has a sunroof in the front and the back so when we are in bed we can look at the stars through it (assuming it isn't too smoggy). That's all for now anyway, tommorrow maybe Paris! Or Versailles.

Our new home

Arriving in Dover

Dinner = Yum!

Bed + Penny

Just a casual castle view for our dinner

Ferries the whole time

Day Ten: Dino Time!

Well we didn't end up doing the pub crawl because Quentin was tired out from all the walking over the past two days! And to be honest after lying in bed typing up the blog so was I! So to punish me for that my body woke me up at 4.45am. Quentin didn't wake up until like 7.30 and I was well bored by that point! I managed to get him up and going and we went and put some washing on and got breakfast at subway, apparently one of the only things open early on Sunday morning. Weird thing, they have sweetcorn in their subway. Also their vege patty is way better.

After breakfast we got the tube into South Kensington.This is the area where there are a lot of museums, like the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Probably others but I'm not sure. We went to the Natural History Museum and it was awesome! They have heaps of dinosaur skeletons and all sorts of extinct animals and stuff. We mostly looked at the dinosaur part and the mammals part. Then we went into human biology but it was a bit too much for kids, and also lots of stuff you learn about in PSYC101 about memory and the brain and perception and stuff. We were going to look around more but we were getting annoyed at all the small children, and also hungry.


We walked up the road a bit into Knightsbridge to go look at Harrods, unfortunately their only sale of the year started yesterday so we didn't stick around in there for long, way too many people with too much money to spend! I did look to see if they have the only expensive handbag I have ever wanted (Hermes Birkin) but nope, probably only celebrities get those. We decided to go for lunch after that at a lebanese place close by. They gave us a bowl of olives and peppers while we waited for our food, all for me because Quentin doesn't like them, yay! Then we had sort of kebabs for lunch but mine had potato, cauliflower and eggplant in it, it was super yum. They also gave us baklava (or something similar) after our mains which was good because it was only a little bit. Also because it was delicious.

We went back on the tube after that to go and see the Camden Markets because we are too good at touristing and were running out of things we wanted to see. Camden was packed! Apparently that is where all the young people are, and also about every second shop is a tattoo parlour. We kept getting handed cards for them but we thought we would wait until we get back from Europe to get more tattoos... any suggestions guys?

We walked around the markets for awhile and saw all sorts of crazy people and things to buy, way too many lame slogan shirts and also some cool vintage dresses that I want! Then we were tired again, apparently walking around for 5-6 hours per day is more tiring than lying in bed/on couch and watching TV, who knew! Anyway we got the tube back and got some sushi and salad for dinner and went and read books for the rest of the evening.

Hey Stu... Eat as much as you can!!

Dino time!

It's a gannatee!

The diesel and the bison

Really not sure what a horse tunnel is but we were in it!

England actually has some alright sushi, yay!