FRANCE!

I've kept you waiting for too long - here it finally is!

On Sunday 26th of September, 2010 I left for the beautiful country of France for two weeks on a school trip. There were two schools, with fourteen girls and five adults (including one teacher from each school).

We travelled by Thai Airways and left Sydney at about 3:30pm. I actually forget how long the flight to Bangkok was, but it was probably nearly ten? I will get back to you on that.

Anyway, we had to wait at Bangkok Airport for about two hours and we were all exhausted because it was about 2am Australian time and Thailand is boiling! Even if it was only 10pm or something there.

We finally boarded our next and final leg of the flight to Paris! This flight was about twelve hours, which I spent half of the time sleeping.

Our plane in Sydney

Caitlin, myself & Alyce before getting off in Paris.

It was 7am in Paris when we arrived. As our bags came out, Alyce's came out ripped! It was ripped at the seam but luckily you couldn't access inside. We waited while she organised something with the airport as it would have been Thai Airways fault. Then the idiot teacher from the other school attempted to lead us around the airport to outside where our bus driver was illegally parked.

So if I tell you every detail about every day, this post will never end and you will just click out of this because you have something much better to do.

So, I will post a few photos.. you know where I went and what I did in the first week, as I have previously told you (just scroll down a bit and you'll find it).

However, I will tell you a bit more about Paris as that is more exciting!

First week:

Monet's House and Gardens.

Mont St. Michel

(we walked around acting like it was Hogwarts)

Caitlin and I with our fucking huge fairy flosses in St Malo! We laughed for so long!

We stayed in Youth Hostels the whole trip, except for Loches. It was pretty much a motel or whatever you wanna call it. Anyway, it was excellent! The best place!

Our last night in Loches - getting dressed up for dinner.

Myself, Caitlin, Alyce, Amy - The Year 11's ;)

.... PARIS!

Monday 4th of October..... DISNEYLAND!

Need I really say more?

My school at Disneyland!

I'm on the left.

Caitlin and I hung with the Year 10's all day because Alyce and Amy didn't want to go on any rides...

Myself on the Teacups.

(Yes, we went on more riveting rides, okay)

Went on this baby three times!

Parade!

Louise, Claudia, Astrid, myself & Caitlin.

Also, let me just say that this day was our first Metro experience. I would have been nice if the teachers had told us how fast it went, that it didn't stay at the station for very long and that the doors are automatic so they could easily shut on you. This didn't happen to any of us, but with the other school's teacher yelling at us to hurry and pushing us on didn't make the experience calm at all.

Tuesday 5th

Notre Dame

Arc de Triomphe

Once we came down from the Arc de Triomphe (such an amazing view!), we were able to look around the Champs-Elysées. We were all starving so we immediately went to no other than McDonalds haha. They have free wifi there, like Australia (I don't know about anywhere else haha) Then we went to the souvenir shop where I bought a grey "I ♥ Paris" hooded jumper and a white "I ♥ Paris" singlet.

Wednesday 6th

Versailles

Chateau of Versailles - the gates are real gold! There is so much of it.

We also visited Marie Antoinette's house and the small houses where she went to get "closer to her people".

Thursday 7th

Catacombs

The Catacombs is underground and when the tunnel was being built for the war, the bones were discovered as it was originally a graveyard. So they lined the walls of the 2km tunnel with the bones. They're all in patterns and such - there's even a heart shape made of skulls. It's actually pretty cool there, I quite enjoyed it.

Musée de Louvre

I actually found the Louvre so unbelievably boring. Apparently it takes about two days to get around the whole museum - we had two hours there. I definitely made sure I saw the Mona Lisa though. We went there first.

I hope I don't need a caption for this ;)

Our deputy principal was there the same day, so my teacher called him and he came down into the Louvre to see us - it was so awkward. Then we had to have a photo with him :|

Also, this day was the first time I ever had ice tea. Lipton Peach Ice Tea to be exact. I ended up having three this day. One after the Catacombs, one after the Louvre and one from the vending machine at our hostel. I had been living on Coca Cola the whole trip, but I lived on Ice Tea and Coke for the last few days ;) I've had the Ice Tea a lot since I've been home too ;)

I was such a pig in France -

Packets of Kinder chocolate, energy drink, Coca Cola, packs of Pringles to myself, a jar of Nutella (we shared of course), Crispy M&Ms, Nutella & Go's, ice cream, Chocolate Eclairs, Macaroons (the ones Caitlin and I got were disgusting - so disappointed), Brie cheese, Orangina, croissants, fairy floss.. I could go on for much longer!

We also visited Galleries Lafayette - heaps of shops. We were expecting something like Westfield.. but no. It was full of expensive clothes and brands and has absolutely no where to sit! It was the end of the day and we had done so much walking - all we wanted was so sit down. We ended up on the stairs haha. I did end up buying something though - a dress for our boat ride the following night (which you will see soon)

The roof of Galleries Lafayette.

Friday 8th

We visited Musée d'Orsay but I have no photos as you weren't allowed to take your camera in.

Montmartre

The last three days in Paris were quite hot. See how blue it is?! It was great though, better than being cold.

We were warned that we had to watch our bags extra carefully in Montmartre. So those of us with backpacks had to walk around with them on our friends. Let me tell you that it was quite embarrassing (yes, I had a backpack on).

We also walked down the street (where all the sex shops are) to the Moulin Rouge!

Best part of the day.... the EIFFEL TOWER!

The scabs who try to sell you shit are that annoying oh my god! You're in line to go up the Eiffel Tower and they just nag you. We discovered that if you don't look at them when they come past they just keep going. The teachers however would tell them no, but they wouldn't go away! :/

The view was amazing! We only got to go to the second level though because the top was closed.. but when you got there you could buy another ticket to go to the top? So confusing. We only had half an hour up there anyway, so it didn't matter.

After we walked where we could get a whole shot of it to get some photos :)

If you look closely, I'm holding a bottle of Coca Cola ;)

Starting to light up!

We went and had dinner right near the Tower then we came back near the Tower for our boat ride on the Seine!

The front of the boat. We sat at the back where it was open.

I was such a good trip. Seeing Paris at night - and seeing the Eiffel Tower sparkle every half hour and seeing the lasers off the top. A lot of my photos came out blurry because the boat was moving :/

Notre Dame

Alyce, me, Amy & Caitlin on the boat - professional photo.

10 euros!

Saturday 9th

Our last day ):

We spent it at the French theme park, Parc Astérix! Parc Astérix is a French comic.

This rollercoaster was epic! It went upside down like seven times or something? Loved it!

The rides here were much better than at Disneyland. Disneyland was good for the parades though. Also, the lines at Disneyland were not long at all since it was a Tuesday. Whereas at Parc Astérix it was a Saturday so it was packed. Caitlin, Louise and I waited in line for an hour for a ride. Parc Astérix was also good because there were water rides!

On our second water ride, Astrid and I went on our own (since the rest wouldn't wait for us). At the top of the big drop, it stopped. We were there for like, ten minutes. We were already pissed off and this made it worse. Since it's a French themepark, they didn't speak in any other language. So when they were talking on the speakers, we couldn't understand. I go "Speak English!" - just to Astrid of course - then the man in front of us turned around and told us in English that they said it would be a few minutes. I was pretty embarrassed, hahaha. But hey, we laugh about it now xD

I'm at the front. We knew we'd get soaked so I made sure I got the front xD

As you can see, it was hot - I'm wearing a singlet. This was our third and last water ride.. I was absolutely saturated! A great last day :)

On the plane from Paris to Bangkok I had the window! :D

I hope you enjoyed that. If you have stuck it in this long, thank you and sorry for the wait!

xox Emma