WEATHER: Again a beautiful day 28C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: The Nouvelle Eve Live Show (the Can Can )
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not enough time in Paris – but I’ll be back
BUYS OF THE DAY: Lunch in a garden café out the front of the Louvre for 25EUR
WORD OF THE DAY: - Sucki-moto L It’s the last official day of the tour
Paris is AMAZING – Have I told you this yet? We are staying at the Holiday Inn and the breakfast here is amazing – the best on the trip so far. After carb loading on bacon, eggs, croissants and bread, we headed to a perfumery, where were taken (very quickly I might add) through the small museum they have on site and then through the process of the making of the perfume. We got the main definitions of the perfumes:
- Perfume extract, or simply perfume (Extrait): 15-40% (IFRA: typical 20%) aromatic compounds – this lasts the longest at around 8 hours
- Eau de Parfum (EdP), Parfum de Toilette (PdT): 10-20% (typical ~15%) aromatic compounds, sometimes listed as "eau de perfume" or "millésime" lasts around 4 hours
- Eau de Toilette (EdT): 5-15% (typical ~10%) aromatic compounds lasts around 2 hours
- Eau de Cologne (EdC): Chypre citrus type perfumes with 3-8% (typical ~5%) aromatic compounds
- Perfume mist: 3-8％ aromatic compounds (typical non-alcohol solvent)
- Splash and After shave: 1-3% aromatic compounds
I wasn’t going to buy any, but I did get 2 x 30ml bottles of the concentrate. In my defence, I am running low on my current supply, so I have just saved myself some duty free shopping, and you can never have too much perfume, can you? A gal needs to smell good…..
From here we had free time till 5.30pm. With the offer of a free lift on the coach, we decided to head to the top of town, and then work our way down to get us back in the vicinity of the pick-up point. We had plans of climbing the 283 steps of the Arc De Triomphe as our starting point, but when we go there, it was super busy, so we did a lap, touched the arch to say we had done it and decided to move on. I think we were just so excited to be unleashed in Paris. We walked down the Champs Elysee's, with a few stops in some stores who have the most prestigious addresses in the world. The main one to point out was the Louis Vuitton store. It is the largest one in the world and I can tell you it was massive. I felt bad just being in the shop, in my sneakers and my camera hanging around my neck. I just knew I probably wouldn’t be allowed to, but I snapped off a photo and in turn got into trouble for it, but it was worth it, the store was amazing! The cheapest thing I could see was a key chain thingy for 170EUR, and it was as small as you would imagine a key pocket! Needless to say nothing was bought here and I felt just as bad walking out as I did walking in!
Strolling the streets of Paris was amazing. WE ARE IN PARIS!!!!!!!
We had lunch in the gardens of the old palace, Jardin des Tuileries, and this was pretty amazing, sitting under the shade of trees, with little finches and a gentle breeze blowing with a view of the Palais du Louvre looming in the background and a glass of white wine in hand wondering what the plebs were doing today. I must mention the pleasant company of Alla, Mags and ChelC just topped off a delightful lunch. This is where we branched off, ChelC and Alla wanted to get some shopping done (as you do in Paree) and Mags and I continued our walking tour of Paris.
After lunch we headed to the Louvre, which was closed, as it is every Tuesday, (Mona will need to wait for next time) but the picture opportunity is still pretty cool with the glass pyramid entrance anyway. From here we headed to Notre Dame. Entry is free and the queues to get into this famous church can be quite long, so you can imagine our surprise when we got there to find no-one in line. So we got straight in and got to spend a good 40 minutes here, got a chance to sit down and just marvel at the beautiful stained glass windows and the serenity, well with 300 other people also in the church. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we came out and the line to get in was at least 100 people long. It is all in the timing, I don’t think I would have waited if the line was that long when we got there.
The highlight of the day has to be the dinner and show of the Nouvelle Eve. My understanding is it’s the same as the Moulin Rouge, just another company doing it. It’s not the cheapest thing in the world, but whether you do this one or Moulin it is definitely worth doing it. Even to do it a little cheaper, do it without the dinner, but it is a MUST when in Paris. We had front row seats, literally front row, you could see everything, EVERYTHING, of the dancers on stage, you know moles on legs, moles on boobs, a pimple on a butt, the things you don’t see from afar! It was weird not knowing where to look to start with, I was a little intimidated being so close to half naked ladies with their breasts exposed, but as the show progressed and the free flowing wine kicked in, I started to really enjoy the show. I even started getting some ‘looks’ from 2 of the female dancers, well they are only human, would prefer a male as well, but hey………. They mix the show with some jugglers (good looking jugglers) an acrobat comedian and a silent man act that was just amazing and I am still trying to work out how he did his act, and if anyone was going to see the trick, it would have been me being so close, and I still can’t work it out. The highlight of the highlight is the can can, which the boys also do. They were literally dropping into the splits 40cm away from my chair, that’s how close I was. I think I had the best seat in the house in hindsight. AMAZING SHOW. We started in Amsterdam watching a sex show and boobs, and we end in Paris with half naked women and more boobs. Very appropriate I say.
As it was our last night in Paris and as a group together, we headed to a bar and then jigged and drank the rest of the night away, well till 2.30am, where a group of us caught taxi’s home as we had a 7.45am bag call. I did have an altercation with the reception guy when we got back to the hotel. He has been a rude ass the whole 2 days we have been there, and he wouldn’t give me change for the vending machine, which that I could handle, but his attitude stank, so I told him so, which in turn resulted in a war of words till Alla and ChelC stepped in and broke up the verbal fight. I was drunk, but not blind, so I knew what I was saying and it ended with me asking for his name, which he refused to give me (with a smirk that I just wanted to slap off his face), and then me telling him I would be making an official complaint about him, which I am going to follow through with. It wasn’t just me by the way, he is s nasty pasty and should be reported.
Besides that ( a blip on the radar ), what a great way to finish a great tour, with a great group, with a great tour manager and a great driver. The stars were all aligned when this tour departed London 12 days ago, and I am going to miss all my new friends made. You guys are awesome, you rock and truly will be missed……………..
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