Today I left London and set off on my Topdeck tour of Europe - first stop - Paris! I saw the White Cliffs of Dover as we sailed the English Channel to dock in Calais, France. After a long bus drive, we finally arrived in Paris. Our accomodation was a hotel upgrade, but it was more of a hostel than hotel!

We had dinner at a little French restaurant where, yes, I ate escargo (snails!). It is not something I would eat again, but when in France!!!! They didn't have a lot of flavour and they were very tough. Getting them out of the shell was interesting!

After dinner we did a bus tour of Paris. We saw Notre Dame, a huge cathedral, the Napolean Dome, Invalides - a war hospital, the Military School where Napolean graduated from in 12 months and the Peace Wall and of course, I can't leave out the Eiffel Tower. My first impression of the Eiffel Tower was not a good one - it simply looked like a giant structure made of metal - it didn't appeal to me at all. However, when we were given the time later at night to spend some time there, I quickly changed my mind, particularly after standing under it. We waited in line to buy tickets to climb the tower, but as we approached the front of the line, they closed the summit (top) due to congestion. Not happy Jan!!! There was no point not going to the top. So we ended up buying tickets for the next day - and boy was that a drama. Old mate wasn't going to sell me a ticket because I was too old!!!! He picked the wrong girl to mess with!!! I didn't travel half way across the world to sit at the bottom of the bloody Eiffel Tower!!! So we all ended up with tickets for the next day. At 10:00 the light show started - it was amazing!!!

When the bus picked us up from the Eiffel Tower, we continued to drive around Paris. Jess (our guide) said that around the next corner was an amazing sight. And boy was she right. As the bus moved through the traffic lights we had been stopped at, I saw the most incredible building - the Opera House. Now there is an image that will be forver in my mind as one that took my breath away. It was incredible - words can't describe it's beauty. All lit up with nothing else around it.

We then drove on and Jess told us we were approaching a roundabout with 12 exits - yep 12!!! She also proceeded to tell us that no insurance company will insure drivers while on this roundabout. I was intrigued to say the least. Then we found out there is an accident every 8 mins on this roundabout and most topdeck bus drivers won't attempt to drive this roundabout. As we approached, it all came into perspective!! Smack bang in the middle of the roundabout was the Arc De Triomphe - the one thing I was really looking forward to seeing. So with 'Danger Zone' cranking from the bus stereo we entered the roundabout. No lanes, lots of cars and mayhem! It was incredible! The bus had to go around 3 times before it could get off the roundabout. And the Arc was everything I had imagined.

So all in all a great first day in Paris. I will continue to update these blogs as I get a chance, so stay tuned!!!

Luv Nic