I’m not blessed with Nick’s flawless memory so I’m just writing what stood out for me in beautiful France. Arriving in Paris once again at a ridiculous hour of the morning, after an overnight bus and no sleep, a quick train ride and a short walk we made it to at our hostel. Deprived of sleep we had a quick power nap in the lounge room (check in’s not till 2) and met Tim (Ommit) a fellow traveller. The day began to heat up, our first warm weather for months, we pulled out our thongs and I even got to wear a summer dress. No more jackets and coats, no more beanies and scarfs. We decided to embark on a “free” walking tour that began at the Fontaine Saint-Michel. Within 3.5 hr we had seen most of Paris in a nutshell and were absolutely taken back by its beauty, romance and history. The architecture was so detailed and the gardens and parks showed perfect symmetry.
Day two stunned us with more perfect weather and after purchasing sunscreen for 16 euros we decided that we wanted to see more of the city but were tired of walking, so we hired bikes at a bike station (the most popular, smartest, eco-friendly, transport system that is used throughout Paris and other busy towns in Europe). Nick lead the pack, followed by Tim and I trailed behind at times fearing for my life. Drivers in Paris are aggressive, angry and rarely follow road rules (just youtube the round-about at Arc de Triomphe ).
We made it to the Eiffel tower and ridiculously waited in line in 30 degree weather like silly tourists. 3 very long hours later we finally made it to the top. After waiting in line this long and only spending 20 minutes at the top we vouched never to climb another tall structure to see a view of a city we have already ventured through.
Having our luck the sun rarely shone for us the rest of our time in Paris although it didn’t stop us from venturing out. One of the most memorable experience for us was sitting opposite the Arc de Triomphe eating baguettes huddled under an umbrella in the pouring rain and being absolutely mesmerised by its beauty and chaos surrounding it. Something everyone should see in their life time. 12 major roads intersect at the roundabout housing the arc, there are no lines or traffic lights. We were amused by the amount of road rage and near misses we saw in such a short period of time. We also saw the same tow truck circle the arc constantly, we were later told that an accident occurs every 12 minutes under the arc. True statistic or not we did see the tow truck tow someone away.
Being new to Europe and Paris being so expensive on our last day we decided that if we were to keep spending money on accommodation the way we had been, we definitely would not reach our 12 month goal. So being ambitious travellers we decided to purchase a tent and camp our way along the coast of France. This was a shit idea. We found a camping shop but couldn’t decipher the French or the French guy that was trying to sell us a tent so we decided to go for one of the cheaper options and bought a 100 euro tent. After buying the tent we realised that there was a lot more to camping than just a tent and or sleeping bags. Wanting to save money we really went with the bare minimum and decided we didn’t need cooking utensils just yet, thinking that most camping sites will have a bbq or other facilities. The only other thing we bought was a 50 euro light (apparently we needed a good one).
From Paris we made our way to Caen (Normandy), the north/west coast of France and keeping in high spirits we imagined the weather would improve once we got out to the camping ground which was situated on the beach. How naive of us. We got to the camping ground and was offered a site a little away from the beach (where it would have been a little protected from the wind) or the romantic spot right on the beach front. Nick answered the beach front. Idiot! We Arrived at our site and rolled out our tent. Fail! The tent was so tiny it looked like a dogs kennel. After assembling it, we barely had enough room to sit up once we were inside. We figured it wouldn’t matter because we’d hardly be spending much of our time inside we would be spending it at the beach because the weather was going to be great.
Having no facilities to cook with except a fire bbq we decided to purchase an 11 euro frying pan (which nick was against), a wooden spoon and some fire starters. That night we attempted a bbq with drift wood and our frying pan. Fail! The wind was so strong it kept blowing the fire out. We ate salad with tuna so gross it resembled cat food and baguettes the rest of the time. We haven’t eaten tuna since.
We ended up spending 90% of our time in the dog kennel and the next few days in Caen consisted of numerous games of shit head. It rained and we were surprised the dog kennel didn’t get blown away in all the wind there was. We only left the tent to purchase food and to shower. There was quite a potent poo smell that surrounded our tent from some sort of animal. We named our tent and its surroundings “Poo Farm”.
It turned out that we didn’t end up paying for accommodation anyways. A mix up with the payment meant that we got Poo Farm for free. Lucky us.
We haven’t used the tent since and are planning to send it home as soon as we finish using it in Pamplona. We’re hoping someone will take us in and we won’t have to resort to the tent. Nick donated the frying pan to a hostel after carrying it around in his back pack for 4 weeks thinking we may use it again. We still have the wooden spoon. Why??? I have no idea.
We were ecstatic to leave the camp site and after missing the bus and the next one not coming for another hour, we were quite determined to get of there as soon as we could, we decided to try and hitch hike. Another fail. It’s because Nick wasn’t using his thumb enthusiastically enough and our sign sucked. I told him to put in more effort. He needed to smile.
From Caen we travelled to Brittany and stayed in a beautiful town called St Malo, also on the coast (thanks Phili for the tip). Poor weather meant walking the streets in the rain but it was worth it. We met another traveller John who was cycling around Europe and was covering the same ground as us via bike. We visited Mont Saint Michele, a monastery built in the 8th century which is now a national monument. Something worthwhile seeing.
A few days later and endless hours on a train we ended up in Bordeaux, a city that really surprised us. Not expecting much, the city had loads to offer. Beautiful architecture and great places to people watch. Some much needed warm weather lead us to our favourite people watching spot, an architectural piece by Claire and Michel Corajoud. A shallow pool of water that was about the size of an Olympic pool but only 2 inches deep, looked more like a mirror from a distance as it reflected the beautiful surrounding buildings. The pool would drain and disappear only to spray mist and refill moments later.
Being in Bordeaux and being wine lovers we embarked on a wine tour that took us to various chateaux’s and offered “sample” tastings. Nick decided that the sample amounts weren’t enough and that he was going to get his moneys worth. By 11.30am Nick was just about drunk, by 11.55am Nick was drunk. He managed to do this by helping himself to the leftovers in the bottle and sculling expensive wine, and apparently some people that go on wine tours – don’t enjoy wine, so Nick made sure their glasses didn’t go to waste. In the state Nick was in he became less discrete with helping himself to the left over’s and everyone else followed suit. Needless to say we had a messy wine tour and everybody was Nick’s friend. We had a delicious traditional Bordeaux meal of duck and cheeses and a glass of wine with each course. By dessert we were legless.
From Bordeaux we headed further south to a coastal town called Biarritz. This spot supposedly has the best surfing in Europe, hence why we headed there. “Surfer “ Nick wanted to get in some surfing time while we were there but the weather let us down once again and Nick only got one day in. We ended up having one nice day and spent it on the beach. Much to Nick’s delight, all of the locals bathe topless... even the granny’s. Hot! Beautiful town with coast line everywhere you looked, we would have liked to stay longer but once again the weather deterred us. We tossed up whether to head south east to Nice, but instead we took the 1 hour train to San Sebastian – welcome to España!
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