The TGV train is faster than the Eurostar. Not very good for looking out the window as everything just whips past, so I slept as I was sitting backwards and the trees and bushes wizzing past were making me slightly nauseous. Of course, we were in the First Class section and lucky we were - the Cattle Class seats didn't look too comfortable.
We got lucky too at the hotel when we arrived at 12:30pm and all our rooms were ready - in Europe they're not usually ready until 3pm. Some people weren't going to the excursion to the Louvre Museum so Simona had requested if they could try to have these rooms ready. What Simona wants, Simona gets!
We had until 1:30pm before we had to leave for the Louvre so I went to my room on the 23rd floor, relaxed a little bit, then went out hunting for some lunch. Found a small supermarket right next door to the hotel where I bought a sandwich and a small drink, then went back to eat it at the hotel.
Before going to our guided tour of the Louvre museum, we met our guide Isabel who spoke with a slight British accent. We found out that her father is French but her mother is English.
She was a great guide to have but, unfortunately, the Louvre was full of school kids. Isabel informed us that, as it's almost the end of the term, schools stop teaching classes and take the kids on excursions to places like the Louvres. Not sure how much 5-year-olds took from their trip today - most of them looked like they were bored out of their minds!
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| Venus de Milo |
What I could see of Mona through the sea of people, she looks quite small. One thing I didn't know is that she's painted on wood and not on canvas. What I also didn't know is that some people have never heard of the Mona Lisa. There was a lady on our tour - Sue - who had to ask our giude what the painting was called, who the painter was and why was it famous. She still calls it the "Madonna" but no one has the heart to correct her.
After our tour, we went back to the hotel, and were pleasantly surprised that Giordano had arrived. When I got to my room, my suitcase was waiting for me just inside my door.
At 6:15pm it was time to leave for the Moulin Rouge. I'm glad I went - it was spectacular. Of course you pay for the show and not the food. There was one male dancer, though, that stumbled his way from start to finish. I'm not the only one who noticed. Some of the others in our group commented on it after the show.
We had great seats too. The stage went right up to the end of the table. So when the snake pool came up out of the floor with the live snakes inside, we had a great view of all the action.
During the intermissions they had a ball juggler in one intermission, acrobats in another one and a ventriloquist in another. The ventriloquist was the only one that got people up from the audience.
The only part of the show that I didn't like were the clowns. I don't like clowns.
My favourite part was when the minature ponies came out. There was a cheeky one that kept chewing on his lead. They were so cute, I wasn't even looking at the dancing girls.
It was too bad that they didn't allow photography but I bought a program instead - the souvenirs were too expensive.
We got back to the hotel at 11:30pm.
Tomorrow: The Eiffel Tower and Versailles.
