Summer holiday 2009: Beaujolais Wine Region, France (Day 2-Day 3)

We bid farewell to Paris after an awesome time there. Back on the coach, we headed to the Beaujolais Wine Region, famous for their white wines (if I remember correctly). We arrived at Contiki’s private chateau called Chateau de Cruix, one of our special stopovers in this tour in the evening. Weather there was really nice and cooling, while the place exudes calmness and relaxation which is a nice change from busy Paris. I was quite excited to come here as I’ve always wanted to stay in a chateau, or at least visit one (all down to too much novel reading). The chateau was really huge with three levels and a basement, dubbed the Cave a.k.a. bar area. There was a nice antique feel to that place but sadly, I did not take that many pictures of it =( .

The entrance to the chateau (its a longgg walk to the chateau itself)

 

  Exterior of the chateau

 

The swimming pool with a beautiful view of the vineyards

 

Went for wine tasting after checking in to our rooms. The wine was just so-so for me. I liked the cheese and crackers they gave much much more! =D

Wine tasting

 

Me at the vineyard

After dinner (which was terrific by the way), it was the first party night of our tour and the theme was bright and tight! Everyone was so up for it, especially the guys! You’ll know what I mean after you take a look at the pictures..

Sam and I with Alex from Aussie

 

Our tour driver, Jeff!

 

With our cool tour manager, Dane! I hope you get the gist of what I meant now

 

With Brian and a Jap/Korean girl from another tour

 

The guys in their full bright and tight glory

 

The next day, we were to have a picnic lunch at the top of a hill. We were given a picnic basket filled with baguettes, ham, cheese and snacks and also a map that will guide us to the top. Apparently the view up there is supposed to be good.  Going uphil was tiring. Really really tiring. It took us around 1hour to reach the top and the path was steep, rocky and dangerous. View at the top wasn’t all that great. At first we weren’t even sure if it was the place we were supposed to have our picnic at lol. But it was the end of the hike up, so it had to be it.

Start of our hike

 

The guys had the task of carrying the heavy picnic basket hehe. Being a girl rocks!

 

Dark clouds

 

Very nice house we passed through as we walked towards the hill

 

I heart this picture

 

 

Mama horse and baby horse

 

Some statue midway through our hike

 

 

Downhill is SO much better than uphill. However, it was also terrifying when we came down the rocky path. The rocks kept falling off and I nearly slipped a few times.

 

Apple trees!

 

I was too tired and lazy to take a picture with the beaujolais sign hence a picture of Sam with the sign instead haha

 

Ok this is a fairly boring post. Nothing much to talk about those few days as there was nothing planned. All I did for the rest of the time was to get much needed beauty sleep after the hype in Paris. Next up will be the French Riveria, where we visited Monaco! Stay tuned! =D

Summer holiday 2009: Bonjour Paris (Day 0-Day 1)

GUESS WHO? Yeap, the lazy blogger herself. HEE. Im just gonna skip the apologies and lame reasoning part and move straight onto my summer holidays in Europe! 6 other guys and I joined a popular tour company called Contiki and our tour was for 20 days (quite long but there were plenty of countries to cover). Our journey began in London, where we crossed the English Channel into Europe on a ferry (nothing exciting to talk bout the ferry ride though). A few hours after arriving in Europe, we reached our first destination which is as the title hinted, PARIS the City of Lights and Love. No doubt Paris was one of the destinations I looked forward to visiting most. We checked into our campsite (our tour's accomodations were cabins, hostels and occasionally hotels) and had a yummy dinner. After that, it was on to the coach tour around Paris to give us a taste of what to expect the next day. I'll let the pictures do the talking shall I? =) By the way, sorry for some not so good pictures (mostly are those taken while on the coach) because the bus was moving and there was reflection off the windows. =(

One of the first views of beautiful Paris

As you can see, it was the perfect weather that day

NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL!!!


Sigh ain't it beautiful? HOWEVER, due to lack of time, I didnt managed to get in there *cries* So this picture will have to do

A close up of the spider web pattern on the Notre Dame



Another shot of beautiful Paris while on the coach

A glimpse of the Lourve Museum

One of the many bridges in Paris. I think this was the one where a scene in Sex and The City (the movie) was shot (something about someone running after Carrie. You fans out there should know better than me =p )

Ah what can I say. Paris is indeed beautiful.

Yet another bridge (albeit a nicer one)

Palais des Invalides

Cannons ( sorry I forgot the story, history was never my best subject)

Had a chance to stop at the Palais des Invalides for picture taking. That roof is made out of real gold, no kidding.

Sam and I

Random shot just because the sky looked nice here =D

errr..urm...hmmm..forget it, i cant remember the name of this building

Posing against this huge monument thingie with THE tower in the background

A-maaaaaazing. I do not care that it is rusting lol.

Closer look of the Eiffel tower, which basically symbolizes Paris

The Seine river

I-don't-remember-the-name-of-this-building. But I dont think its a very famous one. i THINK..

Yet another shot. This is the best place to take a picture of the Eiffel tower.

Random shot of Ferrari hehe

Academie Nationale de Musique (Opera House)

I heart Paris

The pictures above were mostly taken during the coach tour. We had a free day the next day and the first place we went to was where else but the Eiffel tower. Without a doubt, there was a longggg queue to go up the tower, even if you are climbing the stairs and not taking the lift. Eiffel tower has two levels and you can only climb to the lower level. The highest level can only be accessed by lifts at an additional charge of course. Wherever you want to go when you are in the tower, queueing up for a good while has to be expected. Even when you want to go down from the top level to the lower level. The queues were extremely long. Overall 3hours plus was spent just on that tower itself. That is the reason why we had no chance to visit the Notre Dame... =( ANYWAY, enjoy the breathtaking view taken from both levels of the tower.

Champ de Mars

AH. can't believe I actually had the chance to see this view in person and not from someone else's pictures. Like a dream *pinches self*

Me on the lower level

The long queue below (nice formation don't you think? haha)

The other breathtaking view at the top of the Eiffel

Seine River taken from the Eiffel

*Love*

I have no idea why is my hair so brown. No I did not dye it

Posing away helps reduce boredom while queuing up

Same shot as the top picture but taken at the highest level of the tower

Another shot just because I like the view =)

Me again

Look at all those bridges along the river

Seine river and I

Us with Eiffel Tower (double love)

With some obscene sculpture thingie

Don't ask me what is that building cause I never knew

Look at that gloomy sky. It was like that the WHOLE DAY. Tough luck we couldn't get the same sunny weather as the day before.

My favourite picture of the bunch (super love)

We grabbed lunch on the way to the Arc de Triomphe (banana and chocolate crepes & baguettes with ham and cheese YUM) as there was no time for us to sit down and have proper McD food lol. Whole morning gone just on the tower. It was a long walk down Champs Elysees but worth every minute because that street is packed with shops after shops and posh looking restaurants. Sooo good shopping opportunity but I not only lacked time, I was also dead broke and was on a super tight budget. Finally we reached the Arc de Triomphe which was situated in the middle of the scariest, most dangerous roundabouts I have ever seen. Cars were just zooming out into the roundabout( which was definitely big) and there didnt seem to be any clear road lines. Im just glad I survived that roundabout..

Arc de Triomphe!

Saw this while walking down the Champs Elysees, headquarters of Louis Vuitton! Grand dont you think?

Sorryiforgotthename

Place de la Concorde

One of the fountains there

Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde. It was said to be a gift from Egypt (I think) but according to the them, it was stolen from them by Napolean (I think lol)

The famous Tuileries Garden (on the way to the Lourve)

Some arch which I dont know the name of

THE FAMOUS PYRAMID! =D

Big pyramid on the left, mini pyramid on the right

The small inverted pyramid (been really looking forward to seeing this-- big da vinci code fan)

*pointy*

outside from inside

welcome to musee de lourve

seineseineseineseineseine

Groupie photo

Picturesque

Entrance to Musee de Lourve

Happy after exploring Paris

That night, we went to watch a cabaret show called La Nouvelle. It was a good night, with pretty girls dancing the french can can ( not all are pretty mind you. some were quite erm..elderly ) and there were some pretty good interval performance too. Of course, there were also occasional boobs on display, like Moulin Rouge. That show was not cheap, it set me back by 71 euroes but there was half a bottle of champagne each so it was quite worth it imho. Before dinner, we walked up a REALLY REALLY steep hill to the Sacre Ceur. It was ok. Nothing much to shout about actually.

Sacre Ceur

View of Paris from the hill top

Beautiful Lourve all lit up at night

I guess that sums up Paris for me. Of course, there's alot more to Paris than what I managed to explore in the little time I have. I have a few regrets for my Paris trip though.

a) Like I mentioned above, I didnt get to go in Notre Dame

b) Didnt get to see the arts in the Lourve (yes Im into famous arts and sculptures)

c) Didnt had chance to see Paris at night and more importantly Eiffel tower which I heard is absolutely spectacular when its lit up. This is due to the sky turning dark really really late in summer. Which means I dont get to see Paris in its full City of Lights glory.

d) I didnt get to see Palais de Royal, which I heard can be more spectacular than Eiffel tower

Ah well, I'll definitely go back to Paris again if the chance arises. Its a wonderful city and I enjoyed it alot (despite the gloomy weather)

Till next time! (only God knows when =p )

Signing off,

Ling