Its a small world after all

Jamie and Ben in front of Mickey


"But where are her arms , Dad"


Once again I find myself in an odd place.

I'm writing this, my last blog, in the toilet of a Parisian hotel. I am not doing this because I plan to take an impromptu shower or pooh. Its because, as previously mentioned, we are in a one room hotel and the kids are sleeping. I've never spent so much time in a loo writing before. Reading sure - but not usually writing.

We've had yet another fantastic day today. But first, yesterday.

Yesterday we got to the Arc de Triomphe, walked down the Champs Elysee, had a picnic in the grounds of the Tuillerie Gardens and visited the Louvre.

The Arc de Triomphe is cool - the roundabout surrounding it is cooler. For those of you who haven't seen it, its slightly bigger than the one at the top of Ocean View Rd just before Waiheke Fruit & Veg. Basically you have a roundabout as big as a small planet with absolutely no sense of order. Cars, trucks, bikes, bicycles and grannies in particularly mobile "old people movers" all speed around attempting to make their exit and basically trying not to hit each other. Its total madness. But somehow, it works. Considering the rate at which the French drive, I don't really see how.

One of the many streets off the is the Champs Elysees. Otherwise know as shopping central. All the biggest and baddest retailers pay some of the largest rents on the planet to have a presence on this street. Chanel, Versace, Loius Vuitton, Mont Blanc etc. We went long and bought a pepper grinder. We then made the mistake of entering the Disney store. The kids went nuts and Chris and I had to set down some fairly detailed and militant rules. Pretty much "You're not getting anything, we dont have any money". We brought them a 5 euro badge each - generous huh.

Next was lunch in the Tuillerie gardens. Nice place. Its given us some inspiration for Hauraki Rd. Not quite sure about the 30m tall statue though, it might get in the way of our view. Also saw these crazy as women sheisters. They walk in front of you and pretend to pick up a gold ring that was already in their hand. They then ask you if it is yours and try to plam it off to you for a few euros. Once you give them that, they then come back at you and demand more. Once you say no, the ring is still in your possession and they refuse to take it back. It gets messy from there. Luckily, eagle eye Chris sussed them out early before I had the chance to get her that ring she has always wanted for a bargain.

Onto the Louvre. Wow. Double Wow. Some guy told us that if you looked at every single piece of art, you would be there for 9 months. I believe him. We (Chris and I) loved the 3 hours we had there. A word of wisdom for future travellers - dont take your 8 and 9 year old to the biggest museum in the world no matter how cultured "you think" they are. We had just passed the ticket booth when Ben was saying how boring it was. This lead onto "Its so small" when we saw the Mona Lisa and "Where are her arms?" when we saw the Venus de Milo. Kids - you gotta love them. Not. Next time, we will devote a 3 or 4 days. This magnificent, awesome place deserves that much respect.

Today we took the kids to Disneyland.

It cost 188 euros (about NZ$400) just to get in the door and thats before we had even considered buying a 15 euro hotdog. Having said that, Diseyland is a machine. Its huge, massive, meticulously organised and a hell of a lot of fun. We stayed till the doors were shutting which was about 7 hours after we got there. We managed to see pretty much everythimg we wanted and had a ball. This one roller coaster thingy was terrifying. It shot you off like a rocket into the dark then threw you up, down, backwards, sideways, upside down and right side up before it spat you out the other end. I thought my head was going to get sucked off. Jamie loved it, Ben thought it was "ok". Typical. Next time well get him a rubiks cube to play with.

We finished our final night in Paris with a lovely dinner on Rue de Oberkamf. I had lamb, Chris had chicken and we all had snails. We couldnt leave without trying escargots and they were fine, a bit chewy but very tasty.

We will be sad to leave tomorrow. We have a couple more sites to see then we depart for home at 9.50pm. Paris has been great, but to be honest, its pretty hard work with 2 kids in tow. You have to do alot of walking and this doesnt always go down too well when the reward at the end is some ancient building. All in all, we have really enjoyed it. Chris and I plan to make it back here on our own within the next 10 years - we should have paid this trip off by then. The South West of France, to us, was real France. Here everyone speaks English so you get lazy. The people are real in the South West, the food is abundant, affordable and honest. Paris is great, just different.

Au revoir France, a bientot j'espere.

Tomorrow we start our journey home. We will arrive all the better for the wonderful experience that France (and Spain and London) has been. Its been the best of times, but theres no place like home - and your own bed.