July 27th: Last day in Paris!
Today, we packed our bags at La Guriere. Plans for today are to spend the day in Paris seeing a last few sights, then head to Genoa Italy (to spend the night, and then get to Cinque Terre Italy tomorrow). On our way out the door of our B&B we met Ryan and Iris from Los Angeles. They just came from Cinque Terre, and gave us some tips for our vacation there. Then hea
ded to the market- lots of stuff there...looked for some gifts, but no such luck. Then We went to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc honors all who fought in Napoleon's wars. Napoleon himself is actually buried here, along with other famous French people. The tomb of the unknown soldier is here. We were here just a few days from the end of the Tour de France...this is where the riders finish. The ride around the arc on the craziest street I have ever seen! 12 boulevards enter onto this street containing to street signs, lines, or any traffic signal
s that I could see. We watched in amazement as cars managed their way around the circle without crashing!We ended with a nice walk down the Champs de Elysses. Walked into a few stores including Peugeot and Mercedes. Then were tired, so we sat on a picnic bench and people watched through a little sprinkle storm. And read about our next destination....Italy!!
At the end of the day, we made it to the train station and hopped on our train to Genoa Italy. Our first EuroStar ride! We were going so fast, it was hard to believe that we made it to Italy in 4 hours! Midnight came, and we were at our destination. Walked off the train, went through customs...and Jim gets a weird feeling. He looks around and says, "Aleycia, I don't think we are where we want to be." I look around and reassure him that we are exactly where we want to be. Shortly after, we head outside to begin to look for our hotel (which the French woman said would be "right across the tracks"). No hotel to be found. Then I see it...and discover...we are NOT...where we want to be.... I look ahead and see Swiss Security Guards! We are in Geneve Switzerland! The French lady booked us to Geneve, not Genoa. The good news is that we have a hotel booked in Geneve. We look around, attempt to use the phones, ask for directions...and still can't figure out where the hotel is. So, at 1am Jim decides we will just take a taxi to our hotel. The taxi lady was very nice, and asked us how long we were staying in Geneve. We said overnight. She said, "Why are you staying so far from the train station?" Turns out the French lady had booked us a hotel right across the border into Geneve, France! Oh, we were sick of the French by that time! Well, 35euros later we were in our hotel, lights out, and sleeping on the hardest mattress ever! Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough!!
posted by Aleycia & Jim @ 12:52 PM
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