Paris

We left London on the 8th of November at 9:22am on the Eurostar train bound for Paris.  The train turned out to be a great way to travel as it only takes 2.5 hours and is a lot more comfy than a plane.  We arrived at a station called Gare du Nord to a bit of culture shock, scammers being chased by security and a homeless man looking in a bin with a bloody tissue hanging out his nose having a yarn to himself.

We found our bearings and managed to sort out where we were in Paris and where our hostel was located so we caught the Metro.  Catching the Metro with all our snow gear and bags was a challenge and the kind lady in the information office sent us to the worst possible station so we had to lug all our gear for ages through a very interesting part of Paris to get to our hostel, St Christopher's Inn.  If you end up traveling to Paris stay here, heaps of cool people and the staff are super friendly.

First day in Paris was pretty relaxed, we had our induction and then we went to the bank to create our bank accounts.  The bank was located in an area called Saint Michel and it took us until around 6pm to create both of our accounts so we decided to get dinner there.  We had a look around and one street over from the main street we found a bunch of restaurants that were all competing with each other so the prices were excellent.  We both got a three course meal for 10 euro each and the meals were awesome.

On the second day we went on a free* walkabout tour to see where a lot of the main attractions were located.  The guide was really good, he obviously loved the history and was a great story teller so he made the tour really interesting. Everyone should do one of these as an induction to Paris.  Wear good shoes though as it takes 3.5 hours.

At the final stop of the tour we were able to see the Eiffel tower so decided to walk there as it was such a good day.

After hopping off the Metro we spotted a local wine store so we bought a couple of bottles and proceeded to consume them through the night...

Yummies everywhere

Arc De Triomphe

and the incredibly skilled driving surrounding it   

This bridge is famous for Parisian men taking a wizz under it. It stinks pretty bad when you walk underneath! Also, the sculpted faces you see are all faces of drunk celebrities from a party that was held to open the bridge

Nazi headquarters with bullet holes

Eiffel Tower

Under the Eiffel Tower. It is a lot bigger than we thought it was going to be.

Eiffel at night

Lamp, Obelisk of Luxor and Eiffel Tower

Obelisk of Luxor. The gold illustrations show how the monument was erected.
The guillotine that they used to execute people was the same height (23m)

Louvre for free if you're a youth (12-25)

Mona behind bullet proof glass

Crowd visiting Mona Lisa

Everyone trying to take a photo of the Mona Lisa

Snake biting a nipple

The paintings are amazing

Look closer

Bridge of lovers locks. Couples come at sunset to attach their locks and throw away the keys into the canal. Forever sealing their love. It would be romantic but an angry man comes through each year to bolt cut them all off!

10 Euro for three course meal. We enjoyed a few

Notre Dame

Interior of Notre Dame. There was a service going on

Pretty Paris

OMFG Police on rollerblades!!