London to Paris

Part II of the great European Adventure began on Friday, Dec 17 when we met the rest of our group in London before we departed for Paris. The group is 33 strong, mostly Australians with a few Americans and Japanese thrown in. Deborah and I are the only Canadians. The first leg of the trip involved a coach ride to Dover where we caught the ferry to Calais where we were met by a European coach with the steering wheel on the correct side.
The Auzzies are lots of fun, they just want to know when we are stopping for a beah. The yanks want to know when we will see the Eye Full Tower, The Loovrah, and when they will be able to get real French Fries now that we are in France. The Japanese, well they just want to take pictures! One guy had taken 300 by the time we got to Dover; sixty of the bus alone! I must invite them for a beer-yes, wine-yes and ask them if they know my friends Suzuki and Kawasaki that I met at Mont St Michel.
We arrived in France in yet another snow storm and were late getting into Paris. The guide felt we could not visit Paris without attending a real Paris Cabaret so we were connned into signing up for the show at the LIDO, one of the country's leading cabarets apparently. We were promised a titilating performance and a cunning array of stunts. What we got was the tit part but little else. What passed for dancing was mainly women in extravagent costumes walking around the stage to pre-recorded music with the occasional lip sync. There was a juggler of sorts and a guy dressed like a statue. Then a comedian came on and said "quack" and "caput" a lot and the people laughed.????????????????? I had to remind myself that France awarded the Legion D'honeur to Jerry Lewis because they felt he was a comic genius. I guess that explains it. The whole show was a cross between a bad cruise ship revue and the shows your sister used to give in the basement on rainy summer afternoons. If you ever get to Paris, stay far away from the cabaret shows!
On Saturday we had a tour of the city and saw the requsite ferris wheel. The saleman for the wheel company must be good, there is one in every city I have visited. Of course we went to the Eye Full Tower, that's me in the Eiffel Tower hat. We spent a few hours at the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa. Now that was an experience; not so much for the picture but for the pushing and shoving that goes on to get close to it.
The tour ended with a visit to Notre Dame de Paris, which, like Dublin, has almost as many panhandlers are Spring Garden Road.

Doc Campbell Moment #1 - the third photo shows the flying buttresses of Notre Dame
Doc Campbell Moment #2- The bottom photo is Winged Victory of Samathrase. Those of you who went to Sydney Academy will know that there was a copy in the library...at least the three of you who went to the library will know that.Deborah and I spent the rest of the day roaming the Christmas Market and the shops of the Champs Elysees. We had been warned repeatedly to avoid beggers, tramps, gypsies and other con artists who will try to rob you or rip you off. This has created an atmosphere of mistrust where nobody talks to anyone anymore. This is really bothering Deborah because she would love to invite all of these people home for supper. So she is left with nothing to do but help the guide count heads to ensure everyone is on the bus and then seeing to it that no one sits or eats alone. This will have to do for now.
Our luck continues to hold as we spent the whole day in bitter cold and ended with a heavy snow fall. Tomorrow we head south for warmer weather...we hope.