My high school French teacher would be proud of me, I was able to say please, thank you and more tanquray sil vous plait without even a stutter.
The day started off at about 4 am in order to pick other travellers from another hotel and get on to the ferry at Dover going to Calais at 9 AM. The countryside is picturesque with wheat allready headed out and the canola fields past bloom and in pod. Temperature is about 18C or 70 F.
The cliffs at Dover are entirely out of chalk and stark white, during WWII the pilots knew they were going to make it home from their missions when they could see them on their return flights.
It is about an hour and a half ferry ride to Calais and then about 2 hours to Vimy Ridge the WWI Canadian Memorial. The property around the memorial is still bareing scars from bombing and land mines from the war, fences are up to keep people out as they still find live mines and ammo in the land there. Aprox. 3400 Canadian soldiers were killed and over 11,000 wounded in the 4 day battle in which the Canadian troops secured the ridge defeating the Germans. Learned that over 68,000 Canadian troops died during WWI. The monument is quite large it must be over 500' high and dominates the ridge. Sean will be posting a picture of it here.
From there it was on to Paris, the city of lights. Wide boulevards on the Champs d'elysee, and the other streets leading to the Arc de Triomphe. Checked into our hotel then back on the bus had dinner at a restaurant near the Arc de Triomphe then an evening cruise on the Seine. A great way to see all the buildings, Eiffel tower and monuments. Toured a bit longer on the bus and then pulled up in front of the Eiffel tower at 10:00 PM where the light show was quite spectacular as part of the lighting ceremony the have lights blinking all over the tower for about 15 minutes.
OK here is the funny story for the day, after dinner Karen and Debbie went down the street to the phamacie to get Peter some aspirin. Unknown to anyone the druggest sold Karen the ones that are like Alka Selzer that you are to dissolve in water than drink them. Well Peter just popped them into his mouth and they instantly dissolved creating an explosion in his mouth. His cheeks looked like a pocket gopher while he was swallowing them down! The good news is they sure worked in a hurry.
One last note for the night for all you fans of the movie Pulp Fiction I can confirm that a quarter pounder with cheese at McDonalds is called a Royal Cheese. No we didnt have one but before the tour is over we may have to give it a try.
Tomorrow we are off to the Eiffel tower, Versailles and for the evening on to the Moulin Rouge, and no I will not be impersonating Tolouse Letrec.
Good Night
D & D
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