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Paris - 26/12/19

This morning, we left early again for Paris, the City of Lights. We were actually lucky, because strikes in Paris and France meant a lot of French trains weren't driving. Our train was a TGV, or Train Grande Vitesse, or High-Speed Train, and French. So there was a high chance the train wouldn't drive. But we were lucky and it drove. Anyway, on the way, we were driving through whiteouts so intense we could barely see trees 10 metres away. 'As you can see, you can see nothing.' Then we arrived at this huge train station that was the Gare de l'Est, or East Station (or Station of the East if you take it literally). And this was only one of five stations (six if you count the disused one which is a museum now) in Paris, each of the same grandeur or more. After arrival, we then took a taxi to our Novotel, near the Gare de Lyon, which translates as Station of Lyon, or possibly Lyon Station. Lyon is a city in the south of France, which tells us the station's purpose: to handle traffic from the south. We then went for a very long walk: this was our first tour of Paris, along the Seine to the Notre Dame (which tragically lost its spire in a fire this year), and on to the Louvre. We were here only to look at the building itself, for such a famous museum also has such a loooong line that it is far faster to book online. We then looked down the Champs-Elysees, the long avenue connecting the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. Then we walked along the streets to our destination: Galeries Lafayette. Galeries Lafayette is a huge French chain of department stores. There was nothing really special about this one, and we weren't there to shop, but it did have a rooftop balcony with spectacular views over Paris. This was our only reason to be here. But it's true: the roof really did have beautiful views over the city.
After descending, we walked around in search of a nice restaurant to have dinner in. We ended up in a small, narrow lane with food stalls and restaurants on either side. Mum wanted to go to a thai restaurant, and while I didn't want to go at first, I discovered the best Thai food I had ever eaten at that shop. Dad also bought us a drink called Orangina, a type of delicious orange-flavoured lemonade. Then we took a taxi back to the hotel and fell asleep at 8:30.

The Gare de Lyon

The Seine with the Notre Dame

The Louvre with the Glass Pyramid

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