All trains (at least night trains) lead to Paris

Oh me oh my we find ourselves once again in the city of Pari! Now in all honesty I had no desire to make our way here to this great city. In part I believe that everyone makes a big deal about it and on every travel thing you see it has the Eiffel Tower embedded on it therefore in my desire to be different I strive to see something more unique. However I was no different than any other tourist of this massive city.
We arrived via night train (as all our night trains seem to lead) (I think someone had great desire for me to set my eyes upon its wonder). Paris was slightly cooler (I mean quite a bit) than the sparkling city of Nice. Once again we loaded our bags and set out. Now most people know that I am an awful judge of time and distance therefore what we thought would be a short walk to the other train station where our hotel was located at took roughly two hours (maybe more) to get there so I guess you can say we backpacked through Paris (but seriously that backpack get heavy after awhile). We finally threw our bags (kinda dropped on the bed) of our hotel room and set out to see the city.
Our first stop was Notre-Dame. Wow it is beautiful, there is something about the pride one has to make their cathedral (their place of worship) a sight to behold. Now I like my humble little church however the art that goes into the design of the building is worth seeing. It kinda takes your breath away. Now one of the coolest things we saw was on a bridge behind the cathedral couples carve or write their name on a lock and clip it to the fence for it to never be removed (a symbol that they will last a lifetime kinda like marriage except you can't unlock it without the key).
Now onward to the Eiffel Tower! Well it is tall! Haha I will admit that it is something to see, my recommendation however is to go up it. It is always amazing to look at landscape from a high mark. It is here we decided that crepes were calling our names! :) After a brief pause to charge my exhausted camera battery, we set out to wander the city. Well Kyndall turned down a road without looking to see what it was and therefore we saw interesting parts of the city and found a place called Euro Fried Chicken (I can't imagine it holding a candle to anything in the south). During our wandering we stopped by a chocolate place and gathered a sampling of macaroons. After a stop at the Louve which is something I didn't imagine it being (I mean I knew about what it looked like but I wasn't expecting the location of it. It restes in the middle of a large courtyard with triangular pounds surrounds several glass pyramids with the largest as the entrance into the Museum. Something unique indeed.
However the best thing I could recommend is to visit the Eiffel Tower at night. We caught it as the sun dipped down beside it as we ate our macaroons. First of all they had a rise one that tasted like roses it was weird, just saying. It was so nice though as many people gathered in the grass vin front of it. Groups played futbol and ate snacks while the sun disappeared until another day. For now we bid the rest of Europe farewell as we turn our sights on Dublin and the rest of the UK!

Some Beach, Somewhere

While Italy has been more than fabulous to us, it was time for us to make a departure and head towards our last Southern Europe Country - France. First stop the lovely beaches of Nice.

While the trip to Nice from Pisa was about 6 hours it felt so short as we sunk into our train routine. Get on train, pull out Kindle, check for a plug, adjust brightness and begin reading. I was not much of a reader before this trip, but all this train time has made me more appreciative of my Kindle app.

After 3 train changes and a lunch of crackers and water, we arrive in Nicw! Ready for a late beach night. But we had to rid ourselves of the extra weight (seriously this pack is starting to be a slight pain). We checked into our 25 euro a bed 6 bed dorm and went to see it only to find every bed looking occupied. We went back to lareception only to be upgraded to a private 1 bed room with private bath. Such a great thing.

The night was spent on the Nice pebble beaches. Such a gorgeous. Sight from a rich blue to turquoise waves to the lovely grey pebbles it was a beauty to see. I enjoyed some time floating on the waves and just listening to the waves pour in. And an hour laying for a tan and reading. After some time we embarked to find something fruity to quench our taste buds, a cocahabana smoothie was jus what we needed before a return to sleep.

The next day we woke up late with no train to catch dropped our bags in the luggage room and went to the fruit and flower morning market in the old city that our hostel recommended where we got bread, bananas, apples, peaches for a snack. Then we went up another thousand steps (ok maybe not that many) to the top of the Nice Castle. We took in the beauty of such a wonderful place. Even stumbled upon the waterfall. All before noon and all before returning to the beach for some more tanning. When it got to hot to bare (and my fear of extreme burn kicked in) we went up to the castle again to eat in the shade and read some. Then back to the hostel to confirm our travel plans and prepare for the day of Paris ahead.

A night train to Paris awaits us along with our half way mark.

In around-about-way

Well ladies and gents it looks like our night train to Pairs fell a little behind but never fear plans are still running as normal (just two hours delayed) just like the lovely rain (which is not). However make sure you make reservations for your next train as soon as you get there or might find yourself missing one train and switching to three separate lines (because apparently no one knows where to go) in order to make reservations for your next train and if you aren't careful you might miss the next one...
Well looks like the day is wasted sitting in a Paris train station (maybe) unfortunately when traveling these things happen and you find yourself in a situation that you didn't particularly want to be in. Therefore today we are siting in a cold and in some places wet and crowded train station and heaven forbid there be a comfortable place to sit (we are tough and can handle it). This does mean that the beautiful Geneva will have to wait for another day on another trip ( I wouldn't be upset about that). Tonight at 6 pm we shall leave for Bern for a warm place to lay our head when we arrive at 11, glad I've been there before so I am fairly certain I know where I am going. :) Never fear our spirits may be cracked at the moment but not broken nor shattered and in the end it's be a small bump on an incredible adventure.