Contiki begins...

So I'm on day 4 of my contiki and I already have a cold. But its been fantastic so far.

Day one we left at 8am from london and took the bus to the white cliffs of Dover where we boarded the ferry to France. It was a big driving day but that afternoon we arrived in Paris. That evening we were greeted by he contiki staff who gave us sparkling wine and escargo to try then we had a delicious dinner of lamb souvalakis. That evening we got a night tour of Paris to see the main tourist spots so we could decide what we wanted to do the next day. Paris is stunning, definately the most beautiful city i have ever seen the buildings are so old and so impressive.

So after the bus tour we got started drinking and had a good night getting to know everyone, played a few drinking games and had a wee boogie. headed to bed about 2am.

Our full day in paris began as all tours of Paris should-at the Eiffel tower. The tower is so impressive. We weren't the first to arrive and everywhere you looked directly under to structure were people in lines. We found the end of a line and waited around 30mins to get to the front. we took the stairs to the first and second floors and the esculator for the final section, the view was beautiful and we could spot heaps of other famous landmarks from there. We then took the metro to Notre Dame which is such an amazing church, its soo big and the details on the building are so intricate and beautiful.The church took 180years to be built which is ridiculous, thats means the people that started the building would never have seen it completed. From here we got crepes for lunch then did some shopping and i bought some new shoes. We still had 2 hours before we had to meet the rest of the group so we went to the Louvre and it was free because we are under 26 which was a bonus. We managed to see the Mona Lisa which was less than impressive, Venus de Milo which was quite cool and Napoleon's apartment which was soo extravagent. Thas all we had time to do in 2 hours because the louvre is so massive that its takes a long time to get from place to place. They say that if you spent 1 minute looking at each painting in the Lourve it would take you 9 months to finish.
From here we met up with our group, got changed in the coach and went out for dinner in a fancy area of Paris on a hill with a nice church and a gorgeous lookout, i don't remember the names of them right now. It was a 3 course meal with wine but i wasn't overly impressed with it. After dinner some people went to a caberet show but we wanted to see Arc de Triumph and the eiffel tower at night so we spent the evening wandering around the city. The Eiffel tower looks amazing when they light it up at night and it sparkles every 30mins or so. It was beautiful. I didn't want to leave Paris because i felt there was so much more to see.

Yesterday we spent the majority of the day driving, making small stops along the way including to see a famous chateau (again i don't remember the name, i'm not good with french words) and then we arrived at our Chateau owned by the Contiki company. We are staying in the Beaujolai wine region and its awesome to be able to stay in a chateau and it has a swimming pool! After we settled in we went on a wine tasting tour, where we were taught how to appreciate and understand good wine. It was really interesting although i still don't exactly enjoy wine.
Last night was the first big party night and the theme was tight and bright.Underneath the Chateau is a basement that they have nicknamed the cave and its an underground bar. It was a great night, we got to know everyone a bit better, most people had quite a few drinks and we did alot of dancing.

Today was just a chillout day. They packed us picnic lunches in a basket and we could walk up a hill to get a nice view of the region and have our picnic. It would have been more enjoyable if it wasn't such a cold day but the lunch was really good, french bread sticks with ham, brie and tomato, then fruit and a Mars bar. And this afternoon we've just been playing cards at the chateau and catching up on some sleep.