If this is Paris, show me london any day (Paris)

Member Name: dedicateddozul

Product:	Paris
Date:	11/03/09 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The champs Elysees was gorgeous, the Arc de triumpe was amazing.

Disadvantages: Paris is basically London but in france, the eifell tower and Montmartre were a huge disappointment.

When I went to Paris with my GCSE french class, we drove to dover by coach at about 6 in the morning it took us a good half a day to get there, we then took the eurotunnel to calaise which, if you've ever been on the eurotunnel, you'll understand when I say, it was bizarre. When you get out of the coach you come to a walk way like think, close to the side of the train, you can't see out and theres no natural light available, you have to operate the doors between carriages with buttons on the side and be quick to get through, the toilets are disgusting and cramped so I wouldn't recommend going while on the train if you can avoid it.
When we got to France we travelled down to a Novotel in Bourges, it was a 3 star hotel so I was a bit apprehensious as to what it would be like, when we got there we were guided to the lounge area in the entrance hall which was absolutely beautiful, luxury to the max, the sofas were soft and comfortable, I just wanted to stay there. We were then guided to our rooms which were basic but clean, well presented and genuinely a dream to sleep in. The beds were comfortable, the T.Vs worked perfectly, the towels were clean. However, the walls were very thin so noise travelled fast and as we had phones in the rooms which we could call other rooms via, you can imagine the mischeif some people got up to. There was also an incident where a pupil got out on to the fire escape and cllimbed into another room (not the hotels fault but hey).

The next day we got a 2 hour coach drive into Paris with our guide who was the most annoying woman in the world! Every two mintues she would give us irrelevant information about random graveyards and wine vineyards when all we wanted to know about was the main Parisian history. She also interupted the french radio which I was trying to translate.

When we arrived at Paris, our driver almost got smashed into buy an aggressive french driver on the arc de triump roundabout. The eiffel tour was a complete disappointment! When we got there we were surrounded by gypsies who pestered us for money and tried to pick pocket us. The tour itself was covered in rude graffiti and didn't look at all like it does in the pictures. The tickets were overly expensive and the view from the top was restricted by mesh, even the binoculars were poor and often meant queuing for ages.

I have to say, the most impressive part of Paris was The Champs elysees which we saw close to christmas times so the trees were covered in blue lights which looked like they were raining. It was truely beautiful and an amazing site, made even more amazing by the fact that we saw Richard Hammond at one of the car showrooms!!! The traffic down the Champs Elysees meant hat we had enough time to take pictures and stare in complete awe at the site before us. It runs from the Place de la concorde to the Place de la Charles de Gaulle, where the Arc de Triump is.
We also went past the Moulin Rouge on the coach which is quite pretty.
We also went to Montmartre, to the Sacre Coeur, this was again a very, deeply disappointing part of france. On the way up a man trying to sell bracelets attacked our teachr and when another member of staff told the man she would call the police he shouted a number of explicits at her and went away, however we did then encounter the same problem on the way down and I was actually grabbed my one of the men and one of my teachers had to rugby tackle him. Although I did actually burst out laughting when I wrote that, at the time I was proper scared. The sacre coeur itself was beautifully magnificant, however, it was let down by the area around it which was basically a ghetto. I certainly didn't feel safe there.

On the way home, we popped into a little town called Arras, it was very quaint and hd a christmas mrket on at the time. Although the French weren't exactly welcoming, I did get to order my french crepes in true French which I am quite proud of considering everyne else way too nervous to even use their french. We also went to the big marche in calais and used the last of our money.

In my opinion, I wouldn't bother with Paris again, it isn't a true representation of the beauty of France because the tourist industry had destroyed it. I'd love to say its better than London but to be honest I'm not so sure. However, I would definitely recommend staying at the novotel in bourges as the standard was incredible and I would also recommend visiting Arras for the xmas markets because they are stunningly beautiful, well worth a visit. The food was gorgeous and well made, gorgeous berets were sold there.

Summary: Visit Arras instead.