Day 10: Last day in Paris

It was a particularly blustery and windy day as Misterpiggy went on the Paris city tour. Somehow misterpiggy lucked out because here he was at the front of the bus again. The tour group was joined by Katherine?, a local guide, as Marc drove down the Ave Charles De Gaulle, and then via beautiful tree lined streets near Les Invalides towards the Eiffel Tower.

Misterpiggy thinks that this building is called L'Hotel des Invalides.

And this is the Ecole Militarie.

Le pont des Invalides et le grand palais?

Marc pulled the tour bus into Champs de Mars and everyone got off the bus for the group photo and views of the Eiffel tower.

Marie had to make a mad dash from the group photo spot to the Eiffel Tower in time to buy the group tickets.  By the time the group reboarded the bus and Marc dropped everybody off at the base of the tower, Marie had the tickets and was there in line saving a place for the entire group!   And what a busy day it was.  Only one elevator was working so the line-ups were long.

Here are some pics of the Eiffel tower as misterpiggy waited to go up.

And here are the views from the second level observation deck, where it was really cold and gusty.

Unfortunately it was too windy for misterpiggy to take a picture outside lest he be blown off the railing.  For the afternoon, many of the group members took the optional tour to Versailles and Marc was driving them there, so misterpiggy made his own way back to La Defense via the Metro.

It was nice that afternoon to finally have some leisure time to see some of the stores in the Quatre Temps mall across from the hotel.  Best of all there was free wifi throughout the mall so misterpiggy could publish his exciting adventures in lovely  France!

Later that evening, everybody said their goodbyes at the farewell dinner at a restaurant on the Champs Elysees.  A final thank you to Trafalgar tour director Marie Dubois, who took care of misterpiggy and everyone so well and made for a wonderful vacation experience.

Day 9: Lyon to Paris

It was a very long day for misterpiggy on Saturday.  He had to catch the TGV from Lyon back to Paris and the train station in Lyon Gare Part Deux was bustling.  His train left promptly at 9:04 am and arrived in Paris at around 11 am.

Don't worry, he didn't jump off the platform.

Misterpiggy travelled in coach #8 which Marie had reserved for the trafalgar group.

The TGV upon arrival at Gare Lyon in Paris.

Marc was driving the tour bus back all the way from Lyon, so the tour group was met at the Paris train station by a different bus that did some sightseeing along the right bank on the way to the Louvre.

Some of the tour group were taking the optional Trafalgar Louvre tour but misterpiggy decided to explore the grounds on his own instead. One day he will return to Paris and see the Louvre museum in it's entirety.

With so little time, misterpiggy had a quick lunch at McDonalds before strolling along the river Seine and admiring the many bridges and beautiful french architecture.  He couldn't resist taking a boat ride so he boarded one at St. Germaine Du Pres and did a half loop around, getting back off at the Louvre.

Before meeting the tour bus for the trip back to the Hilton La Defense,  Misterpiggy very much enjoyed listening to the the string orchestra that was performing near the Comedie Francaise.

Misterpiggy would have preferred to stay all day at the Louvre area, except he had to return to the Hilton hotel in La Defense to check in for his last two nights of this trip. Luckily his boat ticket was good all day long, so misterpiggy took the Metro back into town in the evening and resumed his boat ride.

Misterpiggy Bato-bus arrived at the tour d'Eiffel just as the lights were coming on.  He made his way across the river to get a better vantage point. Afterwards he managed to get on the very last boat departing the Eiffel tower at 9:20 pm and returned to the original departure point.

The Metro from Palais Royale was only 9 metro stops back to La Defense so misterpiggy was snugly in bed by 11 pm.