France Days 3&4

M oving along...

Day three, Hannah and I woke up feeling rested and ready to explore Paris. We hit up the continental breakfast after getting ready. The breakfast had some good selections. Pain au chocolat, croissants, different types of breads, yogurt, fresh fruit, ham, cheeses, and cereal.

Hannah and I both had coffee with sugar and foamy milk. Mmm good coffee.

Pain au chocolat, fruit and yogurt.


This yogurt in a jar was really good. It was thick and mousse-like.


They had Nutella at the breakfast bar. Love. It.


We drove around on the bus and took a little tour of Paris, and then went to the Palace of Versailles.


This is looking out at the gardens.


We went on a tour inside the palace.






Then Hannah and I walked around and toured the gardens by the water.


Snack time! They had a panini stand in the gardens and I ordered a mozzarella, tomato and basil panini. I think Hannah had chicken? Anyway, they were very good and went perfectly with Orangina! I love Orangina; it's just orange juice, sugar and carbonated water.


Panino. Miam miam!




So after visiting Versailles we drove back into Paris and had dinner at another hole-in-the-wall restaurant. I don't have any pictures because it was so bad and I was disgusted. It was probably the worst meal of the entire trip. Hannah had a soggy chicken cordon bleu, and after most everyone had finished their food, the server finally brought out my "vegetarian" plate consisting of canned peas, canned green beans, and fries. I ate the fries and that was it. I will never be hungry enough to eat canned peas. They smell like dirty feet.

Then they served us canned fruit cocktail for dessert. I almost upturned the table (like that Jersey Housewife did) in rage.
Fruit cocktail is NOTTT a dessert! ROOARRRR!

This was only our second dinner, but I was already getting upset. Hannah and I paid a lot of money to go on this trip, and it seemed like EF Tours was ripping us off. The hotels and meals were pretty disappointing.

We were supposed to go to the Eiffel Tower that night, but the tour guide forgot to reserve the tickets. So then we sat by the Seine River for a while and watched the French people drink and have picnics.





Yes, the tour guide didn't reserve tickets for us to go up into the EIFFEL TOWER. He told us we would try another day. I really wanted to like the tour guide, and I tried, but I think he was kind of a jerk sometimes. He grabbed my video camera without my permission and started filming us.



The next day we left early from our hotel, packed our suitcases on the bus, and headed to the north of France. I forgot to mention that Hannah and I had to wait an extremely long time to get on the elevator with our suitcases, so we were five minutes late to the bus and got scolded, like we were little kids.

So we weren't in the best of moods that morning. The bus ride to the north took four or five hours, I believe. Buses and the beautiful French countryside make me sleepy and I nodded off quite a bit.



We made a stop at Chartres Cathedral.






It was a beautiful cathedral. This statue was outside and I posed with it. I'm not sure if I was supposed to sit on it or not. But I did because I'm a rebel. And we had time to kill before we got back on the bus.


Then we drove some more and stopped at the castle Chambord.


But you had to pay to get into it. EF Tours didn't buy tickets for us. So basically we stopped there to take a picture. Some people chose to pay the extra money to go inside, but Hannah and I didn't.

On the way to the hotel for the night, our group stopped for dinner at a pizzeria. Hannah and I perked up and said to each other, "Oooh we're having pizza tonight!" They sat our group at some outside tables in the sweltering heat. On this night, I received my food first: a bowl of fettucini with sauteed mushrooms and cream. Nothing like a big, heavy bowl of pasta in eighty degree weather! That's what I always say. Lots and lots of heavy cream. No complaints from me though after the previous night's dinner; I ate a bit and shared it with Hannah. She needed some food because her meal was a gristly mystery meat with gravy and limp fries. We came to the conclusion that it was either pork or turkey.

After disappointing dinner number four, we headed to our new hotel in Bourges. MISTER BED! Ahhhhhh! Which was the worst hotel I've stayed in. Ever. I wasn't expecting a hotel called "Mister Bed" to be five stars or anything, but geez, this place was awful.

This is what the outside looks like. (I borrowed this picture from their website.) A quote from Hannah about the appearance of Mister Bed:
"This looks like a place you'd take a prostitute."


Right you are, Hannah! Right you are. At Mister Bed, we like to provide good atmosphere and comfortable bunk beds to all of our customers and their overnight "guests."

Q&A
Can I smoke at Mister Bed?
-Of course you can smoke at Mister Bed! Smoke em if you got em! Make the room smell so badly that future guests will want to vomit when they walk in the room!

I forgot to bring shampoo, conditioner, and soap. Do you provide any in the hotel rooms?
-No, we sure don't. Though cleaning yourself isn't mandatory at Mister Bed, we do have a universal soap dispenser in the shower for all of your needs!

Do you have towels?
-No. Why... did you want some or something?

Do you have wifi?
-No. We say we do, but we don't.

Do you have ham sandwiches in the vending machine?
-Yes, we have $5 ham sandwiches in the vending machine.

I prefer to shower in tiny bathrooms the size of a porta potty, using a removable shower head that you can't position to stay in one place. Will this be a problem?
-No! Not at all!

Do you have bunk beds?
-Boy, do we!


Have you ever been to a hotel with a bunk bed? I can say that I definitely have not. Seeing the bunk bed was a real shocker when we walked into the room. Hannah debated whether or not to sleep on the top bunk.


For safety reasons (hardly any railing), Hannah slept in the bottom bed with me. It was a long, miserable day and we both fell asleep pretty quickly. Well, after I killed the bug that was crawling across our bedspread.