Sacre Bleu!!!

Belgium in Brief

After Holland, we headed south to check out Belgium for a few days. Brussels and Brugges were our only stops here and both towns seem like there was a bit of an architect battle going on back in the day. Each amazing building looks like it's been built to outdo the one next door or across the street. Not much happening in either place really but the cobbled streets and interesting architecture made for a nice bit of wandering round. Bit of a shame about the grey skies and cold temperatures though.

Being a nation of foodies did make for a few tasty treats as well. We had a goose pate with a fresh baguette that was phenomenal. A couple of the local specialties, steamed mussels with pommes frites and, of course, Belgian waffles really delivered too. Surprisingly, we didn't actually sample many of the local brews however.

Nice Times in Nice

We were originally planning on touring around the north of France for a bit after Belgium, before meeting up with a few mates in Paris. However, the cold weather really wasn't agreeing with our preferred attire of shorts and jandals. So instead, we shot down to Nice for four nights to get our first look at the Med.

The weather down there was brilliant, as was the hostel we stayed at, so it turned out to be a great choice. One of our days was spent strolling around the old town and along the beach front, just taking in the sights and enjoying the warm sun. Went for a swim just round the coast at Cap 'd Ail too. The water was so clear and nice. The good food also continued, no surprises really. Lots of different cheeses and treats from the multitude of boulangeries and patisseries made for good eating throughout our time in France.

On another day we caught the bus to the hilltop village of Eze to check out the view and the cool little winding alleys up there. After that we continued on to the mega rich playground that is Monaco. The boats, cars and other obvious displays of serious cash are mindblowing. We managed to spend an hour just wandering around the harbour. Took me a while to pick out the one I want.

Also had a couple of good nights on the booze since our hostel had 500mL beers for €1 and cheap wine and sangria too. The hostel was actually a few kms back from the center of Nice so instead of heading out, everyone just stays there and gets on it. Good times.

Paris

Well Paris was pretty amazing, it has to take the award so far for the city with the most things to see and do. Most European cities might have a couple of impressive churches and a museum or two but Paris just kept on giving! On our first day we probably set some sort of walking record, walking around the city from 9am to 9pm with only a couple of stops to eat and to go into places. Although it felt like it was nigh on freezing outside it was an awesome day weatherwise so we got round most of the main sights like Sacre-Coeur, Notre Dame, Champs-Elysees, Saint Michel, Arc de Triomphe... I wont go on about each one but they were all awesome, spectacular and any other adjectives that come to mind. On another day we went to the Louvre which was also verycool, you could literally run round that place and it would still take hours to see everything.

Im no art critic, in fact I think I was officially the worst in my class in 4th Form art, but Im going to have to say that the Mona Lisa turned out to be a bit overated. Yes it´s a lovely painting, prehaps has some mysterious message and certainly puts my faunicating stick figures to shame, but at the end of the day its probably the smallest painting in the Louvre and personally I think there were some much nicer paintings in the main galleries. Same goes with the Venus de Milo, nice but it doesn't stand out any more than the rest. Shows what I know about art I spose...

Le Rugby

The main point of being in Paris at this time was to watch the All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup. But as most of us know all too well that didnt eventuate, so on the night of the final we went with Scott and Fran to watch it on the big screen by the Eiffel Tower. We were cheering for South Africa but were probably out numbered 20 to 1 by English supporters. It was a good atmosphere but turned a bit crazy after there game, as you can imagine after thousands of drunk Englishmen watch their side go down. The riot police came out in full kit, someone somewhere has a good photo of us just about to wear a batton in the face. There was also a 100+ man game of drunken rugby that started nearby that we got involved in. Good times.