It all began at 5am....

That's the time I officially woke up, but really I'd had very little sleep. You see, three freight trains had also booked a night in the room at the hostel and even a set of earplugs and a pillow was not enough to block the incessant noise. So just to be petty I made sure they woke up to my alarm and I got ready nice and loudly.

I then somehow (and it just seems to happen) ended up running late for the train to France, running most of the way from the hostel, through the station, pack on back and arriving at customs with a full sweat and looking very nervous about the possibility of missing the train. Way to look like a terrorist. Well needless to say I wasn't strip searched or violated by a customs officer and made my way to the train with time to spare.

I found my hostel with out getting lost on the metro or above ground arriving only 5 minutes after lockout so I left my pack behind the desk and set off to explore. The first major landmark was Sacré Coeur (the reason I was so easily able to win Jason's competition) the butte (that's what they call it, hehe) of which had an amazing view over the rooftops of Paris, and also my first beggars. Yes three things Paris has a lot of, great old monuments and buildings, views from various towers and beggars: everywhere.

I was really impressed by the look of the city, better than London I think (especially as Charles reads this) and for the most part much more thoughtfully laid out and cleaner. I then decided to go into the city and find a tourist info centre, and it was just outside the louvre I got to try my first French in France - Ou est le bureau de tourism. It took me a while to work out the answer given but I my vocab was big enough to get "straight ahead, go right, stairs" and I found myself under the glass pyramid of the Louvre and contemplating the Da Vinci code and the fact that the sign on the main info centre in Paris was closed - for renovations. Did the sign point to another place for help - no. Did it tell me the address of the nearest centre - no. All it told me was that it was closed and I could have worked that out by the closed door and construction equipment!

Instead I found a guide book and sat down to read it in Le Jardin des Tuileries, that's a hard one to pronounce I can tell you.

Anyway it's also the scene of a few impressionist paintings and it felt pretty cool to be actually seeing, and in, the settings for some paintings that I had only ever seen in books.

After that it was time to go back to the hostel and get ready to go out meet Charles for a beer. The beer was cold and bigger than the regular, very cultured 250ml that is the regular size in France, less than half the size of a regular beer in England! It was good to meet up with a true Parisian and get a few good tips on what to see and do. By around 8am I was ready for bed but decided to try my luck with getting up the Eiffel Tower for some night time shots. Unfortunately the queues were huge even at 8:30pm and I really didn't think it was worth an hour and a half wait. It certainly was worth visiting however, like someone went crazy with meccano, the photos can in no way do justice to the feeling feeling of standing underneath such a huge, but open structure.

And with that, I returned to the hostel, bed and best of all no snoring and a peaceful nights sleep.