Bienvenue a Paris
Woke up at 5:15 this morning to get to the bus at 6. It didn't show up for quite a while, but I met more people on the trip from Canada and Australia. At the time, I couldn't remember any of their names, but after a few days, they were impossible to forget.
Once we were onboard, we went over rules and the basics, and eventually made it out of London. The traffic was absolutely terrible, and it felt like we were going around in circles for a while. We listened to Michael Jackson for a good part of the trip to keep us motivated. Jamie won the award for first to puke on the bus. She took too many vitamins on an empty stomach, and her body didn't respond too well. I suppose that's a good incentive not to drink a whole lot on a night before a long travel day.
The ferry crossing wasn't too bad. The boat rocked pretty hard most of the trip, so it was kinda tough to walk straight, but it was only about a two hour ride, and we got to get to know our tourmates a little better. At this point, everyone seemed like they would get along really well. There was one clique of girls who all came together and had fun flirting with all the guys on the trip, but they were just there to have fun like the rest of us.
After we arrived in Calais, we had another long bus ride to the Paris campsite. We arrived there around 8 p.m. after a few rest stops. Be warned, several rest stops do not have nice, sit down toilets. You have to get used to and even perhaps appreciate a hover toilet. A bunch of us girls had to pee, but the women's restroom was a squatter (two places for your feet on either side of a hole-- use your imagination). We found a hover (a big bowl that you "hover" over to do your business). Unfortunately, it was covered in shit-- literally. So, we ended up using the boys' toilet (something I'd get very used to on this trip). As I was saying we got to the campsite at 8, ate snails (escargot), and drank champagne and had dinner. I wasn't expecting lamb torillas with butter lettuce and couscous for my first french meal, but that's a typical contiki dinner (don't expect a lot of local cuisine at the campsite dinners). We went on an illuminations tour of Paris, and even though it wasn't a particularly nice night, the city was still beautiful.
We came back to camp, and I went to the bar with Steph, Jamie, Mike, Mike, Shane, Al and Aaron. We talked about lots of silly stuff and just got a feel for one another. Went to bed shortly after that.
Each cabin had two bedrooms and a bathroom in the middle. The bedrooms had perpendicular bunk beds built into the wall (see photos), and while not terribly thick, the beds were comfortable enough. The bathroom had a toilet, sink and hand-held shower that sprayed water all over the entire bathroom when you used it--no shower curtain.
The campsite also has a bar/outdoor patio where you can bring your own water, but if you get too noisy, they make you go to the inside bar, where you have to buy all drinks (even water) from them.
The biggest problem is that it's quite a distance from the main part of Paris, and the bus that supposedly brings you back to the campsite stops running after a certain hour, which no one bothered to tell a few of our tour mates.
Because so many contiki tours stay there, it does have a tendency to get a bit noisy at night when everyone gets home from their late night in Paris, but overall, it's a decent place for backpackers on a very tight budget.
