Although we had already visited the tower, this time was different not only because we were there as a group, but
because we actually planned on climbing it. Believe it or not climbing a 324 metre tower using only stairs and bravely
ignoring the provided lifts is not as easy a feat as one would think, though it really was an experience that I wouldn’t
trade for the simplicity of an elevator ride. Once we finally reached the top we posed for some group photos and
admired the view, then realised we only had about ten minutes to make it down to the bottom before our bus left.
This quickly turned into every man for themselves as we pushed through the queue for the stairs and lifts back
down, and after running into a girl who was apparently on the same tour as me also sprinting for the bus, we made it
with a only minutes to spare only to discover that about half the tour was still stuck at the top and were forced to
find their own way back to the hotel due to our coach driver only being allowed a certain amount of hours on the
road each day or something.
Our final day in Paris involved a visit to the Louvre, where we arrived about half an hour before it opened to beat the
queues, sprinted to the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory and Venus de Milo, then sauntered around for another few hours
browsing at some of the more amazing pieces before we went to meet our group for lunch. Although lunch itself was
fairly normal, what followed it was not, with our tour manager having booked us tables at a French restaurant
specialising in escargot. A few people only managed to get the snails as far as their poked out tongue before spitting
them out, but the majority of our tour managed to stomach them and decided that they weren’t half bad, tasting
vaguely like garlic mushrooms.
As if one delicacy wasn’t enough, a small group of us decided to go for a walk down the Sienne trying to find
somewhere that sold frogs’ legs, and much to the waitress’s amusement ordered one plate between six of us. Like
the snails, the frogs weren’t as bad as you might think; deep-fried with lemon juice, they tasted just