About an hour south of Paris we stopped to see the chateau at Fontainebleau.
It was basically this really old big house that had a huge backyard. It was really pretty, but we were really tired and hungry.
This is us somewhere in the massive garden (it had its own lake it seemed). Back row: Quinn, Diana, Tash, Kerry, Vanessa, Paul, me, Kieran. Front row: Erwin, Mardi, Jasmin, Louise.
We decided that food was more important than wandering around the rest of the garden, so we went looking for food at a nearby cafe. We bought some postcards, coke, and french fries (pommes frittes).
We thought we were so funny having french fries in France. haha. Anyway, Paul likes lots and lots of ketchup, so he smothered half the fries with it. They were really good fries, by the way. I had some of the best french fries in Europe.
Soon after our snack and using the toilet at the cafe (for free!) we got back on the bus and promptly fell asleep on our way to the Beaujolais wine region. What we basically had to do anytime we were driving anywhere was sleep for the first couple hours since almost none of us was getting enough sleep where we were staying. We were busy having too much fun. We did wake up in a while though (it's not that easy to sleep on a bus- for me, anyway, some people could sleep the entire ride if they tried) and got to see the absolutely beautiful French countryside. There were just fields and fields of sunflowers and other things. It was really nice. Once we got closer to Beaujolais, there were lots and lots of grape vines as well. I think we also saw lots of french cows that day too.
The place we were staying at in Beaujolais was this old chateau that Contiki bought and transformed into a hostel, complete with swimming pool (although we couldn't use it because of some idiots the week before) and a club in the basement.
It was pretty cool. Our room was really really tiny though and some other people had huge rooms, so it was just a little weird. And the bathrooms were a bit sketchy, but somehow we survived. I couldn't really complain too much when I saw the view out my window:
Sooo beautiful. And we had really nice weather too, so that made it even better.
The first thing we did after getting our bags off the coach and into our rooms was go up the road to do some wine tasting of Beaujolais wine. It was pretty good, and most of us bought some wine for either later on that evening, the following day on our picnic, or to take home (and some people bought wine for all three). Then we had some dinner (which was pretty good if I remember correctly). While we were at the chateau, it was my turn to be a "dishie". During the trip, everyone has to either help the cooks dish up the food ("cookie") or help clean up them pick up the plates ("dishie") when we stay at the Contiki places. So this was my turn. It was really easy, and when we finish with the plates the first night, the staff people gave the four of us that helped that day a bottle of the Beaujolais sparkling rose wine as a thank you. Fantastic! And so the drinking began.
We were going to be having our first theme party that night at "the Cave" - the club in the basement of the chateau, so called because there were no windows or anything I guess. The theme was nationalities. We were supposed to dress up in some way that would represent the country we were from. Luckily I had a red and white striped shirt and I wore that with some blue jeans. Most of the Aussies dressed up in green and yellow and the boys wore tank tops (or what they call "singlets") and drew pictures of the southern cross (the constellation that is on their flag) on themselves.
This is Erwin, Kieran, Simon, Paul, Mick, and half of Andrew at the upstairs bar at the chateau (before the cave was open). Simon is holding some of the ever present Beaujolais red wine. Paul got a little bit carried away the marker later on in the evening and started writing "I love Paul" on all of the girls' arms. Oh, Paul.
We spent the rest of the evening in the cave, getting drunk on the wine and dancing the night away.
One of the funniest events of the whole trip happened later that night. In the middle of the night, Mardi decided to get up and stretch her legs for some reason. However, she forgot that she was on the top bunk and totally crashed to the ground. It was so loud that it woke the rest of us up that were staying in that room (there were four people to a room) and I think some people in the room next door. Someone asked her if she was ok, she said yes, and we all fell back asleep. Now, maybe it doesn't sound funny to you, but it hilarious to everyone the next day when we told them.
next day...
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