{"id":2084,"date":"2009-10-29T16:58:13","date_gmt":"2009-10-29T23:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/evilmoose.shafted.com.au\/?p=2084"},"modified":"2011-02-17T16:40:59","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T23:40:59","slug":"paris-to-london-28-29-october-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/?p=2084","title":{"rendered":"Paris to London (28 – 29 October 2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the next morning we left our bikes behind to guard the apartment and tried walking around Paris. Our walking muscles had atrophied, and this proved to be a task more challenging than expected. Around as many of the major sights we could manage, and through random little back streets and interesting areas, in and out of shops and museums, until meeting up with friends for hot chocolate later in the day. This was the best hot chocolate I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever had, and I may never be able to drink a normal hot chocolate ever again. Rather unfortunately it was followed up by the best falafel I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ever had, in the Jewish section of town. With our cyclist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appetites still fully intact, we then went out for a second dinner with the friends we were staying with, and swore we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never be able to eat normal food again. <\/p>\n

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Notre Dame<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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At the Louvre<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Sitting on a bridge over the Seine, drinking hot chocolate and watching the sun set – bliss<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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My accomplices in hot chocolate debauchery <\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Look, you can see the Eiffel Tower in the background… sort of (no I didn’t go there to get a photo close up)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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The following morning had us repacking and riding our bikes down to catch the Eurostar at Gare du Nord. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d decided to pay the extra to have our bikes transported fully assembled \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which was definitely worth it given the lower levels of hassle, and the small luggage space available for normal luggage on the train. Even our pannier sacks (the trusty cheap stripy plastic woven bags) took up a lot of room. <\/p>\n

We cleared through French and UK immigration without any problems \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there were no Schengen zone questions directed as Alex. This was something which we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d worried about \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Australian nationals are now limited to 3 months travel within the Schengen zone, making extended European trips illegal. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a dual EU\/Australian citizen, and technically as we were married and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a visa waiver national then we could live and work in any country \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we just have to register by 3 months. Travelling should also be covered under this provision, but I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really want to have to argue the point, and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any documentation to help back me up. Due to the lack of stamps in his passport it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really obvious when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d entered the Schengen zone, which we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been in for just a little over 3 months \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I can see this being a problem if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d hit an uncooperative border guard, even if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been in the Schengen zone for under 3 months, as the onus is on you to be able to prove it. <\/p>\n

The Eurostar seemed to take no time at all, and the chunnel section was barely obvious \u00e2\u20ac\u201c maybe one day it will be a glass tunnel so we could stare out at all the plastic floating around in the sea. Then finally \u00e2\u20ac\u201c London. We grabbed the man who was trying to escape to somewhere inconvenient with our bikes, and reattached panniers, exited to meet our mountainbiking old family friend who was meeting us, and headed off into London, and a much less simple world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the next morning we left our bikes behind to guard the apartment and tried walking around Paris. Our walking muscles had atrophied, and this proved to be a task more challenging than expected. Around as many of the major sights we could manage, and through random little back streets and interesting areas, in and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,141,1,17],"tags":[1300,1298,1296,1297,1295,1299],"class_list":["post-2084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-european-bike-epic","category-general","category-trip-reports","tag-chunnel","tag-england","tag-france","tag-london","tag-paris","tag-united-kingdom"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"megan","author_link":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/?author=1"},"featured_img":null,"coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["bikes<\/a>","european bike epic<\/a>","general<\/a>","trip reports<\/a>"],"unlinked":["bikes<\/span>","european bike epic<\/span>","general<\/span>","trip reports<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["chunnel<\/a>","england<\/a>","france<\/a>","london<\/a>","paris<\/a>","united kingdom<\/a>"],"unlinked":["chunnel<\/span>","england<\/span>","france<\/span>","london<\/span>","paris<\/span>","united kingdom<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"3","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 16 years ago","modified":"Updated 15 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 29.10.2009","modified":"Updated on 17.2.2011"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 29.10.2009 4:58 pm","modified":"Updated on 17.2.2011 4:40 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2084"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2906,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2084\/revisions\/2906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evilmoose.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}