Bus Tour Day 1 - Paris to Luxembourg

What a way to start the day - checked out of the hostel and walked to a local boulangerie for breakfast - orange juice and a pain suisse - a delectable morsel and a sugar hit to get the blood pumping.  I took my breakfast to go as I was walking to our meeting point and there was a park nearby that I could sit and eat. Just as I was finishing off my sweet bread, I heard a rustling in the bush behind me and turned to see not a bird or a dog, but a human foot emerging from the hedge. Needless to say I got up and got out of there quickly!

Found my tour group and our guide Aleks, loaded my pack onto the bus and we were off to our first stop in Reims, France.

To give an idea of how the tour worked, each place we stopped had a short orientation walking tour (usually 15-20 minutes) followed by an hour or two of free time, so of course each night I was checking the next day’s itinerary to mark the things to see in the towns we visited.

Reims is home to Notre Dame de Reims - yep your girl has only just realised that the full name of the church in Paris is Notre Dame de Paris - the Notre Dame is French for Our Lady.  We found many more Notre Dames throughout our tour!

Also found time to get to the Porte de Mars - the remains of the widest Roman Arch and discovered a local food market where I got myself a classic pate baguette for lunch. Note: I do not like classic pate as it’s not the smooth, savoury treat I spread on my toast back home - this was more like brawn and did not have the flavour I expected.  

After Reims we moved to Luxembourg and Luxembourg City, where we found another Notre Dame , aquaducts, ruined fortresses and the best ice cream I’ve ever had!

The only drawback of the tour is that all of the hotel stays are around the airports, so if you want to enjoy a bit of nightlife in the city, you have to cab or uber to go back in. Probably would have done that if I had a buddy with me, but because I didn’t, I just stayed in my room and sleeted myself for the next day.

I really liked Luxembourg and would definitely return and spend a couple of days exploring the old city. I even practiced my French (amazing how quickly that came back compared to my Spanish!)

Our guide is lovely, although we only have him for two days as he is going off on another tour. The company runs these circular tours where you just get on in a city and can choose how long you stay or if you want a full circle, then they connect with other tours as well. One of the families is doing four of the tours all interconnected across Europe. I think I’ll wait before deciding if that’s the life for Bren and I when we do Europe.