PARIS!!!
So here we finally are. Ash, Dan, Owen and I have made it to Paris which has to be one of the most awsome cities i have ever been to. It is incredibly densely populated with shops everywhere on the ground floors and four to six floors of shoe box apartments above. Things are quite expensive except for baked goods of which we have sampled alot! The most popular item so far has been the Pain Au Chocolat (Chocolate croissant).
After we arrived we picked up the car and underwent a crazy drive in peak hour traffic into Paris on the wrong side of the road. It took us ages just to find a parking spot (most people dont bother with cars within Paris.) which is meant to have a two hour limit costing 4 euro. Since the fine is 11 euro everyone just takes the fine and parks for as long as they like. There is an awsome automated biking system where you use a card to sign out a city bike, ride it to wherever and put the bike back in one of the many bike ports.
We spent yesterday after we arrived shopping for the final bits of gear we needed for the mountains and tasting all the food around the city. We met up with Ash's friend Jess who is from Perth but living in Paris and went out for a great French dinner. I had trout, Ash had raw minced cow (weird but good), and the others all had duck. For dessert we ordered a selection consisting of creme brulee, lemon meringue, chocolate mousse, a brownie type thing and a traditional yoghurt thingy. All was washed down with a red wine.
Afterwards we returned to Jess' which is a small top floor apartment. We climbed out the skylight and sat on the top of the steeply pitched roof looking out over Paris and at the Eiffel Tower in the distance.
Today we have had more baked goods for breakfast and are about to head off to Switzerland and the village of Zermutt which is at the foot of the Matterhorn. The weather doesnt look that great so we may end up doing a few days of cragging. Dan and I have gone halves in a video camera so hopefully we can get some good footage and put together a funny video at the end of the trip.

Au Revoir
A Bientot