Bonne Annee 2012

It sounds glamourous - New Year's Eve in Paris! It started out pretty well...

We headed into Trocadero (a great vantage point from which to see the Eiffel Tower). It was about 4:30pm and the Metro was packed as you would expect. We arrived at Trocadero and the Eiffel was stunning. She knows how to turn it on; flirtateously playing with the crowd with an impressive lighting display. We didn't stop to enjoy it too long, walking from there to the Arc De Triomphe and along the Champs Elysees with many of the quickly growing throng. We stopped for a quick dinner at Leon's of Brussels.

There was a massive contingent of police and emergency services. We laughed. Some things are universal; big event equals emergency services en masse. Our laughter was premature and niave. When we arrived at the Palais De la Concorde and with feet aching, we deviated from the original plan which was to walk back to the hotel from there. In the moment, on local police advice, we headed back to the Eiffel (planning to leave Trocadero from there and head back to the hotel).

This is where the plan turned to to s--t. By now it was about 9:15pm and we headed toward the Eiffel along the banks of the Seine. Several shady characters on the walk tried to sell us bottles of wine and champagne (our as yet unopened bottle sat in Frank's manbag). We got caught up in the movement of the people and found ourselves underneath the Eiffel Tower, in the middle of a hundred thousand strong crowd. All sounds okay right? Until you realise a large proportion of the crowd is very drunk and rowdy and you are trying to keep your grip on your kids and your bag (manbag in Frank's case). Because we were in the middle of the lights of the Eiffel, which was like being on a stage, all around us was very dark, except for camera flashes. We argued about the direction of the Trocadero and finally agreed where it was based on the height and distance of the camera flashes. Extracting yourself and your kids from a heaving, excited crowd, moving in the opposite direction, is no mean feat given the yelling, the pushing and the shoving (much of that from us).

Police were directing the momentum of the crowd. We rushed against them toward Trocadero. Finally reaching the top of the momument, it was raining and we turned back for a look at the Eiffel - glorious and scary. I daren't take a photo because I would have been sans iPhone in an instant. By now it was 10:30pm and it was such a feeling of relief to know that we were close to the Metro and would beat the crowd back home to a safe, warm bed.

Imagine our horror when on reaching Trocadero station it was roped off with danger tape. We asked the police what was going on and got no response except that the nearest open metro station was 400 metres away. We quickly agreed to get a cab and get out of there. To my amazement we found one in minutes and ten minutes later were safely back in our hotel room. That 10 Euro cab fare (about $12.50 AUD) is the best money I have ever spent. We turned on the telly, cracked the champagne and watched New Year's celebrations from around the world (Dubai looked good, as did Hong Kong - no doubt better from our bed). At 11:45pm, the four of us walked out onto the street. A restaurant next door to our hotel was having a nice, initimate soiree -yes, we agreed, we should have done that. Then it stuck midnight, car horns beeped and the air was full of Bonne Annee's. We all kissed and had a grateful family hug before heading back to our room. It didn't turn out quite as expected but if it did we wouldn't be in Paris would we. Tomorrow we are off to Disneyland, much to the boys delight. Then we'll hire a car and given the parking situation in Paris the aim is to head into the French country side.