There is so much to do and so much to see in Paris. The place is just a treasure trove of art, culture and magnificent architecture.

We were wise enough to buy the museum passes before leaving Australia, so we had priority access to the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay.

Having the pass allowed us to walk past the very long queue of people waiting to get into the Louvre, we went straight to the head of the queue.

Now we know how the celebrities feel when they can bypass the queues that stretch for blocks, and walk right to head of the queue and be allowed in straight away to venues.

The Musee du Louve of course is totally awesome with around 35,000 works of art housed within it’s stunning architecture.

The Louvre has been an integral part of central Paris since the 12th century. From its days as a fortress it was transformed in a modernized dwelling for Francois 1 and later the extravagant palace of Louis XIV.

The Louvre was turned into a museum in 1793.

The walls are adorned with absolutely enormous paintings of battle scenes, many of them are  in beautiful gilt frames.

The painted ceilings are just breathtakingly magnificent. As you can see I am going to run out of superlatives for this blog.

This is the marble courtyard which is full of fantastic statues.

Unfortunately my picture of the Mona Lisa didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked. The picture is behind glass and as I am short, getting the picture over the heads of taller people was a bit tricky. Still we were just so happy to be in the Louvre in Paris anything else that happened was a bonus.

Both of us are fascinated by the Egyptian mummies and we went to see the exhibition when it was in Canberra earlier this year. (2007). Memories of our time in the Louvre came flooding back.

On our recent trip to Sydney we stayed at the Star City Hotel, a 5 star hotel that is just great. It reminds me of something you would see in Las Vegas (not that I have been there) but on a lesser scale.

As we drove from Canberra to Sydney, a three hour drive, we left our car with the valet who whisked our car away. The valet parking was quite cheap at $27 for a 24 hour period.

On arrival at the hotel we weren’t able to go straight to our room as a non-smoking room wasn’t available so we had a look around the complex. Of course we managed to find our way into the casino and spent our free $10 voucher for the pokies in record time.

When we did get to our hotel room we were pleasantly surprised. The rooms are large and very modern. The bathroom was roomy and had a marble sink and surrounds. In all very nice and to the standard you would expect for a 5 star.

We would have liked to have stayed longer but we were only there to see the musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert and we had to be back in Canberra the next day.

We have just returned from Sydney where we went to see “Priscilla Queen of the Desert“ live onstage. Make sure you don’t miss this production. The performances, music and the outrageous, colorful costumes are not to missed,

Paula and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I was one of the audience dragged up on stage to dance and try not to make too big a fool of myself. But I can now honestly say with hand on heart that I have danced on stage at the Lyric theatre. So thank you guys.

After checking out hotel prices we decided to stay at Star city, and it was well worth it. We arrived just after noon and took advantage of the valet parking. Our room wasn’t ready so we went up to the restaurant for lunch. While standing in the queue we read about the Total rewards program.

Now if you are anything like me, you will like to save a few dollars whenever you can.
We worked out that we would save around $15 for lunch and more for dinner, if we signed up for a members star rewards card, so of we went to find the Information Host and filled out the required form, showed our Australian drivers licence’s and received a free lifetime Star Card with – get this- $10 credited to the card to play on the pokies. You have a choice of having the credit go towards the pokies or tables.

So off we went for the buffet lunch and I assure you, this is worth every cent. The variety ranges from pizza, pasta, roast meats, Asian cuisine, muscles, prawns , salads, cold meats, roast vegetables, varieties of breads, cheeses and sauces; and then there is the fresh fruit and deserts. Drinks and ice creams are also available. We decided to return after the show for dinner.

Well as our room still wasn’t ready by 1pm we went and collected our show tickets and thought we might have to front up in our daggy long shorts and T’shirts for the show.

Finally the desk phoned at about 1:30pm so we rushed up to the room – Oh hell, no bags. Then just as we decided we would have to go or miss the start of the show, the porter arrives.

After a very quick change we were finally off to the show – so glad I didn’t have to make my stage debut in the baggy, daggy shorts.

I brought a program, simply because I like to get a souvenier of any show I go to and we went in and sat down. Great seats 53 and 54 in row F.

And then the magic started. If you loved the movie, you will love the show. Everything about it was fabulous, the quick, excellently timed risque jokes and interaction between the three main characters, Bernadette, Mitzi and Felicia and of course the songs and music we all love.

Some might say I’m a bit old fashioned but I have never owned a video camera. So when I saw a special in the Aldi catalogue for a Traveler digital video camera for only $179 I jumped at the chance.

This morning I waited in a line of thousands to get one. Well I might be exaggerating a bit – there was probably only about 50 people queued up but fortunately I was about 10th in the queue. We all stood there discussing what we were going in to purchase. Some were there for the bargain upright freezer but it seems most were there for the camera. This concerned me a bit as even though I was tenth in the queue if I didn’t go to the right part of the store I could still have missed it. I had also heard that they sometimes only have about 6 of an item available for sale. So consequently I spent most of my time thinking about all the strategies I could use (apart from knocking down the little old gentlemen in front of me) to get to the cameras first.

The strategy I thought would work the best was to go straight to a sales person and ask where the cameras were located. This worked a treat. As we entered the store most of the shoppers rushed to the back where the electrical products would normally be found. Me and a couple of others went straight to a sales person at the front of the store and she happened to have a box of the cameras at the checkout ready to sell. Woohoo, I shouted. Well I didn’t actually say woohoo, it was more in my head than anything as I didn’t want to cause a riot from the back of the shop as they all surged to the front as a result of my excited cries.

So now I am sitting here working out how to use it and so far it looks like a great little camera. I am not expecting miracles here as it is only $179 but as long as it does the job I am happy.

It is so tiny and can easily fit in my handbag or backpack so this is definitely going to be a new addition to my travels.