Well, I`ve arrived in Paris, at last – at its freezing cold.

I set off from LA on Monday afternoon and headed for Heathrow where I caught my connection Paris and then a taxi to my hotel. I eventually got in late afternoon on Thursday and I`m at work today. As you can imagine I`m feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed and raring to go

I nearly missed my connection to Paris though, because I only had 45 minutes to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 thanks to our original landing at Heathrow being aborted at the last moment. Just coming into land, I could see the runway just below us and just as the engines were about to drop to land us on the tarmak the captain floored it and we went shooting back into the air.

Apparently some plane ahead of us had not left the runway in time so we had to circle around and come in again.

But I made it to my connection with some time to spare.

So my hotel is alright, but their gym is not up to much which meant I went in search of a bigger one late last night – while nearly asleep. It seems as though gyms are less plentiful in Paris than they are in California. I`ll have to carry on the pursuit tonight.

Gyms then may not have, but decent beer they do. Seems I`ve left Bud Lite behind … until January that is.

On Monday we set off further north leaving Big Sur and its crazy hosts behind.

First stop was Santa Cruz. To be honest there was not much there, but we stopped anyway and walked up to the Boardwalk which is where some of the film “Lost Boys” was filmed. The roller coaster is still there:

It was a bit of a dodgy town too. I saw several pairs of shoes hanging from telephone wires around the city. Not wanting to give up my own footwear too easily we carried on up to San Francisco and our room at The Diva hotel.

The first thing to do was to get on a boat trip to go around Alcatraz island

This I think was the highlight of the holiday. You could pretty much roam free around the island by yourself, but we chose to do a free guided tour from one of the Alcatraz rangers, which I would definitely recommend because he takes you to parts of the island which are normally off limits to the public.

After that is over you can go into the main prison and take an audio tour. Yo uhave your own pair of headphones and audio guide so you can wander around at your own speed listening to a running commentary as you go.

This was called Broadway and was the main part of the prison. The cells were incredibly small just 5 feet by 7 feet and not much privacy:

Although you could not get into any of the regular cells, further down the line were the solitary confinement cells which you could walk into and take a look.

We spent pretty much all day at Alcatraz before getting a boat back and heading down to Pier 39 which is full of bars, restaurants and ……. Sea Lions:

Apparently they all just went to this Pier after the last big earthquake ….. and never left.

There was loads more to do in San Francisco too, we went to the China Town which was awesome and really wish we had longer there, but after 2 days it was time to head off to Sequoia National Park…..

Although you may have to wait a bit for that because I head off to Paris in a couple of hours from now and it may be a while before I can get my French Internet connection working. No double the French Internet is on strike.

Leaving the Apple Farm behind we headed on up the US Highway 101 - The Pacific Cost Highway in search of Big Sur.

The drive was cool, 1 of the 34 things ‘you have to do’ in California according to my Rough Guide of California. Its not hard to see why

We drove 150 miles up the coast towards Hearst Castle. This place used to be home to one of richest people who ever lived, William Hearst. The tour we did, did not actually take us into his own personal living area, but we got to see the 3 guest houses he build for visitors. He is the swimming pool for the smallest guest house:

The place was totally amazing. Everything you saw was worth a fortune. Just to give you an idea, you were not allowed to touch ANYTHING, but they had no problem with us all walking on the floor around the larger swimming pool, despite the fact that it was made of 22 carat gold!

After that we continued up the coast on to Big Sur. Another one of the things on my 34 things you have to do in California.

We were staying in a log cabin:

With its very own fire pit

The night turned a bit off later on though. We had left the fire to burn out and were watching a film on my laptop lying on the bed in the cabin when we got a knock on the door.

It turned out to be the owner of the cabin park.

She was drunk.

Very drunk.

She came walking into our cabin and started chatting. Then she jumped onto the bed with Fi and I.

I jumped off.

And just about managed to get rid of her politely.

She saw us the next day, but didn’t come out to say hello.

Strange that.

Just now I`m sitting in motel room in Bakersfield drinking a cold beer in touching distance of the end of my road trip with Fi.

Earlier today we arrived here from Sequoia national park where we spent the day driving around looking at the largest trees in the world.

Its been a hectic, exhausting, expensive but utterly amazing week. By the end of tomorrow we`ll have driven over 1000 miles and taken in some amazing sights. Its been top, so top in fact that its going to take me a few blog entries to get it all in…..

So here goes part 1 - Friday 16th - Sunday 18th…

We loaded up the car we had hired for the week:

and set off in search of the Apple farm in San Louis Obispo. The hotel was amazing:

The place looked more like Santa’s grotto than a hotel. I`m not complaining they made their own wine and cider which you could get free on tap from their reception 24 hours a day.

Not bad huh?

They also gave away their fresh baked cookies which made it extra hard on Saturday morning to head off on our Grape Vine wine tour of California wine country. This tour took us to 4 different wineries across California wine country and let us sample about 25 different wines.

The views from the places we visited were pretty amazing too…

Normally I dont drink white wine because, basically, I dont see the point. You dont get white wine in Church now do you? God doesn’t drink white wine. so why should I? Anyway, all the wines I tried were pretty top and I was cabbaged by mid afternoon. Luckily we got back to the apple farm in time for their afternoon wine and cider tasting so I did not have to sober up.

Add to that the fact that later on we found Central Coast Brewing just down the road from the Apple farm that did its own beer tasting sessions for just a few dollars.

It was a cool place. They had a bar right next to where the beer was being brewed. You can even rent one of their vats to make your own beer.

The following day meant we had to move on further up the coast to Hearst Castle and Big Sur, which meant driving up the Pacific Coast Highway…………

Well today Fi and I start the Real road trip after my warm up road trip back in August.

First we are heading off to San Louis Obispo to stay for 2 nights including a winary tour which takes you to all the places you see in the film Sideways.

Then we head on up to Big Sur, then on to San Francisco and Alcatraz for 2 nights before heading on to Visalia and finally spending the last night in a log cabin in Sequoia national park.

Then I come back and head out to Paris.

Its a hard life.

I`ve managed to get around my differences with the French hotel owners and now have a place booked for my up and coming stay in Paris.

The Holiday Inn Republique looks to be ok. Its a 4 star hotel more or less right in the middle of Paris.

I`ve been told some horror stories this week from my colleagues in France that beer costs at least 8 euros a pint - thats 6 pounds!!! Shocker.

Luckily for me a bottle of Champagne costs 10 euros.

Guess what I`ll be drinking for a month, and what most of my friends will be getting for Christmas

It seems as though my trip to France may not pass without problems.

Already we are not seeing eye to eye, and I dont even arrive in the French capital (where the mighty England rugby team beat the Frenchies in the world cup just a few weeks ago) for another 3 weeks.

My first problem is with the hotel I tried to book my accommodation with today.

The ‘conversation’ went something like this:

me - bonjour, je resterai à Paris pendant 3 semaines en décembre. Vous avez une chambre?

Frenchie - (sigh) oui nous avons une chambre. Nous sommes un hôtel

Tres bien

Be like that.

They`ll be laughing on the other side of their face when I`ve got the union flag flying from the top of their Eiffel tower.

Just you wait.

So yesterday was Halloween and I spent most of the night waiting at my front door with a bucket load of fish heads ready to throw at any kid who dared come anywhere near Castle Grinch.

Luckily for them, nobody turned up, probably because most of my neighbors who were a bit more into the Halloween thing than myself had already filled up the kids candy boxes to the brim:

Actually - I did consider buying some sweets for the trick or treaters on my way back from the gym last night. Obviously living in this nice warm weather right next to Disneyland is making me too soft.

So I`ve decided to move to Paris.

I leave on 26th November.

I`ll be spending a month there before coming back to California. Hopefully by spending a miserable month with the French in a cold wet city will turn me back into my mean self.

Then I`ll be happy again.