The Sunday Mail sent a trepid Rooporter to check out the latest in travel options to France
The Sunday Mail sent a trepid Rooporter to check out the latest in sightseeing options in France for less than $100.
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LIKE a true blue Aussie male, I wanted to head to the Moulin Rouge on my first trip to Paris, but tour guide Zabeille got a bee in her bonnet so we had to buzz off to the next stop.
“Not the Moulin Rouge Roo!” the stuffed toy bee cried with a French accent.
Well you can’t tie me down for long, sport, so we hopped off to the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre and a number of other famous spots in the City of Love.
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Paris was abound with tourists, but as my owner could not afford a trip, I got sent to Peluche Travel in Paris instead, while my owner followed my adventure along with daily photos on Facebook.
Peluche means ‘plush’ in French, and is a tour company for stuffed toys.
Software engineer Sabine Passelegue, 45, started it in September 2014 after her daughter Anne’s toy, Zabeille, made a beeline to Japan to tour with the original stuffed toy travel company, Unagi Travel.
Sonoe Azuma started Unagi (‘eel’) Travel in September, 2010, after her friend’s started taking her stuffed eel toy on trips while she stayed in Tokyo.
She realised it would be a fun way for those who could not travel to see some of the world through photos.
Sabine’s whole family loved watching Zabeille’s adventures via daily Facebook posts.
“All the family, my daughter, my husband and myself ... had a smile on our face when we saw Zabeille on the Facebook page,” she says.
About 35 guests of all shapes, sizes and colours have since toured with Zabeille in France on one of a number of tour options available, though like a true Aussie pioneer, I was her first guest from Australia.
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The tours can range from a day trip to 15 days, depending on time of year, with the day trip to Paris the most popular.
A furry, green mouse named Pafou joined us for tea one night in Paris, sans clothes.
Being from France, I guess he felt he could make himself comfortable.
At least I was wearing a coat with a slouch hat and carried my own swag (it’s a tad difficult to wear trousers when you’re a kangaroo).
As we cooked that night, Pafour and Zabeille started telling some tall tales about eating frogs and going grape tipping the next day.
“Come the raw prawn mate,” I finally boomed, when I couldn’t take their curly ones any longer.
Looking down at the frypan, I realised the prawns were actually cooked. Except, apparently, they were frog legs, not prawns.
The next day, I tried my paw at driving on the right hand side on the way to see the Fort Saint-Jean in Marseilles, a castle built in 1660, before continuing on to some vineyards near Lyon.
I’m not used to consuming wine from the vine, but I ended up having a, hiccup, time grape! I mean, hiccup, grape time! I even started to see a pink mouse in our group.
Fortunately, I later discovered the pink one was real, visiting from another part of France, and named Coquette.
Sober, think and act sober for the photos for those back home, I thought to myself. What’s the legal drinking age in France again? How the heck old am I, anyway?
On our way to Lyon, we stopped to check out a donkey and cart.
Now, either the French plonk was really getting to me, or that donkey was just being a real jackass and refusing to move.
By the time we reached our final stop I was on top of the world from the trip.
Or, from that natural sugar in the grape juice, of course. But I was still high. At-the-top of-Fourviere Hill-overlooking-Lyon-high.
I’d had a bonza time but had to leave the next day, so I said my hooroo’s and hopped into the box, complete with CD full of photos and a souvenir gift for my owner, and headed back to Australia.
WHAT: Peluche Travel, a tour company for stuffed toys
WHERE: Paris, France
WHEN: Year-round
COST: Tours start from $64.
INFO: peluche-travel.com/en
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