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Thursday, October 10th, the night was restful, although some noise was heard outside (normal, we are in the center of Las Vegas). First thing to do: get breakfast:

it changes our last breakfast, then we say that we returned to France. After eating, a short stop at the slot machines for a photo and lose one dollar.

Today, the program is a bit special because we will have a tour in the morning, but the afternoon free. And this morning, the tones are red because we are in the Valley of Fire. The region have several interests. Starting with its beautiful colors, petrified trees (fossilized) from 225 million years or petroglyphs (rock carvings in stone) Anasazi dating there are 3,000 years older.

A little further, one more stop. This time there is a calcified trunk (fossilized) pretty awesome, it dates to the age of dinosaurs.

In that case, we can climb the small rocky hill. For my part, I take some pictures, and a large panoramic...


After a few photos, I'll trudge once in the rocks and watch a little fragments of stone. Walking in rock chips and sand is difficult but worth the effort.

3rd stop at Valley of Fire: Museum Valley of Fire. With information about the flora and fauna of the region, the geological formations. Various zoological discoveries, biological, geological and paleontological. Unfortunately, no pictures of the museum, but photos of the area. (Will you take a little red rock?)

After discovering this landscape worthy of Mars (I'm sure it would make a great movie set on Mars...), we return to Vegas to eat. Towards a casino restaurant with a sign of huge entrance. As everywhere in Vegas, there are slot machines... in hotels, the restaurants, everywhere ...

But how did we get here? To find out, a little history:
Las Vegas (''meadows'') was not before 1829 that a place with a source of water in the desert. In 1829, Las Vegas becomes a point of water supply in the middle of the Mojave Desert. In 1959, with the arrival of Brigham Young (Mormon President at the time) with 30 missionaries truly created Las Vegas. Came to convert to Mormonism the païutes indians, they build a fort. But because of poor harvests and the revolt of the Indians, Mormons abandoned the fort and the U.S. Army recovered. Las Vegas in 1905 and became a village in 1911 acquired city status. In 1931, the legalization of gambling can bring a lot of people (the cowboy and Cheyenne mainly) and prostitution also takes root. City win notoriety, the Mafia took advantage and built hotels and casino on the strip (Flamingo is the first to be released in 1946). It was at this time that the city earns its title of ''Sin-city'' and that of the city without clocks (to not distract the players, the casinos have no clocks or window). From 1940 to 1970, breaststroke mafia million it seeks to grow and whiten... Vegas casinos are all designated for that.
It was also at this time that the Mafia occurred big stars in Vegas, such as the King Elvis Presley or the famous Rat Pack: Frank Sinatra and his ''Rats band'' (Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Peter Lawford).
His Nickname Sin-city continuing to pursue, since 1989, the city has diversified to offer other activities and do also come from families.

Las Vegas is the most touristic city in the world, it has more than 120,000 hotel rooms and 36 million visitors per year.
To begin this tour of Las Vegas, go to the... restaurant with a lunch buffet ''eat all you can''. There are very good things, and the buffet is absolutely huge. While players are picking on their slot machines, others take a short break for a snack :

After lunch, head to the Strip... south to the north. We leave our hotel in taxi (outch the price ! ). We start with the giant MGM lion :

In front of the lion, there is the hotel-casino of nearly 2,050 rooms and the 100km/h roller coasters : New York New York.

Towards the north of the Strip, but before we cross the street on the pedestrian bridge (too much traffic for pedestrian crossings on the road). There was a very representative view of the Strip. Behind us, the hotel-casino Excalibur

And in front of us, the strip towards the north, with our next stop:

Our first stop is for the sweets-lovers. We here at M & M's World... a 4 floors's store reserved exclusively for... Coasters (na just kidding!)... the M&M's! There, is liver attack ensured just by looking at all this chocolate. On the top floor there is even an entire wall of M&M's columns... all the sorts of M&M's!

After full of chocolates makes you thirsty. Direction... store bonded to M&M's World is... Coca-Cola Store Wuhu ! The same as for the M&M's Store... but with Coca-Cola. The facade is composed of a huge bottle of Coke.

Just after full, it starts on the Strip. After crossed the street here we are in front of a giant guitar : Hard Rock Café.

We continue to walk, walk, walk... and we see full of beautiful things: buildings curve, a giant motorcycle (Harley Davidson Café) and the Strip to the south :

We pass the Cosmopolitan:

Taking a passage in a mall across the street, with in the deep the Bellagio and Ceasar Palace... We also meet the new People Villages occasionally...

Having crossed, we arrive at the French Quarter... the eiffel tower, the triumphal arch... all with a French flag, of course, but also American and miniature version. There is something to be a little disturbed!

Opposite, on the other side of the avenue of the Strip, the Ceasar Palace with a statue of Ceasar a little pervert...

After this fun little moment we arrived at the Venetian area with canoes !

We continue up along the Strip, but it is very long and the end of the day is fast approaching, it's been several hours as we walk. Many specific architectural details are visible everywhere (we are in vegas anyway!) And the evening fell, we take the bus to finish the trip and return to our hotel. If you visit Vegas, do not hesitate to take the bus, it is not very expensive and it works well, there are quite often (at least on the length of the strip and to freemont street without worries).

We're back at the hotel just in time to go freshen up in the room and eat. On the menu: chicken, corn and potato (I do not say anything about the size, I quite often repeated it in this report!).

Having a problem with a foot (ingrown toenail, walking all the day and someone who has walked on me during the meal) I will not attend the evening visit to see the casinos at night ( what we did this afternoon ), and the panel ''Welcome in Las Vegas''. Too bad for me, I'll go take a look at Fremont Street, the second most famous street of Las Vegas. It is part of Downtown Vegas and includes many famous casinos: Binion's, Golden Nugget, Four Queens (our hotel) and many others. It hosts several shops. More importantly, it has, since 1994, the Fremont Street Experience which is in fact the realization of a roof acting as a giant screen. This screen measuring 460m long and consists of 12,500,000 LEDs to project video and light effects. The sound on the other hand has a power of 555,000 watts. Some people are even disguised (as in all of Las Vegas ).



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