Paris – the city of Love!
We took a whirlwind two night tour of Paris in early November.
We both loved the city – a lovely place, I feel I could stay there forever!
The people were friendly and my rusty French was sufficient for us to get by (everyone spoke English anyway, but they let me speak French).
Food is lovely – even at the baguette caravan, the quality was 100% better than NZ or the UK for that matter. Didn’t try snails or frog’s legs, as they weren’t on the menu – must just be a delicacy!
We did go up the Eiffel Tower – travel tip: it opens at 9am – unless you like waiting in queues, get there early. Unless you want dinner or lunch up there (after forking out €100 for dinner the night before we thought we’d have a cheap lunch). You get amazing views of the city from up there.
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| Paris – La Tour Effiel |
Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris was a simply overwhelming church – it was very grand (as is everything in Paris). It’s free to enter the church, though if you wish to go up the towers you pay like €12 or something.
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| Paris – La Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris |
The Louvre is a massive museum that would take weeks to look at everything. We try not to travel through a camera, and try to not take photos of art, but you just got to take photos of these two pieces – Mona Lisa and Madonna on the Rocks (Da Vinci Code fans may recall…)
The point where the two pyramids meet is not actually in the museum but rather in a shopping mall that is attached to the complex and leads to the underground metro station, which leads me to believe that the holy grail can is in fact not buried there!
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| Paris – La Musee de Louvre |
L’Arc de Triomphe is larger than I thought – we were staying not far from it. Incidentally the weekend we were there was Rememberence day, so on the Sunday at 11 am (11th hour of the 11th of the 11th) the streets were all closed and there was a big military celebration – it was fantastic, but we were freaked out because a few hours later we were meant to be catching our airport shuttle back from there! The streets reopened at 12 luckily!
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| Paris – Arc de Triomphe |
Jean Nouvel’s L’Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab Institute) – basically those apertures are supposed to open and close according to the light that shines on them. It doesn’t actually operate as it costs too much to run, I understand.
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| Paris – L'Institute du Monde Arabe (Jean Nouvel) |
Paris is a very patriotic city – us kiwis could learn a thing or too from them. There are French flags everywhere, and in bunches of 3 or 5 – no shortage of them, reminding you of exactly where you are, and who you are (if you’re French). Paris is a very grand city – it’s a lot like I actually thought London would be like.
“Our local bakery” just up the road from us. Went there for breakfast both days, and even snuck some more snacks in just before we left for the flight back to the UK!
All in all a great city that superseded my expectations, and I’m serious about living here – I said to Vanita if we reach our travel and financial goals in the UK, we could set up shop in Paris for 3 or 6 months, work somewhere to just earn enough to live on and enjoy Paris! Honestly we were there for 2 days, but you need at least 2 weeks there I reckon, to really soak up the atmosphere and the sites. We didn’t get to see the Pompidou centre, the Sacre Coeur church at Monteparse or the Moulin Rouge, and would love to see more of the Louvre and of course the many other museums and galleries.
