So, I decided to take a quick trip back to Paris as I was there once about 10 years ago, but I wanted to see some of the sights again, so it is a recap for me but new to some of you. I will be returning to France later in my travels but on the coast. This was an easy stop after Belgium and on the way to Switzerland, so I hope you enjoy!
Day 43 Tues. June 2
I got up early and did the breakfast thing and then repacked my bags and then quickly checked the directions to my hostel in Paris and headed out to the train station. Got there and checked out the information for my train and mailed off some postcards, looked around at some Belgium chocolate as it was my last time to get some, but I pasted on it, I did have one small one while in Brugge, was delicious, but don’t want to over indulge. So I took the train to the Brussels Midi station and I was pretty early for my train so I sat and watched a few more episodes of Curb and giggled away. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about when I say Curb, it is an HBO tv series “Curb your Enthusiasm” and it is hilarious, it is with Larry David one of the producers of Seinfeld, so if you liked that show, then you will like this one, but either way I think it is great. Ok, enough about t.v….lol, just needed to fill you all in on what I am talking about when I mention how I fill my time watching Curb.Finally the train arrived, a little late just after 1pm, got on and someone was sitting in my seat so I decided to sit in the bar area, lots more room anyway. It took less then an hour to get to Paris, we got in at 2:05pm, our scheduled time. I walked through to find a toilet and of course I am in Paris, I had to pay to use it, 1 euro, crazy. Then I went to the information counter and found out prices to either Germany or Switzerland and it was cheaper to got to Switzerland, so I got a ticket to Geneva, and then bought a 3 day Metro pass for all transportation in Paris. I caught the metro to get to the hostel, I was staying in the city of Montmartre, it is known as the artsy fartsy part of Paris where some famous painters stayed. It was pretty easy on the metro getting to my stop and thankfully a gentleman saw me with my big backpack and informed me that there was a lift to get up to the street level, b/c I would probably not want to walk up the 3 or 4 flights of stairs to get to the street level, Thanks dude! So I got to the street and started to make my way to the hostel, Square Caulaincourt Hotel and Hostel. I checked in and went to check out my room, it was another tiny room with 2 bunk beds, a full bathroom (quite small but good to have it) and a nice big window that opened up, very Parisian style….it really should have been for just 1 bunk bed but of course these hostels make the most they can out of the rooms and as they should.
That is mine,the top bunk, and ya the first time I have to be on the top bunk and there is no ladder and no rails, nice. lol
I met one of my roommates who was napping, Nichola from Montreal, she was living and working in Dublin for 4 mths, she paid for her own visa and moved there and got a job, and apparently it is pretty easy for Canadians to do in the Uk countries, have to look into that. So we chatted for a bit, she decided before she was going to head home she would do some touring around Europe, seems to be a common thing for either people working or studying abroad, which makes sense since everything is so close and easily accessible. I changed and went down to the grocery store, needed to get water again b/c here you definitely don’t drink the tap water, and I got some more peanut butter (yeah, they had skippy) and wraps. I dropped it back off at the hostel and took a little stroll around the neighbourhood, i decided to stop in the cafe next door and have a small bite to eat and a glass of wine, “why not, I’m in Paris after all”….lol.
Then I returned to the hostel and went online for a bit to look up some information and then back to the room and chatted with Nichola,I asked her if she would like to go down to the Eiffel Tower while it was dark to see it all light up, it was her first time in Paris so I thought that would be something great to see and I have never seen it at night either so off we went. Caught the subway and then had to change to one of the trains and finally we got off and walked up the street to find the Eiffel Tower
that is me, couldn’t get a good shot with more of the tower showing but this is the best Nichola could do
apparently at night now, they have at sporadic times some twinkling lights on the tower that flash from top to bottom, but we didn’t get to see that while we were there. This next pic is just a view across the park from the tower
We just took a few pics and then had to head back as the metros stop at midnight so we made out way back to the train station first and along the way we past a crepe trailer and you know I have been saving crepes til I got to Paris, so I indulged in that, crepes with chocolate (which they use nutella) and banana….YUMMY!!! was so good! We got back to the hostel crashed. Tomorrow is a full day of touring.
Day 44 Wed. June 3
Got up for breakfast, which consisted of a basket with a baguette and croissant and I traded my baguette for another croissant, some jams,cereals, juice, coffee, and tea. Finished and went and made my lunch of wraps and granola bars and my big bottle of water and got ready and headed out. This is gonna be a full packed touring day.
I walked down the street to find the Sacre-Coeur as it was right in my neighbourhood
Again, no pictures inside, I walked through and it really is beautiful and you get this feeling but that fades once you arrive at the gift shop, tourist attractions of course have to have a gift shop. I walked out and took some pictures of the view from up there.
these are the stairs going down to the next street level
I walked down to find the Salvador Dali museum, another reason for coming back to Paris, to find a perfume I bought there 10yrs ago, I know kinda crazy but I am in Europe, why not go see everything while I am here. So I found the museum and it has actually changed a little from when I was there before, there was some different sculptures added. So, here are just a few of Dali’s work and a couple pics of him
I finished walking through the museum and went into the gift shop to find that the perfume I was looking for was discontinued, bummer. So I sampled all the different ones that were there, as there was quite a few new fragrances I hadn’t seen before and I ended up finding one that was similar to the one I wanted, so all was not lost with this trip to the Dali gift shop.
From there I found the closest metro station and jumped on to go to the next destination, The Arc de Triomphe/ Champes d’Elysees, I remembered it also and took some pics and then walked up closer to it and got some, you could pay to walk in and go to the top of it but I figured since I was planning to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, nothing would really compare to that.
Just some details on the building
I made my way back to the Metro and on the way I saw a moped crash into a car from behind, nothing major. Just as I was going to go down to the Subway I got stopped by a guy with a camera and mic wanting to speak to me about Zumba (the new exercise craze) I said that I was familiar with it from Canada and he explained how it is offered everywhere but not in France and they want to implement it and so he wanted me to do a small demonstration with the one girl who teaches it but I denied the offer and off I went. On to go see the Eiffel Tower again, this time during the day and to go up to the top again. I arrived and there didn’t seem to be too many people, of course the lift line was huge so I opted to get a little exercise and go to the line where you walk up the stairs to the 2nd level and take a lift from there, so bought my ticket, and found out it is 710 steps to the 2nd level but too late got the ticket and off I went. There are some story boards to read on the way up about the man who built the Tower and a little of how it was done and some of the other things he has built, interesting and I have to confess I had to stop a few times and rest, man that is a great leg workout and butt too I would think. I got to the 1st floor and looked around and then trekked up to the 2nd floor, from there you have to buy a separate ticket to take the lift to the top and I ended up waiting about a half/hour as they only allow so many people up at the top, but it was worth it. The Eiffel Tower is 1986 ft tall, and I remembered the view from years ago, but it is still an amazing experience to be at the top of the Eiffel Tower not matter how many times you do it. Here are some pics of the Tower in the day, not as attractive as at night and of the views of Paris from the top.
This is the pond that 10 years ago, after going to the top and seeing a ton of people around it and in it, I went down and took a dip in it too, but not this time
So once we got down from the top, thank god there was another lift you could take back down to the bottom, as I really didn’t want to have to go all the way back down the 710 steps, the whole trip from ground to the top and back down again, took about 2hrs and I was ready to have a snack, so I found a spot to sit and eat something and then I walked back to another metro station and jumped on to head to Notre Dame
some detail pics again, it is just so amazing the amount of detail on the buildings in Europe, why don’t we have that in Canada?
when I got there, it was pretty crowded and I know a tourist attraction of course but there were some t.v vans and lots of camera men and there was a bleacher set up with a bunch of camera men from different t.v stations. So I wondered along and I asked these 2 girls what was going on and they said there was going to be a special ceremony for the families of the people that died in the Air France crash a few days earlier, and President Sarcosy was going to be there. So I stayed an sat with them for it, they had some coach buses with black curtains come and drop off the families and the priest, etc. All of the Air France workers showed up as well, and there was some army men walking around and there was a couple in each of the towers of the church, I took some pics and one of them was looking through his binoculars at the same time, and they had guns also.
some random pics of the people entering the church and the crowd all around and some of the camera people
I think that might be President Sarcosy above
They had huge speakers outside so of course the friends of the families and any tourist could listen to the ceremony, so I stayed for the duration of it, about an hour, was kinda sad. Here is a short clip to hear the choir
on a lighter note from that, while we stood there and listened a few different camera men came along and were aiming at us, either video or pictures and I told the girls the next one that comes along, we should do some crazy poses….lol. I know terrible at a very spiritual event, I am joking. There was this strange little, oddly dressed guy that was standing in front of us and he kept holding up his camera as if to take a pic of the girls, and so I took a pic of him
After that was almost finished I left to beat the rush of people and got back on the Metro to go see the infamous Louvre Museum. I was doing great on time, the Louvre is cheaper after 6pm so I took my time walking along, and there was a few street performers along the way
Ok, so onto the Louvre, so I have been there before and I remembered it quite well, it is huge and there are all different sections, you can really get lost in there. So, I took my map and wondered along to all the parts I wanted to see. Here are some random pics of different things
this is at the entrance in the large main hall of the shopping area, the Inverted Pyramid
these are just interesting statues or just other pics, along the way to the main attractions
Ok, onto the main attractions
Hermaphrodite Endormi
Egyptian Sphinx
Aphrodite-Venus de Milo
The Winged Victory of Samothrace
The Wedding Feast at Cana, Veronese (last supper)
and of course the most famous of all, The Mona Lisa
I couldn’t get a very good shot of it and this is one thing I did recognize has changed from 10yrs ago, she used to be on the wall to the right when you enter this room and she was surrounded by other pictures, and you could stand a lot closer, I know b/c I got a great picture back then, and now she is on a wall all to her herself and you have to stand back quite a ways away, and she is in a glass case as she always was. And still after seeing this all before, it is still very cool to see it all again. So, after wondering around in there for not sure how long, I finally found my way out, and got some pictures out there.
this is just some parts of the building, it is huge
this is at the entrance of the Museum, Galerie du Carrousel
I had to walk quite a ways to find a metro station and along the way, I stopped and checked out some of the shops, and then got myself another crepe, YUMMY!! chocolate and banana again, so good!
I was rather exhausted after walking so much and throughout the day I am pretty sure I went up over 2000 steps, from the Eiffel Tower to the stairs in the Louvre and the metro stations, so needless to say I got my exercise. I finally made it back to the hostel and I had to charge my things as everything was almost out, and book a hostel for my next stop, Switzerland, so off to bed.
“J'espère que vous avez apprécié mon entrée de Paris”
“I hope you enjoyed my Paris entry”
Next is the Swiss Alps…….until then……Au revoir!
