Traveling with Janet and Naiomi
Trip Start
Jun 06, 2008
1
6
9
Trip End
Jul 23, 2008
Paris, Île-de-France, France
Friday, July 4, 2008
Makes a much better sight from the ground though, as it towers so much over the other building. It's huge, but so exiting. Look forward to getting up there.
Airport - tourism desk. Got a hotel, got train tickets to the city and off we go with our maps and passes.
Settle in to our room and off and running we go. The train system is great and the hotel is just a few blocks from the station. We found it no problem the first night but doesn't mean you can't get lost the next time.
First on the list, the Tower.. I was told that if we didn't want to wait forever to get up The Eiffel Tower then we should arrive before 10am. One the best piece of advice to listen to. We got there at 9:30 and at that rate it still took us about an hour before we got through the lines and up the elevators. Great view, but how could you not with being that far up... could have done without all the people though, way to crowded.
Another great structure, The Arc de Triumph. Once we found the walk way under the round about we got up close and personal. I continued the inspection by climbing the 200 and odd steps to the top for a few of the round about and want ever else I could see. It was a nice view up there and neat to see how the land is laid around it but I was disappointed that I couldn't really get a good look at the cars on the round about. I thought that was to be a fun thing to do, but I'm not tall enough and the security is so tight so now one goes over that you can't get a good look straight down. I wanted to see the craziness off the traffic. I did though enjoy it and got some view of the traffic from traffic level. Glad I wasn't driving.......
Notre Dam, a great building. We wanted to go in but my god the line went on for ever. We opted not to wait. We wondered around the area though and found a cafe and went for crapes. HMM chocolate crapes in the afternoon. Yummy. But the next day we were back and did go in and check it out. I just love the architecture of these buildings.
The art and the sculptures of The Louver. I must say I was quite disappointed in this place overall. Not that I'm a museum or gallery person, but I much preferred the atmosphere of the National gallery in London then here. It was a loud and crowded place with flashes going off all over. Don't get me wrong, I love to take pictures and I do take a lot of them, and it's nice that it's allowed as most places don't. But people, no flashes, that's what was posted and that's what causes the damage.
The best part for me was the carved marble, it's just amazing how much detail the artist can put into a piece. Don't forget this is where the Mona Lisa is hung. Not that you can get that close to it,.... did I mention the crowds... and it really isn't that big.
Yes, high tourist season and busy cities were starting to get me down. It just takes so much of the joy out of things.
Our last day in France.. Today we are taking the train out to Versailles, going to see the palace, but we are catching on the way things work in a busy tourist season so as we got off the train there was an advertising for the tourist tickets and thought that would be a good place to start. The train was packed but many people just walked on by and headed strait for the palace. We followed the signs and were close to the first ones to get there. We got entrance tickets and booked a tour for the palace. Good thing, we thought it might be busy at the actually location and thought this might save us some time. Did it ever. The line up for the ticket counter at the palace was like a 2 hour wait. We didn't have to.. YA
One our guide got there the did the tour. Another amazing place, just huge.... Not my style with the decorating but the detail that went into everything is amazing. Grand rooms and beautiful gardens.
Trying to book a taxi for a drive to the tower at night. The guy at the desk in the hotel was really trying to help us out but he wasn't understanding what we wanted. I pointed to a place on the map that we had seen the other day and it was a great place to see the tower from. But to the guy at the desk, it is a building and it would be closed. He kept telling me it was closed we can't go there. I kept telling him we are not going in the building... but that is where we want to go. Finally we just left it at that, he may of decided I was just nuts and went along with it... he would talk to the cab driver, as the driver would likely speak less English that this guy. Funny... Anyway, off we go towards, I hope, the spot I picked. The driver was awesome, he knew what we wanted even if he didn't speak our language. I had the camera out and taking pictures along the way. We did arrive to the right place and while Naomi stayed in the cab Janet and I got out for a bit and took some shots. Again lots of people but I saw a place along the building and did a bit of climbing. I just took us up a level so we were over the heads of the people and could get a good shot. I used the wall of the building beside me to keep the camera still. Apparently we were doing something that was interesting as there was a guy coping us. The tower was BLUE. It was so neat to see, there was lots of people around doing the same thing. So on the way back the cabby took a different route, but we were good with that as the lights in the night of Paris was a site to see...
On to the airport, but which one. OOPS didn't have that quite right. Arrived at the one we were going for but it wasn't the one we needed. OH NO......
The other airport is 70 km away and we don't have a whole lot of time. Cab it is.... We made it... WOW!!! hey we got to see the French countryside, nice and green.
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