Bonjour!

• Jamierand's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Paris

Trip Start May 03, 2009 Previous
Entry Trip End Jul 30, 2009 Next
Entry

  Paris, France
Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Bonjour everone!
We made it here, flu pandemic and all.  Actually, it was an easy trip.  For those of you building reserves of miles, use them for long distance 1st class tickets.  Its totally worth it... there are massage rollers in the chairs and you won't feel trashed when you arrive. 

So we headed to the Marais district (2nd arrondissement) and to our little apartment rental. Its pretty little in that the washing machine doubles as a dryer, and you have to sit side saddle on the toilet as it is up against the wall on 2 sides.  But, the location is great and according to our friends Aimee and Ed, its bigger than their hotel. 

We walked around for about a morning, learning about our neighborhood and picking up supplies (baguette, block 'o' cheese), then met up with my college roommate Aimee, and her amour Ed

Apartment

.  We made our way to Notre Dame cathedral, crossing Pont Neuf onto the Ile de la Cite.  I last visited here when I was around 14yrs old and the stained glass still amazes.  The rose windows are 13th century.  The first stones were laid in the early 1160's, with construction being completed ~100 yrs later.  Many restoration and rennovation projects have been completed since; keeping the cathedral in shape.  Notre Dame continues to offer religious services, as well as concerts.  I can't imagine what it costs to get married there. 

Today (6 May) Stopher and I were solo and decided to test out the Velib system.  Velib (Velo Libre) is a series of over 20,000 bikes that are stationed around the city.  You rent one at one station (first 30min are free, 1E/day), then drop it off at another.  While very comfortable, the bikes could probably be used in battle as they're built like tanks.... helpful with the cobblestones.  The attached photo is one of pride (we figured out the system) and joy (we survived!).  So for all my Wed am spinners, I still got up early and went for a bike ride... hope you had a great class and I'm glad you didn't have to dodge the army of mopeds. 

Our destination after the velib gauntlet was the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle.  Not your standard Paris tourist stop, but totally worth it

Notre Dame facade

.  There are large botanical gardens, a zoo (which we didn't see), and a train station converted into the Galerie de l'Evolution.  We enjoyed 4 floors of natural history, evolution, genetics, conservation... I geeked out horribly.  It was incredibly well done, so if you find yourself here and want to get away from the larger crowds, check it out. 

We're going to live it up tonight with dinner at home in our pjs.  Tomorrow we're supposed to show Aimee and Ed how to use the bikes.  I'm a little nervous about four of us not getting flattened, but if nothing else it will get the adrenaline flowing.  We are hoping to check out a few of the chocolatiers that are listed on the NY Times Tour de Chocolat that my mother recommended (thanks mom!), visit Le Tour Eiffel, and possibly take a ride in the Bateau Mouche which is a boat tour up and down the Seine river.     

Hope you all are well.  We'll check back in a couple more days, hopefully as the new bike masters of Paris!
Bien a vous,
-Stopher & Jamie

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Notre Dame rose window	Velib survivors	Stopher & The Whale	Humpback pectoral fin bones
Chick embryo model at Natural History museum

Slideshow Print this entry Share

Previous Entry Next Entry