Paris Hotels
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Mais... vous êtes ici !
Entry 7 of 27 | show all | print this entry |
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Still loving Paris. It's been an amazing couple of days.
Yesterday was our included sightseeing day in Paris. We started off at the Notre Dame - yet another church but stunning to be sure. Then, after an hour of traffic (thanks to a bomb scare that we got to see up close and personal, complete with robot detonation, that turned out to be a false alarm) we got to the Arc de Triomphe. The spiral staircase was quite a workout, but the view from the top is more than worth it. The roundabout surrounding the Arc has about twelve streets leading into it. According to Kristy, you can't get insurance to drive on it, and there's an accident every seven minutes.
We went to buy lunch on the Champs-Elysees, and some silly people actually went to McDonald's, but we decided to take advantage of being in Paris and got yummy baguette sandwiches and pastries instead. Then we headed out to the Chateau Versailles. Stunning, especially the gardens and the Hall of Mirrors.
Last night, we did the first two optionals of the trip. Dinner was complete with French wine, and a comedian/accordion player who was absolutely hysterical. Afterwards, up to Montmarte, the red light district, for the Nouvelle Eve cabaret show. Despite the topless women it was really spectacular, and describing it in words is a bit of a challenge. Suffice to say, the "audience participation" made it quite good, and the costumes and dancing were over the top.
Free time sightseeing in Paris today. Elie and I and two of the American guys from the tour, Kevin and Dennis, headed into town with the tour and then went off on our own for the rest of the day. We started at the Eiffel Tower, which we climbed using the stairs to the second level - which is as far up as they let you walk - before taking the lift the rest of the way up. It was a cool thing to be able to say we've done, and the views were spectacular to be certain, but it was a long climb. Next, we walked to the Champs-Elysees and all the way down to the Place de la Concorde, making a few brief stops - for croissants, then for crepes. Mmmmm.
After "lunch", we headed to the Louvre and spent a couple of hours seeing the artwork. It's way too big to see anywhere near everything, so we basically just saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo and some of the Italian artwork, then left. Another one of those must-dos, though I wish I had more time to spend there and also wish I could've gone to the Musee D'Orsay. Oh well, at least I have an excuse to come back to Paris.
Next, we got on the metro (after getting tickets from a really rude ticket-taker, noteworthy for being one of the only rude people we've encountered in Paris so far, belying the stereotype) and went up to the Sacré Coeur church (more stairs). Next, we went up to the Artist's Quarter. All the cafes in the square had outdoor tables in the middle of the square, so we had dinner at one of them. Excellent food, and we had a great dinner and a great time. This despite Kevin walking around half blind because he didn't have his glasses. Or so he thought - he found them later in his bag and they'd been there all along.
The trip back to the campsite was an adventure. It began when we were all attempted-pickpocketed in the metro. I say attempted because none of the would-be pickpocketers successfully pilfered anything from any of us, but it freaked us all out a little. Then, we arrived back at the RER station nearest to the campsite only to find out we'd missed the last bus, so we walked back. To do so, we first had to orient ourselves, and there was a handy street map outside the station showing the campsite, the streets, everything but our present location. So we went into a fruit store on the corner to ask the shopkeeper "ou est-ce qu'on est?" to which he replied, deadpan, "mais.. vous êtes ici!". Hysterical. The walk back took only about 25 minutes once we got our bearings, and we nearly got lost, but we made it back without incident.
Now, I'm absolutely exhausted, so more soon.
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