My friends Alex & Becky went on vacation to Paris, so we went to meet them for lunch. We were tired (it was the day after the wedding), so we booked seats on the Eurostar train. It was much more relaxing than flying. The train goes about 200mph, but the ride is very smooth. 3.5 hours later we were refreshed and in Paris.
We met Alex & Becky at their hotel and went to lunch at a cafe around the corner, and took some pictures:
After lunch, we wandered around and ended up in some sort of royal garden. Time for more pictures!
In the garden was a public art exhibition of inflating/deflating plastic tubes. They were supposed to represent underwater sea anemones, but you be the judge… magnum-sized condoms?
And there was a cool fountain with some shiny balls:
We also came was a square that had lots of small concrete pedestals. They looked empty without any statues on top, so we created our own:
Alex & Becky are cat lovers, so we couldn’t resist this picture:
Back at the hotel, Alex tried on Marta’s hat. Is it Alex, or Justin Timberlake?.
After an afternoon in Paris, it was time to go home. We had premium-class tickets for the ride back, complete with lunch & champagne. The perfect end to a perfect day.
As we walked there, we passed a row of artist stands. I knew the Louvre was going to be closed by the time we got there, so I was relieved to get my Mona Lisa fix here instead.
We arrive at the Notre-Dame. Hugely impressive. And very old… originally the site of a Roman temple to Jupiter… the current church was started in 1163 and completed in 1345. (Almost 200 years, can you believe it? If anything took that long today, it would be scrapped and a Starbucks would be up in its place within 3 months. Progress!)
By now we were starving. That’s when we noticed the crepe street vendors. Why not? New York has hot-dog stands. Paris has crepe stands. Will Tokyo have sushi stands? I must find out.
By the time we arrived at the Louvre, it was dark. The pictures of the buildings didn’t come out well, but the pyramid was lit up so we snapped some shots there.
Next we walked down the Champs-Élysées, and we came across the granite Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde: a huge Egyptian artifact in the middle of Paris. We guessed that it was stolen by the French after they conquered Egypt. Later I looked it up: it was given to France as a gift from Egypt in 1830. It’s one of a pair of obelisks that were built in the 13th centry for the front gate of the Luxor Temple in Egypt (the other one is still at Luxor).
It’s quite taller than it looked, but we trudged our way up the stairs, still tired from all the walking. What a view! This is the Champs-Élysées. See the end of it in the distance? That’s where Louvre is, and that’s only half the distance from the Notre Dame where we started this walk.
Some interesting facts:
- The Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument in the world today.
- It was originally planned to be built in Barcelona for their 1888 World’s Fair exhibition, but Barcelona rejected it. So they resubmitted it to Paris who accepted it for their 1889 exhibition.
- The city of Paris planned to tear it down after 20 years (it was designed to be taken down easily; it was never supposed to be permanent). They only kept it because it was useful as a radio tower during the war, and that’s when it became a symbol of French war heroism and national pride.
- It took only 300 workers to join all the iron pieces together.
By the time we went up, it was very foggy and you could barely see anything on the ground directly below you. It was scary and awesome at the same time. This is what it looked like when we got back down.
We finished it off with some crepes from a street vendor. I had a cheese crepe. Marta had sugar and whipped cream. (Trust me, they tasted a lot better than it looks in the picture.)
We also took two short videos. The first one is the ‘light show’ which lasts about 10 minutes at the top of each hour:
The second one… we were silly after walking all day. Sitting on the steps, eating my crepe, I realized that if I looked up I could see the Eiffel Tower upside down… (“that’s the Tour Eiffel upside down”)
Monday: going home
The next morning we checked out of the hotel and went to the Lafayette shopping mall and looked around. Lots of stuff from every designer in the world, but it was all too much for me (or, I was too tired to go shopping after yesterday’s walk).
Getting to the airport (a.k.a. Charles de Gaulle can kiss my ass): We thought we’d go to the airport early and relax with some coffee and read our books. But nooo… getting to the airport was a real pain in the ass. First, they didn’t sell the tickets for the train anywhere near the train stop, and no-one knew where to buy them. We asked 3 at different information booths and got 3 different answers, and all of them were wrong. We finally found it ourselves.
When we arrived at the airport we were lost for information again. How about a display with the all the flight departures? Or maybe a map or bus route showing you how to get to the different terminals? And what’s up with Terminal 2 anyway… you’ve got Terminal 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F… when there’s only one Terminal 1 and Terminal 3? Well, we finally figured out that our flight was at Terminal 1, found a bus to take us there, and thus our Parisian holiday was over.
Other observations:
- For all their fashion, the men are still stuck in the neo-macho 80’s: straight men with earrings, shirts unbuttoned halfway to show off their man-chest, etc.
- The French are very touchy-feely. The ‘automatic door’ didn’t catch on here. In the metro you have to push open the gates, turn knobs to open the train doors, etc. I know I’m a little bit of a germaphobe, but compared to many of the other cities I’ve been to, this was the most “hands-on.”
- The cliches are mostly true: the French can be quite rude and snobby. We got plenty of dirty looks and bad service, especially from the women shopkeepers. And Marta speaks half-decent French, so it’s not like we weren’t trying! I guess it’s all part of the Paris experience.
Parting shot: does Robert DeNiro know that they’re using his face to advertise for the circus? (posters seen in the metro stations)
Friday morning: Get a phone call… I have to leave the UK while they wrap up my work permit. Don’t come back until Monday night.
Friday night: Trip is booked. (How did people ever plan their trips before Expedia?)
Saturday morning/afternoon: Pack. Bring dogs to the sitter. Rush to Heathrow airport. Catch the flight. Catch breath.
Saturday night: ARRIVE IN PARIS! Find the hotel without a problem. Hungry as hell. Find a cute little restaurant down a scary-looking side street. Eat, drink, be merry. Feels great!
Sunday:The adventure begins!
MORNING:
The closest tourist area from the hotel is the area of Montmarte, where the Basilique Sacré-Coeur is located at the top of a big hill. It’s huge and impressive looking, but I was surprised to learn that it’s not very old. Completed in 1914, it’s not even 100 years old. (The site of the church, however, is supposedly where Saint Denis was beheaded in the 3rd century.)
First we ate breakfast at a cafe, and had the best Tiramisu ever. (I usually don’t like tiramisu, but that’s because I was having inferior tiramisu. Once you’ve had the real thing, you’ll never forget it.)
We took some pictures, then we climbed up the stairs all the way to the top of the hill and toured the inside of the church.
On our way up, we passed by a small film crew shooting a movie or something. A cross-dressed man gets his purse snatched, and he chases after the thief. Those crazy French. But he ran well in those high heels.
I looked it up when we got home. It was put there by an underground street artist called “the Invader.” At first he just invaded Paris, but now he’s spread to tagging cities all over the world. He shows it off on his website here.
Next we walked down the red-light district of Pigalle. Lots of sex shops, etc. And people complain about Americans… care for a McDonalds burger after watching porn at the Cine X?
And of course, I stepped in French dog poo because they really don’t clean up after their dogs on the street. It’s not like avoiding land mines, but you do have to watch your step.
Finally we arrived at the Moulin Rouge. Not much to look at from the outside. We would have liked to go in, but they were having an industrial goth-rock festival concert that day. (Terminal Choice was headlining the show. I love them! If I knew, I would have brought my black pleather pants and black shirt and joined in.)
Posted by LondonMitch 
Posted by LondonMitch 
Posted by LondonMitch 
