Sunday 14 October 2012
Kim & I flew out of Brisbane
on Emirates flight EK 435 at 8:45pm, bound for Dubai. Emirates is a fantastic
airline, with a lot of entertainment options on private screens, and the
service on this particular flight was also very good, but I have to say – this
was a very, very long time to be sitting in an Economy seat, and it seemed like
we would never get to Dubai.
Monday 15 October 2012
Almost 14 hours later, we arrived,
and while swimming against the tide of other transit passengers, we made our
way through Dubai Airport’s duty free shops and searched in vain for a shower.
So after a couple of hours (and feeling less than fresh) we caught the next flight,
onto Paris on the A380. This plane is the best I have ever experienced. We were
3 rows from the front of the plane, behind the cockpit, and next to the grand
staircase leading up to Business & First Class. So basically, we were
practically in Business Class (on a normal plane we would have been!) This
flight was lovely, but unfortunately the entertainment system broke down about
2 hours from Paris... nothing’s perfect.
Paris – finally! We caught the
Paris Metro to our apartment in the Latin Quarter, expertly changing trains at
Gare du Nord and getting off at Saint Marcel. And then we got slightly lost for
a while. Kim turned out to be the expert at map-reading and I was totally
directionally challenged for the entire trip, starting on this Day One...
Once we found our apartment and
the entry codes worked, we lugged our bags up the 54 stairs to our 3rd
floor apartment. It was a bit of a bargain for the 5 nights we stayed –
possibly due to the very old building with creaky floorboards, teeny tiny
shower, temperamental washing machine and TV that stopped working after a
couple of days. That said, it was in a great location and I loved having a
kitchen, my own room and staying “locally” and not in a hotel in a
mega-touristy area.
In the late afternoon, we took a
long walk to find Notre Dame, which on the map, seemed a lot closer! We
wandered around and took photos, then headed back to our apartment, stopping at
a local boulangerie where we bought a dinner of hot dogs – they weren’t bad
either! Then showered and crashed for the night.
 |
| Kim in our Parisian Apartment |
Tuesday 16 October 2012
This morning we got on the Metro and made our way to
Anvers Station. From here we walked through Montmartre and up to Sacre Coeur
for a great view of Paris. We went inside where mass was on, so we and the
other hordes of tourists had to walk quietly around the sides of the Basilica.
Afterwards, we wandered around the streets and markets in Montmartre, a really
wonderful place, full of talented street artists, galleries and cafes... not
really worth mentioning was the place we went for lunch – it was mainly the bad
service that made it unpleasant. Worth mentioning is my recommendation to go a
few blocks away from the main market area for food – the places there looked
more welcoming, and it was most likely where the locals ate.
After catching the Metro to Porte de Pantin, we walked
through a big science park called Parc de la Villette, and met the boat for a
Seine Canal and River cruise. This was one cold ride – the boat had to stop
every few minutes to go through a series of locks before we got to the river.
The locks had to be drained to allow the boat to sink down far enough to be
able to get under each bridge. I think there were about 9 locks altogether...
made for a slow first half. At the end of all the locks, we had a ride through a
cold, dark tunnel, which took about 15 minutes to get through, before we got to
the river and saw a few sights before finishing up near the Musee d’Orsay.
We walked a long way from here to the Eiffel Tower for a
few photos before sunset. And then some photos after sunset. We visited the
tower a couple of times on this trip, and it really is a sight to behold. Last
time I was in Paris, we were able to sit on the grass and look, but this time
the grassy area was all blocked off, which was disappointing. So we headed back
to our lovely Latin Quarter, had some dinner at a local brasserie, where I
tried using my pitiful French on the waiter, then back to the apartment.
 |
| C-c-c-cold canal tour |
Wednesday 17 October 2012
Rained. All day. Versailles today. We caught the RER
train (Line C!) there, had a nice walk around the Palace and oohed and aahed at
the extravagance of it all, then Kim wanted to check out the gardens. These
gardens go for miles and miles (not sure just how many, but I need to stress
the point, that the grounds are really huge). Due to the heavy rain, and the
fact I had seen the gardens the last time I was in the area, I walked only
about half a kilometre with her, then headed back to the chateau to dry off and
feel resentful about it daring to rain on my holiday. For these reasons, I have
just noticed that I didn’t take any photos at Versailles.
Once we got back to Paris, we took the chance to see the
Louvre, as it opens late on Wednesday night, and we thought there might be less
people there at night. Wrong! There were many people who clearly thought the
same thing – it was very crowded and not the peaceful gallery I hoped for. I
looked at the Grand Gallery with the Italian Renaissance art that featured in
The Da Vinci Code, then got a surprisingly good look at Mona Lisa – it is
fabulous and not too small at all in my opinion – and one of my favourite
sculptures, Psyche and Cupid by Antonio Canova; also Venus de Milo and the
Winged Victory of Samothrace (a headless Greek goddess Nike). No time for
anything else! I still liked the Louvre, but the crowds were pretty big – and
this was meant to be during “off-season”!
Thursday 18 October 2012
Musee d’Orsay this morning. Such a contrast to the
Louvre. One important reason being, photography is not allowed here, making it
less crowded and hectic, as nobody is fighting to take pictures of... the
pictures. I had a wonderful morning here, looking at the sculptures, then
seeing the Neo-classic period (beautiful, unrealistic perfection – eg La Source
by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres) paintings, through Realism (Olympia by
Edouard Manet) to the Impressionists (mainly featuring Monet & Renoir, but
I also liked Alfred Sisley & Camille Pissaro which were shown alongside the
major names). Everything about the Musee d’Orsay is beautiful, the building and
works of art, and the calm atmosphere. We had photos in front of a huge see
through clock which looked out to views of Paris, and had lunch in a great
restaurant onsite.
In the afternoon we walked along the posh Boulevard
Saint-Germain, then caught the Metro back to Notre Dame and walked (in the rain
mainly) around Ile Saint-Louis, the little island in the centre of the river
next to Ile de la Cite where Notre Dame is located. The smaller island is
lovely and quaint, and we had a nice dinner at a lovely and quaint restaurant
called Le Flore, which had a view across the river to the Cathedral, and had
the best ice cream in the city for dessert, called Berthillon ice cream. A
brand name to be remembered. I believe I had the recommended peche (peach) and
framboise (raspberry). Yummy.
 |
| Looking through the clock at Musee d'Orsay (Louvre in the distance) |
Friday 19 October 2012
Today we got off the train at Concorde Station to see
Place de la Concorde, and from here, walked to Champs Elysee and down the end
to the Arc de Triomphe. Here, I fought off my claustrophobia to trudge up the
stairs inside, to the top of the Arc for some more nice views.
Then, after
underestimating the distance again, we walked for about 45 minutes down
Boulevard Haussmann to Galeries Lafayette, a big shopping centre with a most
excellent gourmet food hall and spectacular views from its roof. We had lunch
there, then, after turning away a potential pickpocket using the old “is this
your gold ring” trick we read about in a travel book (there’ll be no picking of
my pockets thanks very much), we got on the train at the worst-signed station
in Paris, Opera Station.
 |
| View from Arc de Triomphe |
Straight to Champ de Mars, the stop for the Eiffel Tower.
We only had to line up for about half an hour, then bought tickets and got to
the 2nd level, for some photos around sunset, then decided not to
line up again for an hour for tickets to the very top, and so headed back down
to the ground. At 7pm we watched the light show, which is always very pretty,
then went around the corner to a restaurant with views of the tower for some
dinner, then back to Le Latin Quarter.
 |
| Take a guess! |
Saturday 20 October 2012
After leaving the apartment and trekking in the rain with
all our luggage, we found a fantastic brasserie where we had a really big
breakfast (compared to the usual coffee & croissant which seems the only
option on offer at many places in Paris), and then used their toilets, which I
only mention as they were the best maintained and cleanest public rest rooms
we’d seen all trip! And free too.
Caught the train to Porte de Vincennes, to get to the
Hotel Charma, for the first night of our Intrepid tour, and where we would meet
our group at 6pm. As we got there before the room was ready, we then got back
on the train and went to Bastille station to see... the Bastille, and then
wandered around the Marais, a really nice area with a lot of cafes and shops,
and great old houses, including Victor Hugo’s house, where he wrote The
Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables (love that story!)
Still raining...
We met our tour group back at the hotel, there were 6 of
us altogether – Kim, me, Kirsten from Sydney, Jane & Chris, a couple from
Cairns, and Sonja, the Croatian tour leader. We all had dinner at a local place
and had a good night getting to know each other. Everyone was quite nice.
Sunday 21 October 2012
Day 1 – Intrepid Tour Paris to Madrid
We had the morning free, so Kim & I caught the train
back to the Champs Elysee, where nothing much was open, due to it being Sunday
in France! Seems it really is a day of rest for Parisians, imagine that. Of
course, being our last day in Paris, it was a beautiful blue sky day, so we
decided to trek down Avenue Montaigne,
which is the street where Carrie stayed in the last 2 episodes of Sex and the City,
and which has all the big labels' posh stores lining it. We saw the Plaza
Athenee, the hotel Carrie stayed at, and which had large, weird panda statues
outside the main entrance – I’m sure there was a good reason for that...
We
then walked down the street marvelling at the beautiful stores that I’m sure we
would have been welcome in, had they been open.
 |
| Le Posh Hotel, Avenue Montaigne |
Once we got back to our hotel on the other side of “town”
we caught the good old Metro back to our local RER station, Gare d’Austerlitz. This
meant we could have stayed in our apartment in the Latin Quarter for one more
night and met the group at the station, but we didn’t know that was possible.
So we lugged our bags onto the Metro, went back to Austerlitz, and then took
the long distance train out of Paris. We then changed trains at Orleans, and got
onto the most crowded train I have ever been on (no, I haven’t been to India or
places where people sit on the roof okay?) to get to the town of Tours a couple
of hours later. I had a drunk and slightly smelly man sitting next to me (but
he slept most of the trip), and on the other side, a girl standing in the aisle
held her cat in a carrier, right in front of my face. An unsettling and unusual
experience – but hey, we were interacting with the locals!
Paris Summary
- Rained at least 3 days out of 7
- Highlights – Montmartre; Musee d’Orsay; view from the roof of Galeries Lafayette; Eiffel Tower light show, Berthillon ice cream at Le Flore, Ile Saint-Louis; Marais area
- Favourite sculpture – Psyche & Cupid (the Louvre, pictured right)
- Favourite painting – LeDejeuner by Claude Monet (Musee D’Orsay, pictured left)
- Worst service – cafe at Montmartre
- Best service – waiter at Le Flore
- Worst part of Paris – lugging bags up & down stairs at train stations (France, learn about escalators, s’il vous plait!)
- Coldest time – river & canal cruise
- Most pleasant time – our first afternoon in Paris, going on a long walk to Notre Dame, with beautiful soft light and scenery
Great update, welcome home Chris! look forward to hearing about the tour and Spain x
ReplyDelete