I am so happy I was in Paris! This is a city I could live in. It is a city of romance, it oozes romance. On every corner people are canoodling and kissing and acting all in love. It was really quite special. I don't think any other city can duplicate the beauty, the elegance and inspiration that Paris has.
This past Thursday I took the night bus with my roommate Ania from Utrecht to Paris, 7 hours. We took the 10:45 pm bus so we could sleep on the bus. It was hard though, I was so excited to be FINALLY going to Paris after so much time pining over going. We arrived at 6am on Friday morning. We were in Paris.
Day 1
The bus station is on the outskirts so we had to take the Metro into the centre, Metro stop Galleini. Ahhh... so wonderful. We had to transfer once to get to our hotel. When we came up from the Metro it was still dark. I had prepared well before so I had everything marked on the map etc. However, we still got a bit lost, but we found it after a few minutes, and our frist encounter asking in partial French if the person could help us.
Our hotel was a budget hotel, so don't get any ideas... I wish though. We stayed at Hotel Opps, it was actually quite nice very modern and chic, a few steps up from some of the hostels I have stayed in. We couldn't check-in to our rooms until 4pm so we freshened up to Parisian standards and grabbed some breakfast at the hotel. Yum, warm crossisants and half a baggette with jam and butter, and liquid caffine. I don't think they put much water in the machine when they were making it. LOL> So, we stocked up on carbs to get us through the day and then at 830 headed for the Eiffel Tower. Nothing was going to stop me from living my dream! Just like Journey said "Don't stop believing". So, we navigated the metro quite well (I might say, I suppose the amount I am paying for my university education I should be able to problem solve and navigate through 14 lines of underground metro). About 20 minutes later, we arrived. Bir Hakeim station the Eiffel Tower stop (or one of them). The anticipation was killing me, but on street level I got my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, my heart swelled a bit. As we got closer to the tower, it didn't seem so amazing. After beating the lines and waiting 30 min to get in, we got our tickets and practically ran up the stairs. We paid to go to the very top 12 euro, nothing to live your dream. Up the elevator to the second level, out to the terrace and up one more elevator, this was it the top. Breath-taking. When we stepped out, you just sort of stopped. The view was stunning. The Eiffel Tower itself might be an iron structure and slightly browned from weather, but it is still epic, and the view holds even more 'epicness'. Unbelievable, I still can't believe I was there. So, I was at the Eiffel Tower, with a complete view of the city, Paris for miles. The weather was perfect too. It's like Paris knew how much I loved it, and how long I waited to go. So, after we took photos (and the the infamous Lionel Ritchie shirt made it's major debut) we headed down to the second level to the gift shop. At first I was apprehensive, the prices were astronomical, but... then I saw it. It was a Christmas tree decoration. It was this decorative ball with Paris on it (plastic in the sense it wouldn't break straight away if I dropped it, but still nice enough that I knew I had to have it). I also found a beautiful print of a pencil sketch of the tower, so 12 euro later my purchases in hand we descended back to the ground. Honestly, perfect timing, within minutes of us going up and down the tower was PACKED. People everywhere, tourists from all over the world to see this icon. It was worth it all.
Next stop, the Louvre. We headed back onto the metro and went to the Louvre. We walked through the Place du Louvre and out into the plaza with the pyramid. Beautiful. After some photo ops we headed into the labryrinth of the Louvre. Holy cow, it was enormous. We wandered through the Greek and Roman sculptures, over into Italin, French and Spanish period paintings, then we came to the Mona Lisa. The room was packed, people queuing to see this enigmatic creature. My first reaction was, the painting is so small. For some reason I thought she was so much bigger, but she was worth all the hype, it really is a beautfil painting, I can see why people spend hours looking at it. But, maybe not when tourists are mobbing each other to get a photo with her in the background. I sometimes feel bad for Parisians, because in some places tourist over run the city. After the Mona Lisa, we wandered into some beautful Italian paintings and contiuned to a temporary exhibit of Picasso. Off to the Venus de Milo or Aphrodite. Also people queuing for her picture. The Louvre is amazing, there is so much to see it really takes days to see the full extent, but we managed to cover quite a bit. We caught a glimpse of the Egyptian exhibit but my legs and feet were unsympathetic by this point. So, off to the bookstore. I bought a detailed guide of the Louvre so I can mull over my favourite pieces and look at what I missed. I could have bought so many books, too bad they were in French. Not to mention that I would need a seperate suitcase for the books.
After the Lourve we walked out to Rue de Rivoli and grabbed some Nutella Banana crepes and walked over to the Jardin du Carrousel and the Jardin des Tuileries. We sat and watched the spectacle of everyday life in Paris. We happened to stop by a group of older men in the distance, at first glance it looked like they were about to start a brawl, but it turns out they were playing bocci ball, and they were just acting like ... men and it just came off like they were in competition to win a mate like in the middle-ages.
Into the gardens, wow. Sculptures everywhere, and beautiful ones at that. Into the major garden of Tuileries which is definitely a place lovers frequent. A view from the garden out to the Concorde a big plaza with fountains and historical monuments. After a brief stop, we headed for the Musee de l'Organgerie - or the museum holding Monet's Water Lilies!!!!!! The coolest thing is you can take photos inside, so have some pictures of Monet's masterpieces!!! Afterwards, we took some pictures of the Concorde and then decided it was time to go home and get a shower and some food. This was about 5pm. A full day, and this so far is only day 1. Daytime. We went back to the hotel, freshened up, and then we grabbed some dinner, we decided to go for sushi in Paris. This was Ania's first time eating sushi, so it seemed kind of special to eat it in Paris. It was pretty tasty, my only complaint is we had to pay for the green tea, that is bananas. Overall, the food was great. Now, off to the Arc de Triomphe and Av des Champs-Elysees, ohh so beautiful. We took some photos and ended up talking to this couple from LA who were on a whirlwind tour of Europe, but were also there for the drugs, and loved to talk. Resulting, in us getting our photos taken, and learning about their drunken adventures in Rome and about trying mushrooms in Amsterdam (keep in mind they had to be about 40 and the guy looked like he was dressed straight out of Blade and was into vampires). But, they were nice enough and so we talked with them, but if we didn't get out we wouldn't. So, said our good-byes and headed down the Av des Champs-Elysees. Loads of stores, expensive ones al open to the toursits looking to buy up the city and loads of outdoor cafes with local Parisians looking fabulous and taking in the view. We stumbled on to a Dolce and Gabbana shop where I found a fabulous pair of sequined shoes for 990 euro. Not bad, if I was ready to have fabulous shoes but become a homeless Canadian on the streets of Paris. Instead we stumbled onto Sephora a much more purse friendly shop with cosmestics galore. I bought some fab bronzer and felt great shopping in such a chic shop. We continued our shopping and found ourselves back at the Concorde and the gates of Jardin des Tuileries. We took the metro back to the hotel and called it a night.
Here I must stop... there is so much more to write....
Follow the link to pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097751&l=ff602&id=116202560
