Paris

2010-11-11

Coming in on the train in the morning we got to see some epic countryside. France was a lovely country and I want to go back again and see more of it one day.

When we got off our train we needed to catch the Metro to our Hostel. The ticket system sucks. There was only one ticket machine and about 40 people lined up to use it. After we finally got our ticket we were on our way, and despite being very crowded it was pretty convenient and cheap.

As soon as we got there we knew that this Hostel was going to be awesome. And having stayed there I would say it was the best Hostel I have ever been to so far. Only problem is, it's a long way from anything interesting, which isn't a big deal if you use the Metro, but as we didn't really no what we were doing and had a bus tour (but didn't know the stops) we started walking to the Louvre and trying to find a bus stop on the way. There was several but they were really badly signed, and we didn't find them until later when we had a brochure with all the stops. So we ended up walking to the Louvre.

It was a lovely walk, but Rachael wasn't in a good mood (I think all the walking was starting to get to her) so I don't think she enjoyed it. She was much happier once we finally got the Louvre. Well that's not true, I said that we were at the Louvre as soon as I saw it but she wouldn't beleive me until we walked all the way around to the front entrance which has the glass pyramid. Having talked to someone the next day, this is the worst entrance to go to because it means you have to line up for an hour or so instead of 5mins at a side entrance.

So having waited in line, we got to go inside. The sheer enormity of the place is incredible. It is huge. I had been told by many people that you need several days to see it all, but we saw most things in 4 hours. And after 4 hours we had well and truly had enough and wanted to leave. Every room had something cool in it, but the place is so huge and there is so much to see I don't think many people could handle longer than that without becoming exhausted.

So we left, and found our Hop-on Hop-off bus. We spent the rest of the day sitting on it as it slowly took us home. The wind up top was freezing so we had to go downstairs, which was shame because there was so many cool sights. We went up to the top again sometimes for the particularly interesting sections, like the Champs-Élysées and Eiffel Tower, but the cold was pretty offputting.

The roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe was really crazy, you can understand why it's not possible to get insurance there, it seemed like madness but there wasn't any accidents so there must be a fairly good system in place. I am pretty sure that unlike a normal roundabout, people coming onto the roundabout have right-of-way rather than people on the roundabout because we were constantly stopping to let people on.

In Rome it had been great because everything was so close together, but the bus tour of Paris took forevor. By the time we finally got to stop near our Hostel we were freezing and starving. At the stop was a subway so we went in there. They have 15cm and 30cm subs. We were cut. How come Australia has to use the term "footlong" if they don't. It was also interesting to see how different the food was even though it was the same meals. The chicken fillet looked nothing like our one, and it had vegies and stuff cooked into it as well.

Back at the hostel we had a second dinner in the form of some Fish and Chips, and a few drinks before heading upstairs to get some sleep.

On DAY 2 we waited at our hostel which was the starting point of the free walking tour. Like the Munich one, the tour was great and we learnt a lot about the city. On the river Seine we got to see some police going scuba diving looking for bodies. Our guide informed us that they were probably checking for suiciders as the bridge is a popular place for that sort of thing. We also got to see a space invader mosiac. I had seen a couple in Bern as well, but apperently Paris was the first place where they started appearing, because the guy that does it is French. His most famous one is on the Hollywood sign in America.

We crossed the Pont Neuf (New Bridge) which is the oldest bridge in Paris - it was new at the time of naming obviously. We were shown a spot from the Bourne Identity, and a place which is haunted. We also crossed another bridge later on that had more of the padlocks on it. It's kind of funny that the government comes through twice a year with bolt cutters to remove them all - kind of defeats the point for people doing it.

After we had been to the Louvre and some other places that I have probably forgotten, Jenny (our guide) led us to this random place too see some modern art. It was probably the first modern art I have seen that I actually found cool. We were told that the artist beleives that art should be something that you don't have to pay for, you find unexpectedly and makes you have an oppinion about it (good or bad).... and it was definitetly that. It was called Les Deux Plateaux, and stripey art dude I salute you for making it, I enjoyed it.

Then we went through the Tuileries Gardens, and walked down towards the obelisk and then across the river again to a war museum where the body of Napoleon is kept. Then after the tour some of us went to a french cafe and had some Croquemonsieur and wine.

After our french cafe experience, Rachael and I left and went to see the Eiffel Tower up close, which was kind of cool except for all the guys with machine guns and the hundreds of dodgy guys selling mintature towers. Interestinly we found out there is a single bedroom apartment at the top of the eiffel tower that the designer had installed for himself that he could take "friends" to. It would be a pretty impressive pick-up line for sure.

After that we rode around on the bus a bit, went inside the Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris and watched some street dancers outside.

We then got the bus to the Champs-Élysées in order to climb to the top of the Arc de Triomph. There was more street dancers there as well.

{{< vimeo 16563098 >}}

The view from the top at night was spectacular and I reccomend it to everyone. I'm sure it is great in the day but at night the lights of the city were spectacular.

This time we got the metro home instead of the bus, which made the journey much quicker. That is once we worked out where to go, we got a little bit confused. The place is like a giant maze and most of the time we had no idea where we were or how far underground.

On DAY 3 we weren't quite ready to leave Paris, it was a great city. Nonetheless, we had to check out and get a train to the airport. The whole day was basically wasted, because not only do you have to spend hours waiting at the airport, our plane sat on the tarmac for about another hour before we actually took off, I have no idea why. But eventually we were off and on our way to Prague....