Vive la France, part I
Sometime in early spring I phoned khalaris, my partner in crime when it comes to planing vacations, and asked her to come to London with me. Somehow and sometime between then and now I changed my mind about the destination and that's how we ended up in Paris.
Here goes the story ... (you know the drill, click the links and enjoy the photos)
First of all, Paris is a beautiful city with an unique style of architecture. I like to think that Berlin as well would have kept some semblance of coherent architecture if it weren't for WWII and the bomb raids. Thankfully, Paris was spared this fate. We saw Inception the first day in Paris (yes, I know, we deserve a penguin for finding a cinema with original versions ...
), and that movie plays in Paris a lot ... it's funny to watch a movie in the city it was shot. Anyway, Paris looks exactly the same as depicted in the movie. I have no idea how, but each street in the city has these distincitve features that just make Paris. It's astonishing.
Where was I? Oh, yes, first day. We got up at an ungodly hour and Gocker drove us to the airport. Everything went fine, no strike and we landed as planned in Paris Orly. We had no trouble finding the right bus and the right metro and before ten we stood inside our hostel and left our baggage there to discover Montmatre. Apparently, it was too early for other tourists or even the locals, because we had the whole neighbourhood to ourselves. Empty streets, the rising sun, weird monuments (pay attention to his head!), and the beautiful architecture of Montmatre - there's no better way to start your visit. It only showed that Montmatre is one of the tourists hotspots of Paris as we got nearer to Sacré Coeur. This is one stunning church, also with an absolute amazing view of Paris. The night before we had to fly back we went back there (I ate tasty crêpe with real dark (!!) chocolate and banana on the way - I'm spoiled for life regarding crêpes) and enjoyed the view and the atmosphere again. Not so much all the guys who tried to sell us beer (Heineken, really?!?), the travel guide really should warn against these people, but alas, my travel guide didn't even mention going there in the dark - although it should be part of every visit to Paris to just sit on the steps to Sacré Coeur after sunset. When the tour d'Eifel doesn't blink it's even nice to look at.
Back to sunlight ... after I had dragged Dani into Sacre Coeur (she was lovely in enduring my church affinity), we took the metro to the city center, and walked along the Champs-Élysées (Gocker, since your company is working on that street, I think your job is pretty safe). I once again enjoyed the architecture and after we ate a horrible expensive sundea, we realized that Paris is really one expensive city.
Therefore, my advicefor the day: If you're a citizen of the European Union and it's in any way possible for you, visit Paris before you turn 26. You have free entry to nearly everything ... Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Versailles (and you can enter the palace directly, but that's a story for another day), Conciergerie, and so on ... whoever came up with that idea, I want to send him flowers. Also, one more reason to think that the E.U. is, all things considered, a wonderful idea. However, concerning eating and drinking, Paris is the most expensive city I've ever been to (and I've been to New York City, Washington D.C., Dublin, and London, but that was actually cheap compared to Paris). It's impossible to get Cappucchino under 5 € ... o_O ... even if you only want to eat baguette you won't get away with under 5 € in most cases. The upside to this is that eating on the balcony of the Louvre costs the same as eating anywhere else. And you have a marvellous view of the pyramide and the people standing in line.
Part II is coming in the next days, but I didn't want to overwhelm my family with English.
Here goes the story ... (you know the drill, click the links and enjoy the photos)
First of all, Paris is a beautiful city with an unique style of architecture. I like to think that Berlin as well would have kept some semblance of coherent architecture if it weren't for WWII and the bomb raids. Thankfully, Paris was spared this fate. We saw Inception the first day in Paris (yes, I know, we deserve a penguin for finding a cinema with original versions ...
), and that movie plays in Paris a lot ... it's funny to watch a movie in the city it was shot. Anyway, Paris looks exactly the same as depicted in the movie. I have no idea how, but each street in the city has these distincitve features that just make Paris. It's astonishing.
Where was I? Oh, yes, first day. We got up at an ungodly hour and Gocker drove us to the airport. Everything went fine, no strike and we landed as planned in Paris Orly. We had no trouble finding the right bus and the right metro and before ten we stood inside our hostel and left our baggage there to discover Montmatre. Apparently, it was too early for other tourists or even the locals, because we had the whole neighbourhood to ourselves. Empty streets, the rising sun, weird monuments (pay attention to his head!), and the beautiful architecture of Montmatre - there's no better way to start your visit. It only showed that Montmatre is one of the tourists hotspots of Paris as we got nearer to Sacré Coeur. This is one stunning church, also with an absolute amazing view of Paris. The night before we had to fly back we went back there (I ate tasty crêpe with real dark (!!) chocolate and banana on the way - I'm spoiled for life regarding crêpes) and enjoyed the view and the atmosphere again. Not so much all the guys who tried to sell us beer (Heineken, really?!?), the travel guide really should warn against these people, but alas, my travel guide didn't even mention going there in the dark - although it should be part of every visit to Paris to just sit on the steps to Sacré Coeur after sunset. When the tour d'Eifel doesn't blink it's even nice to look at.
Back to sunlight ... after I had dragged Dani into Sacre Coeur (she was lovely in enduring my church affinity), we took the metro to the city center, and walked along the Champs-Élysées (Gocker, since your company is working on that street, I think your job is pretty safe). I once again enjoyed the architecture and after we ate a horrible expensive sundea, we realized that Paris is really one expensive city.
Therefore, my advicefor the day: If you're a citizen of the European Union and it's in any way possible for you, visit Paris before you turn 26. You have free entry to nearly everything ... Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Versailles (and you can enter the palace directly, but that's a story for another day), Conciergerie, and so on ... whoever came up with that idea, I want to send him flowers. Also, one more reason to think that the E.U. is, all things considered, a wonderful idea. However, concerning eating and drinking, Paris is the most expensive city I've ever been to (and I've been to New York City, Washington D.C., Dublin, and London, but that was actually cheap compared to Paris). It's impossible to get Cappucchino under 5 € ... o_O ... even if you only want to eat baguette you won't get away with under 5 € in most cases. The upside to this is that eating on the balcony of the Louvre costs the same as eating anywhere else. And you have a marvellous view of the pyramide and the people standing in line.
Part II is coming in the next days, but I didn't want to overwhelm my family with English.