Bonjour!
Firstly my apologies to Liz Hodge (and any other french speakers out there)who at this moment is probably cringing at my french spelling- i could only try!
Paris..... how do i start?!
This city is amazing. overwhelming (due to some slight language barriers...),
crazy and manic. but all in all quite an adventure.
To start this tale we need to go back to the start. Dublin. A city invaded by crazed fans for the final of the sport they call hurling, a mix of hockey, soccer and rugby. Limerick vs Kilkenny. The city was manic. so we had a good explore and left for the airport. Good old ryanair again. my bag weighed in at 14.7 kg and we are only allowed 15. whew. some things might be arriving on your door step mum and Dad! anyway it was packed not the plane - not full this time and it was off to Paris Beauvais airport. The airport that is referred to as a paris ariport but is an hour and a half drive into Paris. Which we did in a mercedes mini van with an australian couple and an indian woman and her children. Since the guy spoke no english he made one heck of a tour guide! Mike and i had the priviledge of sitting in the front seat so we faced the right hand driving face on. and it was ok. until we got into paris itself and even though it was midnight the traffic materialised out of the darkness and the manic weaving and horn honking began. We were the last 2 to get dropped off - it was done in order of wealth funnily enough and we were certainly tailend charlie!
Coming up to an intersection the Arc de Triomphe appeared - and it is VERY LARGE! - and the road lines disappeared and it was a free for all on the roundabout that circles the Arch. i refer to it as the bull ring but it was by no means unique - every round a bout of a decent size was the same. it was crazy. i have no desire what so ever to drive in Paris.
We were deposited at our hostel which was on the far eastern side just within the ring road so it was quiet and relatively peaceful. It turns out that International Residence de Paris is actually a centre for disabled athletes that takes in tourists when they have room. the room with 2 sets of bunks and a seperate shower and toilet was a very nice change from the Dublin B&B in which i could touch the two walls when i stretched out my arms and the shower you could barely get into let alone turn around in it.
So we were in Paris.
With a Pain au Chocolat (croissant with chocolate in it) and a baguette (our french sticks do not even come close!) for breakfast we were off to find the metro and do the usual tourist stuff.
We discovered the Concorde and then spying the tip of the Eiffel Tower we starting walking along the River Seine towards it. a good 45 minutes later we got there having only one near death incident involving oncoming traffic. For four euros we got to climb 700 steps to the second level where you can compete with the other tourists for the best photo spots and the tacky overpriced souveneirs. it doesnt get much better than that.
It was at the Tour eiffel that i had my first experience with beggers.
A horde of young girls who would give you a note asking for money as her mother was in hospital and they had no money. I didnt know what to do.
When i shook my head as i had no change she started abusing me in her own language. i didnt feel quite so bad then. So that was the start of the the the avoid eye contact and shake head as you keep walking past that the Parisians have perfected.
Of everything i saw that day, notre dame, tour de eiffel, concorde, the outside of the Louvre, the arc de triomphe i think it was the sheer amount of beggars around and how they seem to fade into the background for most people that will stick with me. I didnt know how to respond.
That evening after Quiche Lorraine and custard tart for tea...mmm pastry...we walked through the Tullieries gardens near the Concorde and caught the metro home with some very sore feet, a dented wallet from entry fees and the obligatory souveneirs and a resolve to not eat quite so much pastry tomorrow.
5 september We headed into the Champs Elsyees - one of the central shopping streets to find disneyland tickets and to book our train onto France which the stupid internet wouldnt let us do on the website.After finding that shops didnt open till 9.30 - 10. We checked out the Arc De Triomphe up close and the bull ring in full traffic stampede. it was quite deafening and scary.
After getting hold of tickets to Disneyland (46 Euro - ie 92 NZD OUCH!)
and finally locating a tourist office which then sent us on to a travel agent we had to push back our departure for Germany to Saturday and suddenly we had time to spare so, pushing back Disneyland to the 6th we went into the Louvre and got completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of artifacts and paintings and sculptures and..... it was all too much after 3 hours and once i finally located the Mona Lisa hiding behind the wall of snap happy tourists being held back from her by a cordon and took the obligatory photo of her and her adoring masses i hightailed it back to the atrium under the pyramid and got in line with thirty other women for the rest room. Something has to be done about the lines for womens toilets. No really, i can say that without fail women always have to wait at any of the main tourist attractions. poor form!
After the Louvre we went to checkout the Moulin Rouge in the Monmartre - no we didnt go inside, just took a photo of the outside. After that i convinced Mike that since we were in the area a visit to the Sacre Coeur Basilica was in order. After winding through a maze of little streets and hawkers selling everything imaginable we climbed the stairs to the Basilica to find an inpromptu concert on the steps. 2 french latino guys were playing guitars and they had a crowd gathered and they were singing along.
So we joined in. and through the haze of cigarette smoke (cough cough) we had a nice night watching as paris lit up for the night.
tales of Disneyland, Versailles and world cup rugby tomorrow!
Au Revoir!
Love KJ
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