Fred and I traveled via the chunnel from England to Paris on the Eurostar. We caught a cab at the train station and after a quick taxi ride through busy Paris neighborhoods made it to our hotel in the Latin Quarter. From our hotel window, which looked down into the Sorbonne, there was a view of the Eiffel tower off in the distance—nice!
First day – walked the Champs Elysees down to the Arc de Triomphe. You can’t help but be struck by just how monumental the sites are – the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame. On the other hand, as Fred repeatedly noted, everything else is so small and close – the chairs, the hotel rooms, the coffees, the restaurant spaces – all so tiny. Food was expensive – our best options seemed to be pizza, baguettes with ham or pommes frites – we really got tired of eating these – to the point that we couldn’t stand the thought of another pizza, baguette or french fries. We had a couple of dinners at a little café/bar near the restaurant and some tasty pastries out of a Viennese bakery next to our hotel.
We used the metro and train system extensively to get around Paris and environs. Had a likeable and informative English-speaking guide – Christian – for walking tours of the Latin Quarter and Montmartre. Took a day trip to Versailles – the palace and the grounds were amazing! We ended our sojourn in Paris with a romantic night cruise down the Seine.
Travel advice: Tourists should beware of nuns stealing money. Fred was short-changed 10 euros getting into Notre Dame’s audio tour. Notre Dame, by the way, was also our least favorite tourist opportunity; Do take advantage of the free toilettes to-be-found in any Starbucks and McDonalds. (Starbucks is a godsend if you are craving a full-sized and decently priced coffee. Don’t let it bother you that you are not going local, all the Parisian students drink there, too!)
Unfortunately for me, my Kindle bit the dust while in Paris. This will surely limit my upcoming (at least until we reach Australia) reading options in English. Anyways, my favorite series set in Paris: Aimee Leduc series by C Black. Each book features a murder in one of the Paris neighborhoods, such the Basille, Marais, Sentier, Latin Quarter, etc.
Photos will be added soon. We had to buy a new netbook and are dealing with adding software/transfering files and learning our way around a control panel in Italian...
Photos will be added soon. We had to buy a new netbook and are dealing with adding software/transfering files and learning our way around a control panel in Italian...
You can definitely experience bread overload when in Paris! It is so good for the first day or so but the bread is so easy to come by. I should have warned you about the audio tour at Notre Dame... I did that as well and really preferred to just walk around and look at the cathedral.
ReplyDeleteThat sucks that the Kindle and netbook died...weird b/c most of the time the electronics are usually pretty good with the dual adaptors for the power plugs. You should be able to change your keyboard settings to English on the netbook to get your symbols etc to their normal spots (good if you type without looking at the keypad). We had to do that for a Sony Vaio that we were given that originated in England. Originally it took me forever to find out where the @symbol was! haha.
How was your tour of Versailles? It was SO jam packed when I went, it was like we were herds of cattle that were quickly shuffled through the rooms. I had to break away from my group to get some decent photos.
ReplyDeleteI also missed the night tour of the Seine, you'll have to tell me how that went. (My group went on the night I met up with Brenna.. but they said that they didn't time it right to see the light show.)