Paris

Well after a pretty non eventful Easter just hanging out in London and catching up with the AFL and a few friends, it was time to get ready for our next adventure. Christine is on holiday and left for Paris on Monday the 12th.
Judy (Christine’s mum) didn’t know it at the time but Christine was going to be waiting at the airport for her arrival on Tuesday. Expecting Christine to arrive on Wednesday, she was very pleasantly surprised to see her daughter after nearly a year.
Damien finished up work on the Wednesday and took the early train under the sea to Paris. We have a bit over a week in Paris, part of this time will be house sitting an apartment while Christine’s mum, aunty and a friend travel through the south of France. The first few days were spent with the family and looking around the area we are staying in, near Place des Vosges. This is a public square, bit of grass and some trees, with a number of art galleries and shops surrounding it. We also discovered the bakery that we would return to every day for some amazing baguette, croissant and cakes.
For a bit of culture we went to Saint Chapelle for a concert. This was all Mozart music, in an old church with amazing stain glass windows. We also visited the Pantheon with its big swinging pendulum and crypts underground and ate lunch in Luxembourg Palace Gardens. We spent a day with Judy and co. wandering through Tuileries garden and along the Champs Elysee.
We saw the funniest/most annoying thing happen. We saw a photographer and a model (possibly amateur) taking photos in the middle of the road when there was a break of traffic. She was tall and blonde in the middle of the street in black lingerie. Then after a break in traffic a French Police Car came around the corner and arrested the poor lass, ruining my day!

On Saturday our friend Mel from London came to help us apartment sit and Sunday the family headed south for their tour of France, after a 2 day delay due to bloody union strikes on the train lines. We headed for some culture at the Musee D’Orsay which is an art gallery in an old train station. Part of the gallery was closed for renovations, which meant that most of the good works had moved to the bottom 2 floors. Lots of Impressionist works including Monet as well as Expressionists like Van Gough. This gallery was very interesting and some people say it is better than the Louvre due to the works in it and its smaller size. Afterwards we walked home via the Louvre, didn’t go in, but took some photos at the ‘invisible’ pyramid.

The following day we had planned on going to the Pompado, another gallery which has a strange design, all the water pipes on the exterior of the building. When we got there Christine changed her mind and went back home not feeling well. Mel and I decided not to go to the gallery and just spent the day wandering through the city, which was quite enjoyable, ending up near Sacre Cour.
The food has been amazing in Paris, the French got something right! Our mornings have been filled with croissants, Christine’s French Toast and Mel’s Scrambled Eggs then the rest of the day has been baguette, an array of cheeses and red wine.

Our first day trip from Paris was to Monet’s Garden near Giverny. This is the house and gardens that inspired a lot the paintings than Monet did, including the bridge, lake and water lilies. After Mel cooked us another awesome breakfast we took the train about an hour out of Paris. From here we were able to hire bikes and take an easy ride on a bike path through the country side, with a detour through a cute little village to Monet’s Garden.
The gardens were one of the things that Christine had to do before she dies (she has a list), so we can tick that off. Lots of tulips and tourists pretty much sums up what we saw. The gardens were nice with trees and a lake, bit very busy. Christine also enjoyed it when a random mechanic stopped her and after a few hurried French words started trying to tighten her bike pedal which had been loose all morning.
Tonight is Mel’s last night with us, sadly. After our ride we got a baguette, beer and picnic supplies and headed down to the Eiffel tower at about 9pm. We sat in the grass for a couple of hours waiting for the light show which Mel hadn’t seen before. We are glad we did wait, as she was super impressed!
In the morning we headed to another gallery, Musee Tokyo with Mel. This was not the greatest place in the world, on the way in we had some French guy yelling at us, he was one of those scammers that tries to get tourists money. After they tried briefly on us, we watched them trying to con some other people, not sure what he was saying, but we got the impression he didn’t want us around! Like much of Paris, the outside of the gallery had a strong urine odour, not nice on a sunny day. The gallery itself had a display that was ok, but having paid to enter it was a bit disappointing.
After walking along the river for bit more we headed back to the apartment for lunch and to lazy about in the sun. We had planned to go to the Louvre tonight once we had seen Mel off, as it is open late, however the day sort of got away from us, so we ended up walking Mel down to the station and then just watching Les Simpsons (in french) on tv.
Thursday we got motivated, out of bed early and headed to the Versailles Palace, about an hour out of Paris. This place was amazing, as big as the tower is, this has got to be the most impressive attraction Paris has to offer. Its where the old king used to live back in the day. The place was packed with tourists, you could hardly move, just shuffle along with the pack. The palace itself is much bigger than Buckingham Palace in London and a lot more ornate (think gold gates). The interior was amazing with portraits, paintings and all sort of treasures lining the walls as well as murals on the ceilings. The hall of mirrors is possibly the most decadent with windows overlooking the gardens on one side of the room, a wall of mirrors on the opposite wall and chandeliers down the middle.
It was all a bit too over the top for Christine who preferred the gardens which we walked around in the afternoon. We came prepared with cheese and baguette so a picnic by the lake was our next stop. After lunch we wandered around the gardens which were green and manicured. As with most parks in Paris, the paths were all gravel so it was quite dusty and for some reason none of the fountains were running, but other than that it was a great afternoon. Friday we relaxed and wandered around the area we were staying in once again. We took it easy in preparation for our big night out on the town. Christine has found a tour that we are doing and will be an amazing night.
The night kicked off at 6pm, and we were taken to the Eiffel Tower for dinner. We skipped most of the queue and were up in the restaurant with a window table (shared with 4 others). The dinner was a bit rushed, and a bit light on as far as quantity goes but it was nice. We then had just enough time to walk around the viewing deck before heading back down to the waiting boat for an hour evening cruise along the Seine. This was nice and I think Christine enjoyed talking to the other Aussies on the boat as much as anything. As the boat pulled in at the end of the tour, the Eiffel Tower light show started up which caused a great deal of excitement onboard.
We were then back on the bus and headed down to the Moulin Rouge for the late show. This was the reason that we did the tour, the whole night cost about the same as just doing dinner at Moulin Rouge. Not really knowing what to expect was possibly a good thing, but we both loved it.
It was definitely the highlight of our week in Paris. The stage was really big, the dancers were amazing and the costumes were incredible. We also enjoyed the other entertainment including a girl swimming with pythons, juggling, shadow puppet and mime. Not to mention the dog and pony’s used in the performance.

The night was amazing and highly recommended. As with any tour (especially since we were the youngest by a good 20 years) there were a few annoying things. Right from the start we were delayed 20min as we had to wait for Indian woman who had ducked off the bus to the souvenir shop instead of waiting with everyone else. Then there were the stuck up oldies who Christine thinks was laughing at us (mainly Damien) as we weren’t overly dressing up, I didn’t notice however. The dinner included2 bottles of red wine for the table, and one guy promptly grabbed one of them and moved it over to his little corner, and was reluctant to share it with anyone. And last but not least the seating in Moulin Rouge, where Christine was pushed out of the way in the rush to sit at the tables, we were a bit shell shocked by that one!
Nether-the-less we had an amazing night and would definitely recommend the show, if not the whole tour.
After a late night, we didn’t get back to the apartment until after 2am, we took it easy again on Saturday. After a sleep in we went for a wonder, along the promenade. This is an old railway line, converted into a narrow walking path, covered in gardens. Was very nice and the weather was good, but after a few hours we just wanted to retreat back home for more wine, cheese and French TV.

Sunday was our last day in Paris. We got up early and went on the free city walking tour. We have done these before in other cities and they have been wonderful. This was not so good! It really felt like the guide was going through the motions and would have preferred to be somewhere else. As for the sites there wasn’t much we hadn’t already see of course. We had hoped it might take us to some more secret parts of Paris off the tourist map. Nevermind, we stuck it out for a while and then decided to do our own thing, getting a croissant for lunch.
We spent the afternoon sitting in the grass of a park near the apartment.
Late afternoon Judy and Co. returned from the south of France. Once they had settled in we headed out to a local restaurant for dinner. The food was nice but the smoke from the cigarettes at the outdoor tables was blowing straight into the restaurant, making it not the nicest! Was kind of funny, one of the smokers was a Dwarf! Proof… smoking stunts your growth!
We are looking forward to Netherlands. We take the train in the morning tomorrow. Paris is a must see place for anyone coming to Europe, the highlight being Moulin Rouge and the Palace. Sadly there is a lot that isn’t nice about the place. We have been abused numerous times, in the apartment block, supermarkets, streets and of course near the Tokyo gallery. Its also very expensive the coffee is crap but they still charge 5-6 euro and Christine managed to pay 9 euro for a (small) chocolate milkshake.