Last weekend, we took the Eurostar to Paris from London. The delay in getting this blog posted is that due to a slight oversight, we made it to Paris with our camera, but without our camera battery. Then we didn't notice that we had a spare battery until the last day there, so we do have some digital pictures, but haven't gotten around to getting them off of the camera yet. The pictures in this blog were taken with a disposable camera!
We arrived in Paris around 7:30 in the evening after a really fast, really smooth ride on the Eurostar. It takes you from London, practically into the center of Paris. A quick ride on the metro (they had stopped striking by the time we got there) got us to the St. Germaine des Pres area, where we stayed in a cute little hotel which was close to everything. We had a rich, French dinner and a good sleep before embarking on our walk around Paris the next day. My French is pretty terrible, but I would like to use this opportunity to say that the people of Paris were REALLY nice to us and as far as I can tell the "Snobby French" attitude doesn't exist in Paris. Plus they are VERY stylish.
The man who invented the guillotine lived in this alleyway. And his name wasn't Guillotine...it was something else. Anyway, much of Paris is cobblestone and if you squint it kind of looks like a really big, clean New Orleans (which makes sense).
There were lots of alleyways filled with fruit stands and fish stands and gigantic loaves of bread. The area we stayed in was very alive with people and cafes and art galleries.
We had easy access to the Seine from our hotel and we walked along it to get to all the major destinations of our day. We walked 8 miles! There are beautiful, wide walkways along the river, where people were strolling and running and biking. It was obvious why Paris has such a reputation for being a romantic place.
We walked along until we noticed that there was an obelisk to our right, which made Jim very excited, so we headed that way.
We also rode on an overpriced ferris wheel, which gave us a pretty good view of the city. Jim was very brave on the ferris wheel!
Jim in front of an ornate fountain (probably has a name, but we didn't really notice):
And me in a park. I remember this park clearly from the last time I was in Paris 17 years ago (urgh...).
We took a circuitous route down several Rues named after various world leaders and through a posh shopping area and finally reached the Arch de Triumph. Very exciting.
We were daunted by the traffic going around it, so we just admired it from afar.
Then we headed towards the Eiffel Tower, but got sidetracked on the way by the most awesome farmers' market we have ever experienced. We ended up stopping at Charcuterie, where we bought way too much paella, which we ate for lunch.
Although we were weary, we soldiered on to the Eiffel Tower. The best part about the Eiffel Tower was the outside gallery that was set up nearby. There were large photographs from artists around the world. The one that stuck with me the most were of prisoners in violent a South African prison, who were gang members. All of the photographs were making some sort of political statement. It was really cool.
Gypsies in front of the Eiffel Tower:
The Eiffel Tower from below:
We didn't actually go into the tower because the lines were long and we were tired, so we wandered back to our hotel. After our long walk we rewarded ourselves with a long nap followed by a very large meal at a creperie. Here is Jim with our dessert crepe--spiced apples and chocolate in a crepe with vanilla ice cream on top. YUM.
After dinner we decided to check out the Latin Quarter, which was hopping.
Most of our pictures didn't turn out from that night (disposable cameras with a flash don't really work in our experience). You can kind of see this 30 person brass band that was playing really enthusiastically but not so in tune next to St. Michael's Fountain (near Notre Dame).
We also got a picture of this lovely drunk guy, who kept talking about Jim being an "artiste" and posed next to a lampost for us (with his booze):
On Sunday, after a buttery breakfast of croissants and other delicious French breads, we wandered out to the Marais area (lots of shopping and a Jewish area,so lots of good food as well). Pictures to come when I download them off our digital camera. Jim also wanted to see the Pompidou, but we didn't go inside because the lines were too long.
We made our way from the Pompidou to the Louvre, which we did go inside and were completely overwhelmed by the size and completely underwhelmed by the Mona Lisa. We probably should have gone to the Pompidou. But we had fun outside and resisted the urge to pose next to various bottoms inside of the museum.
After that it was time to go back home again...
More pictures to come!
