Paris, France

June 4th,

I made it to the train, found my seat, and going to Paris. The train ride was so hot and very crowded. I was sweating from the hot train and took a nap. When I woke up we had about 30 mins til arrival, thank god. I just want to get there and be on time. I was meeting 3 friends from Friedrichschafen, they drove up to Paris the night before.

Had to find a way to get from Gard to my Hostel. There was no direct track and many lines you could take. Then I wasn't sure where it was from the metro stop! Eeek.

I asked someone on the train for help and he told me that I had to just make one change from 4 to 12, then he gave me his metro map. Was a really nice guy. It took about an hour in total with the metro and the walk to find the hostel. Not to bad.

There was a restaurant connected to our hostel, pretty nice area in the Caulaincourt Square and not to distance from the sights.

So I made it to the hostel, while I was waiting to check in the boys came in the lobby. They said they weren't sure if they were supposed to meet me at the train stop so went to Gare and waited a bit, but they showed up late so completely missed me.

The receptionist had us fill out sheets of paper with our names and passport infomation on it, the guys already did this the night before, but the hostel no longer had them...ok. He tells us where our room is and I ask if it is 4 or 6 beds, he says 4. We go to our room open the door and there are 4 people already in there and just look at us. We go back up to the reception and tell them there are people in there. Hopefully they didn't overbook it was really hard finding accommodations for this weekend. He puts us in another room and says later you will laugh about this. We go upstairs, the room is slightly bigger and has a private bathroom and shower.

After checking into the hostel we cleaned up a bit and went to catch the sunset. Took the metro to Concorde and walked from there to the Effiel Tower.

I thought it would be best to compress the photos since I was able to see Paris by day and by night. Might not be the ordered that I toured the city, but it is too large to have everyday laid out in the blog!

The immediate view from the metro is Obelisque. Here the Eiffel Tower looks closer than it actually is.

 

Vintage 2CV tours

Walking along Quai D'Orsay

Eiffel Tower:

We were going up! The line wasn't very long, but it was already 9p.

We went up the Sud side which meant that there was no Elevator and we had to climb all the stairs.

Nice view from the top platform.

The top actually wasn't that crowded from what it seemed like below when we first waited in line.

By the time we got to the bottom we had to make way back to our hostel. There was a curfew at 2a and then they lock the doors. On our way back we saw Parc du Champs de Mars covered with people drinking wine and watching the Eiffel Tower light show.

The next day we got up and went to the same metro stop. This time we were making way to the Louvre and then to Notre Dame. The guys went to the Louvre on Friday during the day so we were just passing by.

The route we walked was from the Obelisque straight through Jardin Des Tuileries.

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel:

Musee Du Louvre:

Heading to Notre Dame along the Seine

Notre Dame:

The church is free to go inside and they perform regular serivce while all the tourist come in to take pictures. I didn't realize that the Notre Dame was a resting right in the middle of the Seine river.

Then we decided to head to the Quartier Latin where we could breeze pass the Pantheon and have a picnic in the Jardin Du Luxumbourg.

We found a little corner store and bought some meat, cheese, and wine. There was a nearby market with fresh baguetts so we picked some up on our way to the Pantheon.

We wanted to sit on the grass, but some little kid said something to me in French and I thought that he was telling me it is not allowed. At the time no one else was there so we decided not to.

All the people on the lawn had to get up and leave when security came by. Yep you are not supposed to be on the lawn.

The Jardin du Luxumbourg and Palais du Luxembourg

Next stop was making way to Arc de Triomphe. Liam wanted to find a bday gift for his sister and there were all the shops along Champs-Elysees so we took a walk up from Franklin D Roosevelt stop.

He was successful with the help from me!

I waited with all our bags while the boys went up. They had three cameras, I was bound to have some beautiful photos from them.

We went back to the hostel to freshen up and go out towards Cauliancourt and Sacré Coeur.

The walk was great as we strolled through smaller residential neighborhoods. It felt good to get away from all the tourist attractions for just a moment.

Sacré Coeur

There was a music performer. He wasn't awful, but the next guy after him tried to sing Hotel California and didn't know the words, then tried to act like the microphone wasn't working, and then said that the crowd was messing him up. Pretty funny, I think he was drunk.

This guy was so awesome, he climbed up the light post with the ball spinning the whole time. Then kicking it while hoisting himself up. The crowd was in awe of him and not listing to the horrible guy that couldn't sing.

After we sat down for dinner. I heard about full course menus and how you shouldn't pay more that 20 Euro for drink and meal. We went looking for a place and found one for 11 Euro, wow great price. Then there was no where to sit outside. We came to another restaurant and it listed 15 Euro, so we sat.

 

The dinner price was 21 Euro, ok not bad that is what I heard before, although this didn't include drink. There was no wine list and we said we wanted red wine. He comes back with a bottle of red wine. Sure. Everyone is kind of thinking the same thing, how much does this cost. We order our menu and he pours the wine.

I get Escargot for my starter (the other choice was Onion Soup), Duck was my main Entree, and the I had Chocolate covered Vanilla Ice Cream. Yes it is a "L" in the Sauce...

 The food was pretty good. The duck was very fatty and the boys couldn't believe that I didn't eat much of the fat. So the wine ended up costing 35 euro for the bottle. We were stunned especially when we drank a 4 euro bottle of wine at lunch. This was our only nice meal out so we figured we shouldn't dwell on it too much. The bill came out to 35 euro per person, ah tourist!

After dinner we went to the hostel and drank a bottle of cheaper wine (price not taste), then we went to the Moulin Rouge!!

We found an Australian bar, actually turned out to be the only happening bar in the area. Seemed like nobody was really around. Maybe it was too early since we had a curfew.

They loved these flaming shots. The bartender made them 3 times. Someone was celebrating! The YMCA came on and we were singing and dancing (felt like a nerd) but we were trying to get Kai to go ask this girl to dance. He was too scared.

The next day we wanted to try and go to Palace of Versailles and Catacombes. The day started with rain and stopped after about 20 mins, right when we were leaving the hostel.

We waited in line for about 10 minutes to find out if you are an EU citizen and under 26 you can get in for free. This only applied to Christian and since it cost 15 Euro for the Palace and another 8 Euro for the garden, he went in the Palace and we headed to the Garden.

Inside the Palace Christian took some lovely photos for us.

 

In the garden....

The garden had fountain shows all day long. No fountains were listed so we assumed that they could play at any of the fountains. The garden was so large I asked should we go left or right, both the boys said down the middle. We went left!

After we walked passed a couple of fountains and the music started playing when we were in an open field we started running back to the fountain to catch the show.

There was a snail slittering down the tree, had a beautiful shell.

We saw on the lake people rowing boats and thought we must do this. Always wanted to row...

First Kai rowed, then Liam, and then me. I started rowing backwards for about a minute and then fixed it, I rowed really fast.

Liam rowed so slow that we had much opportunity to take photos.

We went back to meet Christian and head to the Catacombes, but it was closed at 4p on Sunday and not open Mondays. Headed out to La Defense instead.

The business district was really nice. Liam wanted to head there and since the Catacombs was closed we had enough time to walk around. The boys wanted to leave at 8p that evening with the car (the reason pressed for time). We went back to the hostel, bought some wine and I saw them off.

 I went out to catch the sunset, which is most of my evening pictures. The night was really warm and peaceful. I just walked all around til about 1am and then returned to the hostel.

Monday I woke up and went to the train station to find out what time I could leave. I figured I should try and leave by 1p, but all the trains were sold out with my pass and the only one available left at 5p. I needed a reservation and it cost 25 euro for the first class seat. Ok I will go at that time. It actually worked out that I was able to have an extra full day in Pairs. Went inside Musee du Louvre.

Artist come to paint replicas

There was so much to see and my camera was on the verge of dying (as well as running out of space on the memory card).

This is the entry way from the underground, also there is a little shopping mall here.

After the Louvre I wanted to roam around a bit. I found this little plaza and there was nice shops and gardens. I was gettting pretty hungry, so I was keeping my eye out for something to eat.

I found this restaurant and the price for a sandwhich seemed right. I sat down and was getting pretty tired it was about 2p. The waiter was taking forever (pretty busy outside) so I went around the corner and saw two people coming out with sandwhiches to go. I  figured I could do that. I asked the bartender if I could order from him. He said to grab a menu in French of course. I sat on the bar stool and I got a ham (jamon) sandwhich, Ham and bread and drank a Leffe. Then we were talking for a bit while he worked. Asked if I wanted a cafe, sure why not. I was there for an hour, had so much fun. Really a kind man originally from Tunis. My battery was dead and the card was full so I couldn't take a photo, so sad.

Made my day to sit and engage a fun conversation with a local. I love traveling alone, you get to do what you want when you want. Also take in more of the enviroment you put yourself in. I walked over to the Notre Dame where they had some good priced paintings, I found one and had to hurry back to the hostel to get my luggage. One mistake is allowed per trip (should have brought it with me). I had to walk really fast, but I made my train and was fine. With my first class reservation I was served dinner, wine, and coffee. I guess it was still cheaper than last nights meal!!

I had such a wonderful week of travel. Some peaceful alone time, met up with my friends in Paris, and met some great people. Next time I will just remember to bring my converter so I can take more pictures.