Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
My stay in Paris was for a little over 4 days, but I'm not convinced this was infact the correct length of my trip. On the one hand, it feels like the first couple of days were *weeks* ago and that the trip was more like 2 weeks long. On the other hand, I feel like it was over so quickly that it couldn't possibly have been anywhere near 4 days! There were so many things to see and do in Paris and I had so little time!
My first few days were mainly for sightseeing. On the day I arrived, I was quick to check into my hotel and head straight on over to the Eiffel Tower. That's right, I was walking distance from the Eiffel Tower! That was my closest bus stop for the hop-on-hop-off bus tour around Paris. I had a ticket for Days 1 & 2 of my trip and the photos from these days are in the albums "29/07/2009 Paris Day 1" & "30/07/2009 Paris Day 2".
The bus took us past L'Hotel Des Invalides, the Grand & Petite Palais, along part of the Champs Elysees, Concorde Square, the Madeleine, the Opera, Lafayette Galleries and then up through Montmatre. I got off the bus here and walked up to Sacre Coeur - with the aid of the funicular :) After a walk through the streets, I hopped back on the bus and we went past the northern and eastern stations, St Michael's gates, through the Louvre palace, past Pont Neuf, the Samaritaine and on to the Notre Dame cathedral.
Here I got off again and stood in line to see inside. Like pretty much any place in Paris, there is always a queue. Thankfully, this one was moving pretty fast. The queue to climb Notre Dame, however, was practically motionless and double the length, so I thought the better of it :) Inside, I grabbed an audio tour guide and learnt all about the various architectural and spiritual wonders of this famous cathedral.
Back on the bus, I was then taken for a little ride along the Seine, passed numerous old, notable buildings and then back over the river and back to the Concorde Square. From, here, we did the entire Champs Elysees, all the way up to the Arc de Triumph. We drove around the Arc - though I'm not sure that what is done on this roundabout can be called 'driving'. I think 'jump-in-and-pray' is a more appropriate verb! :)
Finally, we went down to the Trocadero - with a beautiful view out to the Eiffel Tower and then on to the tower itself, where I disembarked. I'd completed 2 whole bus route circuits in about half a day. Not bad, considering I had to finish up early to meet up with Sam and some old friends for a pre-wedding catchup. So I headed back to the hotel to freshen up before heading out to the restaurant.
Although running late, I did manage to meet Sam & Co at the metro, and along the way to the restaurant, a number of friendly faces arrived. In fact, the night was shaping up to be quite a trip down memory lane until I started feeling a little ill, probably due to something I'd eaten for lunch (on the run). I ended cutting the night short and heading back to the hotel for some R&R. I figured I would see everyone at the wedding anyway :)
On the second day, I took the metro over to the Pompidou Museum, followed by a quick webcam cache (which some friends in Australia were kind enough to save snapshots of for me), and then over to the Louvre. Still feeling a little queesy, I thought it would be best to spend the morning indoors and with my Museum Pass (entry to museums and some monuments free) valid for the whole day, the Louvre seemed the best choice to start with. The museum pass also allowed me to cut the queues and get in through a side entrance with absolutely no waiting. Once inside, I grabbed myself an audio tour (highly recommended for anybody trying to navigate the labyrinth that is the Louvre) and was off on a 'Masterpieces' Tour of the museum.
The tour took me past the ancient walls below ground level, which I actually think was one of the highlights of my visit! The Louvre Palace once had a moat around it (for fortification), but at some point in history, they decided the moat wasn't necessary, and filled the moat in with dirt. Since then, the removal of the dirt in one section has allowed us to now see the foundations of the palace as they were originally, and you are actually able to walk through the area that was once the moat and see these foundations. Mind-blowing stuff :)
From here, my tour took me to the Venus de Milo and the Victory of Samothrace, amongst other less well known works, and finally the Mona Lisa. I was surprised to find how small it was. Personally, I thought the massive painting opposite it, The Wedding Feast at Cana, was far more grand. Still, the Mona Lisa was what I'd come to see, so I scurried through the crowd, managed to get a couple of decent shots with the camera and then moved away.
I'd heard that the Mona Lisa's eyes follow you around the room. Being the scientist that I am, I wanted to test the hypothesis - as it seemed unlikely. However, I am happy to report that in the few places around the room where I positioned myself, I did indeed feel like her eyes were looking directly at me. I can only conclude that the eyes are painted in such away as to cause an optical illusion that makes it appear as though they are looking in your direction, no matter where you are. A couple of Google searches later and I see this a common phenomenon in 2-D images where the subject is painted looking directly at the painter. :)
From here, I caught the hop-on-hop-off bus again and this time, we went past the Pantheon, Luxembourg Gardens, Montparnasse, and back over to the Hotel Des Invalides. This time, I got off here and went into the big gold dome to see Napolean's Tomb. I even managed to look 'French' enough that another tourist asked if I could translate the inscription on the tomb for them. As it turns out, my French is not too bad after all, with a quick google translate later confirming I didn't lead them astray.
From there, I walked over to the Musee Rodin to take a photo with 'The Thinker'. With such beautiful garden surroundings, I'm not surprised the guy has time and inspiration to think! :) After that, I returned to the bus and headed back up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph and used my Museum Pass again to gain entry and climb the 284 steps tot he top. It's a gorgeous view, especially to see the 10 roads leading to the arc - just like 10 spokes of a bicycle wheel. All these roads were lined beautifully with trees and, themselves leading to some of the other monuments around Paris - the obelisque at Concorde Square (at the end of the Champs Elysees), the modern arc at La Defense, to name a couple. What is it with the French and their Arcs? One more bus trip and I was back at the Eiffel Tower, ready to walk back to the hotel.
My third day in Paris was divided into two parts - the sightseeing first couple of hours dedicated entirely to the Eiffel Tower - and the remainder of the day, dedicated to Sam & Berenice's wedding + reception. This was an extremely long day that started with an 8am phone call from my parents (which I had to receive at the front desk because my room's phone was not working) and ended at 3am when I'd had enough and went to bed after the reception. The sightseeing part is in the photo album "31/07/2009 Paris Day 3".
By 8:15am I was already at the Eiffel Tower, queueing up, even though the barricades allowing you into the queue-maze had still not been opened. The tower opens at 9am. And the sad thing is I wasn't first in line! There were 5 people in the queue there already, before me. By 8:30, the queue behind me had started to get long and with about 15mins to go, they let us into the security check point, where we had to dump everything out of our pockets, etc and go through a metal detector. with about 2mins to go, I was close to the ticket office and the queue had grown exponentially. Despite being the ~5th person on to the first lift, I managed to position myself strategically at the exit door so that I could dart over to the second lift to take me to the top. As a result, on July 31st, 2009, I was the first tourist to set foot on the top level of the Eiffel Tower, and believe me it was magical. Within about 20mins though, it had become extremely crowded and difficult to see out - but those first 5 mins or so were absolutely fabulous. You could see the entirity of Paris from any angle with next to noone in the way. After the obligatory sms's and direct blog update and happy snaps, I headed down to the second level again, before heading back down to the ground level. It was about 2 hours all up, and well worth the early start for those first few minutes of tranquility at the top :)
After that, I headed back to the hotel to freshen up, put on my wedding gear and check out. Then I grabbed a metro to La Defense, mini-suitcase in tow, to take a few happy snaps before getting into a taxi to the Mairie de Courbevoie for Sam & Berenice's Civil ceremony. The next few days' worth of photos are in the album "Sam & Berenice's Wedding 31/7 - 2/8".
The French have a very secular view of marriage and if a person wishes to be married by the church, they must first be married by the state - at a town hall. In fact, churches won't allow you to go through the religious ceremony until you have the certificate issued by the government. Thus, at 2pm, we all congregated in front of the Mairie (Town Hall) and waited for the bride. Once she arrived, we all went inside, listened to some french, watched the bride & groom - and their 2 witnesses each - sign some papers and we were back outside, ready to head for the church. Thankfully, Sam and Berenice had anticipated the confusion with so many non-french wedding guests, and had organised a charter bus to take us everywhere from this point forward!
The religious service was a nice mix of French and English, and the priest was very considerate in welcoming all us Aussies and Canadians. :) I did, feel, however, that the religious ceremony lacked a bit of that mystery & surprise that Australian weddings have, at the beginning of the ceremony, as everyone fumbles to get themselves a good look at the bride as she walks in and down the aisle. In this case, we'd already seen her 30mins earlier - and in fact, they were technically already married, so it did feel a little like an 'extra' exercise rather than the wedding itself. Still, I imagine performing the civil wedding first and then the religious wedding probably means fewer people left at the alter in France? :)
The reception was held at Royaumont Abbey, about an hour out of Paris and it was an amazing 13th Century, now converted into a place for receptions or conferences. The rooms were converted monks rooms, but still had all the basic requirements and I shared a room with Lana and Melanie from Canberra. The view from the room was beautiful and the silence was fantastic. A real getaway from teh hustle and bustle of Paris!
We had an English tour of the Abbey with one of the tour guides there, followed shortly by cocktails in the cloisters. After this, we all went into the reception room, to wait for the bride and groom. Sam and Berenice didn't disappoint us with their entrance, with Sam carrying the bride from the door to the front table. Apparently there was a quasi-stack at the stairs coming down from the door, however I did not notice this at all :)
The night was filled with mingling and Aussie-vs-French games and speeches and a curious game involving Sam & Berenice & two Barbie/Ken dolls each :) There was also the matter of food: 7-courses over 5 hours! The speeches were lovely, the atmosphere was incredible, and I was glad to really catch up with some old friends I hadn't seen in years - in particular, Harry-David and I had our seemingly usual 5-yearly philosophical debate on anything from relativity to post-modernism. A bit of dancing later and I went to bed at 3am - though many others partied on through to 4am.
In the morning, we were checked out by 10:30am and had breakfast at the Abbey, before departing again for Paris at midday. This time, Sam & Berenice joined us on the bus, as they too were heading to the Gare du Nord train station to head off on their honey moon. We said our good byes on the footpath, and I managed to squeeze in giving Sam & Berenice my card and present (which I'd forgotten to do up until now!)
After they had left, Miranda, Alex, Paul & myself organised to go for an 'illuminations' night-tour of Paris by bus, starting at 10pm. So, I decided to get a siesta at the hotel before meeting them again for dinner. The night tour was quite good - though a locked toilet on the bus made for a very uncomfortable last 45mins for me! They timed the bus tour quite well, giving us a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower all shimmering with lights, as it does for the first few minutes of every hour.
The next day, I slept in and checked out right on the dot of midday. Then I headed over to the Luxembourg gardens to catch up with Miranda and Alex again, as well as Natalie & Kire - who I'd met at our table at the wedding. We had a nice relaxed lunch and after a geocache, I was heading back to my hotel to grab my suitcase and grabbing the metro & train to Orly airport and away from Paris. What an amazing 4 days!!
- comments