Europe Trip: Paris 8

From Germany to Paris

Wow my Monday saw me re organising my pack saying good bye to the Bayer family and traveling to Paris. My train from Bad Mergentheim was late ( I know in Germany is this possible?!!) and I missed my very much on time 2:40pm transfer at Wurzburg which arrived into Frankfurt at 4:00pm. The Paris connection departed at 4:50pm but due to me being out in the wop wop's and not departing Wurzburg until 3:45 on a regional train I missed my booked TGV to Paris.

A new ticket was sorted in Frankfurt at no extra charge which had me arriving into Paris at 11:30pm and did not cost me anything other than a little time. In future I will stick with my gut feeling as when I went to book the ticket I was a little apprehensive about it and would have preferred to go a different route, but thought I was being silly. Funny huh that intuition is a crazy thing!!

Arrival Paris at 11:30pm Gare de l'est was uneventful and I easily found my way onto the metro and figured out the 30 minute trip to the hotel my parents had arranged for the week very central and luxurious.

The week has been pretty cool, it has been neat to catch up with my parents and spend some time with them. Its been pretty busy none of us have been to Paris before so all major tourist attractions have been visited (some of them twice)

Tuesday

River Seine - Quai De La Rapee

First outing breakfast - mmm happy Gabrielle - just forgot that we are now in France not Germany so the kind waiter (of a restaurant that had excellent English) opened the door and asked couple of questions which I may have answered in German so this may have meant we had all our menus delivered in German.... But was great I don't mid the coffee not as good as home but still good especially with cheese, jam and croissant. Walked the River Siene from our hotel to Notre Dame some brilliant architecture and glass windows then across to Hotel de Ville where they had a exhibition on about the French Resistance and although all in French we could make abit out which was good and I even found Tintin!

You will never guess what my Dad the farmer (who loves his moleskins) wanted to do - SHOP - I know right a male in Paris and he wants to go clothes shopping?! Mum was a little in shock.... Fashion well femininity is big here (well is part of the culture) compared to home we definitely notice it. The ladies always have their face made up very tidy clothing and their shoes (did I mention I quite like their shoes! must not buy cant fit into pack...) We walked back via the Bastille to the Hotel (the map is deceiving its a lot further than it looks) I think roughly total Km's walked today was around 10 km so not to bad.

Wednesday
Metro day today, Dad's knees are playing up with all the walking yesterday but this means we can break the day up abit more and travel abit further! also my grandfather worked in the railways so a little bit of curiosity, novelty and enjoyment there for us. We travelled out to the Arc de Triomphe the traffic very crazy we counted at least 11 or 12 streets coming into the roundabout. Then over to the Eiffel Tower, Very large - for you people out there wanting some info it was erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France it is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. From here we walked through Parcu du Champ de Mars up to the Ecole Militaire and across to the Latin Quarter. You get a feeling of how lucky we are in NZ when you see the amount of homeless people living on the streets actively begging.

Thursday

Basilica Sacre Coeur

Montmartere today, although very touristy, busy, and slummy it is a place I want to go check out. They have the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur (Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus) which yes does have nuns (Tracy I do hope that mine has made it's way out of your hand bag...) The basilica is situated on top of a hill with excellent views across the city and has a lot of artist and street artists very cool. So far I have kept to the only take pictures and leave footsteps. From there we popped along to the only windmill in Paris - Moulin Rouge wouldn't rave but we were in the vicinity and the price to check out the show just a mere 100 euro even the 'beautiful' show girls cant lure me in.... Nipped across to Palasis de Challot and walked down the river seine to check out the Grand and Petite Palaces (which had international show jumping on) and then onto Pl. de la Concorde before heading back to mass at the Basilica which yes was in French and Latin.

Friday

Today it is raining - so Lourve!!!! that place is massive you could spend days in there and I was surprised to learn that they had closed it on Wednesday due to pickpockets! But I did enjoy, nothing on NZ a little on Easter island and French Polynesia. Of course the big draw cards - the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Michelangelo. Went in at 10am and was out at 4pm its a very busy place. To view the Mona Lisa there was a stack of people taking photograph 6 deep (crazy so I thought I would join them for your pleasure) a lot of school children as its holidays..... tour busses and of course art classes. It wasn't uncommon to be wandering around and stumble upon a class or someone with a easel up and painting a painting.

Saturday
is abit of a down day before my parents leave on the sunday it has been very cool to spend this week with them and I have been incredibly spoilt. and yes I have promised to do a run with them and help out with suitcases.

The week has also had a surprise with my next helpx - William on the river barge. He has been quite coy and one moment its all cool and it is all go and the next not so sure if its happening at all. Finally get to meet the guy Saturday/sunday depending on when he gets into the city but I guess all will be revealed on the day if I have a placement or not! a little scary as I like to be more organised than that but hey rolling with the punches. Will see what happens.

Hope you are all well spring has arrived here saw my first daffodil today

Gabrielle xx