Notre Arrivée à Paris

Monday May 7th, 2007

We caught the Eurostar train at approx. noon in London Waterloo Station. This is the Chunnel train! It took awhile for it to get up to full speed, but once it did, we were sure going fast! You could hardly look out the windows without feeling nauseous! It also did not help the fact that we were sitting backwards to the direction we were going. At times it was painful when we went down through the tunnels because our ears kept popping as the pressure changed! The speed of the train only made it worse. Overall, still an enjoyable ride that took about 3 hours.

...We realized that we were walking beside the Louvre for the last 10 minutes. Oops!

At 4pm Paris time, we arrived in Paris Gard du Nord Station. This station quickly became our least favorite place since the beginning of our trip. First of all, the signs were not clear AND in french - thankfully Brandon knows a decent amount of french to get us by. Second, we kept asking different info booths where we could validate our Eurail passes. Everyone kept sending us in different directions. Finally, we managed to validate them. Unfortunately, we later discovered the lady had wrote in the incorrect dates. Thankfully, she stamped it with the current date. Hopefully it will be fine...

Once this was done, our next challenge was to figure out the metro. We thought since we became experts with the London Tube, we should not have problems with the metro. We were wrong! There were many more lines as well as a whole other underground system, the RER. The stench of urine throughout the tunnels, made it QUITE unpleasant and unwelcoming.

Finally, we navigated ourselves to our hotel and unloaded our bags - was a nice relief to finally get our bags off our backs! We checked out the neighbourhood, ordered some Pizza Hut, and bought ourselves our first bottle of cheap French wine - 2€50, along with some breakfast food. We settled in for another early night.

Tuesday May 8th, 2007

Tired from the hustle and bustle of yesterday, we slept in till a shocking 10am wake up call from the maids! We got ourselves ready, picked up some cheap sandwiches from the market  and took off for some Paris sightseeing.

Our first stop was Notre Dame Cathedral - a magnificent sight, right next to the river, La Seine. We took the audio tour guide through the main floor. Thankfully we were able to take some pics because it is just absolutely amazing! We then climbed the stairs to the very top of the cathedral. These stairwells were spiral, with a radius of no more than 3 feet! Mid way up we stopped to see the Great Bell - when it was in service, it took 18 men to ring it. The view from the top gave us our first glimpse of the Effiel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Pantheon, and a full panoramic view of Paris. As we descended the spiral staircase, it did not take long for us to feel dizzy!

From here we walked south and found our way to the Pantheon. This is situated next to Saint Etienne du Mont Church. Inside the Pantheon, we went down into the Crypts and saw the graves of Great Men like Voltaire and Rousseau. We also took MORE spiral staircases up to the top of the Pantheon where we caught some more great views of the City.

As it was now around dinner time we thought we would go in search of the Louvre as we figured there had to be some good cafés around there. In doing so, we walked through the gorgeous Jardin de Luxembourg. As we continued, we walked across the Seine River looking for the Louvre.  We spotted this large glass structure and assumed it to be the Louvre however, once we saw a sign, we realized that we were walking beside the Louvre for the last 10 minutes. Oops!

We entered the grounds of the Louvre and walked to the other end.  The grounds had so many statues and scultures.  They were everywhere!  There were also a couple of large fountains.  It was so amazing to see - when you looked down, you could see the Arc de Triomphe line up with Louvre along a large road.

We found a little Cafés close to the Louvre where we ordered some food.  I ordered Roast Chiken and fries and Lindsay ordered Fromage Bleu Hamburger (Blue Cheese Hamburger) and we asked for it to be cooked Medium to Well done.  When Lindsay got her meal, it was made up of only the patty which the center was deep pink!  But she did enjoy her fries!  For dessert we ordered a Chocolate Crepe.  It was very delicious!  After dinner, we returned to the hostel and fell asleep quickly from our long and exhausting day.

Wednesday May 9th, 2007

We woke up at 9am to get our second day in Paris started.  We were interrupted by what we thought was a fire alarm but then found out to be our phone.  Our friends were waiting for us at the entrance of our hostel - Matt Trodden, Brandon Stutheit and Brant Stutheit.

We got some food at the market and made our way to the Arc de Triomphe where we got some pictures.  From here, we walked towards the Eiffel Tower.  The Eiffel Tower was unbelievable (prettier at night - we`ll get to that).  The line up to go up the Eiffel Tower was massive so we decided to move on towards the Louvre.  This time we won`t miss it!

Along the way we stopped at an Italian Restaurant and got some Pizza and Pasta.  Then we arrived at the Louvre. We descended the stairs under the massive glass pyramid and entered the famous Musée du Louvre! This museum is too big and just beyond words. You pretty Much have to visit it for yourself to understand. We saw the much anticipated Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The architecture and designs throughout the museum and rooms were magnificent! The pics catch a brief glimpse which we will put up soon enough.

We made our way back to our hotel and picked up some roasted chickens in the market for a cheap cheap price of €3.50, along with some cheap wine, a fresh baguette and some cheese. The five of us did some laundry at a Laverie while enjoying our scrumptous, classic, French themed dinner.

Timing it perfectly, we quickly caught the metro to take a night boat tour of Paris along the Seine River. While on the metro, we encountered some interesting characters. One of our favourites was this crazy Jamacian French man. First of all, he had numerous colourful bracelets on his wrist/arm, was wearing a typical Jamacian dress and had some oh so beautiful rotting teeth. He sat down across from Brant and insisted that Brant rest his feet on this Jamacian mans seat, and very next to his crotch. He would not take no for an answer, all the while swirling his tongue in some sort of snake like fashion as he stared at Brant.

The boat tour was absolutely amazing! We highly suggest it for anyone in Paris, just make sure you go after dark. We got to see all the monuments along the river, including the Eiffel Tower, which looks even better at night! Despite our third, forth and fifth wheelers, Brandon and I still managed to sneak a kiss under the  "Most Romantic Bridge in Paris."

Thursday May 10th, 2007

Comparitively to the other days, we took a bit of break today. We slept in and made our way down to the Eiffel Tower in the early afternoon to meet our friends again. We played some frisbee in the Park beneath the Tower and rested our legs while catnapping and enjoying some lunch under a tree.

From here we walked through a very nice area in Paris to Les Invalides, where Napoleans tomb can be found in the Chapel. Unfortunately, we arrived just too late to go inside. Nonetheless, we were awestruck by the architecture and enjoyed the view from the outside.

Afterwards, we cooked up some dinner and drank some wine from the market in our friends hotel as they had a kitchen.

We had an earlier night as we wanted to be well rested for our trip out to Versailles the next day.

Friday May 11th, 2007

We woke up a little earlier this morning to catch the RER to Versailles. It took us almost an hour and a half to get there from our hotel.

Once arrived, we were just on time for the English tour. Our guide told us lots of neat facts about Court Life during the reign of King Louis XIV, XV, XVI. We got to see typical dresses that would have been worn for each activity during court life, the Kings Gold Bedroom - that took 80 pounds of gold to restore it, the Hall of Mirrors and the Chapel!

The five of us had lunch overlooking the garden. From there Brandon and Brant Stutheit left for Vimy Ridge while Matt, Brandon and I hung out and explored the enormous gardens surrounding the Palace. We walked to Marie Antionettes Property - the Grande and Petite Trianon.

After leaving Versailles, we made our way back to the Les Jardin Touleries - the gardens infront of the Louvre. In there, we found Musee de L`Orangerie. This place holds some Monet Paintings - which are displayed in rooms he designed. The paintings were absolutely gorgeous and we could not get enough. It is too bad we did not make it to Giverny to see the gardens that gave Monet all his inspiration.

As per usual, we picked up some more groceries, cooked dinner at our friends hotel and packed up our bags to take off to Blois the next morning.