Day 48: Paris

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Waking up in Paris was very exciting knowing how we had planned our day. Our hotel’s location to the Metro makes places easily accessible an, importantly, no driving! After a coffee, chocolate milk, Sponge Bob Square Pants and Pokemon cartoons in French, we head off to do Paris in one day; well maybe left overs tomorrow. The weather is cool and dizzily, with potential to go either way. We wear jackets and take our London umbrella, and wondering why both these cities rain on us. At least the rain in Spain dried up quickly.

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First stop is Notre Dame Cathedral, which is a massive cathedral that is huge. We are very lucky to be here at 11.00am the witness what we call “working cathedrals”; these being used as places of worship and have a purpose to the community rather than a tourist destination. Two queues formed for tourists and the centre doorway was welcoming people in for Sunday mass. For all the churches and cathedrals Billy has traipse through, finally Notre Dame demonstrates to him how churches function and give a context to the many, many discussions we has had. Yes, the organ-pipes bellowed out majestically, and we were portioned off while a procession of priests, male and female wearing elaborate green robes and caring candles paraded by us with the religious smoking ball swinging and bells ringing! It was very moving and the crowd showed great respect; the atmosphere was electric. Billy covered his ears from the organ’s noise and will certainly remember this.

it was a bomb scare!!

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Next we walked to the Louvre, the National Museum of Paris. Having had lunch at Maccas it was appropriate to get some other culture into Billy’s day. As it was now pouring rain, Kim and Will sharing an umbrella, and Billy in his Batman raincoat, we discovered that any one with sense was also at the Louvre, having got soaked. Despite the crowds we made a bee-line to visit the Mona Lisa, through the fine arts section. The Mona Lisa is approximately 30 cms x 50 cms and has a whole wall dedicated to her. The uncanny thing about this painting is that, no matter where you look from, her eyes lock onto you and that smile/grin…like she’s acknowledging you……spooky. We walked up, down, round, inside and through as many areas as one can cope with, and allowed our clothes to dry out. Billy was impressed with the skid-factor of the floors and was happy for his parents to drag him around the place. Kimmy is still amazed at the size of the place, and our few hours at the Louvre have inspired Kimmy to get the paints out again.

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The Arc de Triumph was next stop, using the Metro underground to get us around the city. Wow, this was much bigger once you are actually under the arches and was well attended. With all the famous icon buildings in Paris you cannot help but be overwhelmed by the size of them; you can be walking through the tree lined streets, shops and parks, turn a corner and there is the huge Eiffel Tower. That’s how it was, dominating the skyline. It certainly got Billy moving as he wanted to race up it. The structure is steel painted dull brown and is accessed by hydraulic lifts from the base feet up diagonally, or walking up the stairs to the second level. We arrived to be herded up by army guys with serious faces and even more serious machine guns, and police cordoning off one of the legs and access to the tower. Being Aussies, we did the sticky beak speculating what dignitary wanted private access up the tower on a rainy Sunday arvo, or celebrity…we knew Tom and Katie had been there a while ago. Then a family of four were escorted under the barrier by police and army guys and got a drilling as they went to their illegally chained up push bikes. They were the security risk...dad, mum, son and daughter in helmets!! A bomb scare. We had waited for over 30 minutes. It would have been really scary if someone had said bomb, with so many people around there. Poor family!

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Up the Tower we walked, although Will carried Billy as the dear factor set in. Took some grey photos of the magnificent views, marveled at where we were...the Eiffel Tower..wow…then disregarded any chance of getting a decent anything in the soggy, packed café on level two and walked down.

Back to Saint Michel by Metro and let’s have dinner in a French Restaurant. A carafe of rose, entrée of escargots and salmon, mains of salmon and duck/orange sauce with crème caramel with crepes and crème caramel to follow. Billy had French Fries. The lit up restaurants and streets are beautiful, and we look forward to another day visiting Paris.

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Tool of the Day.

Us for standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in the rain for over thirty minutes, discussing if we should ask the very efficient and well armed sergeant, who doesn’t speak English “what’s up guys?” And it was a bomb scare!!