My
second crack at the Romance city was a good deal more pleasant than
the first. This time when i arrived i was not jet lagged, it was not
raining and i had pre-booked accommodation.
As
a bonus, i was already familiar with the metro system, had a wee bit
of French and was a seasoned hosteler.
My
hostel (Peace and Love) was, in a on-first-impressions, “colourful”
part of the city near Gare de L'est. I stepped out of the metro
station to a confusion of traffic, McDonalds, shops and crowds of
people. Managed to locate the hostel, whose bar was already cranking
at 3pm (found out later that it was just filled with “regulars”,
aka friends of the people that worked there). It was clear i was not
going to get much sleep (bar was directly below the
noisy-street-facing window of my room, which turned out to be 8 beds,
sharing a bathroom rather than 4) but other than that it was an ok
place (would be perfect for someone who isn't an old fuddyduddy like
me).
There
were some pretty interesting happenings in the hostel – the last
night i was there i got treated to some very loud live 4am porn in
the room next door (a girl from our side of the room had hooked up
with a guy from the other side of the room – thank God there was a
door in between!). They were having a fantastic time by the sound of
things which was fine until their other roommates got back and
started talking about it (it was extremely obvious what had been
going on) and their own lack of luck with the ladies. Something you
never want to hear at 4am – a bunch of guys talking about how you
don't have to be gay to enjoy some good anal sex! To top it all off,
the happy couple decided they just had to climb out onto the
extremely dodgy “balcony” for a post-coital cigarette. I got
about 2 hours sleep that night before having to get up at 5:30 to
catch my train back to Zurich.
Daytime
in Paris pretty much consisted of me walking and metro-ing around to
all the sights. My first evening walk took me to the Palais Louvre
(which is a dream at sunset), Jardin des Tuileries and Place de la
Concorde, all gorgeous in the fading evening light.
The
next day I headed to St Michel square to join a “free” city
walking tour (the Sandemans company, same one i went with in Berlin).
Took us past the Notre Dame, Pont Neuf, Ile de la Cite , Louvre
(where i actually bought the rip-off water from the hawkers cos the
brand was called Romy!), Carrousel Arc de Triumph (called the petite
Arc de Triumph), the cafe where the French Revolution started (in
Jardin du Palais Royal), Place de la Concorde, up the Champs-Elysees
and finished up in Place Clemenceau with a view across to the Grand
and Petitie palaces. Whew, took a while to write all that. The
guide also fed us some history and nice little snippets of
interesting info, for e.g.
King
Henri IV, a favorite French king, was a bit of a joker and one night
got all the court drunk on free wine and had their drunken faces
made into sculptures to adorn his new bridge – the Pont Neuf.
Apparently also a ladies man, he made use of the fact that everyone
thought Place Dauphine was cursed and avoided the place like a
plague (Jacques de Molay, Grand master of the Knights Templar guy
had been martyred there), established a garden there with tall trees
bordering it, and used the place for his romantic escapades. Got to
hand it to the guy!
One
of the flashest buildings in Paris – the Institut de France houses
Paris's more useless “old-money” sons where they are charged
with the safe-guarding of the French language, mainly publishing the
French dictionary and protecting the French people from the
Anglicisation of the French language. Apparently they just about
had heart attacks when iPods came out - “are they masculine or
feminine? It's a matter of national security, people!”
A
very entertaining 4 hours and a great intro to Paris.
After
the tour i went to check out the Arc de Triumph and the crazy, no
traffic rules, 12 avenues converging Place de l'Etoile roundabout.
Statistically there is a crash there every 30 minutes and insurance
companies no longer cover you if you crash there. Resolved never
ever to drive in Paris!
Walked
from the arch up to Trocadero (park up a hill) for what i reckon is
THE best photo op of the Eiffel Tour as well as a decent panorama of
the town and some very talented breakdancing buskers (and it's
free!).
Headed
down the hill to the base of the famed tower, took one look at the
queues and resolved to get up extremely early the next morning!
In
the evening i splurged the 11 Euro on a Illuminations boat tour on
the Seine. It was a fantastically beautiful way to safely see the
city by night. The Eiffel tour was lit up blue with a ring of gold
stars (in honour of an EU event), AWESOME.
My
attempt at getting up early to “do the tower” didn't go so well
but, armed with my iPod, the hour in the queue didn't go so bad.
It's weird to think of the amount of times i've paid to queue to
climb up hundreds of stairs on this trip! Seems crazy now. It is
worth it for the Eiffel tower though – you get some very nice views
of the Parisian haze. Only went to level 2 though as i had no wish
to pay to queue to be squished into a lift.
Once
back down i got talked into doing a survey of my experience by a guy
in a very smooth suit. After filling out the survey i was flirted
with shamelessly (he asked me if i was travelling alone or with a
group, I said 'alone' and he said, “that's good for me” -
sheesh!) and handed an Eiffel tower key chain. Awwwhhh, so romantic
(the hawkers are selling them for about 10 for 2Euros). I swear –
French guys are full of sleaze. Throughout my time in Paris i got
hit on by Felix the TGV guy, the Eiffel tower survey guy and flirted
with by at least 2 way older guys, one of which really wanted to buy
me a glass of wine in a dodgy pub.
After
doing the tower i headed along the river and kind of stumbled upon
the tunnel where Princess Diana died – there is a kind of memorial
for her next to the Pont De l'Alma. It's not really that impressive
except for all the graffiti from people from all over the world.
That
evening i did another Sandemans tour – this time of Montmarte, the
district of Paris famous for Parisian land mines (dog poop), raunchy
cabaret shows (Moulin Rouge), artist hangout spots (Picasso, Van
Gogh), oh, and the Sacre Coeur of course. It is also home to Paris's
only true urban vineyard (i'm told it is a collector's wine rather
than a connoisseur's) and to both the cafe (Deux Moulins) and
grocer's shop featured in Amelie (which is actually meant to be a
film about Montmarte). Our guide showed us all the above, including
the cabarets Picasso used to hang out at, and told us the stories
that go with it. Most entertaining, and a free drink at the end too –
which i shared with 2 kiwi girls also on the tour!
Loved
Montmarte so much i actually went back there the next day, though
sadly with not enough time to shop in the bazaars there (clothes for
only a couple of Euros!).
Also
visited the creepy, though fascinating Catacombes. Nothing quite
like seeing thousands upon thousands of human bones stacked in
creative patterns in old quarry tunnels 20m underneath the streets
of Paris. The bones had to be stored there after they ran out of
space in one of Paris's large cemeteries – then they decided it was
a tad disrespectful to just leave the bones dumped in piles so they
gave a guy the job of re-arranging them and voila – artistic
genius! Creepy!.
The
scariest thing was that i had to queue half an hour to get in (didn't
know there were quite that many macabre people out there!). That,
and the security check at the end – where we saw a couple skulls
and some leg bones that people had tried to sneak out just a week
ago! Definitely a once in a life time experience!
To
end my last day in Paris – i visited the famed Louvre (after 6pm on
Fridays it is only 6 Euro so i felt i had to take advantage of that).
Sadly, i was so buggered from walking around in the heat that day
that i didn't really have the energy to appreciate it. It is such a
HUGE building (apparently it would take you about 2 years to see
everything the museum has to offer) – i had to ration my time.
Made a beeline straight for the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo then
spent the rest of about 2 hours glazed over looking at painting after
painting and sculpture after sculpture. It's impressive how well
they have been preserved really, especially some of the huge
paintings.
The
highlight of my evening though, (however uncultured it may seem) was
capturing the view of the sun setting over the pyramid and fountain
from the windows of the top floor.
If you're expecting photos of all the gorgeous sights...ummm...you may have to wait a while...a blond moment meant i left my pics of Paris on the memory card i left behind in Zurich. I realised this about half-way through the train journey to Verona! It aggravates me still but rest assured, photos exist and are many.
