3 days in Paris

Well after another early start at 4:30am we made our way down to Bristol Airport to catch our long 55min flight to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Before getting on the plane though we did manage to have a nice burger and fries at Burger King before 6am. The flight was fine and so was the train transfer into the Paris' Les Halles train station. After looking for the hotel on the wrong street for about 5 min we finally found it one block over. It had the smallest elevator I have ever been in, as it had just enough room for 2 people. We went out straight away and made our way over to Notre Dame and enjoyed a great walk around this amazing church for free. The only part that you have to pay for is getting up to the top to see over Paris which had a huge line up so we didn't bother. The Eiffel tower provides a better view anyways.


We walked over to some of the touristy shops and districts before walking back over to the Pantheon for a quick look inside. Paris, like many other cities has a 48 hop on hop off bus tour and although I have not used many before, Paris is a city where it is worth spending the money. A lot of the main sites are pretty far away and although we did a lot of walking it is nice to have bus transit covered for 2 days. The bus tour has 4 different routes you can take and we managed to get in 2 of the smaller ones in the first day. Main points of interest on these two where Napoleon’s burial place, Tour Montparnasse, Les Invalides, Grande Biblitheque, and La Bastille. Another one of the main stops where we got off and had a look around was St. Sulpice which is famous for the rose line as well as been a simply amazing structure. I prefer it to Notre Dame. But it is even more famous now dew to its part in the book and movie "The Da Vinci Code". We ended the night off by walking around the Opera house area looking for a nice place to eat. After the meal it was down to Les Tuilleries where there was a carnival setup in front of the Louvre. Eating cotton candy and riding on the Ferris wheel while overlooking the lights of Paris is a truly amazing site. You can see the Louvre pyramid, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and Basilique du Sacre Coeur all lighting up the night sky. After this is back to the bar in hotel to collect our free glass of French wine.



The following morning we had a bite to eat at the hotel before heading out to Louvre. The line up was tiny and we walked straight in got our tickets and made our way to see the Mona Lisa. We also checked out a few other famous paintings and sculptures along the way of which I can only remember the Venus de Milo at this time. The museum is huge and would take a full 3 days to see everything so we had a good look through the Denon wing and a quick look in the Sully wing before making our way back out via a quick stop at the inverted pyramid (one again all you Da Vinci Code readers should remember this). After the Louvre we made our way the 3rd bus tour which took us up to Sacre Coeur where I have never been on my previous two visits to Paris. This church is truly amazing. It was designed by the architect Paul Abadie but before the completion of the building 6 other architects had succeeded him. With the foundations laid in 1875 it took until 1919 to complete the structure (would have been ready in 1914 if the WWI hadn't started) and is the 2nd highest point in Paris. From the top you can see 50 miles across Paris and the surrounding area and it is truly a breath taking view.



We wondered back down to the bus stop stopping for a baguette and ice cream before jumping on the rest of the tour which passed the Moulin Rouge, the Opera house, and La Madeleine. One of the more memorable sites though had to be the man "BBQ'ing" corn on the cob on a tin bucket in a shopping cart. He seemed to be doing quite well with his sales.... Following this tour it was time to jump on the main bus tour and check out the more famous sites of Paris. The Concorde square with is Egyptian obelisk, the Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Elysees, the crazy roundabout surrounding the arc de triomphe, Trocadero, and of course the stunning view of the Eiffel Tower. We waited in line for almost 2 hours before making our way to the top of the tower where we remained for about another 1.5 hours watching the sunset over Paris before getting kicked off at closing time. We were at the bottom of the tower when the lights came on the strobe lights starting flashing all over the tower (as they do every hour on the hour) before taking the long walk along the river Seine in the direction of the hotel.





We had a late dinner at the carnival again followed by some more cotton candy. I just have to say that I ordered "the American Hamburger" at the carnival which consisted of hamburger cut up into small pieces, placed on a baguette, and then had French fries stuffed into it. How that is an American burger I will never understand. It was getting late by this point so we made our way back to the hotel.




The next morning we packed our bags, checked out of the hotel, and went and did a bit more tourist shopping before taking "Kelly’s long but correct" route back to the train station instead of my "shortcut that may or may not have worked". But we made it back in time and caught our flight back to Bristol where we rented a car (mine is in pretty poor shape at the moment) and drove over to Wales for a dinner in nice little pub called "The anchor" by Tintern Abbey. That made 3 countries in the day. Not to shabby!!! After dinner we drove back to England for an early night as it was going to be another long day in the morning. London was calling.....