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Published: July 25th 2008
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Paris, the city of love, is on many people’s list of places to visit. Mass media has brought us the sights of Paris and glamorized this historical city.
We arrived in France on the Sunday, 6th of July from Scotland. We flew on Ryan Air, the discount air carrier serving many parts of Europe. As pointed out in my last post, Ryan Air was the most economical way to travel from Scotland to France. I will point out that Ryan Air does not fly in or out of any of the major airport. Their airports are often located far away from the city you actually plan to visit. Paris is no exception. We flew into Beauvais Airport which would require a 1 ½ hour bus ride to get to Paris. Besides the baggage limitations with Ryan Air, they also have no assigned seating which means everyone takes the first seats available. They do, however, offer priority boarding if you choose to pay the extra $8.00 to get on board.
Upon arrival in Beauvais, we jump on the bus and head towards Paris, as we nudge closer to the city, we get our first glimpse of the Eifel Tower
as it literally towers over the city. The bus ride is uneventful and we arrive in Paris. We quickly get our bearings and head for the nearby Metro station to get to our hostel. We purchase a 24-hour Metro ticket to allow us access for the remainder of the day. Our journey requires us to transfer lines which proves to be a simple process. We have become old pros at getting around on public transportation, even when we arrive in a new city. We walk the short distance to the hostel and arrive at 11:00 AM but could not check into the hostel until 2:00 PM. We secured the backpacks in the lockers at 2 Euro each and head out the door to explore a little around the neighborhood. As luck would have it, there was a rather large street market so we ceased the opportunity to check it out. Vendors were selling everything but the kitchen sink. It resembled a flea market, but some of the vendors offered fresh meat, cheeses and plenty of sea food. We ducked into a local pizzeria and got a bite to eat. At 2:00PM, we headed back to the hostel. Lynne sweet talked
the young man into giving us a private room. This option was not available when we booked our reservation on line. The hostel had a lot of potential, but it was run down and the staff did not maintain a suitable level of cleanliness throughout the facility. The hostel was located in a neighborhood which resembled some of the more ethnic boroughs of New York City. We were hard pressed to see any evidence of any French people. Although the neighborhood was filthy, we never felt insecure about walking the streets.
After checking in and dropping the bags in the room, we headed out the door to explore the heart of the city. Our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees. They were having some type of ceremony at the Arc, but we did not know exactly what it was. There was a brief ceremony at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a group of school kids were performing a chorus. Our next stop was to the Gare de Nord (train station) to purchase our tickets to Quimper. This train station was huge and we attempted to figure out which ticket office we need to make the
Grey Poupon
Pardon me--Would you have any Grey Poupon? purchase.
As we begin our travels around France, we begin to notice that very few people speak any English, but we still find a way to be able to communicate. We purchase our tickets and head back to the hostel. Lynne purchased an international phone card for 10 Euro from a vending machine (big mistake). The international phone card only gave her 22 minutes talk time so this was considered a rip off. She called her cousin Frank to give him our itinerary. Frank gave us instructions to get off the train at an earlier stop in Quimperle . He said he and Janet would be there to greet us.
On Monday morning (7 July) we headed down to the lobby to take advantage of the free breakfast. Some hostels offer a free breakfast included in the price. Although the breakfast was minimal, it did hit the spot and the price was certainly right. We head out and begin additional exploring of Paris. We decide that because we only have this one day to explore, we would use the hop on-hop off tour busses. This tour price was much more reasonable than the one in London. We go to
Sillly Rabbit
This cartoon appears in the Paris Metro to warn people of getting trapped in closing doors. the open-air upper deck and enjoy the sights as we navigate through this bustling city. It begins to rain lightly but remained up top and donned our rain jackets. Our first stop was across the river from the Eifel Tower. This offered us a slightly distant view of the tower and afforded the opportunity for some great photos. We are both blown away with the number of tourists invading the city. We are swarmed with hawkers attempting to sell us everything from postcards to miniature Eifel Towers. While taking photos, we met a family from Sebring, Florida. We had a great chat about their European vacation and we shared about our RTW trip. We then boarded another bus and headed to the tower itself. Holy Smokes, this place was crawling with tourists. The lines to take the elevator ride to the top resembled lines for popular attractions at Disney World. We hang around the tower for a while and just sit and watch people. This has always been one of my favorite pastimes and now Lynne was beginning to appreciate it as well. Onto another bus and we find ourselves outside of the Louvre. We grab a sandwich from a
corner café and head into the courtyard of the Louvre and have our lunch. We decide to check out the Louvre. Admission to the worlds largest and most famous museum was actually more reasonable than we had imagined. After spending just a short time in this place, we both determine that there is no possible way we could enjoy the magnitude of this collection in just one day. You would really need several days, if not a week to really enjoy the entire collection. We look at the extensive map and plot a course to hit the highlights we want to see. The statue collections, to me, are much more impressive than most of the famous paintings, but there are a few paintings we must see during our visit.
The Mona Lisa has got to be the most visited woman in the world. As you can see from the photo, there is a constant sea of people surrounding her. They drift in, take a photo and move on without ever sitting back and enjoying this masterpiece. As I take the opportunity to stand for a brief moment to take in her subtle beauty, I can help but to
notice that devilish smirk on her face. Leonardo crafted this smirk in such a way to make people think “I wonder what she is thinking about”. Well, at least that’s what I was thinking anyway.
We check out a few more on the must see list to include Napoleon III’s lavish apartment, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory before concluding our visit to the Louvre.
After the Louvre, we jumped back on the bus and headed back to the Arc and Champ then back to the hostel. After a short rest at the hostile, we decided we would explore Paris by night and see if we could see the lights of the city.
While kicking around the city waiting for the lights, we determined that it would not get dark until after 11:00 pm so we headed back to the room for the evening.
This post has been delayed mostly due to my lack of discipline of sitting down and writing. I hope to do better with keeping it current.
Stay tuned for our next update where we visit the French countryside in Brittany.
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jackie
non-member comment
good to hear from you guys
Hey dad and Lynne I am glad you guys are doing well. It's been a while since your last update. I was starting to worry about you guys. be safe Love you guys very much.