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Hello Everyone-
Paris was our first stop on our trip to France. We did way too much in Paris for us to tell you about, but hopefully the pictures will provide enough of a story. We will tell you about our run in with the Metro Police that had us mad for a few hours and also tell you about a website we discovered from some other travels that has saved us a whole lot of money and introduced us to some nice locals. We also took a day trip to the Loire Valley, which was very beautiful, but at the same time very hard on the body!
Paris is pretty much a sight-seers dream come true. They have some of the most spectacular monuments and one of the most spectacular museums in the world, The Louvre (like in the Da Vinci Code). A glimpse at what we did - We saw the Arc de Triomphe at one end of the Champs-Elysées (the famous thoroughfare), we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, spent a whole day in the Louvre and saw The Mona Lisa, hunted for the Hunchback in the Cathédrale de Notre Dame, walked the Tuileries
Gardens, looked for the Phantom at the Opéra, walked the streets of Pigalle were Moulin Rouge is located, visited one of Europe’s oldest universities La Sorbonne after passing by the Panthéon, mounted Montmartre, the highest point in Paris, where Sacré-Coeur is located, spent an afternoon at Versailles with the famed Hall of Mirrors (even though it was under renovation), and lastly we crept through Cimetiére Pére Lachaise which houses the remains of Balzac, Moliére, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Edith Piaf, Sarah Bernhardt, and most famous to Americans, Jim Morrison of the Doors, plus many other famous dead dudes. We could write a book explaining the history behind each of these places, but for now enjoy the photos!
Our second night in Paris we had the run in with the Metro Police. We read in a guide book that you can purchase a week long pass for the Metro and it is well worth it if you are going to be in town for 3 or more days. So our first day in Paris we went to the Metro station, bought a week pass, and used it all of our first day as well as our second day. Well about 11pm
at night Heather and I wanted to check out the Eiffel Tower when it as all lit up, so we left our hotel and headed to the Metro station. Once inside the station we were stopped by three Metro workers and they asked for our tickets. I pulled out our tickets and they then asked if we had our Orange Card. Huh? We were confused and said we had no idea what they were talking about. Well, as it goes, if you purchase a week or longer pass you also have to have an Orange Card, which is like an ID card with your picture on it and is no extra charge to get, but if you don’t have the card it is a 35 Euro fine per person. After a lot of arguing that this wasn’t clearly mentioned on the machine where we bought the passes, the fine was brought down to 35 Euro for the two of us and we were on our way, though a little peeved. A way to prevent ticket sharing or tourist trap? I will let you decide.
Since it was midweek we were lucky enough to find a nice hotel for 3
nights at a price that was about the same as a hostel, but we soon realized 3 days wasn’t enough and when we looked for a place to stay everywhere within our budget was booked up. Luckily we heard about a website called couchsurfing.com where you can connect with other travelers that currently are at home and will offer you a couch or a bed while you visit their city. It sounds like it can be a little freaky, but there are ways to be verified on the site so you can tell who is or isn’t legit.
We tried to contact people in Paris while we were in Dublin, but we didn’t hear back from anyone until it was our last day in our hotel and a guy named Yann replied to an e-mail I sent, perfect timing! He and his wife, Svetlana, offered us a bed for a few nights and we took them up on the offer and we were very glad we did. First - They were two of the nicest and most genuine people we have met in our travels - and Second - when you stay with a local you learn about things
that aren’t in the guide books. One thing we learned about Paris was that Wed-Sat nights many cafés offer free food, so our first night there we met up with Yann and Svetlana at a little café in the back streets of Paris and had a free chicken, steamed vegetables, and couscous dinner that was very great!
After a few extra days in Paris, we decided that we were going to take a short trip to the Loire Valley and visit some of the large chateaux (the wealthy’s summer retreats), but do it all by renting a bicycle. Once we told Yann about this he said that we didn’t need to rent bikes, but we could use theirs. They also said that for the one night we would be gone, we could leave our bags at their place and just take our small backpack with the clothes we needed. They are the greatest people and it was an awesome first couch-surfing experience!
We left Sunday morning on a train to the small town of Blois and booked ourselves a little hotel room the night before. Once there we found our hotel, dropped off our clothes, stopped by the
tourist office for a map of the valley, and were off on our biking adventure. Important Traveling Tip: If you plan on taking a bike ride, but haven’t been on a bike in about 6 months or more, don’t attempt a 50 kilometer ride your first day because you will have a very sore arse by kilometer 25 and still have half way to go! The bonus part was that we were able to see some beautiful scenery and Chambord, the largest chateau in the Loire Valley that housed a staircase designed by Leonardo Da Vinci and could accommodate 10,000 people, but we wished we had started with a couple smaller trips to get used to the bike seat!
After about 6 hours into our bike riding adventure and on our way back to Blois, I had the misfortune of running over a sharp object and ended up with a flat tire 15km away with no way to fix it. Luckily we did have a tire pump and the hole was small enough that if I pumped the tire I could get about 15 minutes of riding out of it, so I only had to pump it up a
couple of times and made it back without having to walk that distance. There were no major crashes, Heather just got a little bruise, but we were very glad we decided to get out and see the countryside.
Paris had it’s ups and downs, but mostly ups and couchsurfing.com is a great way for budget travelers to save some money! After we stayed with Yann and Svetlana, they went online and vouched for us saying we were good people, even though we brought back a bike with a flat tire and broke their washing machine (another long story that may or may not have been our fault, but least it was still under warranty). For those of you who have heard the French don’t like Americans, we would have to say that is untrue, we met some great people, but you do have to watch out for the tourist traps!
Currently we are sitting in the streets of Madrid and we know it has been sometime since we last posted a blog, but this is because we have been go-go-go for the last couple of weeks. So look forward to our next blogs were we tell you about
watching a live Bullfight in Madrid (not for vegetarians or people with weak stomachs), boating through the Grotto caves of Portugal's southern coast, and our amazing adventure in to Morroco Africa!
Love Ben and Heather
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frederick
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da davinci
After years of ignoring your requests for me to read the Divinci Code they finally made a movie so that non-readers like myself could finally understand what your years of Divinci blabber was all about. Well I gotta tell ya, I didn't like it one bit! God Damn that Sacrilege filth! How is that for a review? Now for the generic "you-have-heard-this-before" comment: It looks like you guys are having fun and that couchsurfing site sounds like a great resource. But, trust me (I am speaking from experience here) after you sleep on Gaylord Manschlave's (get it "man-slave" ha ha) couch in Berlin you will want to reconsider this whole internet sleep-over thing. love ya bunches of bunnys and sugerplum fairies -fred