Blogs from Paris, Île-de-France, France, Europe - page 360

Well, after about a two and a half hour sleep. Liz and I got up, we decided to get up later than planned because we weren't going to shower. Now, that may sound gross to some of my American friends, but it is customary over here to go a few days between showers. Although, it is different and I embrace and can tolerate it. It is not something I would ever choose to do freely. But, anyway (did you see that mom? ANYWAY!!!!), we got up very early to catch the metro to Lille Flanders. There we bought tickets to Paris. Are reasoning for leaving for Paris was two-fold. 1. Gives up the most time in Paris 2. it is cheaper. I think the latter outweighed the former though. So, tickets in hand, we waited for ... read more

This will likely be our last entry until we get back to the states and I can update it with what we did in Madrid the last 2 days. Just wanted to let you know that we are currently in Paris after another night train and just walking around gathering last minute souvenirs. We will both be home tomorrow evening and likely sleeping for 18 hours. Thanks to you all for reading and sharing your comments. It has been fun to read them all and keep you all up to date. Sorry this is so short but we are hungry! Talk to you or see you soon. Au revoir! Heather and Jenn... read more

Bonjour! Before I begin: A word of warning. This post contains hideous & dreadful generalisations that are truly an outrage. It dribbles on and makes tonnes of condescending statements. Read on only if you have thick skin and a sense of humour. So after 3 months pluggin away in Reading working for the man (billg), I finally got the opportunity to pack everything into the backpack and head off for a much needed Holiday. Destination: Frances & Austria And boy oh boy did it feel good to get the backpack on again. I felt truly liberated as I started heading through the thick early morning fog towards the train station knowing that ahead of me lay nearly 3 weeks of stress free holidays. The first stop in my travels was suppose to be Biarritz in the ... read more

YeaH, so for Chirstmas break I was able to hope a short flight to Paris and spend a few days toursiting around the city till Christmas eve when I met up with Elodie. SO this is the story. I arrived after a lovely short flight into Charles De gaulle Airport. And took the Metro straight to Montmartre where I would stay in a hostel for the next few days. I had heard about a free christmas concert that was to occur that night at Notre Dame and I was determined to get there in time. So I hopped the metro after dropping my bags and headed straight to Mile zero France. (I was told later that all distances in France are measured from a point directly in front of Notre Dame.) When I arrived, I found ... read more

Another early wake up - as is the norm (7ish) - and then an entire day wandering the streets of Paris, trying to avoid the language barrier and eating at a little cafe. Saw all the big sites, including he Louvre Museum, which everyone agreed you could spend weeks in (it has 18km of corridors). There was some amazing artwork and sculptures in there, including the infamous Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo statue. We then headed down Champs Elysees, an amazing and rich main street (which looked unbelievable at night), towards the Arc de Triomph (massive arc structure thing). Climbed that 284 steps for more great views. Then it was on to the Notre Dame, which had another 200+ steps to climb for more views. All in all a completely packed day, which by the ... read more