Blogs from Paris, Île-de-France, France, Europe - page 382

I usually create independent entries for my personal journal and this blog, but in this case, I'm posting an edited version of my private journal I guess I'm doing Paris kind of backwards. My last day in Paris, and only now do I go to the Eiffel Tower. I was convinced last night to do the tower the "authentic" way. Let me tell you, those 600 or so steps to platform 2 were definitely authentic - brutally so. This morning's trip on the metro was rather eventful as well. You see, with the Carte-Orange, you're supposed to attach a photo to the card, sign your name, etc. Lets just say I neglected that part, and had the fortune of running into Metro enforcement. It was quite an experience trying to talk myself out of a ... read more

The 24 euro night's sleep was definitely better than the 13 pound's night's sleep. I actually felt rested this morning.... I wouldn't say I'm in love with Paris, but I'm definitely loking this place. I got a bit of a late start today (walked out at 8:50). The first stop was the Louvre. Now that place I am in love with. Just the building alone. If it was initially built as a fort, it doesn't show. I especially like the Apartments of Napolean III. The fellow knew how to live. Burgandy walls, what I presume to be gold-leafed moulding, elaborately painted ceilings, etc. I won't even get started on the paintings. It was interesting to see the one of Napolean's coronation up close. It doesn't look like much in textbooks, but the thing's massive. Lunch was ... read more

As we write our third installment of the blog, we would like to welcome several new readers to the blog who have been added and tell everyone that our trip is still going marvelously. Right now, we are sitting on a train from Paris to Amsterdam (Jacob is napping…surprise surprise) as I sit and have my second espresso (a definite new favorite) of the morning. Between the two of us we churned out a little description of our four full days in Paris. We know its long, but we hope you enjoy our musings wherever you may be reading them. As to pictures, many are finally up and others are loading as you read this on our pic site at http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=jperlin&p=F950&AID=2504676&Pres=Y and although many do not have titles feel free to just scroll and enjoy. If ... read more

My flights all went well. I met a really nice girl in Boston who took me under her wing and we went down to Harvard \square and walked around for a while. Boston is a great city...may be someplace that would be fun to visit again. I arrived in Zurich on time. I got a cappucino and looked into getting an earlier flight to Paris. I spent enough time and was tired from my day allready that I did not go and explore Zurich (sorry Susan). It looked beautiful from the plane though. The land reminded me of a painting, if I had studied more I might remember what painting it is. The flight to Paris was over an hour late so we arrived around 2:00pm. I made my way to the baggage claim (there was ... read more

This is the last retroactive posts to be filled; the date is not the date I wrote it, but the last date of being in Paris, since we were there fore 3 nights. Before I go into the details of what we did in Paris, our journey there was very eventful since there was apparently a strike going on, starting the night before we were departing Interlaken (who has scheduled strikes with a begin and end date?). So there was apparently a good possibility that when we left our connecting train in Geneva, we might be there for a while since the train to Paris might be cancelled. Turns out our train happened to be just fine, so it was packed full of people who had been on cancelled trains, but we got to Paris just ... read more

What to do in Paris when it's over. I think that this is a great city to walk around in, there is always something new to explore. We bought some books at an english bookstore, Librarie Galgani, and spent the day in the Jardin des Tuileries by the Louvre. After a picnic lunch we transferred to the Jardin de le Palais Royale a few blocks away (it is truly an exhausting existence that we lead!). In this park is where we saw fellow American, Conan O'Brien. Can anyone tell me if Late Night is on repeats this week? After dinner, we took the Metro to Pigalle, the red light district of Paris. We walked along the "strip" until we reached the famous Moulin Rouge. It was still light out and parents had their kids in the ... read more