Paris, France


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Europe » France » Île-de-France
July 17th 2012
Published: July 20th 2012
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Arriving into Paris we were immediately astounded about how crowded it was. Locals have to fight their way through the endless lines of crowds that seem to hijack every bit of footpath there is. Welcome to Paris.

Paris is an unbelievably beautiful city with amazing monuments, buildings and cobblestoned roads. The place is very similar to London but the French really know how to jazz up their buildings. The grand and petite palaces that are located close to the Arc de triumph make Buckingham palace look like a dive. They are so spectacular. We visited the most famous museum in the world (formally in the movie DaVinci Code) The Louvre, which holds the most famous painting of all the time, The Mona Lisa. It was very beautiful but the crowds to see it were crazy and I couldn’t get closer then 15 ft away from it. But I did see some other beautiful pieces of art from the world’s leading artists.

We had no illusions that Paris would be cheap. But when compared with every city we have visited including New York and London, the cost of food in particular is crazy. Snails and frogs legs??? Forget it, surprisingly enough you could hardly find these dishes anywhere… Which is probably a godsend really J Wine is cheap, which Kristy loved. To our amazement the metro system was quite cheap for a major city. And to be honest the Paris system is the easiest and most convenient we have used.

Weather wise it was not too good. We still did what we set out to achieve but we really had to concentrate as the weather had us where it wanted us. It rained almost every day! L

The French have a reputation of being a little arrogant at the best of times but I must admit the locals really treated us fine. Some even went out of their way for us so we can only leave good feedback in that category.

Our favorite thing to do was to see how many different ways we could photograph the Eiffel Tower from around the city. It really is a pretty spectacular structure, grand is size and beauty. When we first got to Paris we decided not to go to top. I know what you’re thinking but seriously waiting three hours to see a view and then another two hours to get down (NO JOKE) well I think we made a great choice. Having arrived a few days before Bastille Day they had a giant silver ball dangling from the center of the tower. Awesome!! The Moulin Rouge was nothing to really write home about. Pretty seedy area and the actual theatre is in need of a major facelift. Didn’t bother seeing a show for that reason alone. We did however visit ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________the Chateau De Vincennes- a French medieval castle and take a very wet cruise down the gorgeous River Siene. Then there is the gothic charm Notre Dame… Very beautiful, inside and out. You can understand why it has become the most iconic church.

Our souvenir hunt directed us to the largest flea market in the world. Wow, what a dodgy place. Don't get me wrong the antique area was really good (very dear as well) but the characters you walk past is eye opening. I don’t think I took my hand from my wallet in my pocket for the two hours we were there. Laughing about it now but god it was scary.

We ended up getting two little oil painted pictures from an artists store on the last day. Our bartering skills from Thailand had us in good stead and we actually got a discount of 33% on a set price. Who says you can’t barter in Paris…

We had heard of the great wine bars in Paris so we decided to venture into the city and see what we could find. Down a back alley we found quite a cheap place and after a few hours we were both very merry and headed on our way. A couple of days later we were so impressed by the wine bar that we decided to go again. After hours of searching we couldn't find it so we gave up and bought a bottle and had a nice night in. We didn’t end up heading out to the wine regions… Firstly Paris doesn’t have any good vineyards and the other wine areas around (approx 2-4 hours away) are just so expensive to get to. With or without a tour.... Especially Champagne and Burgundy…. Absolutely crazy that people pay that much! We were happy to sample in the city instead. So we are off to Milan now for a few days before heading to Rome..... 😊

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