Paris

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Either side of our stay in Burgundy, we enjoyed a total of five days in the wonderful city of Paris. After catching the Eurostar from London and disembarking in the centre of Paris, I can vow that I will never fly between these two cities again. The train is so smooth and you don't have to waste time by getting to an airport two hours before departure and then arriving miles out of town and requiring transfers.

After a night spent in a sweltering dorm, we ventured out to see the city, beginning with 'le petit déjeuner' on a Parisien footpath. Eating a meal consisting of a croissant, french bread with jam, orange juice and European coffee, there was just no comparison with the Kellogg's Corn Flakes that had formed my staple breakfast in recent times. Afterwards, we set off for a self-guided walking tour of the city on the northern side of the Seine. By noon we had made our way to Notre Dame and heard Quasimodo ring the bells twelve times as we lined up to enter. We happened to witness the midday mass as we strolled through the cavernous, yet impressive interior. If for nothing else, it is worth entering this famous cathedral purely to gaze upon the stained glass windows that filter a blue-purple light onto the interior stones. In the afternoon we headed up to Sacré-Coeur Basilica, noticing the obvious contrast between these two buildings, as Sacré-Coeur is stunning in its pure white exterior, sitting atop Montematre and gazing over the city below.

The evening was spent at a concert of one of the world's more eccentric musicians. Tom Waits has not toured Australia since the 1970's, so to see him live was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity which I was not going to pass up. I had bought the tickets nearly two months prior to the concert, managing to get seats only seven rows from the front. For an entire hour before he took to the stage, the crowd was cheering, clapping and stamping their feet, so you can imagine the delirium that set in once he approached the microphone. As his voice boomed through the theatre, its volume was only matched by the roars from the audience. The concert was sensational from beginning to end and I got to witness a true performer in every sense of the word. He had the audience engrossed in his every movement and hearing every inflection in his delivery, no matter how slight, and his banter between the numbers on the piano was hilarious.

Another highlight from our time in Paris was meeting up with a group of friends (most of whom we had been in Burgundy with) for a day at the Louvre. As well as seeing all of the incredible artworks and artifacts, we had a wonderful breakfast on a terrace overlooking the central square where the glass pyramid sits. This was such a relaxing interlude in what is an exhausting day, as the contents of the Louvre are so vast that it is simply impossible to see them all in one day. One of our friend's had heard that if you spent one minute looking at each piece in the Louvre, then it would take 80 years to see everything - and I can believe it! My highlights were the the ancient and enormous sculpture of the winged Victory of Samothrace (a character from Greek mythology, the goddess Nike, which means Victory - hence the sporting brand that we all know), Géricault's painting 'Raft of the Medusa' and the marble sculpture by Antonio Canova of Psyche being revived by Cupid's kiss.

On another day, we wandered the length of the Champs-Elysées from the Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concorde, where I was spellbound by the 3000 year old obelisk at its centre, which confirmed for me that I will definitely be going to Egypt before this year is out! The country of Egypt has long fascinated me, so I also made sure that I wandered through each of the Egyptian wings in the Louvre, viewing objects ranging from a statue of Ramses II to mummified cats, dogs and even a crocodile! Anyway, I digress...

Yet another highlight (as I'm sure you can clearly see, there were many) was ascending the Eiffel Tower at night. The view of Paris illuminated by the lights of the city was nothing short of spectacular, from the Dome des Invalides (part of the hospital built by Louis XIV for the soldiers injured fighting in his army) to the distant Sacré-Coeur. At eleven o'clock, the entire tower sparkled to life, as if a thousand diamonds were glistening in the moonlight. Being on the tower at this moment almost left you dumbstruck, with jaw agape, trying to say "Wow", but only managing to produce unintelligable sounds.

Our final morning in Paris was spent wandering through the beautiful Pere Lachaise cemetery. As a rule, I don't set foot in cemeteries, as I feel a strange sense of unease that I find hard to describe; however, this cemetery is quite different. I had been here before, making a pilgrimage to the resting place of Jim Morrison some four years ago. This time around, I was able to appreciate the cemetery for its beauty (last time I nearly got locked in due to arriving quite late, which meant I had to dash in and out) and I also visited the grave of Chopin, which can only de described as serene beauty, due largely to the graceful statue atop his tomb. We also visited the grave of Jim Morrison and I once again found myself silently telling him things in my mind, without even intending to do so. We both found it incredible how so many people (there was a continual stream of visitors of all ages) wish to see the resting place of this one person, such was/is his impact upon others throughout the world.

So, our time in France has come to an end and it is time to move on to Italy, beginning in Pisa...

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