Bonjour Paris

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Bonjour Paris !

Our Easyjet flight to Paris had us at Charles De Gaul in just over 90mins. Our first challenge was to find a taxi that would take all of us, our baggage including that new suitcase and that dam partridge in pear tree, to our apartment in the Marais District (pronounced ma-ray) The Marais is the gay capitol of Paris and yes we picked it for a reason. It's safe, lively, central and the food is amazing.

After a quick meet and great with our landlord Andrea who spoke fluent French, Italian and pretty good English we slipped out into the streets. Here we collided head on with the stark realisation that we new NO French. Bonjour, Wee, Merci was the extent of our communication. This was compounded by the fact that the French spoke less English than the Italians. So with a combination of a bad French accent (learn't from watching Kevin Kline in French Kiss) and yet more hand gestures we managed to make our way downtown. We took in a quick tour of the Picasso Museum and debated with high intellect the question “what is art?”. No, not really. We lasted twenty minutes before realising we didn't know what art was, but this wasn't it.

From there we headed into town, witnessed a bit of a punch up and marveled at the speed of the Police response. Cops on roller blades get places a dam site faster than cops in cars!
Excitement over, we walked down for our first glimpse of the buildings along the Seine. Ok, they're stunning. We grabbed some dinner and headed home to rest up for our assault on Euro Disney (now known as “Parc Disneyland” to make it sound more French).

Parc Disneyland !

Two pretty excited young ladies (and a bit bigger but none the less excited one in Jess) woke us early. We downed a quick breakfast and headed for the train. Be at the gates when they open. That was our goal. Art et Metiers Station is about a 100m walk from our flat so our legs would be saved from early wear. “We wish to go to Parc Disneyland please”. The reply “no,no,no, impossible” (say it with me... eeempossibeel). “No here, you must walk to Republic take the Metro and change to the RER line A”.

Republic is a conservative 2km walk. Ok, it's Disneyland Day and what must be done must be done.

Right. So if your ever in Paris, here's how you get to Parc Disneyland. Pens ready there will be a test.

First you pay 52euro for the tickets! You find the platform, are told by a kindly old man that this is your train and its leaving NOW. You jump on, breathless with excitement and find a seat. Two stops later you notice it's heading the wrong direction!!!. You get off the %$%#2!!! train take another back to where you started. Cross the platform to the right one and get on, easy.

Then you get off three stops later and are confronted by a maze of 200metre long moving walkways and nil in the way of signage. You get lost, take another, get lost, find your way back and viola! RER line A. See piece of cake (sorry, baguette). 45 minutes later you arrive at Marne Del Larlee Chessy / Park Disneyland.

Disneyland

What a blast! We filled the day with as much as you can before being told for the third time that the park is closing. The images tell the story better than words ever could. Check out the number of Disney bags in the last pic. Needless to say the decision to return for a second day and see the remaining 70% was made on the spot.

To return home from Parc Disneyland you board the same train, change again and head for Republic readyor a 2km walk home. You look at the route board and realise that Art et Metiers is only three stops away and that this morning didn't need to happen. You exchange muderous stares with the love of your life. Both of you could be jailed for a long,long time for what you are thinking about your friendly a.m. Station Attendant and the hope of meeting her in a dark alley.

The river Seine, the road to Eiffel Tower

It is said that Paris is best viewed from the Seine and that the best way to get your first glance of the great tower is from a river boat. In fact most of the top attractions can be seen from there. We purchased tickets on the Batobus (waterbus) service which travels between all majors stops none of which are more that ten minutes apart. The river itself is not much to talk about but lined on both sides with history and even more beautiful at night its a cheap excursion and one not to miss.

Eiffel Tower

From the time you can turn on a TV you are aware of the Eiffel Tower. From cartoons to kids movies and old classics, the grand old man IS France in the same way the statue of Liberty is the USA. The Batobus swept left with the Louvre on one side and Notre Dame in our wake and there he was. Small at first yet still towering above all around him. The closer we crept the bigger it got and as Sarah said, it just keeps getting bigger. Moments later we all stood at the base of the tower, eyes to the sky, chins on the ground. I remember saying to Kerry “it's real” all she could offer was “yep”. We pushed our way through the sea of touts all offering tower replicas for “bargain” prices and joined a line for tickets up, to the top of course, was there ever any doubt. Every now the touts would scatter, running for their lives, but no-one else was? Ah, ha, we get it. Cops arrive, touts leave, cops leave, touts return back and so the dance goes on. You always knew when the cops were around as the touts carry all their jangling mini towers on wire hoops so when they run it's like a stampede of Santa's.

The lift ride to level one of the tower is enough to set the pulse racing of anyone scarred of heights. Some don't complete the journey. We saw many guys and girls who agreed to “just wait here”. Not us. Let's go, onward and upward. What a reward! The girls were blown away that they could see the curve of the earth. For us it was a chance to see how well planned Paris is as a city, to admire the views to eternity and celebrate standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower. And we did so with a ten euro glass of champagne each. Yep there's a bar at the top. It's the size of a phone booth but it's there.

Louvre

Took it easy today and let the girls have a sleep in, washing to do, all that sort of stuff. After lunch we headed off to the Lourve. Kerry had become much the trivia master in the research for our holiday. In the Louvre, she told that it was so big that if you took just ten seconds to look at every piece of art inside it would take you four days to see them all. By the way that's ten seconds non stop 24hours a day.

We held no hope of seeing even 10% of all that so we headed for the one painting even the girls wanted to see, the Mona Lisa. Arts a funny thing, having visited the Picasso Museum earlier that week and frequently asked the “what the...” question about paintings we could have sworn we saw in Sarah and Neive's class room a month ago, we were now among real art, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Da Vinci, masters of all styles. Masterpieces the size of your walls.

We followed the crowd (you don't need the signs) and were soon in a large room with a huge empty wall. On that wall behind bullett proof glass was the grand lady of the Louvre, the Mona Lisa. Fully framed she is no bigger than your average suitcase. Neive pointed out that she has no eyebrows (nice call). Sarah wanted to know why that particular painting was worth so much that it was actually worthless. This is true. Kerry again blew us way with the fact that at one point the painting was stolen by an employee. He couldn't sell it to anyone so he hid it under his bed for two years. It was recovered and put back in the Lourve. Priceless but worthless.

After a brief look at the Egyptian exhibit we sat outside in the rain for another round of our famous chip sandwiches then walked along the Champs Elysees for a bit of shopping.

Notre Dame

Caught the metro down to the river Seine today after a leisurely start and crossed the bridge to visit Notre Dame. It's as impressive as its legend would have you believe. From it's gothic Gargoyles that leer down on those who enter to the huge towers that house “those” bells their famous ringer. Strangely it was the only church we visited that had a vending machine selling souvenir medals and also a gift shop. All inside the church.

Latin Quarter

After Notre Dame we made our way down to the Latin Quarter. With it's narrow shop filled lanes and restaurants it reminded us of Sorrento. It was the only place where we felt a little nailed by the tourist thing when it cost us 5euro (aus $9.00) for a coffee. As it was Sunday and most of the shops were closed we decided to drift back home for a casual dinner in the brasserie. Always a good choice.

The Case of the Venice handbags.

Ok,ok. We know you're wondering. So here it is.

During our time in Paris we contacted our Venice accommodation and after sweating it out for twenty four hours they confirmed they had the bags. Yeah!

The next challenge was to get them sent to us in Paris. Easy enough, it was only a 90minute flight so a courier should get the job done. Brilliant solution, the bags are on their way. They will “arrive with you tomorrow” we were re-assured. The international bag incident was over as swiftly as it had begun. Kerry was smiling like a Cheshire cat in Italian leather heaven and all was right with the world.

AS IF !

The bags did arrive in Paris the next day (Friday) a public holiday in France. The following days Sat & Sun Poste France does not deliver. Paris is closed on Sunday and we mean closed. Ok, so they will be here on Monday. Sweet as we leave Singapore on Tuesday at 9am.

Monday we got up, headed off for our second day at Disneyland. On our return we were greeted by our landlord with news that the bags had arrived. Hallelujah ! BUT they arrived when he was out and had been taken back to the postal depot. Shit !

No problem the postman will return with the bags tomorrow. Yeah ! But sometime between 11am and 1pm. We leave for the airport at 9am, you guessed it......Shit !!!!

As you can imagine we arrived in Singapore, bagless. We have since made contact with our fearless and extremely helpful landlord. He has finally received the bags ! Thank God for small mercies. He has contacted a highly reputable courier who only wants 244euro (about $500) to send them to us at home. Do we need to say the “S” word again or do you get the picture?

At last posting our legend of a landlord was in discussion with La Post De France' about getting the bag to us at home. We hope and pray that he can make it happen. When it does we will post a micro blog just to let you know the final outcome.

This is our last blog on our holiday. We hope you have enjoyed travelling with us as much as we have keeping you informed. This was the holiday of a lifetime for all of us and I for one and not glad to see it end. Yes we all miss home but I don't think it would take much for us to spend a week or two at home and head off again.

Every member of our family owes a huge debt to Kerry (mum). She planned, budgeted and studied for this trip for almost two years. Without her it would never have happened. Sometimes while we were away we would never have made it out the door without the work she put in before we even set foot on the plane (we certainly wouldn't have made it out of the car rental depot). Thanks honey, we love you.

Sarah did learn one piece of French while we where here so I'll close with it.

Olive Wah !

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Comments

[Rhoni]

Fannnnn tassssstic!!!!
Wow - what a holiday! I feel homesick, envious, and enlivened all at once. Congratulations Kerry on organising (and surviving) such a wonderful family experience. Go you guys!