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Champs_ élysées
Just to prove it... The start to a fabulous trip was when my luggage failed to turn up at CDG airport. This was probably due to we had to run to catch the connecting flight from Helsinki to Paris _-so there was not much chance of the luggage making it.
So I took the RER and metro sans backpack to my hotel. After all the stuffing around it was cool that it was still light up to 10pm which is when I finally arrived after leaving home over 24 hours ago..
DAY 1: The reason for my blisters is the below itinerary done largely on foot
Pl Charles de Gaule/Arc de Triomphe
Avenue de Champs Elysees (some shopping HAD to be done since its sale time - "soldes") - had a sticky nutella crèpe from a snack bar on the side of the street and was glad to hear that I do not hold the record for the dumbest question ever asked. A couple of tourists asked my crepe man, "Can you tell me where the Champs-élesées is? Good on his for keeping his cool and not laughing in their faces...
Grand Palais/Petit Palais
Jardin des Tuileries
Big department store "Galeries Lafayette"
- This was absolute madness, worse than Chadstone at Christmas. There were waiting areas providing chairs & cold water for frustrated males waiting for their girlfriend/wives to return from their shopping frenzy
Isle de la Cité / Notre Dame Cathedral _ Even though I'd seen it before it still had the 'wow' factor. I was also lucky enough to be there during a service, so the atmosphere of singing and prayer below the ornate stained glass windows was breathtaking.
Isle St Louis _ lots of interesting little shops a well as the inevitable tacky tourist souverir shops
Eiffel Tower _ Truly beautiful, elegant and majestic, despite what some people may say. Being high season the queues to climb it were unbelievable. Many tourists and locals had opted for a picnic on the grass of the Champs de Mars in the balmy summer evening. The french do picnics the right way _ champagne & glasses, cheese platter etc.
DAY 2 :
Montmatre/ Sacre Couer _ another beautiful cathedral and a man playing a harp on the step outside added to the atmlosphere. What didn'd were the African guys who wouldn't give up trying to tie bits of string on
your wrist a a "cadeau" _ i'm sure there was payment involved somehow though
Pigale _ The place still oozes sleaze even on a Sunday morning. The "Folies Pigale" nightclub was still neon lit with a few bouncers lurking around the entrance waiting to close up.
église St Germain des Prés _ this is a beautiful area around the oldest church in Paris. You can also pay absorbant prices for drinks/food and the priviledge of sitting in the famous Les Deux Maggots or the Café de Flore.
Next to the church is a small little garden/park. It was amusing to watch an elderly frenchwoman dip into her large bag full of seeds and feed the hordes of pidgeons. The pidgeons fought amongst themselves for the food, even being so cheeky as to perch on the bench right next to the woman or even sit on her shoulder or near her head. She looked pleased as punch as if she thought that they actually had some genuine affection for her, not just the food. If i'd been quicker I could have got a great shot of her, but she caught me with the camera and indictated no picture was allowed.
When she threw a particularly large handful of seed, the pidgeons were so frenzied they created a kind of dust storm as they took flight and dived for the seed. The wind their wings created gave me the unexpected vision of the old lady's black nickers revealed from underneath her drab skirt.
Upon leaving the park the old lady became more genial. The conversation (conducted in French) went a bit like this:
Lady _ I'm feeding the birds
Me _ Yes ( gees I thought that was obvious)
Lady _ Where are you from?
Me _ I'm from Australia
Lady _ Austria?
Me _ No, I'm AUSTRALIAN
Lady _ Austria?
Me _ AUSTRALIA
Lady _ Oh, its an island isn't it?
Place St Suplice
Jardin du Luxembourge - Paid £3.70 for a Magnum ice_cream which sounds ok until you realise its euros and not aussie dollars. Sat for a couple of hours reading my book and on the way out discovered the main reason for the gardens - the palace. Funny if i'd mised it altogether....
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