Paris

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From Lisbon we flew to Paris, the final destination of the European part of our trip. Paris is a great city, and probably our favorite city in Europe. It is big and has plenty to do and see, but it also very picturesque, and seems much more relaxed than other big cities. It is also very clean in comparison to other cities in Europe. We had booked an apartment in quite a good location, near the Forum Des Halles, only a 5 minute walk from the river and Notre-Dame Cathedral, and within easy walking distance of The Louvre. The apartment was on the edge of a pedestrianised area, and downstairs were cafes, restaurants and bars. It was all very lively and packed with people during the day, but the apartment was surprisingly quiet at night. We did get woken a couple of times at 5 in the morning as people streamed out of a local pub that closed at that time, and headed for the kebab shops and cafes that had stayed open until then. It was strange to get up at 7am and see a kebab shop closing up. We were also surprised to see a lady hanging around constantly downstairs, particularly early in the morning, until we realised that she was a member of the oldest profession on the planet, and to be honest I think she had been in the professional for quite a few years.

Paris in late autumn was certainly a lot different to our previous visit which had been in summer. The weather was cold - with maximum temperatures ranging from about 8 to 12 degrees, certainly the coldest temperatures we had experienced for a while and not ideal weather for outdoors sightseeing. However the city was very picturesque as the trees had shed most of their leaves, and those that were left were various shades of yellow, brown and orange.

As we’d been to Paris before, we decided to spend a great deal of our time indoors visiting galleries. We went to The Louvre and also the Musee D'Orsay which had an excellent collection of 19th and 20th century art, particularly works by the group known as the Impressionists, featuring paintings by Monet, Renoir and Van Gough amongst others. We also visited the Picasso Museum and The Museum of Modern Art at The Pompediou Centre which featured more contempary art. This was very interesting, although to be absolutely honest we didn't get all of it. There was one painting that was simply a canvas painted white. The information provided said that this painter was 'minimalist', and that since 1979 he had only painted with the colour white??????? Anyway we now know much more about art than we did previously (which wasn’t much).

We didn't do a lot outdoors, although we did wander through the Tuileries Gardens (very pretty in autumn) and along the bank of the River Seine, and also visited Notre-Dame Cathedral which is without doubt one of the most impressive churches we have seen on this trip (and we have seen plenty). We had lunch one day in the St-Germain district, and afterwards wandered through the streets of this area where every second building is a small art gallery. This appeared to be one of the cultural centres of the city.

On our last night in Paris we caught the train to the Arc de Triomphe and wandered down the Champs-Elysees occassionally stopping so Sharon could venture into one of the shops. Paris is very pretty by night, although it was absolutely freezing, and we called it a night when it started to rain just before 10pm.

We left Paris on the Friday morning, catching the train out to Charles de Gaulle airport for our flight back to London Luton. We only had a short walk from the train station to the terminal but nearly froze as despite the sun shining brightly it can't have been more that 5 or 6 degrees, and this was just before midday.

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Photos

Paris in the Autumn
The Tuileries Gardens

Paris in the Autumn
The Tuileries Gardens

The holy grail is buried here
For fans of "The Da Vinci Code"

View from the Musee D'Orsay
Looking across the River Seine and up to the white Basilica of Sacre-Coeur, high on the hill in Montmartre

The cafe under our apartment
Our apartment was on the third floor