Wee wee Paris

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Bonjour

The city of light... and its amazing.

After a delayed plane in Ireland we made it to our hostel just before the subway closed, and slept beautifully.

Our first day was spent walking across town along the Seine River. We started at the Bastile and ended at the Eiffel Tower. Our first major stop was Notre Dame. It was a lot bigger than we had imagined and magnificent. The whole area was buzzing with tourist so we didn't hang around too long, but instead went to a few pet shops and sat at a cafe drinking huge 2 pint beers each. Once again at high noon.

We strolled along the river and made our way to the big park by the Eiffel Tower... something with Mars in the name. It reminded me (Jon) of the mall in Washington. Then to conquer the tower itself. We cheaped it out by walking up the first two platforms by foot and then took the final elevator to the top. Though it was a bit cloudy, the view was spectacular. See photos.

Returning to our hostel, we got a clear, daylight view, from our 7th floor room overlooking the Montmarte district of Paris. We were very lucky to have such a neat room.

The next day we went back to the Seine River to go to the Louve, which we missed the day before. It was A LOT of paintings and very overwhelming, not to mention all the tourists, but after 9 euro, it was worth the experience. And, hey, at least we can say we saw the Mona Lisa. We tried to find our way out through the maze-like museum and were very hungry.

We quickly realized, after seeing a Louie Vitton store, that we were not in a budget neighborhood (let alone town), so we tried to get off the main roads and stumbled upon a Vietnamese restaurant, probably for local businessmen (or women) and enjoyed a 3 course meal for 7.50€. The food was good and we proceeded to the Champ Elyses(?).

My mom said she loved this area, and I could see why. Shops shops shops. It began to rain, so we bought a France patch and a cup of Starbucks (with my expired discount, so far every country in Europe has extended their discount to us). We made it to the Arc de Triumph, after a long (and somewhat wet) trek. See more pictures.

Back at the hostel, we ate a supermarket meal and met another traveller, Rebecca, and her weary buddy, Holly. Rebecca decided to join us to meet the local gays (gais). After 3 subway trains and a bit of wandering/asking for directions, we found La Maret (a.k.a. French West Hollywood/Dupont/San Francisco).

After a few drinks and some Marc dancing, we tried to get back, but the subway was closed. It was late and chilly, and the cabs were all taken or thought we were too close to our hostel to take us. We started walking, and after about 20mins we finally got a cabbie. Marc talked at length about Multiculturalism with our driver from Ghana and didn't care. Je ne cepa?

Our last day was spent sitting on the grass of the Gare de Lyon train station waiting for our ride to Switzerland, where we will meet up with Marc's high school foreign-exchange-student-friend, Carla, in Bern.

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Photos

Straight out the subway
Chinese tourist

The view of the river
We be walkin'

Where are we?
hum...

Ah ha
Notre Dame

Eiffel - Feifel
Is there a connection?

Comments

[Liz]

Wawaweewa!!
Wowsers!! You guys really are seeing everything!! I ENVY you guys!! I LOOOOVED the vending machine.. hahahahahaha!! looks like you guys are having a great time so far! how did you guys manage to find the gay area??

[binnie]

vending machine
Now that's you've seen everything, by everything i mean the heinie in the vendie....when ya come?