Advertisement
Published: January 27th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Parisian stroll
Crowded Champs Elysees Paris is a natural choice for a honeymoon. Search for romantic honeymoon destinations on the Internet and you’ll see Paris as one of the premier choices. Check the list of romantic movies that were filmed in Paris and you’ll find an endless list. Night or day, Paris is a city for lovers.
We did not have any trouble at all on our short journey from Lisbon to Paris. It was a good time for us to leave Lisbon as the rain continued throughout the day. We were sad to leave our hotel and its staff but we were also ready for our next destination.
It was a sunny and cool afternoon in Paris when we arrived! Not wanting to waste any time, we decided to take a taxi from the airport to our hotel. As the taxi approached Arc de Triomphe, we noticed a group of people demonstrating underneath the historical monument. They were waving flags and carrying signs - we saw the word Gaza and Israel. Pretty obvious what the demonstration was all about considering Israel started bombing Gaza a few days ago.
I booked a small boutique hotel close to Champs Elysees through American Express Travel.
Champs Elysees
Looking west towards Arc de Triomphe I figure we would be doing lots of walking and it would be ideal to stay close to the center of the city. Well, the hotel was so small that even our taxi driver could not see it. She drove past the hotel and we had to get out and walked back - it was a one way street. There was a wedding at the hotel and the bride and groom were getting their pictures taken at the entrance to the hotel. That was a good sign - must be a romantic hotel.
The lobby was small but pleasant. There was a mixture of old and new - antique furniture accentuated by modern amenities. There were white balloons all over … part of the wedding party. Behind the front desk, I could see a cozy lounge decorated in red and yellow furniture. As we were signing in, the concierge came and introduced himself to us. He wanted to know whether we had made any plans for New Year’s Eve and provided us with options and guidelines. We collected all of the information for our review later. Then the girl from the front desk escorted us to our room.
Eiffel Tower and Seine backdrop
Our very own romantic picture in Paris The hotel only has about 50 rooms, including suites. The girl explained to us that the building used to be a private townhouse with four apartments on four floors. The building was purchased by a hotelier in 1925 and he promptly added four floors before reopening the building as a hotel in 1930. Very old hotel? I was rather worried till she opened the door to our room. We had this spacious room with flat screen TV, a mini refrigerator, iPod clock radio and marble bathroom. Great!! This would be our home for the next 4 nights - into 2009.
We did not want to waste any time at all. Quick change and minutes later, we were strolling on Champs Elysees. Champs Elysees is the most prestigious avenue in Paris and consequently, is the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe. It runs for two kilometers from the Place de la Concorde in the east to the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, location of the Arc de Triomphe. Lining the street are cinemas, cafes and boutique shops such as Louis Vutton and Cartier. Let’s also not forget the typical American establishments such as McDonalds, Starbuck Coffee
Pont Alexandre III
Historical bridge built between 1896 and 1900 and Nike.
I spent a weekend in Paris before and had a general idea on the tourist sites around Champs Elysees. We slowly made our way east as the sun started to come down. It was getting colder and we were glad that we were very prepared - gloves, hats, boots. The problem was that I did not bring my gloves/hat with me while my wife did. As expected, Champs Elysees was very packed with tourists from all over the world. After all, Paris is one of the biggest tourist destinations all year round.
We turned right at Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt and started heading toward the Seine river. While many people do not know the Seine by name, I am sure many have seen it in romantic films or as romantic backdrop in pictures of Paris. As we walked along the bank of the Seine with excursion boats slowly going by, the sky started turning pink behind us. We hurried and finally reached our destination - Pont Alexandre III bridge.
Pont Alexandre III, built between 1896 and 1900, connected Champs Elysees quarter and the Invalides/Eiffel Tower quarter. Extravagantly decorated, the bridge is classified as a historical
monument. With a good view of Eiffel Tower from the bridge, I managed to take a few pictures before the sky completely turned dark. I was also able to ask a tourist to take a picture of us - our very own romantic picture in Paris with the Seine and Eiffel Tower as our backdrop.
The evening continued to get colder. Without my hat, my ears were getting cold. Lauren was nicely bundled up from head to toes. As we headed back towards Champs Elysees, we came across kiosks after kiosks on both sides of the street. Each kiosk was either selling food (warm wine, chocolate crepes) or arts and crafts or souvenirs. We tried to browse but the area was so packed that it was difficult for us to get close to any of the kiosks. And if I did not pay attention, I kept bumping into children or trees. This was so unlike Lisbon where we could have a nice leisurely stroll wherever we wanted to go.
As the evening got dark, the lights and decorations along Champs Elysees came on. Everywhere we turned, somebody was taking pictures. Crossing the street became a struggle as we
Champs Elysees looking east
With Place de la Concorde at the end and kiosks on both sides of Champs Elysees fought for the right of way with those tourists standing still to take pictures. We briefly walked into the Adidas store so I could warm up my ears.
We then continued our walk west, past a number of small French bakeries, a Virgin megastore and McDonalds. Once we got close to Arc de Triomphe, we noticed that the whole sidewalk was full of the demonstrators we saw earlier. They had crossed the street and were now marching slowly along Champs Elysees. They were still chanting and waving their flags/signs. Lauren wanted to turn around immediately to avoid running into the demonstrators. But I wanted to go forward and around them to take a night time picture of Arc de Triomphe with the French and EU flags in the middle.
Well, there was no doubt what we needed to do. As we tried to step forward, we heard police sirens coming fast behind us. We both turned around and walked back - just in time to see a police car followed by 8 police mini vans approaching the demonstrators. Yes, remember …. listen to your wife!
We were getting hungry (our lunch was a small sandwich on Air
Arc de Triomphe
With a busy Champs Elysees France) and we decided to find a restaurant. That was hard to do on Champs Elysees and McDonalds was certainly not an option. Exploring the side streets, we came across a hip English pub called Charlie Birdy. Of course, I was getting cold again and any warm place with hot food was acceptable as long as it met my wife’s approval also. She nodded her head and that was all it took.
After dinner, we decided to walk straight back to the hotel. We needed to plan our Parisian adventures and it was best to do it in the warmth and comfort of our hotel room.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.045s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 10; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0197s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb