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Published: July 12th 2012
Indechiperable
A foreign language is hard enough, but when you add in a terrible scrawl it becomes even harderWe survived the crazy drive from Frankfurt, and arrived in Paris pretty exhausted. We met Johanna at her apartment which we were renting through airbnb (since we couldn't find any rooms in couch surfing). Johanna was going away to a party for the weekend, so we had the place to ourselves for three nights. It was pretty cool getting our own apartment in Paris for only 40 euro a night (even if it was mozzie infested, and had a bed that was only slightly softer than wood). After we were settled, we went for a walk around the neighbourhood and down towards Notre Dame. Following a tip from Lonely Planet we found a nearby felafel store for dinner which was delcious but seriously overpriced.
Saturday morning we grabbed one of the velib bikes from near the apartment and rode in to the city to do another city tour with New Europe (now having done one in Edinburgh and Amsterdam). The velib bikes are great and similar things run in nearly every city we've been to. Basically you pay a given fee for a day, a week, or a year, and then you can grab a bike from any of the
Tour Time
Our group doing the free tour. MANY bike stations around the city. You can then use the bike for 30mins for free. Given that in Paris the bikes were all within 500m of the next bike station it was easy enough to return inside that time (unless you got distracted trying to get to a tour on time!). While waiting for the tour start we grabbed a cafe au lait, a chocolat au pain, and a baguette while a man dressed as a rabbit played the drums on some plastic buckets. Very Paris.
The free tour was great and went until around 2-3pm with so much great history of the city. It was interesting to see the only two bits of damage to the city from WWII (similar to Amsterdam, the French gave in before too much fighting occurred). After the tour we grabbed another pair of nearby bikes and went in search of cheese, tomato and avocado. The weather was showing us some rare sunshine, so we went and ate under the Eiffel Tower and then dozed for a bit with all the locals on the grass.
We had booked in to do the evening tour of Montmarte and suddenly realised we had
Bullet Holes
One part of the minor damage done to Paris during WWII. This was caused by rebels storming this building which was being used by Nazi's at the time. dozed a bit too long. A quick (and slightly nerve-racking) ride up the hills and through back streets and we arrived near the Moulin Rouge about 15mins late. Thankfully the tour hadn't actually begun so we jumped on board for another interesting and informative tour around a pretty cool area of Paris. Highlights were Amelie's cafe, Van Gogh's brother's house, Picasso's house, the last Parisian winery, and an amazing view from Sacre Couer. Oh, and the guide pointed us in the direction of a superb little Creperie which we ate from after the tour.
Sunday the weather was looking pretty grim. We caught the metro down to the Bastille Market which is a long market consisting mainly of food (and a few other bits). It probably even rivals the wonderful Adelaide Central Market for awesomeness (and that's a big call). We got a bit carried away and spent a lot of euro, but that included fresh champignon raviolli, rainbow trout fillets, salmon (atlantic salmon that's actually IN the atlantic!), 2kg of tomatoes, some delicious mushrooms, a big bag of apricots, and various other veggies. The rain was getting heavier when we got home so we spent the afternoon planning
Old Bridge
Pont Neuf. Which means new bridge. Funnily enough, it's the oldest bridge still standing. hmm the next couple of weeks of our trip and sending out some couch requests.
Monday we decided to brave the crowds and fight our way into the Louvre. The guide from Saturday's tour had told us to use the side entrance as it's quicker. Well, maybe it is... when it's open. Ahh well into the throng we go. We probably spent 4 hours or so in there before it all got too much and had to escape. The Mona Lisa was as amusing as ever - 150 people holding cameras over their heads to get a photo of something they could buy a perfectly good postcard of in any souvenir shop. The other funny thing for the day was watching a lady climb onto one of the ancient statues so that her friend could take a photo of her. Security was not impressed, but she seemed to think it was hilarious.
We sat out near the fountains, refueled on some more baguettes with cheese, avo and tomatoes (see how naturalised we're becoming!) and then caught the metro to Arc de Triomphe. Chris had been up before and wanted to save money so didn't go up - just stood
around underneath and took photos for tourists. Nena went up, but found she was too short to see over the wall down to the traffic below. We were both dissapointed there were no car accidents while we were there.
Since we were up that way, we went for a walk along the Champs Elysee, popping in to the Mercedes Benz and Peugot shops to go ooh and ahh at the expensive cars and watch security guards try to stop kids touching the cars.
Ahh Parisian people are so friendly an honest. One man found a golden ring on the ground and gave it to us and only asked for a few euro. Another girl came and gave Chris his wallet that he must've dropped earlier.
hahah just kidding. They are two common scams on the streets here, and there are plenty more. We had a couple of attempts on us, but just saying NON and waving your hand seems to turn them away.
Tuesday we decided to indulge in some more art and head to Musee D'Orsay. Along the way we dropped into a boutique Macaroon shop called La Duree (The Duration). They are a pretty
Henry IV
Killed for showing religious tolerance. Then the Parisians tortured and killed his murderer in several unpleasant ways. popular sweet in Paris, and they range from what you can get at a service station, through to the sort of creations you get in places like this (with a pretty large range in price too!). They are kinda like a couple of soft biscuits with a creamy filling between them, with all sorts of flavours. We got coffee, ghana chocolate, rose, pistachio, salty caramel, and a really tasty basil and lime.
When we got to the Musee D'Orsay, the line was HUGE and not really moving that much. After a quick discussion we decided wandering the streets would be more interesting. We strolled around the latin quarter for a few hours including buying some more bread and cheese for lunch and then caught the train to the Eiffel Tower. Before jumping in the line, we found a nearby chocolate shop that had been recommended. They were very expensive, so we grabbed a couple of very small boxes of the chocolate tiles which were like soft dark chocolate lightly powdered with cocoa. They were quite amazing to say the least.
After a 90min wait in the queue we finally got to ascend up the tower and admire the
Two Happy French Ducks
I was going to throw them some cheese and wine too. view. It was pretty beautiful and worth the wait. The usual happy snaps were taken, the 10euro glass of champagne refused, and we went back down again.
Wednesday we had booked a car through carvoiturage.fr to drive to Rennes. We got to the meeting place half an hour early as we weren't sure if we were in the right place, and then had to wait next to a major interesection for two hours waiting as they were stuck in traffic. Thankfully another passenger who spoke a lot of English (and her name was Camille!) arrived so we had someone to chat to and to explain to use what was going on. Oh, the fun of travelling on a budget!
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