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Published: July 30th 2006
Aaahhh, aint it pretty
The eiffel tower in daylight.....picture no. 37...or thereabouts.Oh where to start.....its the most visited city in the whole world, its the most romantic city in the world, its, its Paris of-course!!
We departed last Sunday night and after 5hrs sleeping on the bus, 2 hrs on the ferry, 10 quid later and we had arrived in Paris...yeehah!!
After digging into a hearty lunch of frogs legs and snails (actually it was a cheese and ham omelette......close though) we were off to do some exploring! As it turned out our hotel was located close to Moulin Rouge, so we checked that out, then caught the metro in to see the Eiffel Tower. Might I add, we are now considered 'tube/underground/metro experts' as we have now mastered this form of travel in several countries.
Anyway, we couldnt wait to see the eiffel tower again, as last time we were in Paris, our photos didnt turn out, so I made up for it this time, promptly snapping 92 random photos.....all of the eiffel tower....cant have too many I say!!
We decided not to climb it again as the queue was miles long, but sat on the lawn at the base along with thousands of others, both tourists and parisians alike, having
Aaahhh, aint it still pretty
The eiffel tower on dusk, with me posing just to prove I was there! a picnic dinner in the unusually sweltering heat.
We sat there for a good 4 hours, just staring at the tower, as the light changed from daylight to dusk, then dark. As we had learnt previously, night time is when the eiffel tower really lights up (literally) so we prepared ourselves in prime position, ready with our 'oohs and ahhs' (just like you do with fireworks) for the 'twinkling' light time which happens on dark, every hour and lasts for around 10 minutes.
In daylight the eiffel tower is impressive, but it really just looks like a whole lot of steel reaching for the sky, but at night time when its lit up, it has a whole different amazing presence that really captures you (hence why we couldnt look away for 4hrs) so anyway, that pretty much filled our first day, so we caught the metro back around midnight and retired to the hotel. Have I mentioned how small european hotels are???? Well, just incase you were wondering, their standard rooms are about a quarter of the size of Australian hotels, with Paris having some of the smallest. The bathroom in this hotel was smaller than most shower bases and
Posers...aint it romantic!
This is us posing on the lawn at the base where we sat for several hours. when sitting on the toilet you actually had the sink practically sitting on your knee (too much info I'm sure....try not to get a mental image) Mick actually had a 'scary' moment, when he thought he was stuck and couldnt get off the toilet without a plumber coming in to remove the sink......I would have helped but I was too busy laughing of-course.
Anyway, next day we caught the metro again into the Arch De Triumph and after exploring that and possibly taking another billion photos, we walked down the champs elysees to the Louvre. Just so you know, all 3 of these Paris monuments are so much bigger than you could ever imagine. Picture how big you think they are then multiply it by 5 atleast.
For those of you who dont know... here's a bit of a history lesson.....
The Arch de Triomph dates back to 1806 and was requested to be built by Napolean to signify the glory of the french army. It stands at 50mtrs tall and 45 mtrs wide.
The eiffel tower was built in 1889, took roughly 2 and a bit years to build, weighs more than 10,000 tonnes, and stands 324 metres high,
more posing
Just cant have enough photos of the tower I tell ya..... with 1665 steps!
The Louvre museum houses the famous 'mona lisa' painting, along with more than 30,000 other pieces. If you were to look at each painting for just one minute each, it would take you around a month to walk through this museum, without any breaks at all!!!
Thats probably enough interesting facts for you hey....dont want to over-do the learning!
Ooh, almost forgot one...we also checked out 'Notre Dame cathedral' yes, thats the one with the hunchback..... construction started on this in 1163, but was not completed until roughly 180 years later. Okay, definitely enough history lesson, if its all too much for you, just stick to looking at the pictures hey!
So that my friends was our 2 days in Paris. Now, as you're aware, we had a slight change of plans, and headed off north instead of south, so next stop was Brussels in Belgium.....bring on the waffles!
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jade
non-member comment
nice photo
its a nice photo of the huchback but he looks a lot like the guy in some other photos now dont tell me your gonna bring him home with ya.