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Published: March 22nd 2010
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Chilling after a tiring flight.We arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport, Paris at approximately 7:00 and were greeted by a cold morning. Waiting for our pre-booked 'Paris Shuttle' service got us off to a bad start as we were unable to locate the mode of transport and had to wait about an hour for them to organise a spare spot on another shuttle. Thankfully another Aussie had the same problem and we were able to work out between us that the company had in fact overbooked. Once we were on the shuttle on our way into the hotel, I got my first taste of the crazy European traffic that would ensue. Our driver's mirror was hit by a passing car and I was amazed by the unwritten rules that the motorists here follow!
Once we reached our hotel in the 'Opera district' of Paris, we picked up a quick breakfast at a local bakery; consisting of a baguette and coffee. This would be our staple diet for the 3 days.
On this first day we decided to wander the streets of Paris ourselves and using the help of a Lonely Planet guide, negotiated ourselves around some of the smaller landmarks and were in awe of
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...still tired!! the beautiful architecture and grace of this wonderful city.
Unfortunately my mum had sore feet and blisters from her shoes and we had to limit our future travels to less walking. At this point in time we organised a 'Hop on, Hop off' bus for the next two days.
We saw many sights from this bus and had the headset to teach us more about this wonderful city. The bus was a good idea as it took us to the main sights and we had the freedom of getting off and wandering around where we pleased. In short, we saw the main sights of Eiffel Tower (line was too long and not moving, so with our short time constraints we were unable to go atop), Basilica of the Sacred Heart (amazing views from what was one of my favourite landmarks of Paris), Notre Dame Cathedral (amazing both inside and out, the amount of detail put into the creation of this landmark), Louvre (went inside and saw many of the famous and absolutely amazing artworks from all over the world), Champs de Elysees (we took the bus up this strip several times and could have done so man more times), Moulin
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Resting on the bus. Rouge (did not go inside, just drove past the red windmill), strolled past the Seine and purchased some local arts to take home (although the lower banks smelt of urine, there were a few homeless people making this their home), took some touristy snaps in front of the Arc de Triomphe (did not realise how big it is in real life!!), had crepes for lunch, did shopping in various street markets as well as boutiques such as Colette (personal favourite)..Don't remember much more intricate details as this trip was about a year ago *mental note: future blogs to be written soon after trip*..
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