Oui Paris!!

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Geo: 48.8567, 2.35099

The Eurostar section at St Pancras is usually very busy on a Friday morning so we allowed ourselves plenty of time for the customs and long queues, giving us enough time for coffee before departure. The long weekend break to Paris was a treat from my son; the journey was smooth, passing some French countryside on a beautiful sunny day before we pulled into Gare du Nord at 10:17pm local time. We bought the metro tickets at the station which had massive queues and you need the right change for machine so next time we will take a taxi. Riding Metro is a breeze, before long we were at our hotel Relais du Louvre, metres away from The Louvre.

The Louvre

After dropping our bags we rushed to the magnificent courtyard to see the famous glass pyramid, probably the world's most famous art museum. I bought the Paris Museum Pass which allows entry to over 60 museums and monuments in Paris; there is a choice of 2, 4 or 6 day pass, at some places you can skip the lines saving you a lot of precious time. I only bought one for myself as my son qualifies for free admission (26 years and below admission free if you are an EU citizen).
We went through the Carousel entrance and beat the queues, once inside the beauty of the museum is obvious, this was once the palace of French royalty. It is fittingly adorned with collection of world famous art treasures, from Italian, Greek, Roman & Egyptian art, artefacts, sculptures to Napoleon's hall, we spent 4 hours there which we felt was not enough, one can easily spend whole day here; it is worthwhile to rent an Audio Guide for each wing for 5 euros.





The path to La Jaconde through the Denon wing was mobbed and stuffy, La Joconde (the Mona Lisa for the non-Francophone)by Da Vinci is a crowd puller and it was overwhelming with visitors who were jostling for the prime photo opportunity. I secured my purse and valuables so my son was free to take the pictures, there were younger people pushing forward to take pictures with Mono Lisa with her beautiful smile but I was relieved to get away from there.
We saw the Greek Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, the Wedding at Canna, The Caravaggio, Michelangelo's sculpture of the dying angel and the original stone depicting the code of Hammurabi. We also walked through the medieval part of the palace and the ceiling of some part of the old Palace was amazing. My son was very fascinated so I told him to come again with his girlfriend for romantic weekend and when I come back to Paris; Louvre is the first place I want to visit.




Back across the street, our hotel was quaint and very well located, we were allocated a nice room on the second floor, facing the Gothic church with gargoyles, The room we had was the deluxe room and was an average size for Central Paris standards, beautifully furnished with bath tub which was important to soak our weary feet. We quickly grabbed a baguette/ pastry from the bakery for our picnic and walked to The Conciergerie. The Conciergerie was once a jail that held famous people such as Marie Antoinette before they were taken to the guillotine, it was very interesting and well worth a look for brief time. The building's exterior is undergoing restoration but forms an imposing corner piece on the Isle de la Cite.

Sainte Chapelle
We bought a carnet of metro tickets and our next stop was to Sainte Chapelle which is one of Paris oldest and most significant monuments. Built by Louis IX, it was meant to house relics he had acquired during the crusades. The most striking feature of the Gothic chapel is the stained glass above the actual place of worship, well worth braving the long queues here.

Iconic Eiffel Tower

We have been on the Eiffel Tower before when my son was younger so my son wanted to go up again but after seeing the trailing queues because one of the lifts was not working, we were content to see it from distance. When Eiffel tower was built in 1889 there was fierce condemnation and Eiffel Tower was described as hallow candlestick but now it is one the famous monument in the world, Icon of Paris. We enjoyed our little picnic and ice cream here and we set off walking to Arc De Triomphe. It is much longer walk than it looks on the map and we were not quite sure if we were heading on the right direction but at last we were there.

Arc De Triomphe
The wait in the short queue was about 5 mins and we were on the lift to the top, where we found good position to see the sunset facing the Eiffel Tower and Champs Elysees.The 360 degree panoramic views from the top were really good, I enjoyed watching the traffic on the roundabout and L'Arc de Triomphe gives the beautiful views of the sparkling Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, La Defence Champs Elysees etc. The entrance is covered by Museum Pass and the sunset here is amazing, It had been long action packed day and we were exhausted.

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