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Published: September 6th 2009
Seine river cruise
enjoying the sights of Paris Paris
Weather: Sunny but at times overcast, 24 °C
It is such a relief to be in a cooler climate. After arriving at our hotel on Friday evening we went for a walk through the Latin Quarter/ Saint Germain des Pres and had a lovely dinner at a Café. We sat outside but were glad to be cold as it made a nice change from the heat and humidity of Greece. Dinner was a very nice; French Onion Soup followed by Four Cheese Salad. No bread - too difficult! Cheese Salad may be my staple food for France like Greek Salad was for Greece. Anyway we were sitting at this Café having our dinner when the Police came by and shut down Boulevard St Germain des Pres to cars, shortly afterwards a whole heap of rollerbladers came tearing down the road. Apparently once a month the traffic is stopped in one district for rollerbladers and bikes to go tearing about - it was quite funny as this does not happen early in the evening but around 10.30ish.
Saturday saw us off on an organised tour - I have to say that we were very disappointed, we thought we
Eiffel Tower
What would a visit to Paris be without seeing the Eiffel Tower? had organised a small group English speaking guide and as such this had cost more but we were happy to pay extra. It was not this at all, 50 tourists packed onto a bus listening to a very boring recorded tour of the city. The Cruise of the Seine was okay but again a bit too similar to the Bus component of the trip. Our tour was meant to include a tour and lunch at the Eiffel Tower, however she simply took us to lunch and left us there. The afternoon was much better, however, we did things on our own. We walked along the Seine to the Muse d’Orsay and visited the impressionist exhibitions there - I know we saw many of them when they came to the National Gallery of Victoria but it was nice to see them in their ‘home’. We had a good walk through Saint Germain des pres on our way back to the Hotel and checked out many of the shops. Had dinner at a nice Italian place near the Hotel, have to say that my Italian is much better than my French. I am trying to speak French unlike Kathy who won’t even
Queue for the Eiffel Tower
haha, I went straight up - mind you the queue was three times as long when I came down. say hello or thankyou in French.
Sunday was a very leisurely day, we slept in (no one tells you that when you travel there is no such thing as sleep late and that you get up the same time you do for work!) Unfortunately this Sunday is the first Sunday of the month - all the museums have free entry so the queue at the Louvre was too long so instead we went to Notre Dame and walked along the Seine. The inside of the Cathedral is simply stunning - I loved the Rose Windows, the colours and patterns were beautiful. The parks in Paris are lovely too but no one is permitted to go on the grass - can you imagine this happening at home?!
Overall I have enjoyed the architecture of the buildings in Paris, it is simply stunning, the contrast between the cream stone and the black iron work is beautiful. Everyone has geraniums hanging from their balcony that look great too (I’m going to do that when I get home!) I have done no shopping - I am very surprised by this but there has been nothing that I have wanted to buy. This
restraint in the area of shopping is just as well as Paris is very expensive, the simplest of meals costs about thirty to fifty Euros. A bottle of water in Athens was one Euro, here it is four. Oh well it is only money!
Amy
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Trish
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Your photos look amazing. I am sooooo jealous.