Final day in Paris

Our final day in Paris, and we started it by climbing the 280 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe! I was amazed that I could do it! We were able to avoid the queue by presenting our Museum Passes. The views from the top were incredible, as you will see. Don't forget to check out the photos on my MobileMe Gallery as well because I put a lot more photos there.

After the Arc, we headed in different directions from the Barrows for the day. David and I walked the length of the Champs Élysée, down to the Place du Concorde, taking in the sights on the way, though we weren't interested in the shops. We had scattered showers then, and during the day, and had to put on our raincoats for brief periods. We were rather concerned about the cracks we saw in this building along the way...


During the walk, the 'lost ring' scam was tried on us twice, but we pretended we didn't see them and just kept on walking!

We wanted to have a closer look at the Obelisk of Luxor, but couldn't get very close because workmen were still packing up the staging and seating from Bastille Day on the 14th. We couldn't get near the plaque that marks the spot of the guillotine that chopped off the head of Marie Antoinette and thousands of others.


We used our Museum Passes to pop into the Orangerie Museum to view paintings by Monet, Renoir, Matisse, Picasso and others. Then walked over to the Rodin Museum to look at his work. Along the way we crossed the Pont du Concorde which apparently has stone in it from the Bastille, and passed the Invalides Hotel with its stunning gold dome.

David is fighting off a cold and not feeling 100% today, and my feet weren't going to take me much further, so by mid afternoon we made our way back to the hotel. We popped out for a brief afternoon tea drink and then came back. It would have been nice to get over to Montmartre as I had planned, but we were both beyond it. Never mind, I was very happy when Jan and Steve arrived back from Montmartre with a gourmet macaron for me! Bliss in a single bite.

We had a nice dinner out with the Barrows for our last night in Paris - it's been nice trying out the different restaurants, though the gluten free requirement has meant some of my meals have been a bit boring. a nice fish and spinach meal tonight for both of us though. We think the French could learn a thing or two about putting something green with their dishes though. Most meals come with only the meat and potato, and if you ask for salad, you get a few leaves of undressed lettuce or mesculin. Nevertheless, the meal was nice, and we enjoyed watching the hoards of people out on the street.

Day 3 in Paris - a visit to Versailles

After an early 7:00 am breakfast we headed to the metro by 7:50 am. We caught a train over to near the Eiffel Tower and then changed to the RER train (suburban rail) for the 30 minute journey to Versailles, on the outskirts of Paris. A 10 minute walk to the Versailles Palace saw us joining the long and rapidly growing queues in time for opening at 9:00 am. I had words with an ignorant man who jumped the queue ahead of over 200 people and who tried to stand in front of me. "NO!" I said. He told me that we were all on holiday and to calm down, but backed in behind me in the queue. Believe me, you see some beauts!



We were able to get through quickly, using our wonderful Museum Passes, and grabbed a free audio guide each and had our Rick Steves books open at his Versailles tour pages as well. Then we joined the throng squeezing its way through the corridors and amazing rooms of this amazing Palace built by Louis XIV, the 'Sun King'. What decadence! I kept thinking about the poor people who must have funded it all through their taxes to the King.

Versailles is a huge palace, then a huge area of gardens and parks, fountains, a 'Grand Canal' with its own gondolas, Greek and Roman styled statues, other smaller palaces, and even a 'hamlet' (a tiny peasant village) built by Marie Antoinette for when she wanted the 'simple life'.

After touring the palace, we exited the building to find it raining. I needed to rest my legs and get off my feet, and we were lucky enough to find a tiny cafe where we could have a coffee and check what Rick suggested we should see next. We discovered there was a 'petit train' that we could ride (for a fee) to a further area of the grounds to see the Grand Palais Trianon, and then the Petit Palais Trianon, as well as other buildings of interest and the hamlet. We also had to pay to get into the gardens because it was Saturday and they had the fountains working and music playing. So, off we all went on the train to save a 40 minute walk there.

These other sights were all very interesting, but David and I found the hamlet to be really memorable (after getting lost in the huge parklands whilst trying to find it). It was so quaint, like out of a fairy story. Except... this tiny peasant village had been very real over 200 years ago. As Rick pointed out, Marie Antoinette craved the simple life, so had the village built. But, her home in the village was big enough to have a billiard room and a library! And she didn't do peasant work, only supervised the work of others!

After a long tour around these smaller palaces and grounds, we caught the train to the Grand Canal and had a cappuccino while we waited to catch up with Jan and Steve. The cappuccinos are different than ours. They either have a black coffee with froth on top, or as in this case a huge dollop of stiffly whipped cream over a tiny amount of black coffee. We're finding them very expensive, too, at around 5.70 Euro each!

With Jan and Steve, we then wandered back towards the Palace along the royal drive, looking at the statues, fountains and other items of interest along the way - the 'ancient' colonnade was amazing! The view towards the Palace, and later back from it and out towards the gardens was very memorable.

We had finished our lovely day at Versailles and now headed back towards the railway station 10 minutes away. Man alive, my legs and feet were killing me by now. We got seats on the train, but had to wait 30 minutes before it left. We were crammed in like sardines, and had the dubious pleasure of listening to the conversation between two American students about their travels in Europe for the 30 minute return journey.

I dragged myself back to our hotel and collapsed on the bed. We later enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant across the road. But even I was in bed by 9:30 pm and asleep shortly after! We were rudely awoken at 2:50 am by what sounded like a group of men who had congregated on the street outside the hotel, having loud conversations that went on for ages (this sort of event seems to follow David and I around the world wherever we stay in hotels). Finally I phoned reception and asked if they could move these people along, and fortunately they succeded.

Day 2 in Paris

Is it possible to have a double foot transplant?! Because I need one! And it's not just me with aching feet and legs!

No time for a lie-in here, we were sitting down to breakfast at 7 am this morning, so we could catch the metro train to the Eiffel Tower and be queueing up by 8:30 am for the 9:00 am opening. This was the advice of our Rick Steves travel book on Paris. And it was excellent advice, the queue was already 200 metres long! Jan and I waited almost an hour and a half before we got in the elevator to start the journey to the very top. I'd looked at booking online, but that option was booked out days in advance, and I'd also wanted to be sure to visit on a fine day - no ability to predict that! In the meantime, David and Steve queued separately to walk to the second level, 720 steps! Both pairs of us had interesting conversations with some of the others in our queues as we waited.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the incredible views on what was a gorgeous day at 26 degrees celsius. After being a bit wary at first, Jan and I were pleased to have gone to the top of this amazing tower. Interestingly, the guys were starting their journey down as we were starting up! We couldn't believe the extent of the queues when we left (far worse than when we had arrived), with crowds of people on the footpaths, all heading towards the Tower where they would make the queues even worse, and in the heat...

We caught the train to the Musee d'Orsay, stopped for a lemonade, then headed our separate ways around this beautiful art museum in what had been a railway station, with Rick Steves as our guide again. David and I got a bit lost here, trying to follow Rick's directions, because there was some building work and we couldn't find some displays. Nevertheless, we saw some amazing art work. We then headed separately to the Louvre.

David and I grabbed some lunch in the very crowded Carrousel du Louvre shopping mall. Then we bypassed the queues with our Museum Pass (as we did at the Orsay) and followed Rick's tour around a small part of the museum. We did tend to shortcut it a bit, partly through exhaustion, and partly because we'd heard and seen a lot of these sorts of arts in our 2009 trip (especially at the Vatican Museum and in Venice). We might go back and look at some more on another day. We did manage to get as close as 5 metres away from the Mona Lisa, but my photo is poor because she has glass over her as protection.

I was more excited to find the Apple Store just after we left (don't say a word about my taste!) and got some photos of it to show Andrew, who is as bad as me when it comes to visiting the Apple Stores in cities around the world. The place was packed and flat out.

Next, we headed back to the hotel via the metro, where I had a long soak of my aching legs in the bath.

Tonight we've had a lovely dinner out with the Barrows at a little restaurant recommended by our hotel. It has been such a beautiful warm evening with no Canterbury north-easterlies or nor'westers to spoil it, although we haven't forgotten the earthquakes and periodically look at each other when we imagine we feel one! Andrew and Ross will be impressed that so many French meals get served with French fries! We all chose a French dessert, mine being an island of light meringue floating in a creme anglais custard. Very decadent! I talked David out of the boring and healthy sorbet and fruit salad, and he chose a lovely apricot tart.

Jan and I strolled back to the hotel well behind the guys, and had the unpleasant experience at one point of some nutcase man loping after us like the hunchback of Notre-Dame, very close and threatening and snorting like a pig! Luckily he only followed for 20 metres or so - quite bizarre and rather freaky!

David has dropped off to sleep at his usual bed-time of 9:30 pm (as indicated on the clock), even though we're 10 hours behind NZ time. I'm wide awake as usual! Another early start in the morning, as we hope to head out to VersaiIles.