Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Ah Parreeeee!

IMG_0729 So let me just throw this down beforehand. All stereotypes of Paris are totally wrong. The city is pretty darn clean (cleaner than all of Ireland and also a bit cleaner than London) and it smells like pizza everywhere. Or at the very least, it doesn’t smell bad. Which was great and made for a lovely stay in Paris.

 

 

 

IMG_0730 Although it was a bit weird getting off the NINE HOUR BUS I had to take from London (which went on the underwater train under the channel) and then being a country in which the first language is not my own. But once I shook that initial shock, things were a breeze. I met up with Patrick and Leigh who had just come from Brussels, Belgium right underneath the Eiffel Tower and it was beautiful. Except for the 500 guys all selling the exact same Eiffel Tower replicas everywhere! Insanity I tell you. Then we went to our couch surfers studio apartment which was in a carriage house up seven floors. Intense but it was like 15 minutes from the Tower so it was a great location. And despite never actually meeting her, we met two other couch surfers staying at her place as well from Austria and Spain. They were a couple who met each other in Berlin. How cute.

IMG_0736

  

IMG_0767 Then we hit the hay in anticipation for a crazy day of adventures in Paris. We first got up and got some breakfast of peaches and stuff which were absolutely divine. Then off to the Louvre. Of course. We took the subway (of course yet these were in fact dirtier than London’s spectacular Underground) and our musee walk began. IMG_0844All 5 hours of it. The Louvre is absolutely gigantic in case you didn’t know. We hit all the main paintings and sculptures as well as many many others. But we saw Mona, and Venus, and the Slave, and the big pyramid in the front of the museum. Gorgeous architecture and paintings everywhere. I loved it.

 

 

 

 

IMG_0797

IMG_0855 Then we checked up a cathedral or two, saw St. Louis Island (because how could I skip that?!) and ate a French dinner at a lovely French restaurant since the train to the Eiffel Tower stopped running before we got back to there. It included escargot which was really quite good.

 

 

 

Once again, a totally successful trip although my one gripe is that for a humongous city like Paris, it shuts down so early! It’s impossible to find a convenience store at 12am there. Ridiculous…

IMG_0871

No comments:

Post a Comment