Paris Paris PARIS!

after a four day whilrwind tour and a lot of walking around in blizzard conditions, I think that Paris is possibly the most beautiful city in the world. Even seeing it in it's ugliest (and most uncomfortably frigid) season, it is still an absolutely captivating place.

My trip begun with an early morning rise. 3:30am up, 3:35am out the door, 3:40am on the night bus heading for King's Cross/St. Pancras station. Everyone at the station was bleary eyed and as I was trying to work out how to scan my ticket (more complicated than it would seem) I encountered my first example of French Rudeness. The help man was very rude "when you go to places, you should read the information on the ticket and pay attention". Bastard.

I joined the extreme sized line for coffees- grabbing a chocolate croissant for the trip (the first of 6 consumed in the 4 days to follow). The Eurostar was great. It was very spacious and very fast - only 3 hours to Paris under the sea! When I got off the train, I was met by my host for the trip, Julien.

Julien is a great guy - he's very friendly and has a lot of interest in world events. I met Julien through couchsurfing.org - which means I was able to stay for free with him in the middle of Paris. He took me back to his apartment - which was really just two rooms, on the 5th floor of his building (so many stairs) just off rue de la fayette. He sleeps on a futon and had a blow up matteress for me. It was small, but comfortable and perfect for one person to live in the centre of a big city.

After dumping my stuff, I walked down rue lafayette towards the Opera and my date with an open air bus. I had earlier purchased 2 days on the L'open Tour open top busses (see the website here) for sight-seeing over the internet. It was recommended to me by Phebe, and it certainly was worth 30 euros. The busses take you on four different routes around Paris, taking in all the biggest and best sights!

Totally overwhelmed by the CHristmas decorations at the massive Printemps & Galleries Lafayette department stores (some randomly haloween & Mama Mia themed), I almost missed my bus and had to sprint across 5(ish) lanes of traffic to get there. I say 5ish, because as anyone who has been to Paris knows, there are no "lanes" but an insane melee of weaving traffic heading in random directions.

I started on the "orange" bus route - Montmatre & Sacre Cour. I was given my map and incredibly uncomfortable green earphones. Although it was sleet-y conditions, I opted to sit up top in the open air. It was an amazing vantage point for scenery and photos, but I have never been more cold in my life. Still, for my entire open bus tour, I sat obstinately up top. People must have seen the bus coming and wondered why there was an eskimo riding up top, with me perched up there shivering in my faux fur hooded jacket.

We drove through the "red light" district, past the many Cabarets- including the somewhat externally unimpressive Moulin Rouge. THere were many hilarious shop signs in this area. Then it was time for Sacre Cour, where I hopped off the bus to explore. It's quite a walk up to the church on the hill and I experienced the awkward feeling of being sweaty under my coat and freezing on the outer layer. The church was magnificent- extremely deluxe. My favourite part (apart from the stunning stained glass windows) were all the beautiful tea-lights and candles that visitors had lit in prayer to the random saints whose alters stood above.

After a thorough inspection of the inside I was ready to go down to the crypt. However, the crypt was closed. So it was tower time. It was quite vertiginous there in that tower. high up, and very cramped and crowded. But the view from the top across Paris could not be beat.. well .. maybe if it wasn't foggy.

On the way down I saw the people I had been warned about by my friend Arlene on my highland tour. There are these African men standing around down the bottom of the hill with little ropes in their hands. What happens is that they approach an unsuspecting tourist and put the little cord around their hands or fingers, trapping them. They then ask for money to be let go. Apparently you can escape if you yell "I AM CALLING THE POLICE I DID NOT ASK FOR THIS" but I wasn't ready to give it a go. The men came up to me and I tucked my hands under my armpits and ran away. I saw them catch some poor unsuspecting girl though. What total bastards.

I hopped back on the bus and rode it back to the opera, where I changed onto the "blue" line - the ultimate sight-seeing tour line. This bus took us down the boulevards and through the crazy skinny arch into the Louvre, where we glimpsed the famous glass pyramids and on the other side, could see down the tulleries to the obilsk and all the way down the champs elysees to the arc de triumph. The bus stopped for what felt like 10 minutes at the Louvre, as I sat freezing on top. Eventually we got moving again. THe nice thing about the bus is that you plug in your earphones and can listen to the commentary about where you are. It's very nice.

we then drove along the south bank and looped back to Concorde, where we got to see the egyptian obelisk close up, as it had previously be obscured by a ferris wheel of the type that seem to pop up in european cities over christmas (there was one in edinburgh as well). I hopped off here to explore the Champs Elysees. Oh so awesome! a whole building of Louis Vuitton.. and the Sepphora make up shop was the greatest thing i've ever seen - when the world cup anthem came on all the staff went and danced at the front of their megastore. It was very cool. I meandered up to the Arc Du Triumph, but I didn't climb it - it wasn't exactly a nice day. Here I got hassled by gypsies as well.

Now, I must say that there were a HUGE number of "homeless" people in Paris. The thing is alot of them were young and healthy and had great english so I don't understand why they didn't have a job or the kids wern't at school. They were out running countless scams against tourists in stead. In my time, I got hassled about 10 times. Can I please have money. I am raising money for the deaf (when not deaf because clearly could hear what I was saying). I need food. It's all the kids out on the streets and I bet the parents are just sitting there at home raking in all the cash. The worst ones are the people who sit there in the street with lots of pets. IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO FEED YOURSELF PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T HAVE AN ANIMAL. I felt like calling the RSPCA or equivalent body. THey only had the animals becaue they thought people would give them more money. I saw one guy with three kittens- he was young and healty and just lying in the street with 3 kittens. what a JERK.

anyway, that's enough of my rant about these people. btu really, the problem is very severe. it's the worst thing about Paris for sure.

After that, even though the weather was cloudy and snowy, I decided to take the plunge and climb the eiffel tower. The elevators were quite fun. The line up only took about 35 minutes, so it was no where as bad as I was led to believe it would be. except for the constant harassment from said people and from people trying to sell souveniers.

I should mention I had a crepe for lunch. oh so delicious.

After that, it was time to head back to Julien's apartment. But first, he took me on a walk through Paris by night. Very nice. Julien cooked dinner and had wine and cheese for me. So much cheese. We stayed up talking about international relations. Then I blew up my blow up bed and went to sleep.

The next day, after a chocolate croissant power-up, I took in the green and red routes. I saw Notre Dame (very very nice), the Bastile, the finance department buildings (actually very cool), the latin QUarter, Montparnasse & Saint Germaine, Hotel des invalides and .. well alot more. however, this day was quite blizardy and I spent alot of time on the bus huddled in a corner.

I had intended to check out Pompidu centre that day, to see the modern art collecion. However, it was closed (as it was a tuesday) and I got somewhat lost as the snow fell heavily. I found my way into a "quick" which is a European version of Mcdonalds. I ordered in french and the teenagers standing next to me were laughing. Jerks. I ordered a Big Mac Equivalent and was impressed by the delcious dijon mayonaise that acompanied my french fries.

Stuck for something to do until Julien finished work at about 7 (Parisiens start work late and finish late, then stay up late), I placed my bets on the Musee d'Orsay. A bet which payed off. I love art galleries. In france they x-ray your bag before you go in. Monet, Manet, Vermeer, Gaugain, Seurat (up close - oh so good), Van Gough - all the masters. it was fabulous!

I was unfortunately kicked out at 5pm (with booming voices yelling "THE MUSEUM IS CLOSED" in 13 languages) as there was a concert happening in the gallery that evening. TO kill the extra time, I walked all the way back to the opera. Once there, I explored Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. These shops are UNBELIEVABLE. Think of every mega-posh, super expensive, ultra designer you can imagine- they are all there in their own little shops. Louis Vuitton, Chloe, Christian Louburtin, Berkin.. I cant' even name them all.. but it was extreme.

I don't know- even if I was a millionaire I really couldn't be bothered to pay $500 for a scarf. Or $3500 for a pair of shoes. I would buy nice things - but let's not get ridiculous. Still I saw people walking around with 5 or 6 bags from different designers. How the other half live, I guess.

I went back to Julien's apartment where he had a surprise for me. the greatest dinner ever. It was a traditional French type of thing - he melted thick slices of a mild soft cheese in little frying pans (one per cheese slice) on a special heater, then we poured the melted cheese over our baked potatos and meats (ham, bacon, parma ham etc). It was SO GOOD. we ate a block of cheese each though. then some special soft cheese for dessert. Cheese dreams ensued. but it was worth it - what a marvelous meal.

And I needed all the calories of a block of cheese for the following day - my day at the LOUVRE. I'm not going to write about it. It was awesome. I got the audio guide (highly recommended) and did all the tours. Napoleon III's apartments were AMAZING and then I spent ages trying to take photos of myself with venus di milo, mona lisa and victory of samathrace. I was there from 10am to 8pm. I had the best day. At the end, I decided to walk back to the apartment. The whole day of walking taken into account, I walked for about 10 hours. it was epic. and the egyptian exhibition was BETTER than the one at the British Museum (which was awesome to begin with). It was a good thing I chose this day to be my day indoors however, becaue it was an ACTUAL blizzard outside.

THen Thursday, my last day in Paris. After obligatory chocolate croissant, it was time to finally do the Pompidu centre.

coming soon... london zoo