The City of Light

Make yourself comfortable, grab a cup of tea, coffee, or glass of wine....this is going to be one long (but enjoyable) blog.

When better to blog, than on a cold rainy day back in Britain, about a beautiful and sunny three days in Paris?

We started planning the trip a month or so before, in anticipation of our first house guest. My sister, Amanee, and her college friend, Sarah were coming to spend a whole ten days with us! One of the things they wished to do while they were here was visit Paris. Since it is only about a four hour trip (Oxford to London, London to Paris) we knew it could be done.

The girls arrived on a Tuesday and we left for Paris on Wednesday (wasting no time). The train ride there was fairly painless and relaxing. The most exciting part would be travelling the 31 miles of tunnel built under the English Channel, connecting England and France. Travelling up to speeds of 186 mph, the tunnel only lasted about 19 minutes. But it was 19 minutes of us travelling though what the American Society of Civil Engineers identified the tunnel as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Once on the other side (in France) we had a little hold-up because of a fire at one of the onward stations. Before we knew it our three hour trip turned in to almost a five hour trip. Luckily, our hotel was a five minute walk from Gare du Nord, in the 18th arrondissement of Montmartre. We stayed at the Hotel de l'Europe, and I would recommend the place to anyone. It was one of the few ‘budget’ hotels that included breakfast, and had a multi-lingual staff.

In fact, the morning we were checking out, the main desk clerk was giving directions and advice for sightseeing to two Japanese women. They knew a little French and English, and he was speaking a little bit of Japanese (I only know how to count to ten in Japanese and hearing the numbers he told them tipped us off)! They managed to get themselves in to an English-French-Japanese conversation and actually get somewhere!

Anyways, like most European hotels (unless you have a fortune to spend) our room was small, but cozy and most importantly clean. The best feature was the 7^th floor view we had from our window of the view of the Basilique du Sacré Coeur (The Basilica of the Sacred Heart).

It was fairly late by the time we were settled in so we wondered around the neighborhood, attempting to find a suitable place to eat. We were a little tired and shy about ordering French food, so we settled on a little Italian pizza place. No joke, it was the best pizza I’ve had since we left Chicago! The waiter was really nice and was patient with our French, while he tried out some of his English. They even stayed open late for us.

Day two was a doozie. We started off the morning with the Louvre. After a slight detour from bad street sign we arrived not long after it opened. Since we were short on time we pretty much just went by the things we knew we wanted to see. The Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and the Mona Lisa were three highlights. I wanted to see a bust of Marie Antoinette, but ran out of time trying to find it. The place is HUGE, it would be easy to spend three full days seeing each and every thing. Just as amazing as the paintings were the ceilings and the doors!

After the Louvre we headed over to Notre-Dame. On our way, we passed the 430 year old Pont Neuf, ‘New Bridge’ the oldest bridge in Paris. On our way we stopped off to get our first real taste of Paris, some paninis and baguettes for lunch. We sat in front of the Cathedral chowing down watching people go by and a little girl feeding birds by hand. The line for the Cathedral tower looked as if it might take forever, but we were kept amused by a man in a goblin mask and in the end the wait was only 15 minutes. The man in the goblin mask was hilarious! He would casually walk alongside a passerby and wait for them to realize he was there and spook them with the mask on. One lady screamed when he moved aside her husband to take her hand. She must have taken three or four steps before realizing a man in a goblin mask was really holding her hand.

The climb to the top of the tower took every ounce of energy our sandwiches gave us, up all 422 steps! Of course the climb was well worth it with its views of Paris. After climbing back down we stopped off to watch some dancing street performers and I swear my legs were shaking from the climb while we were watching. Inside the cathedral was impressively decorated and large, but I couldn’t take pictures inside.

From there we crossed the Seine over to the Right Bank where there were at ton of cafes and unique stores. Our feet and legs were tired, so we stopped off for some coffee and crepes then began our walk to the Metro. Our train stopped at Place de la Concord which was right in front of the Luxor Obelisk, given to the French from the Egyptian government.

Walking west, we began our long walk up the "Avenue des Champs-Élysées”. It is one of the most beautiful and prestigious avenues in the world and is only second to Fifth Avenue in New York as far as real estate prices (rents can be as high as $1.50 million a year for 1,000 square feet!). The eastern most part of the street is tree and park-lined; the western half was lined with shopping and more shopping (if only I had had the time, energy, and money!). At the end of this long beautiful avenue was the iconic Arc de Triumph. The views of Paris from the Arc are suppose be the best, so there was nothing to do but climb another 284 steps to the top. It was worth every step, the views were fantastic. The Eiffel Tower was much closer and the tree-lined streets webbed out from the center of the Arc’s circle.

Once we’d returned to ‘terra firma’ we headed off to the Metro once again for the piece de résistance, the Eiffel Tower. Now I am a bit of a romantic gal, but I never expected to be in such awe over a tower of metal. We grabbed a few ice cream cones and walked slowly up to the tower, our neck craned upwards the entire way. It was so peaceful and beautiful; there aren’t words that can really describe the way it felt to be there. Surreal?

In our first day we must have walked 10 miles and climbed close to 1,000 stairs. We ended the day in a white light lit alley lined with candlelit tables and Indian restaurants. Once again we had fantastic service and a really good meal. Needless to say, we all slept well that night.

Our second full say we took the RER train out to the Palace of Versailles, once home to King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and Napoleon! I’ve been reading the autobiography of Marie Antoinette that they based the recent movie off of, so I was pretty excited to see the Palace. The best parts were the gardens and the famous Hall of Mirrors. The amount of money, time, and history that went into that place…it was baffling. The only unfortunate thing was the crowds and lack of organization as far as any tours went. None the less, it was a nice day in Versailles. We walked into town and grabbed a light lunch and then took some of the BEST pasties ever back with us to enjoy back in the gardens.

Once we’d retuned to Paris we went back down to the banks of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. There was a small market alongside the river selling all kinds of handmade jewelry, souvenirs, and food.

After a quick glimpse around the market we headed over to the docks to take a sunset river cruise. It was really relaxing and nice to rest our aching feet after another day of a lot of walking. As the boat cruised along people were out in mass along the banks of the river, drinking wine, laughing, eating, singing, playing, and waving at the boats passing by as the sun set on another day in Paris.

Unable to leave without taking one last look, we lingered around the Eiffel Tower after dark and watched a seizure inducing show of laser lights sparkle and twinkle. Slowly, we made our way back to the Metro. Somehow, we managed to get ourselves a little bit off track and ended up making a circle before deciding to stop and grab a late night bite. The café was right near the Tower, with outdoor tables to boot! All the food coming out looked fantastic, so we grabbed a seat. The best part of the meal was really only the wine (thanks to Mani). Don’t you hate it when everyone else’s food looks better than what you end up with? Plus, our waiter seemed a little less than amused when I accidently knocked over a glass of water. He never even brought extra napkins for me to clean it up. Everyone else seemed to like what they had…but it was certainly not my favorite meal.

Our last day was intended for the Catacombs. Paris’ unofficial underground crypt that hold thousands of skeletons from the 1800’s back when they ran out of burial space and decided to move all the old graves to subterranean caves and tunnels. Morbid huh? But getting the girls out of bed in time proved to be a challenge and since we had spent little time looking for souvenirs etc. (and this was our last half-day in Paris) we decided to give the girls some time to explore and see what they wanted on their own and go back to the Right Bank ourselves.

If Ben and Diane (my in-laws) could only see us now, the kids who use to sleep in till noon on vacation were up every day before 7 and ready to go, itinerary in hand by 9 AM (what happened to us?)!

First, we’d intended to go shop for antiques for Ben’s parents but the main antique mall outside the Louvre was closed till 11. So we grabbed a coffee and found ourselves a park bench, and watched the morning sun come through the trees on a quiet street not far from the shops. It seemed like there was something interesting around every corner. Of course, I was taking pictures left and right. Once we were able to get into the shops we quickly realized these were not the sort of antiques we could afford. I was floored by the craftsmanship of the furniture, jewelry, and art. It was like going to a museum or palace and buying everything you see! Who has that kind of money? (and if you do give me a call, I know a great place you can take me and my mother-in-law shopping!)

Back on the Right Bank I was once again overwhelmed by the amount of shops, galleries, and boutiques in the neighborhood. If you ever go to Paris, seriously, give yourself a full day just for shopping! We were soooo tired, but it was soooo hard to pass up some of these places. Having to tear myself away from my retail frenzy for the sake of my exhausted and famished husband, we grabbed our last Parisian baguette and headed to a park nearby Point Neuf. Food, like shopping, is hard to pass up in Paris and these ‘Apples of Love’ were no exception! I couldn’t even finish it, but it was just so pretty, I had to have one.

Our picnic by the river was so (and if I haven’t used this word to excess already) beautiful. We sat with our feet over the water and this time we were the ones waving at the boats passing by as we enjoyed our last meal in Paris.

Resentfully, we headed back to our hotel to pickup our bags and meet the girls to catch our train back to London.

I can’t even fathom that this was our one and only trip to Paris. I’d love to go back, there is still so much to see and explore. Though I doubt it will be in the time we have left here in England, I am hopeful we’ll be able to go again. Till then, whenever I daydream I will be back in Paris.

Our next adventure will be to the ancient Roman city of Bath in the next week or so. After which we are planning a trip to Iron Bridge Gorge, out in Shropshire.

Stay tuned, and don’t forget to check out the pictures from Paris and the rest of my sister’s visit!

Amanee, Sarah; we were so glad we had the chance to show you around Oxford and London with you! And experience Paris together!