Arriving in London, I was shocked how cold it was oh and wet! I was here for 3 weeks what was I going to do? Al had to work and I spent the week checking out London and taking it pretty easy leading up to my surprise weekend away. We were up at 4am on Friday the 11th to catch a train (at the time I had no idea where or how we were getting to the secret destination). On the way to the station to catch the Eurotrain he finally gave in and told me we were heading to Paris for Valentines Day. The trip takes no more than 3 hours and at that time in the morning I’m back to sleep in no time.
We arrived in Paris and took a taxi to our hotel…. the taxi ride was an experience. It was like he was on a racing track and forgot he had passengers in the back. Seriously it was crazy. The world’s largest roundabout is in Paris called the Charles de Gaulle, with 8 lanes of traffic but no lines on the road to identify the lanes plus dozens of avenues leading off. Cars just seem to go where they please and nobody worries about cutting each other off. Crashes happen everyday and I was told the insurance companies in Paris don’t cover you once on the roundabout. In the middle of the roundabout from hell is the Arc de Triomphe, which was commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon to commemorate his imperial victories. It is an amazing building and so beautiful-we didn’t go up but you can catch the metro which has a stop directly underneath.
After my near death experience we arrive at the hotel, we are shown to the room, which is the size of a shoebox, complained and moved into something more spacious. We drop the bags and head for breakfast across the road at a bakery. I’ve discovered the french only eat baguettes, chocolate, cheese, crepes with nutella & banana and that’s it! After my salad roll for breakfast we walk around the corner to see the Eiffel Tower. The lines to go to the top are looking pretty bad to me but Al reckons he has seen worst… He talked me into taking the stairs and avoiding the queues for the lifts. We climb to the 1st floor and they have an ice-skating ring overlooking the city. It’s so cool!! We skate to ‘doff doff’ music- well I can’t skate so I attempted to skate around the ring, and how many people can say that they have skated on the Eiffel Tower?? After walking around and enjoying the view we caught the lift back down and thank god as my legs were feeling like jelly.
We caught a boat along the Seine to Notre Dame and what an amazing cathedral and also the archaeological crypt under the square in front of the Notre-Dame. Any cafe that has views of tourist attractions in Paris seems to charge for the view, I think we paid $17 for 2 hot chocolates which is an absolute rip off.
We head back to the hotel and on the way home there is a guy set up with a table on the bridge with a few people around playing. You know when there are 3 containers and there is something under one, they swap them around and you have to find the object? Leading up Al says “oh never play these games they are scams”. We watch for a while, picking the correct container everytime while everyone continues to lose their money. Al and I look at each other and wonder why they continue to pick the wrong containers as it’s soo easy. Without any warning Al pulls out €100 and points to the unit on the left I look at him as to say WHAT THE F**K RE YOU DOING as they guy takes his cash and shows where the item is hiding- IN THE MIDDLE! Total scam, they get your attention and while you are reaching for cash they swap it, which I saw but Al didn’t. He will never hear the end of this, as I still can’t believe he was sucked in.
We buy cheese, wine and a baguette and head back to the hotel to relax. I don’t drink as much as I used too and one bottle these days is enough to kick in a hangover the following day. We feel guilty about staying in and decide to head out and about for the evening in Paris. The Champs-Elysees is the famous broad boulevard and a popular tourist destination with all the labels you love but just can’t afford.
We walk down and there is a celebration of the Egyptian president Mubarah resigning from his position after 30 years. They dubbed the day farewell Friday and Muslims were celebrating all night, driving down the street beeping horns and dancing on the cars on the side of the street. Police lined the street with 11 vans and police in riot gear but the people were happy and it wasn’t going to get ugly… Slipping cocktails in a side street we were contemplating waiting for the clubs to open at midnight, but we didn’t want to write of the next day so home to bed.
Up early for the Antique markets, it’s a 25 minute train trip to the ghetto… We were tossing up 2 markets to check out this morning but decided on this one. It appeared quite small, just a single street with a few stalls and a few more stalls and more…. Well it wasn’t small after all. The street never ends and we walk around for hours until the cold is just too much to stand. We buy a few bits and pieces and make our way to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and the beautiful art collections that have been housed here for years.
We had dinner up on the Montmarte Hill and perched right at the very top is the La Basilique du Sacre-Coeur oh and the views are breathtaking overlooking the city. This one is a must at night. With lovers holding each other tight and young ones playing cards on the stairs, the atmosphere is laid back and with the all the people perched up on the hill taking in the panorama view of Paris its somewhat peaceful and you hardy notice there are hundreds of people around you. Dinner was at a cute restaurant overlooking a park and a man sketching people’s portraits approached us. I wasn’t too keen as it was so expensive however Al is an easy target. We had out portrait drawn and when it was completed he showed us the hideous caricature he had just spent the last 25 minutes drawing. Why do they make everyone fat in caricatures??? Hello skinny would have been nice!!
That night we went to the world famous cabaret show, the Moulin Rouge. Known for the cancan, feathers, sequin costumes oh and the half naked women, but there is so much more to the show. There were acts in between the show and costume changes to keep the show amused – circus style acts with some of the world’s most talented performers. Plus there is a giant aquarium built into the stage. It was brilliant and I was so surprised (wasn’t expecting too much) but I highly recommend seeing it. This was one of the first shows we saw – the second was ‘We will rock you” which was back in London and I can’t say anything good about this one, it really let us down after seeing the Moulin Rouge which we loved. But last night we went to see “Jersey Boys” based on Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (look up his songs) and it was a fantastic show. The shows aren’t cheap over here, around $300 for 2x for the good seats and like I said you win some and lose some so it’s luck of the draw.
Back to Paris and after the show we walked around the red light district, Moulin Rouge is smack bang in the middle of it. Sex shops are everywhere and the street is lined with heaps of them, that and strip shows, peep shows and the list shows on… we may have popped in to one of two of the naughty shops.
One of the things we did on Sunday after we lined up for almost an hour was to see the Catacombs. This was an intense experience and I had no idea it would be so full on. The Catacombs were created at the end of the 18th century to serve as an ossuary. The largest cemetery was closed in 1780 and they needed a place to store the human remains. It was decided that all the human remains from all cemeteries in Paris would be stored in disused limestone quarries in the Tombe-Issorie district. There are 6 million Parisians stacked in the 780 meters of corridors 20 meters under ground. All skulls stacked together, shinbones together and so on. Again I had no idea what was in store as I walked down the spiral staircase, and it was almost chilling to be down there. Surrounded by so much death really gave me an eerie feeling.
The following day was Valentines Day, (14/2/2011) Al did everything in his power to get me to have a shower so he could slip out and surprise me with breakfast. That didn’t really didn’t work for him as I was getting pissed off with him trying to rush me. I finally had breakfast in bed with a rose and card. So sweet!
Last day in Paris was spent out and about seeing the Fragonard perfume museum and it was so interesting to find out the history of perfumes and how they originated. The Le Palais Garnier which is the Opera house was next on the list, if we had planned it better we could have seen Romeo & Juliet in the amazing auditorium (that has seating for 1900) there only 2 days earlier. Oh well there is always next time.