Paris, the rest

Alrighty, it's time to finish up my recollections of France, finally.

On Saturday, day 3, we met up with Sebastian at the train station where he was waiting with his car. He drove us across town to the Avenue Montagne where the French fashion stores are and had a look around Chanel, Louis Vuitton, etc. From there, we walked up the Champs Elysees and had a look around. It's a bit like Oxford St with all the flagship stores of various companies, only it's much wider so it can actually accommodate all the people.

At the end we reached the Arc de Triomph and crossed under the street to it. It should be noted that it's in the middle of a huge roundabout that has 12 streets feeding into it. Driving in France in general seems like a bad idea, I think.





From here we drove back down along the river to the 12th Arrondisement, where there was a vege market just packing up for the day. It was just a little bit chaotic. In this area we found the Baron Rouge wine bar, which has a few hundred wines on the menu and a very provincial feel to it. We had a charcuterie board and some wines before continuing on.



We somehow got stuck behind some kind of demonstration, so we bailed out of the car and went to look around on foot in the Les Halles area. We wandered around in the area for a bit, the heat and sunlight not helping us in our hungover state. We made for the river where hundreds of people were sitting every few metres along the edge. I can't describe how beautiful Paris is in this context, with the sun beating down, the beautiful buildings all around and the river at your feet.

We walked back through town from there and to the Champs Elysees again to look for dinner and to do a little shopping. In the evening, groups of street dancers start setting up and performing for tips and the main shops are open until 1am. We made it back to the apartment late that night, exhausted.

On the next day we got up late and decided that we would make the trip out to Versaille. We chose to go with the Sandeman's tour and had the guide from our first day back again to take us around. We met at Place St Michel and bought some sandwich rolls to take with us on the 45 minute train ride. When we arrived, we walked the 5 minutes around to the Rue de Paris, which leads up to the front gates of the palace.



And what a palace it is! In the front of the magnificent front of Versaille sits a statue of Louis XIV on horseback, the guy who built the whole palace during his reign after taking a violent dislike to the city of Paris. We were both lucky and unlucky to choose this day to go, as it did start raining soon after we entered the garden (for nearly an hour) but it was also the day that they turn all the fountains on for a few hours.



If the front of Versaille is impressive, it is quickly surpassed by the view from the back. Without a doubt, it is the most mind numbing sight to look upon the enormity of those grounds, stretching out as far as the eye can see. Remember, as I always say, photos can never to justice to the real thing? It's still true even with these ones of the grounds.



The tour was very good and much better than walking around the gardens haphazardly. There's far too much to see here on one trip and the sheer enormity of the place with all the statues and fountains and secret groves is all too much to take in on one visit. There's one grove where a grotto has been carved out of stone blocks and statues placed about it to form some classical scene. In another, the form of Enceladus bursts from a volcanic lake - and when the fountains turned on, a stream of water several metres high spewed from his mouth. All the while this was backed up by classical music coming out of hidden speakers all over the garden.







After a good few informative hours touring around the gardens, we left our guide and purchased tickets for the inside of the palace itself. Words can not describe the majesty and awe felt when surrounded by such incredible decoration. Each room on display was decorated in a different style for a different purpose. Intricate paintings filled every space not otherwise decorated by gilded woodwork or stone.



We stayed until closing and finally made our way by train back into Paris. We had to meet the landlord to get our bond back, so we sat around in the apartment for a short while and then headed out at around 10pm in search of sustenance with our new found riches.

Surprisingly, just up the road several bistros were still serving food, so we sat down at one that our landlord recommended to us - Le Relais Gascon. I would seriously recommend this place as it was amazing. I had my first escargots in their shells, which was amazing! For a main I had a honey glazed duck and Kristen had the steak with roquefort sauce. For dessert, I had the tart tartine and Kristen had the creme brulee.

Suitably stuffed we retired to sleep for our final day in France. On the next morning we went out to fill our saddlebags with provisions for the trip back to the land of pie and mash (but I jest, really London does have everything). Everything sold in France is all packaged in undecipherable boxes and as we were taking the train, it was the perfect excuse to load up.

We went for a last trip up to the Place de Terte to see the painters and try some actual French macarons and our last crepe and just generally overdo it. After this, so enamoured were we with the dining experience, we sat down for another meal. I just had to have authentic moule frites, so I found myself sitting in front of a giant pile of mussels in their shells in a mushroom creme broth.

[caption id="attachment_253" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="This is entirely not related to anything I've mentioned elsewhere, it's just randomly snapped somewhere on this day."][/caption]

Yes, I did discover French cuisine in France, as much as I discovered the Eiffel Tower. Both are protected by UNESCO, you know? After this we paid Fauchon a visit, which is the most expensive and exquisite food store in Paris, I'm sure. It's like fashion and food got together and had a lovechild. Their patisserie section is pure art, to the extent where it feels wrong to eat the creations found there. We did anyway (as you may have noticed, exploring France is hungry work).



Another shop I'd recommend is Colette, which is a concept fashion/oddity shop. It was really packed with fresh and innovative ideas and top end fashion by emerging and the new established designers.

But that's all we have time for, and just as well as we boarded our train away that afternoon for our journey back to England, where we slipped uncomfortably back into our native language.

Paris, Day 2

Ok, this is now long overdue, given that I am writing this on Easter weekend and Paris was back at the start of the month.

Day two started after waking up a little later than we intended, as we were very exhausted from our first big day. We ventured out around 9am and went to Carrefour, which is the local supermarket. It's always fun to visit the supermarkets in various countries and see the differences in foods and packaging. The frozen foods isle is always a laugh. In France, they have snails and savoury crepes ready to be heated and eated. We also marvelled at the selection of tinned cassoulets and rilettes.

We bought a few things and returned them to base before heading out on the Metro for Place St Michel where we were to meet up for the Paris free tour, which was lead by the very energetic Linda. Here's the statue at the corner here:



The tour took us down to the riverside near Notre Dame where we crossed and walked down to the Pont Neuf, or New Bridge, which was actually the first stone bridge in Paris so is quite old. Here's a view of the buildings along the edge of the river, which apparently never go on sale so they're rather priceless:



The riverside is a beautiful and like almost every part of Paris, it's all very romantic. We walked along the South bank of the river until we came to the "Sex and the City" bridge, which has a few padlocks on it. It's nowhere near as amazing as the one in Cologne though. It's actually called the Pont des arts. I'll show you the view from the middle:



We crossed over to where the Louvre sits on the North side of the river. Although we didn't actually go inside the museum while we were there, we did walk through the courtyards and over the grounds to the 'front yard' across the road. The museum used to be the royal palace for a while before Napoleon got his hands on it. When it was actually occupied by the royals, one Queen in particular looked out the front window and saw all of the Tile makers workshops and decided they had to go. Now there is an enormous 'front yard' named the 'Jardin des Tuileries' or 'Garden of the Tilers'. Here's the photographic evidence:







Yes, the big pyramid looks a bit out of place, but it's really there sitting outside the Louvre. Anyhow, we walked through the Jardin, which is surrounded by very old and beautiful apartment buildings and replete with statues of every sort. It was also crowded with people out enjoying the nice weather:



At the far end of the  park is a roundabout with a giant obelisk pilfered from Egypt sitting in the middle and a beautiful fountain, marking the start of the Champs Elysees. Far in the distance at the end of the Champs is the Arc de Triomphe, still visible as it's so freakishly big.





From here we finished the tour by strolling past the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais and over the bridge leading to the Invalides, which is the final resting place of Napoleon. The bridge is perhaps the most beautiful I've seen. All of this is in the shadow of the ever present Eiffel Tower:

   

With the tour over, we marched down to a cafe where we had a lunch of onion soup and cheese and meat with the neverending baguette which is an ever present side dish in France. We headed back to the apartment after this to rest up for our invitation out to meet up with Seb and Marine at a fashion boutique store opening.

We went along at about 6pm and met up with and hung out with our new Paris friends, who thankfully spoke a bit of English so we weren't left completely out. We were led along to a cafe in the gay district of Paris, known as the Marais. This was honestly the most fun I've had on a night out since we arrived over this side of the world. We got along really well with people and drank a lot of wine and had more meat, cheese and bread. The drinking eventually moved out onto the street where we mingled with the patrons of the cafe next door.

I can't imagine this ever happening in London, the drinking culture is just entirely different. Here it's a race to see who can get the drunkest first, whereas in France, they're talking about which wine region is the best and choosing the drink for the flavour. After this very enjoyable evening, we headed back to the apartment and crashed out. Here's some pics of the evening:

 

The Paris post

It has been a week since I have been back from Paris and I still have not made the time to write this blog entry about it. I had meant to do it on Thursday as I had the day off work, but it was such a nice day, I went out and explored Covent Garden instead. Now I'm at work and it's a Sunday so I'm going to try and start this off.

We caught the Eurostar from Kings Cross St. Pancras at just after 9am, which meant not getting up at the crack of dawn for a change. The trip only takes about 2 and a half hours and drops off at Paris Gare du Nord in Montmartre. We had booked ourselves an apartment for 4 nights, which worked out to be cheaper than the both of us booking into a hostel. This place was quite small, but bigger than a dorm and was actually quite cozy.

I was a little apprehensive, as I always am, when going to a foreign country about people not being able to understand me or being offended that I'm in their country but not speaking their language, but my initial worries were unfounded as the French people are very friendly and helpful. I actually learned quite a lot of the basics of the language while over there and I'm still adjusting back to English even now.



Anyhow, our first view of Paris was from the top of Montmartre, just 5 minutes up the steps from our apartment. At the top of the hill (the highest natural point of Paris) is the Sacre C'oeur cathedral, which is a big, white limestone monstrousity that looks over the city. It's actually rather pretty, but like everything else in the city, the locals don't like it. It seems to be a very French thing to hate monuments.



The view from the top of the hill is amazing and allowed us our first ever glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! I also noticed how flat the city looks and only later found out that after the building of the Montparnasse tower (a very hated building) the government banned tall buildings in the city. For this reason, the Eiffel Tower dominates the skyline in Paris.





[caption id="attachment_213" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="Bonus points: Spot the pig in this picture"][/caption]

Soon after, we took a tour around Montmartre with the Sandeman tour group which started off in the Pigalle area, right across for the Moulin Rouge and took us back up the hill past the Amelie cafe. We saw several sites of artistic importance, such as where Van Gough lived for a while and where Picasso got free meals and we saw the last remaining windmills. It was a very entertaining tour and when it was over, we went back to the Amelie cafe (Cafe des 2 Moulins) and had a dinner of Confit de Canard and les Grand Assortment. It was very good and just the beginning of our French food experience. There was also a band doing very bad covers of english songs, but everyone seemed to be getting into it.





After our dinner, before retiring for the night, we caught the metro on a spur of the moment trip over to the Arc de Triomphe. By this time is was very dark, but as we stepped up out of the metro exit, we were greeted by the massive arch in the middle of the most insane roundabout in the world. We walked from there to the Eiffel Tower to see it up close. When we got to the River Seine, the tower was right in front of us, exploding into a spectacular light show.





We walked under the tower, scarcely willing to believe this was it, the actual Eiffel Tower. I can imagine some people being wholly unaffected by this, but it's one of the most iconic human constructions ever built. To see it with my own eyes, to cross it off the list, is a very rare and special rush that I am very much addicted to.







So that concludes day one. I'll have photos uploaded when I am home sometime and then I'll tackle the next few days.