Paris Day 3 – Wednesday 17th April 2024

What a fantastic day we have had!  We are absolutely finished, but it was great!

We started off catching 2 metros to where we were having breakfast – Café Louise.  It was also part of our tourist pass – our breakfast was orange juice, fruit salad, croissant and a hot drink, sitting in a lovely old French restaurant.  And needless to say we did not have to pay!  Bonus!

After breakfast we walked to the Louvre – as we had a 10.30 timeslot booked.  We joined a long queue and our hearts sank – was this going to be a repeat of yesterday at the Palace of Versailles?  When the queue started moving, we were through security and inside very quickly, which was great as the wind was icy!  We made a bee-line for the wing where the Mona Lisa is, and although there were a lot of people in the Louvre, it was NOTHING like yesterday.

When we got to the Mona Lisa there were a lot of people, but there was no pushing and shoving.  Everyone had their turn and then moved on.  It probably took us about 10 – 15 minutes to get our moment at the front.  It was a wonderful feeling to be standing there just a few meters away from it.  And she looked at us!

From there we went around looking at the art and there are quite some artworks there, and so varied!  From paintings, big and small, to tapestries to sculptures, to woodcarvings to name just a few.  We were surprised at how much we enjoyed it.  The Louvre is huge, and if you want to see everything you would need to be there for the entire day.

We left the Louvre and took a walk along the Seine – I thought of Mamma Mia 😊- it was chilly and then started to rain, but it was lovely.  Sadly we weren’t able to find anything to eat as most places only open mid afternoon there.   So we left the river and headed towards our next visit which was a chocolate making exhibition.  We stopped at Starbucks for some lunch, and while we were eating and checking our afternoon itinerary William realised that we needed our Museum Passes for the Arc de Triomphe and they expired at 16.00.  (for some reason they were only valid for 48 hours), so we finished our lunch and walked in the rain to find a bus to take us there.  Well, we made it to the Arc De Triomphe in time and entered to see that we had to climb lots and lots of steps to get to the observation deck at the top.  My heart sank, but up we went until we reached the top, and boy was it worth it.  The rain had stopped and we walked around looking at Paris and the 12 roads that meet at the Arc.  So interesting to see the geography of it.  As we left the steps going down were much easier than those going up – I am not sure why!?

We caught 2 Metros to get back to our chocolate place.  The history and exhibition (and chocolate tasting) was very interesting.  And when we had finished we could choose a hot chocolate drink.  I chose dark chocolate and William chose white chocolate.  Very nice and warmed us up a little.  We caught a bus back to our apartment to put our weary feet up before we headed off to see the Eiffel Tower by night.

And what a wonderful site the Eiffel Tower was by night, as was the Arc de Triomphe!  It was freezing standing at the tower, but there were hundreds of fools standing there with us!  We thought that we would be the only fools there, but every bus/taxi arrived there absolutely full.  Amazing!

Today we have walked 19.24 km and 51 floors.  No wonder we are shattered!

We leave Paris tomorrow morning for Amsterdam – our last stop – before heading home.

Paris Day 2 – Tuesday 16th April 2024

Bonjour from another cold, wet day in Paris!

May I start off by apologising for the typos – I am typing these blogs either on my phone or on my laptop when I am tired, and often the lighting is not so good.

This morning we set off to have a free breakfast which was part of the Paris Tourist Pass which we bought.  Sadly the bus did not arrive, so we had to change plans.  We bought take aways croissants from a bakery/coffee shop.  French croissants are the best!

We had a booked timeslot for the Palace of Versailles, and so set off for there – we are quite a long way from there in Monte Matre.  We had to take 2 Metros and then an RER which is a “normal” train – not an underground.  The Metros were fine, but the RER was another story.  We ended up on the wrong train, and so had to back track and eventually catch the correct train.  When we got to the station we walked to the Palace of Versailles in the cold, icy wind.

Oh my shattered nerves, the place is huge and there were 1000’s of people!  We found our way to where we needed to be and were admitted quite quickly.  At least we were out of the cold!

Well, that is where it all began.  They admit so many people that you literally herded through like cattle.  If you stopped to look at something you were pushed.  They keep warning you about pick pocketing in the Palace – ie the pick pocketers buy tickets to come in and pick pocket!  There were people pushing folk in wheelchairs – for whom most of us made way, particularly at doorways, etc, except for one nation who were in tour groups.  They continued to push everyone, including the wheelchairs out of the way.  The saddest thing to us what it was the one nation that we thought had the utmost respect for others.  Sadly, this has been the pattern right throughout our trip.

The Palace was interesting, but we cannot understand the complete opulence.  We know that it from that era in history but to see the gold and paintings, let alone the size of the rooms, etc baffles us a tad.

We really wanted to walk around the gardens but William was notified by email yesterday that as there was to be some concert tonight, we would have to buy additional tickets to enter the gardens.  We decided that this was too much, and so decided to leave after the Palace, and head back for the train.

We hopped off the train Notre Dame and went to the site.  They are still busy with the re-building after the fire, and so it is still closed.  We trotted off to another place for a free meal from our pass, which was Champagne and a gourmet toasted ham and cheese and chips and salad.  What a delicious meal.  The Champagne was not nearly as bitter as I thought it may be.

We caught the bus back to Monte Matre, and boarded the Petit Train, which is a mini train that drives on the road – ie a small truck pulling coaches that you sit on.  The route it takes is from the Moulin Rouge all the way up the hill to Sacre Crous.  It was lovely with fantastic views.

After this, we returned to our apartment for some feet up time.

At about 20.30 we ventured out to go up to Sacre Couer to see the city after dark – it was only starting to get dark at this time.  We walked to the funicular and went up the hill in style!  The city looked lovely as it started getting dark.  The Eiffel Tower was lit up at 21.00 – and although it was not dark yet, it was spectacular to see.

We then walked around the shops at the top of the hill and bought crepes and hot chocolate for supper – we were both still full from our late lunch.  Before taking the funicular down, we had a last look at the city of Paris from the hill.

When we got back to normal level, I persuaded William to walk to Moulin Rouge as on Sunday it was not completely dark…. The man agreed so we walked 900m to see it.  It looked so bright.  Now we are back at our apartment and ready for bed.

Tomorrow we are off to the Louvre.

Paris Day 1 – Monday 15th April 2024

This morning we hopped on a bus – and travelled through Paris to get to the Eiffel Tower.  The bus ride took about 30 min.  Getting out of the bus close to the Eiffel Tower was a wow moment – seeing the size of it was wow!

We had a booked time slot, and were a little early, and that is when we realised how cold it was.  William was dressed in shorts, and he was freezing.  Now as most of you know that William doesn’t feel the cold, so for him to be looking for a patch of sun to stand in while we waited tells you how cold it was.  I did not have my puffer jacket either, but I did have a thick sweater.  By the time our guide arrived we were freezing!

We got in quite quickly – through 2 lots of security and queued to get to the elevators – we were not going to walk it!  Our guide gave us the history while waiting.  It was built in 1889 and is 300m tall.

We first went to the second floor which is the viewing deck.  It was even more cold there than on the ground.  Unfortunately our guide went on and on and on with stories etc, until we (like many in the group before us) excused ourselves to go to the toilet and never returned.  We had purchased tickets to go to the top, so we got in the queue for this and went up the 200m odd to the top in an elevator.  Guess what, it was even more cold up there!  The views were great, but we did not feel that they were that much more spectacular that the second floor viewing deck, but nevertheless we were glad that we had gone to the top.  We then descended to the bottom, which was chilly, but not as bad as the top.  We bought some hot chocolate to warm up and caught a bus back for William to put on warmer clothes and for me to get my jacket.  And back on the bus we hopped – going back to the same place for us to have a cruise along the Seine River.  (We have purchased unlimited public transport tickets, you will be pleased to hear!)

The cruise along the Seine was not so great – firstly it was raining and secondly the commentary was not great, but it was interesting to put a bit of the geography together.  We were shown the Statue of Liberty – no you are reading correctly!  The Statue of Liberty was designed by Eiffel (I think) and so the US gave Paris a small Statue of Liberty.

After the cruise we hopped on another bus and after grabbing some lunch, we went to The Pantheon, which was interesting, and quite different to the Pantheon in Rome.  We came out of the Pantheon and it was raining hard, so we walked in the rain to find our Metro trains back to Monte Matre.  By the time we got back, the rain had stopped and we climbed to steps to Sacre Couer.  What a beautiful church.  We waited for a Mass to start so that we could hear the acoustics – lovely!  The church is on the top of the hill and so the views over Paris were magnificent!  We then realised that our transport tickets included the Funicular so we came down in style!  (And in future we will be going up in style too!)

We are both really tired, particularly of steps!

Tomorrow is Palace of Versailles…..