Paris, FR (Part I)

Day 1. Our arrival in Paris’ Gare de l’Est came fairly quickly, since we caught a TGV fast train from Luxembourg. We were given directions by our apartment host to take the Number 4 metro from the station to the St. Michel stop, easy enough – except that we decided to arrive at the wrong time of day, because the metro was small and it was PACKED. I felt bad trying to squeeze in with our humungous backpacks, way to make a great first impression with the Parisians. Despite our bulk we did make it on (barely) and made our way to St. Michel. Above ground, there was a cafe where we set up shop for a couple of hours, since we weren’t planning on meeting our landlord’s friend until 6:30pm. The skies were a little overcast, but the air was warmer than that of Luxembourg, so that was fine with us, since we were planning on using this day to settle in and figure out what we wanted to do/see in the week ahead. Soon enough though (after passing the time with the help of a chatty older lady from Victoria, BC), we met up with Benoit. He let us into our home for the week and we were excited to cook, relax, do laundry as if we were living in Paris.

The flat is perfectly situated in the 6eme arrondissment, within walking distance from the Louvre and Notre Dame. Besides the awesome location, the flat is pretty sweet, since it also has a loft area for the bedroom, providing more space in the common area to hang out. Once we were handed the keys, we headed out to get our grocery provisions for the week at a nearby supermarket as suggested by our landlord/host, came back, cooked dinner and called it a night.  It was very easy to settle into the flat and we considered this option way better than any hotel room could offer.

Day 2.This was our ‘exploratory’ day, where we mainly wandered around, getting a taste of some of the nearby areas. The skies were grey again, which was particularly frustrating for photo taking, but we made the most of it. You can’t ask for blue skies every time, and besides for the amount of walking we did, it was better that we weren’t under the scorching sun. We first had breakfast at the flat before heading towards the Louvre. The line was already pretty long, so we made the decision that on the day we visit the Louvre, we would be there first thing in the morning.

We walked further up north, scored ourselves a city map from one of the Tourism offices, wandered a bit further and found ourselves at the Jardin des Tuileries, walked further east towards Place de la Concorde and halfway down Avenue des Champs-Élysées before turning back around and heading back to the flat. We had made plans to meet up with Melanie, who I worked with at iStock and who is now living in Paris.

We managed to get our London SIM to work and met up in her neck of the woods. She took us to a great cafe that served awesome food (much cheaper than in the tourist areas). After our lunch and coffee, she showed us around the Belleville area and took us down a street that was completely covered in graffiti art.

We also toured around her neighbourhood park, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, full of hills, overlooks and a waterfall to boot.

We then strolled over to her flat and enjoyed a red wine and a bit of visiting before she had to go to a meeting, and we had to return to our flat to start cooking dinner. While it was fun seeing some of the touristy stuff in the morning, we thoroughly enjoyed being toted around and exploring the working class areas as well.

Day 3. We woke up to nothing but blue skies, so we eagerly got up, ate breakfast and ventured out to take as many photos as we could. But first thing was first.

We had received a generous anniversary gift from Mom & Dad E, so we got ourselves some new duds, since we look like hobos by Paris’ fashion standards, but mainly because our wardrobe has been recycled one too many times in our facebook profile photos. Once we each had a new outfit chosen, we dropped off our purchases and then returned outside for the real touring. Our first stop, was the Notre Dame, which is only a 10 minute walk from our flat.

We had watched Disney’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and wanted to see how true to life the illustrations were. While the front of the cathedral looked fairly simple in comparison to some other cathedrals we’ve seen, it’s still pretty outstanding in size and grandeur.  Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower, so we crossed the bridge to get to the Metro station and just as we did, a huge party boat full of people dressed up in costumes floated down La Seine, so I had to take a couple of shots of that as well.

When emerged from the metro station for the Eiffel Tower, we approached it from its southwest side, through a nice litte park area.

Once we were right underneath it, we then walked along Champ de Mars for another angle, then backtracked a bit and went further northwest across the

bridge, towards Esplanade du Trocadéro, where it looked like they were setting up a stage for a 9/11 Memorial concert for the following day.

We then continued further up north towards the Arc de Triomphe to take a couple of shots of that and then walked along Avenue des Champs-Élysées peering into shops.

The main attraction on the strip was the Louis Vuitton store, which had a line to get into, like a carnival ride. Dan laughed, he took a shot, then stopped laughing when he realized that he was going to join the line too. while the story of Louis Vuitton is somewhat interesting, I’m still boggled to understand why someone would spend so much money on clothes, accessories that are so heavily branded that it’s borderline (if not completely over the line) ugly. Don’t get me wrong, there were some cute shoes, nice purses and luggage, but not nice enough to spend that much money on it. By the time we left the Louis Vuitton store, we were feeling pekish, so we ate a pizza snack before getting on the metro towards home by way of the supermarket, ending our long day of sightseeing with a skype call to Mom & Dad E, tortellini pasta with pesto and a bottle of wine.

Day 4. We spent our Sunday here in Paris just like we would spend our Sundays back home in Calgary. We woke up and got ready and went to church, but instead of Brentview Baptist, we went to the Notre Dame.

After church we went back home to have lunch, but instead of our condo back home, it was our flat here. We took a 3 hour nap – no differences here!

And then woke up for Sunday dinner, but rather than eating at Mom & Dad E’s, we went out to one of our neighbourhood cafes. And on our way back to the flat, we bought ourselves a scoop of Amarena (cherry) ice cream to share. Thus ending our very chilled, relaxed and much needed Sunday. This was the first time on the trip where we felt like we were home again.

Continued, in Part II…