Bonjour, Paris! (France)

Trip Details
Where: Paris, France
When: 6th-9th April 2012
 

Paris. My dream destination. I've always wanted to go there. And I finally did. You can't imagine my excitement when I first saw the Eiffel Tower! But let's start from the beginning.

The first thing we did when we got to the city after our plane landed was to find the nearest subway station. That's one of the main means of transportation in Paris and since it's a pretty big city you don't have much choice but to use it. It's very well organized, there are maps everywhere so you know which line to take (there are 14 of them), where to make a connection if needed or where to get off to reach the desired destination. There should be an information desk somewhere in the station or you can just find a ticket automat and get your tickets/day passes there. One thing you should know is that Paris is divided into different zones and the metro tickets are in conformity with that. Zone 1 to 3 is the centre and then there're 4 and 5 which are the suburbs. You'd normally need a ticket/pass for 1-3, but if you want to visit Château de Versailles or Disneyland, you'll have to buy one for zone 5.

So here I was, walking to the nearest ticket automat when I saw two girls exiting the station, walking really fast to its entrance and a guy shouting behind them.. something in French I didn't quite understand, but it was pretty obvious he was shouting for someone to stop them. And when I heard him yelling 'policier' the picture got even clearer. Pickpockets. A man grabbed them and soon they were taken aside and asked for their IDs.

So, lesson one: don't let your belongings out of sight.

We took the subway to the hotel and 4 or 5 stations later, there it was. The Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel) on our left! I didn't really expect seeing it before starting to look for it so it came as a surprise. A stunning 15 seconds long surprise! I literally started happy dancing in the train.. not even following the rhythm of the music coming from the guitar of a guy on the other side of the carriage (there were lots of them.. musicians in the subway getting on on one station, performing a couple of songs and getting off after letting you show your appreciation). We quickly left our luggage at the hotel and hurried to take the train back.

The Eiffel Tower



After we let the view sinc in for a while, we decided to go up. But the line for the tickets was so long that we nearly gave up.

The line at the Eiffel Tower

Nearly. We cut through it and on the other side, at the bottom of the south pillar there was a shorter line, so we waited there instead. As we later found out one of the elevators was broken and the long line was for the other one. And ours was for the stairs. I'd definitely recommend choosing this one. You'll save hours. Plus, the stairs go only as far as the second floor. If you decide to go to the top, you can get an elevator from there. For which you'll have to wait some more, of course. We chose not to and went up to the second floor only.

View from the Eiffel Tower

You can see many sights from up there. There're signs with information on the first floor.

Interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower:

- built in 1889;

- designed by and named after Gustave Effiel;

- made of iron - 7300 tonnes;

- 320 meters high - the tallest building in Paris;

- a strong wind can make it sway, but rarely exceeds 10 cm;

- in a sunny weather, the iron expands, as if leaning away from the sun with approximately 10 cm; at night the tower swings back to the center.

Across Seine River is Palais de Chaillot (in the first of the above 'View from the Eiffel Tower' pictures) formerly known as Palais du Trocadero. The castle was first built for a World's Fair in 1878 then demolished and rebuilt as Palais de Chaillot in 1937 for Exposition Internationale. The buildings now house a couple museums and a theatre.



Théâtre national de Chaillot

 Next on our plan for the day was the Arch of Triumph (Arc de Triomphe).

Arch of Triumph

It's surrounded by a huge roundabout with probably the craziest traffic in all Paris. The Arch is a monument that honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces.

Arch of Triumph

Underneath lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. On top of it, there's an eternal flame that burns in memory of the those who died in both world wars and were never identified. According to a TV show, “the flame has only been extinguished once, by a drunken Mexican football supporter on the night that France beat Brazil here in Paris,” supposedly at the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final.

While we were there, we witnessed the preparation of some ceremony, but we left before it started.

Ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

From the Arch starts the famous Champs-Élysées.



Champs Elysees

Lots of cinemas, cafes and luxurious shops lay on both sides of the street.

Lido at Champs Elysees

 The second half of the street is surrounded by clipped horse-chestnut trees.

Champs Elysees

On the other end of the Avenue is Place de la Concorde which is the largest square in Paris.

Place de la Concorde

The two identical buildings are Hotel de Crillon (on the left) and the French Naval Ministry (on the right). Rue Royale separates them - a small street, leading to Église de la Madeleine (Madeleine Church).

In the center of the square there's an Egyptian obelisk.

Egyptian Obelisk at Place de la Concorde

It is decorated with hieroglyphics glorifying the reign of the pharaoh Ramses II and was given to the French by the Egyptian government in the 19th century.

On December 1st 1993 the French AIDS fighting society Act Up Paris had unrolled a giant pink condom over the whole monument. Another interesting fact is that in 2000 a man had climbed it using bare hands and no safety devices.

On the east of the square are the Tuileries Gardens, a public garden, leading to the Louvre, created as the garden of the Tuileries Palace.

Tuileries Gardens

They were really beautiful, revealing an astonishing view of the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde and Champs Elysees all the way to the Arch of Triumph.

Our final stop for day one was The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre).

The Louvre

As you probably know, it's one of the largest museums in the world and they're not kidding when they're describing it that way. It takes a few hours to see everything exposed in it. Unfortunately, we got there late and had only an hour and a half so we tried to see as many things as possible for that time, one of which was Mona Lisa.

Mona Lisa

When we got out, it was already dark. That's when the photoshoot started...

The Louvre

.. and my camera battery died.

Day two started with the Sorbonne.

Sorbonne

For those of you, who haven't heard the name before, the Sorbonne is a historical building that used to house the University of Paris. Nowadays, there're a couple other universities in it. It may not seem like it in the photo, but it's very big.

As beautiful and mighty as Paris is, poverty is no stranger.

A few blocks away from the Sorbonne we found the famous Notre Dame.

Notre Dame

It's pretty massive and really detailed. You're allowed to go in, if you'd like. There's a long line, but it goes by fast.

On the inside it's as beautiful. You're also allowed to take pictures. Almost everywhere in Paris, it was okay to take pictures, at some places - as long as you're not using a flash.

As we were walking inside, we heard music.. church music. A guy was playing on an organ and a choir was accompaning it. It made the atmosphere even more amazing. We later realized it was probably a rehearsal for the evening mass, since it was Easter's eve.

On its side and back, there's a lovely garden.

Notre Dame

There's also a kid's playground and what's interesting about it is that the ground there was soft. How thoughtful.

From the great catholic symbol, we went straight to.. Moulin Rouge..

Moulin Rouge

You've probably seen the movie.. you know, the one with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor:

If not, watch it. It's classics.

The cabaret is also known as the "spiritual birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance". Originally introduced as a seductive dance performed by courtesans, the can-can dance turned into a form of entertainment and was soon the reason for cabarets appearing across Europe.

In English Moulin Rouge means Red Mill, which explains the red mill in its exterior. It is situated on Boulevard de Clichy, which was very much like a red district with all the sex shops on both sides. There was even an erotic museum close to the cabaret, which I was literally dragged to by my companion.

Montmartre was right above the spicy area. That's the highest hill in Paris. On its top we found the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur.

Basilica of the Sacré Cœur

There's also a small train, the so called funicolare, that could take you up to the basilica but it only saves like a hundred stairs.

Since it was getting dark, we decided to go back to the Eiffel Tower to take some night pictures of it. It was really marvelous. The best thing I've seen in Paris. I tried pretty much all my camera modes while shooting (I told you, I loved it!) Here's the result:

The Eiffel Tower

I can't really pick a favourite but you can try.

The last sight we saw on this trip was the Statue of Liberty. Yes, the same as the one in New York City, only smaller.

But more interesting is how we got there. There's a subway station near it but we decided to try something else - the RER, which is pretty much a train. We found the station easily, there're directions everywhere. There were a couple monitors showing when the next train was coming and its last station. So we went on the right platform and in a minute the train was there. We took it, glad that we didn't have to wait for long, when suddenly it crossed the river. It wasn't supposed to cross the river. We looked at each other puzzled and got off on the next station. It was then when we realised that the RER lines are slightly different from the subway. They're branched. So we did take the train in the right direction, only there were two different lines and we picked the wrong one. We quickly crossed to the other side and took the train back to the previous station. This time we checked carefully if the next train was ours. We were supposed to take the one going to Chateau de Versailles so when we saw 'Last stop: VersChant', we didn't hesitate and got on. Only this time the train took us in the opposite direction. I know. Funny. It appeared that there was another station, called Versailles Chantiers and that train was going there. Once again we got off and crossed to the other side and our third attempt turned out to be the lucky one. Don't laugh. Check out the train map and you'll see.. It's confusing:

RER

We finally reached our destination.

The Statue of Liberty

The statue is at River Seine not far from the Eiffel Tower. You can easilly spot it if you go up the Iron Lady.

An interesting fact is that the Statue of Liberty in New York City is a gift to the United States by the French.

And that's how our sightseeing in Paris ended. Our last day we spent in Disneyland.

On our way back to the airport we had do take a taxi. (Even though a French friend warned me not to get in cars with strangers.. We had no choice.) There's no public transport between 12:30 am (1:30 am on Friday and Saturday) and 5:30 am. Taxi prices are nowhere to be seen on the outside of the car. There's a nearly invisible sticker on the left door but as far as I could read it, it said that the price is whatever the device inside sayd. In our case - 2 euro per kilometer. I don't know if that's a standart fare.

In the end, one lost earring, a broken camera and beautiful memories is what I was left with. The dream is no longer just a dream.