Paris Day 3 - Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur

After a bit of a lie in and breakfast in our hotel (its included in the price... mmmm) we headed into the slightly cloudy day straight for the Eiffel Tower - our one must do activity for the weekend. During my last visit in January 1996 it was very overcast, so we didn’t climb... this time I was determined! We scoped out the situation for a few minutes and after lining up in one place for a few minutes (massive line) we found the line for the stairs - gold!! very quick and cheaper too! SO cool, we headed up the tower, step by step and reached the first floor - what a great way to see it all!!

After circumnavigating the tower, and taking a bunch of photos, we headed for the stairs to the second floor - happily the day was fining up as we climbed so the higher we got, the clearer the sky and the better the view! Again, we circumnavigated the tower and lined up for the lift that would take us to the summit. About half way to the doors of the lift (a bit of a line) we realised there was ANOTHER line to buy tickets!! I left Megan in the first line and asked the people at the start of the ticket line what was going on, the ticket office was closed??!!. At first they thought I was French (yay!) but then we sorted it out - they were American, and after a lovely chat they offered to buy our tickets for us, YAY!. They were a father and two kids (the son was in line with Megan) and we ended up spending the rest of our trip up the Tower and back down again with them, lovely family! And the dad was scared of heights, more so than Megan, so there were some giggles there!

I got some great photos from the summit - all the major Paris sites - Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, Louvre...

We lunched in a cafe in Pigalle (near the Sacre Coeur, but not too near) and Megan discovered Salade de Chevre Chaud - hot goat cheese salad - she will never look back!!! As if we hadn’t experienced enough stairs today, we headed next for the Sacre Coeur. On the way we bought two dresses for me and a skirt, and a top, skirt and dress for Megan - yay the Paris purchases continue!! At the sacre coeur, amongst a million blinkin’ tourists there was an AMAZING busker who was standing on top of a pedestal on the railing (maybe 1 square metre) and doing tricks with a soccer ball - incredible - he finished his routine by climbing the lamp post and holding the ball on his foot - this is quite possibly the fittest, most coordinated guy I’ve ever seen... nice 6 pack too!

We climbed to the top of the dome of the Sacre Coeur and enjoyed the view of the city while the church bells rang for 6pm. Fantastic.

We also made, what was possibly the most important discovery of the trip so far - the grande macaroon caramel - words cannot describe this small biscuit but I can tell you we returned to this same boulangerie on the opposite side of town from our hotel on our last day to make an additional purchase! The chocolate eclairs were incredible too! "Eat cakes more often!"

Dinner left a little to be desired, but the tap water was a winner, and we retired to bed very satisfied with our jam packed day in Paris!!

Paris Day 2 - My friend arrives!!

I started the day fairly quietly today, wandered into town and over to the Ile St-Louis where I found a cafe with, you guessed it, free wifi! I’m getting good at scoping out these places. While I lounged around I literally saw a man walk past wearing a beret and with a bagette under his arm!! - probably a tourist - they’re everywhere... terrible!! I might add I was stopped in the street by a French guy (not from Paris) who thought I was a local and asked me for directions... I helped him out with my map ! yay for me. Always good to go incognito - I bought a funky little handbag which is just big enough for my giant camera.. heh heh heh...

I wandered around Notre Dame taking a few photos of the gargoyles before heading off to Charles De Gaulle airport to meet Megan. I remembered my last visit here in 1996 when I met up with a friend from school in the garden on the east side of Notre Dame... she hadn’t spoken english with an english speaker for three months and spoke about a million words to the dozen... so cool! I sent her a text!!

Of course the ticket collector on the train told me the wrong terminal so there was a bit of going in circles, but I got to the arrival gate on time and with French customs being very laisez faire, Megan was through in about twenty minutes... literally skipping!! I think she was excited to be there - I was excited too!!!!

We dumped her bags at the hotel (after clever pre-warning she was happy with the room!) and headed into town where we wandered along the Seine, visited Notre Dame and walked past the Louvre, Place de la Concorde and along the Avenue des Champs Elysees. The stories are true - restaurants on the Champs Elysees will rip you off at any opportunity - the story is too long to tell here, and doesn’t reflect well on me as the tour leader... Needless to say we are the bigger people and I am now very clear on how to ask for TAP WATER!!!!

The good news for today was that I bought a cute pink t-shirt and a little black dress - my first Paris purchases!!! yay!!!!

Last day at school and Paris Day 1

I finished school on Friday the 6th of August and farewelled my little school friends (until next week when I pop in for the ‘end of school’ apperatif, held every two weeks). Happily I met a few Aussie’s at school this week - guys working over here for a couple of years. hilarious!! Its pretty funny to hear “g’day, howyagoin” after not hearing anything Ocker for so long! Like an absolute champ, one of the guys offered to give me a lift to the TGV after school so that reduced my stress levels immensely! He also had some handy info about international schools for a friend, so it was super.

I caught the TGV without any problems and arrived in Paris as scheduled (even chatted to some french girls on the train!)... little girl from the country in the big CITY!! Happily, I befriended a guy from the train who helped me sort out where I was going and purchase a ticket for the metro - which I love by the way, but more of that later!

Arrival at our accommodation... well, the woman at school who recommended it did say it was clean but not luxurious... she was right!! basically a hostel, but I’d booked our own room with a shower and toilet. Made a mental note to talk it down to Megan so she wouldn’t be disappointed!

Sadly, her flight was delayed so she didn’t arrive until Saturday at 1.30pm. I had dinner in a cafe on the Place d’Italie and used their free wifi which was great!

any time now...

Sorry team, have been a bit busy flitting around Paris visiting the beach and hanging out with my lovely friend...

the posts will continue shortly!!!

All good here, and happy!

Paris!!! I've arrived via TGV. Navigated the metro, found the hotel and had dinner in a cafe in the Place d'Italie!!

Le Kir by the pool!!

YUMMO!

Paris and deja vu!

Well after successfully booking a room at the hotel in Paris online and being assured that I would recieve an email with the details, I did recieve an email... saying I needed to ring them to reserve the room....!! Bizarre!

So, this afternoon, I did!! A wonderful success chatting away in french giving my name, requesting the room, understanding that we will have to change rooms for the last night and paying the deposit. YAY! Its the little achievements that keep us going!

I gave the guy who makes my morning coffee a little koala this morning. I've been sapping their free wifi every morning for weeks and after only one day, he has got my coffee order right every time! yay!

I came into town for dinner last night with the english lass who is living at the Polo Club. It was lovely - of course those who know me will be unsurprised that we ended up at the same restaurant I have already previewed for you, and that I ordered pretty much the same meal! Predictable I know, but yummy! I also introduced her to the Kir - a local aperitif made of cassis (blackcurrant) and white wine. YUM!! Of course I have now bought the relevant ingredients and we have a date by the pool when I get home this afternoon.

There are a few Australian guys at school this week, they work here in Aix. I said g'day to one who was wearing a Reds cap and he replied with the age old "howyagoin!?". Now that is something I haven't heard for a while. I've been teaching some of the girls how to say "g'day mate" but they've got a little way to go....

I bought myself Harry Potter 6 yesterday in French and a couple of the french books we have been using at school as well as a pocket reference book for conjugating verbs... the verbs - Aaarrrggghhhh!!! There are only about a million and they all have about a million different forms... present, passe composee, imparfait, future, future imparfait... its killing me!! but the book is great. Of course they weigh a few kilos, so will probably be an expensive purchase (postal costs) but their pretty cool. I've been reading Asterix and Tin Tin in French too, which is cool!

I must get the camera out again and add some photos... the blog is a little noir et blanche today....