paris part two

plane tickets over here: $2000

crepes at the eiffel tower:$25

coffee sitting outside:$9

getting mistaken for parisians not once, but 5 times: priceless!

(i dont know if this is more a compliment to us or an insult to the french... haha)

after our long sleep we got up and headed out for a much needed espresso before joining a walking tour at place de saint michel - across the other side of town. we rode like crazy and just made it! the walking tour was cool; i learnt a lot of stuff i didnt know before. such as the three different levels of the louvre were completed at different times. each king wanted to change and improve it. i asked the guide which kings did which levels and he couldnt tell me. i was a bit disappointed. whoever can tell me which king completed each level gets a present when i get home! i really want to know and dont have time to google it, what with gallavanting around europe and all! we also learnt that all the gardens are all square to 'dominate the plants' weird.

we went to the eiffel tower. its one of those things you have to do, really, isnt it? we got there at about 11 (after getting lost on the metro TWICE!! and then finding out a line was closed and taking this ridiculously long route that took an hour and a half longer than riding there!) and lined up for an hour. when we finally got to the front of the queue and got our tickets we were all hyped for the climb. by level one we were desperate for water, which i realised we'd left in the hotel room - i wondered why my bag felt so light! - oops. we climbed up the rest of the 700 steps to the second level. the view was awesome! we joined yet another queue to buy tickets to get to the top, and then lined up again to get in the elevators to get up there! they were the fastest elevators i've ever been in! im not the best with heights, but jess seemed to love it. the view from the top was fantastic! paris looks awesome from the sky. 

we joined yet another queue to get in the elevators to get down and 

then walked down the 700 stairs and felt we could justify a crepe for lunch...

we headed out to versailles in the afternoon to stand in another queue for an hour to get tickets to get in to the palace. the palace itself was fantastic. it was strange to be walking around a place that had so much history. we saw the room marie antoinette was in when the palace was attacked during the revolution, and the door she escaped through. we snuck on to a tour half way around the castle and then ran off when the guide realised that we werent meant to be there. we did learn a few interesting facts though! the garden was HUGE! we set off on a trek to find marie antoinettes hamlet, but they were closing the grounds early so we got kicked out. we tried to sneak past them by pretending not to understand french or english, but they seemed to know how to say "WE'RE  CLOSED! GET OUT!" in every single language. 

on sunday we went to watch the end of the tour de france. we left the bikes at the hotel and walked in, found a good spot on the rue rivoli at around 2pm and waited. and waited. and waited. our 'good spot' turned out to be not so good, as it was the only two metres on the whole street that was in the sun. yes, i had suncream on. no, jess didnt. yes, i got burnt, no, jess didnt. dont ask me how that works. jess reckons its the 1/8th italian she has in her blood. i reckon its false advertising on suncreams part. 

after about an hour there was a parade. that was very exciting. we saw lots of floats for haribo (our new favourite lollies) vittel (water) and even an australian one. at 4.30 there was another parade, but this time it was the offical cars and motorbikes, just before the riders. and then the riders came down the road in a big group, only one out in front. and we cheered and clapped, and they were gone. two and a half hours of waiting for half a second?? but no, they came around again. we were on the inside of the circuit so we saw them come around a few times and each time there was more and more space between the riders. how exciting! 

after that we went back to the hotel to pick up the bags before heading out to our new accomodation: camping. yes, i know, me and camping dont sound like we would go together. but im poor, and paris is quite expensive, so i was willing to give it a go. for one night, anyway. we got out to the campground alright, found a spot and pitched the tent. well, jess pitched it and i picked a fingernail. but i unrolled the self-inflating mattresses and pulled the sleeping bags out of their covers, so i think the workload was spread quite evenly. 

i slept well the first night, but if this trip has proven anything to us its that i can sleep through ANYTHING. jess was kept awake by some noisy germans putting up their tent at one am. so, i woke up cheery and ready to go to the louvre, and jess woke up ready to kill someone. i promised her a nutella crepe AFTER we saw the mona lisa, and she brightened up. when we got to the louvre it wasnt nearly as packed as i thought it was going to be. the ugly triangle (built to stop congestion at the entrances) was clearly doing its job. as we bought tickets there were two american girls next to us asking the cashier: "where are, like, the lines to get in? wheres the entrance?" we shook our heads and walked towards the entrance sign.

we pretended to be interested in the various paintings and sculptures as we walked through the halls, but really we were doing what everyone does in the first five minutes: hunting down the mona lisa. we did, and it wasn't as much of a hunt as we thought. the crowd around the painting was unbelievable! i pushed my way to the front to get a good photo and only got three bruises from the experience! next on the list was the venus de milo. we walked back through the paintings and sculptures and found it quite easily. we wandered around for a while and found the medieval louvre exhibit. that was cool; we went underground to see the original walls of the louvre. 

on monday we went to notre dame before heading up to montmarte to do another walking tour. we met out the front of the moulin rouge, which means red mill. every second shop was 'le moulin something' we saw the only original windmill left in montmarte.

 when the russians (or the prussians, the guy kept changing his story) invaded they knocked them all down, but one farmer stood up to them, so they strapped him to his windmill and let him spin to death. before they could knock it down they were driven out of france, and the farmer had the last laugh. well, you know what i mean. we saw where vincent van gogh lived. its just a regular apartment and somebody lives there now. we also saw his favourite restaurant-slash-brothel. its still a popular restaurant, but no longer a brothel. we saw a statue of the patron saint of paris: st denis. he came to preach christianity, so they cut off his head and he picked his head up and recited the gospel. everyone converted to christianity after that, and they named montemarte after him. it translates to the hill of the martyr. we also saw pablo picassos favourite restaurant, where he paid with his paintings when he was poor. the owner of the restaurant sold the paintings when picasso made it big and retired to the south of france. we also saw le sacre coeur - the church of the sacred heart. the church was breathtaking, and so were the views of paris. when we got back to the bottom of the hill we decided we had done enough excercise to warrant another nutella crepe.

it is safe to say that we wont be flying back to perth, we'll be rolling back. seriously. i've had enough crepes to last a lifetime. but they are so delicious that right after i swear i'll never have another one, we mysteriously walk past a crepe stand, and it smells so good and the crepe maker is standing there smiling saying 'would you like a delicious lovely crepe filled with delicious lovely goodness madmoiselle?'. how can i resist that?!

anyway, as you can see by everything ange has written thus far, we've had a good time in paris. i will say though, that it wasn't what i'd expected, and i was a little disappointed.. i think the real paris has been long washed away with the tides of tourists, who have consumed every little part of its charm and uniqueness. you cant go anywhere without someone trying to sell you something, or being jeered at or having people push past you like you don't exist. though the first morning we were there, when we were out and about before everyone woke up, it was breathtaking, and when we were riding out of the louvre gardens and caught a glimpse of the eiffel tower, it felt like a movie, you know, like an experience that isnt quite real, because its so beautiful. thats the paris you dream about.

our last day in paris turned out to be a really great day. we went pillow shopping, because neither of us could stand another night sleeping on rolled up clothes. we were succeessful after about an hour of trying to find a shop that resembled a pillow shop. what does a pillow shop look like?! i have no idea either. we then jumped back on our bikes and rode the streets to find a market that ange had read about.

we pulled up the the markets and saw that for the most part, it was closed. strangely, a lot of people shut up shop for the summer here. we found one little stand that was still open, and got a few slices of french cheese, as we had decided we were going to have a little french picnic by the river. we then went to a bakery and got a baguette and two beers, and rode down the the seine. we didnt have a picnic rug, but the pavement was pretty soft looking, so we sat down on the edge of the walkway, like many others already had, and had a really nice dinner of cheese, bread and beer. perfect. there were lots of people who had come down after work with their friends and a bottle of nice wine and a hamper and having little french picnics like us. it had a nice atmosphere. lots of ferry boats were passing with heaps of people on them, and i even got ange into waving at them, because i recon it makes people happier when they wave, so we sat there for a while and waved at the passing boats. 

after a while, we wandered down the walkway and found all these little semi-circle alcove things were people could sit around an area overlooking the river. a lot like an open air auditorium or something. it was then we realised the time, and it just so happened to be the place that the swing dancing was going to be on that night! we saw some guys setting up some speakers and so we sat on the steps and waited. then they started playing classical music and doing classical dancing, so we guesed we were in the wrong spot. we moved into the next semi-circle and suddenly ella singing 'frim fram sauce' wafted past our ears. woohoo! we got up and started dancing and it was awesome. theres nothing like dancing outdoors on a barmy evening with a bunch of nice people. just like at kristian and jennas wedding. it was great. we stayed a lot longer than we'd planned, and it ended up getting dark and the ferrys going past had spot lights on them and all the people on the ferrys were pointing and waving at all of us dancing. we retired back to the campsite feeling buzzed from dancing and laughing and waving and to top it off, we had pillows!