Paris

How we loved our time in Paris! While we all knew that the time with the kids travelling would be quite rushed, and we would always be wanting more time in the places we were visiting, we do feel we had enough time to get a good taste of the places we visited. Our experience was that Paris is very clean. The buildings and pavements were scrubbed clean and visually beautiful. The people were very helpful and kind.


With very detailed instructions from the apartment owner from L.A. we arrived easily to the correct address and into the building. When we rang the door bell, we were greeted by "you are not supposed to be here until 6pm", through the intercom. Fearing like it was going to be another Wengen experience, I had Mark and the kids wait in the courtyard garden and went up to meet (and sweet talk). As it turned out the owner was in Paris for the night before only, on her way through to Lyon. She was a little embarrased at us arriving to her luggage being opened and still needing to do her make-up before she was to leave. She was soon happy to 'make do' and we chatted, agreed to drop our luggage and head out to a nearby supermarket and come back once she was gone. We were back within 1/2 hour and we met the maid (Russian with very very limited English) on the way back in to the building. She did a quick clean up and rescrub of the bathroom and was soon on her way leaving us alone.


The apartment was on the 4th floor of a lovely building. It was very quiet being in a rear building. We had a main bedroom, loft bedroom, loft sitting room and study, lounge, kitchen, loft laundry, balcony and tons of windows and natural light. We ate in on our first night with plans to go for another walk after dinner. Good food, chat and a couple of wines had us all very relaxed and Mark commenting how tired I looked. He said he was also very tired and maybe we could just get up early to see the city. (Our taxi driver from the station was great and had pointed out many sights on our way to the apartment) Letting go of the plan to go out for a nightime stroll, I was in bed and asleep within minutes. Mark and the kids not far behind me.


We were all up and keen to get going the next morning. Mark and the kids headed off before me to catch an early climb up the Eiffel tower. I was happy to have a slower start and quiet stroll though the streets to meet them as they came down.
They were quite exhilarated, with Ashleigh commenting 'you didn't mention the scary elevator ride up'. I guess I had forgotten this from my previous visit. How happy does she look here to be on top of the tower, overlooking Paris!

After the tower visit we enjoyed a brunch of baguettes and delicious French pastries, whilst sitting on one of the park benches in the park below the Eiffel Tower. Rather splendid! We also experienced a little 'B-D grade' celebrity spotting, as Bec Hewitt, child and nanny strolled past us.

We then hopped on one of the tourist buses for a top deck tour of the city and its main sights. The weather was quite brisk but Ashleigh and I wrapped our scarves around and soon were enjoying the sights in comfort.

We decided to get off at the Louvre for a visit. It was Wednesday and this was a late closing day. We took advantage and stayed for many hours until well after 7pm. We all enjoyed the varied and beautiful art to see here.
Key highlights (Marks words) Venus di Milo (we now know why this is such a significant statue as it was made 190-110 b.c.... and the style of the twisted torso and the way the robes drape was centuries ahead of its time)... FYI... it was made 1600 yrs before Michelangelo did David. Mona Lisa was also a very popular piece to see. There were at least 100 people surrounding her and she was hard to see being behind thick glass and being kept at a distance of at least 5m.
Mitchell was keen to see the ancient Egyptian section for his mate Sharif. None of us could believe how many Egyptian artifacts are housed here. It was quite stunning really.

We were all in overload mode from seeing so many new things. Trying to take it all in was a little overwhelming. We decided to walk home, through the St Germain district, from here and stopped at a great little, and very busy, bar/cafe for dinner. FYI- for a historically heavily smoking country, this restaurant like many now in Paris, was non-smoking inside. It was a great meal. Mitchell ordered Escargot (snails) to try them. His verdict = delicious! He kindly asked Ashleigh if she would mind if he ordered them as she absolutely detests them. (Like some of us hate spiders, cockroaches or snakes). Bravely she volunteered to try one. She said it would be her revenge on them for being so gross and slimy every time she comes home on the wet days in Melbourne.

Next day we had a later start. We walked to catch the bus again. For the whole time we were in Paris there was a very strong presence of military and police. Often police in riot gear standing next to riot vehicles, complete with bullet proof built in barracades that folded out to cover the front and sides of the truck.
When we passed Les Invalides again we saw many police in the streets surrounding the area. We then noticed there were military in formation. We believe there was some kind of official function taking place. Eventually we got off at the Arc de Triomphe. Mitchell and Mark climbed to the top to see the city from this vantage point while Ashleigh and I looked quickly around the base then happily headed towards the shops of the Champs Elysee. By the time the boys caught up with us we only had one shopping bag in hand. Ashleigh bought me a fabulous scarf for Mothers Day. (Having done lots of reading up on Paris Mitchell was interested to note that the rents paid for the shops on the Champs Elysee were the 3rd most expensive in the world only beaten by Causeway Bay, Hong Kong and 5th Avenue New York. He even took great delight telling us that McDonalds were fighting their rent increase.)

We walked down the Champs Elysee, ate crepes, then it was on the bus for a view of the Eiffel tower from across the river. We then went over to Notre Dame for a bit of a look inside. No hunchback to be seen but much discussion over whether the story of him was myth or reality.

Last planned site visit for the day was Sacre Coeur. This basilica has great significance to Ashleigh. As she went to Sacre Coeur school in Melbourne, it is a building she has heard much about and was happy to see.

Our day finished with a bottle of French Champagne and nibblies in the apartment and then dinner at the restaurant on the corner. All being too tired to go too far. It was a good meal and we had a wonderful waiter who kindly assisted us to book a taxi for the next morning. I had tried but there was much french recording and button pressing to be done and I tried many options to no avail. In the end he tried a couple of different companies before having success.

The taxi arrived at the precise time booked. He was a great guy who had previously spent 2 months in Sydney. He quoted a story of getting on the buses and saying "g'day mate". He said he loved this little interaction and that if you did a similar thing in Paris the bus driver was likely to look and be uncomfortable. It was obvious he loved Australia and Australians. He told us many interesting and fun stories as we drove through the traffic to the station. It was difficult for him to let us go. He drove slowly towards the station (in sight at this stage) so as to finish the story he was telling. He then gave us instructions where to head in the station and warned us to watch out for pick pockets. Then as we had our luggage and were walking away he said Au revoir about 6 times and stood and waved until we were practically out of sight.

Cheers from the Budgie's