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(of 392 found)Long Weekend in Paris: June 2009
At the end of June, I took a 4+ day trip to Paris. I had been there before on a family trip when I was 14, so I thought it would be interesting to see things from a more adult perspective.
I really liked the city, and would definitely like to go back again. It is definitely the prettiest and most scenic city I've visited since I've lived in Europe. As you can see from the pictures I took, every street has scenic and artistic buildings. Even the graffiti is more artistic! There's a ton of stuff to do, and I was just able to scratch the surface during my trip.
One of my all-time favorite movies is Amelie, and it actually does capture some of the feel of the city! Someone has put together a walking tour of Amelie locations in Montmartre, and I'll have to try that on the next trip...
If you haven't been to Paris, book your trip now!
Anyway, on to the trip:
Day 1: Arrivals and bus tour part 1
It was only a one hour flight from Leeds, so I arrived in country around 10am. It's really easy to take the train from the airport (RER blue line) into the city, and it's much cheaper than a taxi. The Chatelet-Les Halles station was very close to my hotel, so it was a quick walk. I think the big church is Eglise St. Eustache, but I didn't stop by. Like the giant head, though...
I stayed at the Hotel Louvre Forum, which was only a five-minute walk from the Louvre and a metro station. It was on a small, relatively quiet side street within walking distance of tons of restaurants. The rooms were very small, but come one, what are you doing hanging out in your hotel room while in Paris!
After dropping my stuff off at the hotel, I headed towards the Louvre, and in search of some food. Found a little streetside vendor across the street from the museum and had a chicken and cheese crepe which was just fantastic. I didn't make it to the Louvre on my first trip to Paris, so I was kind of surprised at how big it was. I'm guessing it was a side effect of the economic downturn, but there really weren't any crowds there or anywhere in town for that matter. Here are a few exterior shots of the museum.
I spotted an open-top tour bus outside the Louvre, and decided to hop on. The company was Paris L'Open Tour, and it was a pretty good deal. They have four routes in the city, and I went on three of them over the course of two days. I always try to go on these bus tours when in a new city. They're always a good way to discover the layout of the city, and see a lot of landmarks in a short time. The first route I tried was the grand loop, which went by a lot of the major landmarks in the city. Sorry about the skewed angle on so many of these pictures. Apparently I can't properly frame pictures while on a bus!
Notre Dame...
The N is for Napoleon, I presume..
Place de la Concorde
Grand Palais, Champs-Elysees, and Arc de Triomphe
I like the metro signs..
Eiffel Tower (said obvious-man). We went up to the top when I was here before, but I don't remember it looking this cool. It's so intricate.
After the end of the grand loop, I transferred over to the Montmartre line. I wasn't quite as impressed with this part of the city, but even this more commercial area is nicer than most other cities. We were also hitting a lot of traffic which made the bus very slow. Still, I plan on going back to Montmartre when I return for my Amelie walking tour. I want to go up to Sacre-Coeur and check out the panoramic view of the city.
Moulin Rouge.
I was sick of the tour bus by the time the Montmatre loop finished, so I left it and went for a walk to round off the day. I ended up going from the Louvre pyramid and walking through the Jardin des Tuileries. It looks like that is a very popular place with the locals, who were out in force eating picnics and throwing frisbees and such. The weather was pretty awesome for the whole trip, although it felt really warm to me compared to Northern England!
Had a forgettable dinner in a German restaurant by my hotel, although I had to chuckle when I saw a little mouse scurrying across the floor ("hey look, it's Remy from Ratatouille").
Day 2 : More tour bus and first day at the Louvre
I decided to use my tour bus ticket again, and went on the line that went through the Latin Quarter and the Bastille area. It was cool to see a more recent and modern area of the city. The Bastille area is somewhere else that I would like to explore in depth.
This is the National Library of France, which is in four buildings that are supposed to represent four open books.
I was done with buses by the end of that loop, so I got off at the Notre Dame stop. I wanted to check out the crypt museum, but it was closed for some reason. There were some pretty cool little buildings tucked away in the streets just across the bridge from the cathedral. Had an awesome cafe lunch (salade indienne) while people watching.
After lunch, it was finally time to check out the Louvre, which was the number one thing on my todo list. This is seriously a spectacular museum. I ended up doing two sessions there, for a total of about 14 hours! Even with all that, I feel like I was rushing to see as much as I could. I hadn't done much research about the museum before I went, so I was constantly surprised when I saw famous works of art and archaeology. "Oh look, the Venus de Milo. Huh, it's the code of Hammurabi." I highly recommend renting a multimedia guide, since it has a few different tours loaded on it, so you can do a more targeted visit if you're short on time.
I took a lot of pictures here, usually when I saw an interesting face, or something that made me laugh, or just when something was cool. I don't remmber what a lot of them were, but I'll try to add a note when I can. So here we go... Art! Don't forget this is continued on two more pages...
Inside the pyramid...
To the moon, kids!
Yes, the actual Code of Hammurabi! Awesome!
Always liked ancient alphabets...
All of these famous museums have so many of these massive ancient artifacts. The stuff must have just been lying around everywhere.
On the -1 floor, you can see the foundation of the original castle that was on the site of the current museum.
Venus de Milo... Kind of funny, since everyone was trying to take pictures of each other with the statue, and expecting everyone to stay back while they were doing so.
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