Paris: the overview

When the travel agent suggested a two day pass for the hop on hop off bus, we were not entirely sure about this, it seemed very touristy, however it was one of the better things she suggested. It did 4 types of tours, a 2 hour overview of Paris, and 3 other shorter tours of specific areas.

We had a quiet morning and caught the train to Notre Dame to meet mum and dad for the 2 hour overview. Was a pleasant day and sitting on top of the open air double decker bus really was a great way to see the sights, give you a sense of place, and make you realise that maybe 16 days would not be enough.

We saw buildings that we didn't know, all the buildings we did know, parks, people, amazing, you just didn't know where to look. Being high up also means you get closer looks at the facades of buildings, the ornate balconies, the reliefs and gargoyles on the edges...it was quite simply spectacular.

Ornate work on a corner building.

The Eiffel Tower

More gorgeous facades

Invalides dome, where Napoleon is buried

The back of The Thinker from outside, looking down

Traffic near the Champs Élysées and the Palaces

More traffic

Champs Élysées looking to the Arc de Triomphe

Madeleine Church

hotel Du Louvre

Street scape near The Louvre

Place Colette, lots of bikes, behind is Comedie Francais

busy City, near the Louvre

Pyramid at The Louvre

Looking through an arch near The Louvre

We got off the bus back at The Notre Dame and had lunch at The Notre Dame Cafe. Window seats overlooking the street with excellent view of The Notre Dame itself. I had the Quiche Lorraine with salad, never had I had a quiche quite so smooth, light and delicious.

After lunch we took two of the 1 hour tours back to back, they toured round the left bank areas, less large buildings and more smaller details and people watching. The weather turned cold and wet again as the afternoon progressed, so being on the bus was not a bad place to be...we had moved downstairs, still had a good view.

Les Deux Magots, famous cafe where a lot of the writers in the 20s hung out

Arena near The Bastille, a show on that night, people lined up in the rain

The third tour ended and it was raining still, we caught the train back home and collected takeaway pizza and some pastries for dinner.

The next day we took the fourth tour on the hop on hop off bus, this took us to Montmartre. Before doing this, we caught the bus from The Eiffel Tower to the right bank for a bit of high end shopping.

A Chanel lover from a very young age, I had always wanted to visit and possibly shop at the original store on Rue Cambon. It was always a red coat I was going to buy, but age and reality hits and you realise that even if you could afford a red coat in Chanel it is not the best way to spend hard earned money. (for the record, I cannot afford a red coat in Chanel ) I was going for Chanel No. 5 perfume and the blood red nail polish that is their most famous...the colour Uma wears in Pulp Fiction. And that is precisely what I bought, it was an experience to shop there, more salespeople than people shopping, everything was sooo incredibly expensive, but so incredibly beautiful and displayed perfectly. The store was large and we were chuffed with our purchases, and the experience of shopping in the store Coco set up herself and worked above in.

Next stop morning tea, croissants, coffee and hot chocolate in a high end cafe, very fancy, but carrying our Chanel bags we had the impression we sort of fitted in ok...to us, but still!!

Musical sculpture in Place Vendome, a very end shopping square

Then Tiffany, Amanda's wish, I had already experienced Tiffany in New York, so knew the items I liked were way out of my price range, so was along for fun. Amanda bought a lovely necklace, very dainty and cute.

Opera Garnier

Another side to Opera Garnier

We then wandered past many other amazing stores and met Mum and Dad at the point the 4th tour left from. By this stage the weather had turned ordinary again. This tour took us around the back area of Paris on the right bank, and mostly through Montmartre. We did a loop of the tour and stayed on for a second go and got off this time at The Moulin Rouge. Closed during the day, we had lunch at a cafe directly outside from the other side of the road. I had an amazing ham and cheese omelette, again the best I have ever had.

Gare de L'Est, beautiful old railway station

View of Moulin Rouge from the cafe

Two shots from inside the foyer

We then walked through the XXX area to get to The Sacre Coeur Church. Was a bit of a walk to the park below the church, and the another steep walk up many steps to get to the church itself. Mum and I decided the view underneath (it was pretty close) was good enough for us, so we took a seat in the park and let Dad and Amanda trek up. The views up there were good, but we could argue the same thing for where we were ;)

We then made our way back down to the main drag, hopped back on the bus, changed buses in the middle of Paris back to the Notre Dame and caught our train home.

That night we headed to the local Creperie, for our first meal. The menu was in complete French, so I had to rely on my own French properly for the first time, but luckily the waitress knew a little English and could help out, but I did ok. We both had Salmon Crepes, mine was with goats cheese and spinach and absolutely divine, never had anything so amazing. Then we indulged with dessert crepes, mine had salted caramel, apples, nuts, ice cream and cream...oh my!! Add in drinks and our total bill came to 50 Euro...why do we pay sooo much in Australia!!

Language: an aside about communicating!

We had no issues in Italy, rarely could we not get our point across, we had a little guide to look up words and made sure we used as much polite Italian as we could, hello, goodbye, thank you etc and it seemed to be enough. Mind you I started off speaking in French when we were in Italy, by the time we got to France, had to remember we were not in Italy anymore and stop saying ciao and grazi, lol!

I did 6 years of French at school, and you would think I would be fluent, but oh no!!! However, it is remarkable what you remember. Understanding the French talking or even having a proper conversation with someone was never going to happen, but I could communicate basically ok. Reading was much better, signs, menus etc, this was a huge help...I think...and better than nothing.

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