A short bus ride (6hrs) and I was in Paris, one of my favorite cities, then more I come here, the more I want to move here :) I knew that I would be here only for 1 day so I just tried to enjoy as much of the city as I could, visiting places that I didn't get a chance to see when I was here last.  After dropping my stuff at St. Christophers Hostel, I was off to Basilique du Sacré-Couer, which is located Monmartre, the highest point in the city.  As I sat on the grass in from of the basilica, enjoying the amazing view of Paris, It was all kind of surreal that 2 days ago I was in New York, then in Brussels, this morning in Antwerp, and now looking over Paris... all in one weekend :)  I was told that I had to visit here when in Paris and I think everyone should... There was more that I had to see, mainly Pont Alexandre III and I wanted to catch it at sunset. I jetted to find the nearest metro and was off to Museum D'Orsay stop and I got there just in time... Being that I am into photography this offered a great opportunity for some awesome shots, the sun hitting the magnificent architecture of the bridge, the Eiffel Tower and Museum D'Orsay in the background, just unbelievable!

After that I was off to Trocadero to see Statues overlooking Eiffel Tower, and once I was there I noticed that there was all sorts of Skateboarding and Rollerskating competitions there... Extreme sports have taken over Trocadero & Palais de Chaillot for the weekend :)  There were numberous competitions, downhill slalom on skateboards, guys doing acrobatic tricks on skate near the stairs, and my favorite the football game on rollerskates haha... I have never seen people play football on skates before so this was a treat! And of course once I am back at the Eiffel Tower I have to have the BEST hotdogs in the world... I don't know if it is the fact that the french put the hotdogs into a huge baguette but its damn good! I spent the a little while relaxing in the park under the Eiffel Tower starring up at the magnificent structure and asking myself how come it took me 3 yrs to get back here lol...

After having my dinner haha, I couldn't come to Paris and not see the Louvre at night, I missed it the last time and I knew I couldn't have that happen twice... It was a great site to see, and really made my night :)  Back at the hostel, I met a buch of really cool roomates at St.Christophers, and got a chance to use skills that I didn't think I would need to use in France.  My new friend Dante, a Bolivian and a world traveler, was writing a short film for the Cannes Film festival later in May, and it was about a guy going to Russia and falling in love with a local girl, and he needed someone to translate the main song for the movie into Russian... Now I wouldn't be the first to tell you that my Russian translation skills are not the best being that my vocabulary is that of a 9 yr old haha, but I was glad to help, Dante was just glad that by pure luck he was rooming with someone who spoke Russian haha... We spent half the night disecting the song, exactly what he was trying to convey, and we got it done... I also met an awesome girl, Georgi from Brisbane, Australia that was great to hang out with and was a major factor in me getting over fear of heights but more on that later....

Next morning we got up for breakfast, had a great time telling tales of our travels, I specifically love Dante's tale of travelling through Russia by train, meeting a few lads named Igor and Ivan, getting completely pissed on samagon(russian home made alcohol, about 150 proof) dancing on the table, somehow not getting his ass kicked sitting in the visitors section of a hostile football match... And living to tell me all about it! CLASSIC!

Being that my flight was in the afternoon, there was something that I wanted to do, but I couldn't do alone... I wanted to climb the Eiffel Tower by foot, and Georgi agreed to do it with me and overcome my extreme fear of heights.  So we are off to Eiffel Tower, and so I take a quick breath, and start climbing... on pure adrenaline I make my way up the steps, and actually it wasn't too bad, and I was really proud of myself for doing it :) After enjoying the great view of Paris from above, I was off to Charles De Gaulle to catch my flight back home to New York... My time in Paris was short but very fulfilling, meeting awesome people, doing things that I never thought that I would be able to do.

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A very nice campground for your family. 2 pools (one with slides) lots of animation for adults and children things to do in the surrounding: Disneyland Paris Town Provins Wild animal parc free bycicles at the mobilhome

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As an avid traveler there are tons of places that I want to visit.  The list of the countries I'd like to visit is limited only by the number of countries that exist on the earth.  As you can imagine, with such a massive "to-do" list I have to make the most of each opportunity to see new places.  My interest for traveling was first sparked while I was in the military.   During the course of my time in the army I was able to see a wide variety of places and cultures, but it was always on the army's rigid and inflexible time constraints.  Sure, military travel has delays and layovers; this is the norm rather than the exception.   Unfortunately, the military does not allow soldiers to just take off and run around town whenever there is a delay enroute to a deployment. 

Now that I am out from under the US Army's thumb, I have learned to relax more while I travel.  I took a civilian job, and I typically use Charles de Gaulle airport as a hub.  One chilly May morning I flew into the airport and hunkered down for a lengthy layover.  As I stared out the windows I began to wonder what the city was like and to think how great a cup of coffee at a local cafe would be.  I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to see some of the sights in Paris.  I have always wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and hang out on Champs-Elysees contemplating the grandeur and magnificence of the Arc de Triomphe.  Paris is known for being a haven for romantics and lovers.  At that moment, I did not happen to fall into either category so spending anymore than a day in Paris was pretty low on my list.

I checked my carry on bag in with baggage storage right outside the luggage pick up area.  I've heard the rumor that Parisians really don't care for Americans.  I cant say for sure if that was true or not, but I did notice at certain times throughout the day that my Texas twang did an excellent job of painting scowls on people's faces.  (I later learned to throw out "Bon jours" instead of "Hellos" and the people started warming to me a bit.)  The baggage storage gentleman was the first person to make the "unfriendly" list for the day.  I'm not the kind of guy to let such an unimportant character on the life's stage get me down so I undauntedly continued on my whirlwind Paris tour.  I bought myself a round trip bus ticket from a friendly woman at the bus ticket counter and boarded a bus heading to the city.  I am supposedly an "expert" in navigation according to the Army, so I somehow managed to find my way to the city center.  I have to admit though that I was doing constant map checks and praying that I was on the right bus line.  There were several buses that left the airport and my French is nonexistant so I had my doubts about arriving to my intended destination despite my "expert" status.

I got off the bus near the Arc and was pretty impressed.  After taking it in for a couple of minutes, I realized that the excitement of seeing Napoleon's monument to his own ego was dampened a little by the fact that I was exhausted after an all night flight over from Houston, Texas.  I don't sleep well on airplanes and I was starting to feel the effects of this.  So ultimately I ended up storming down Champs-Elysees looking for a coffee shop to conquer.  Later after being fortified with a delightful French breakfast and several cups of coffee I set off for the other must see places in Paris.  Since I had to return to the Arc to catch a bus back to the airport I knew I could tour it later.  If you are going to tell anyone that you went to Paris, you absolutely have to have a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower to show off.  If you don't get a cool Eiffel Tower picture what is the point in going to Paris?

I realize at this point that if you are a true Paris lover and reading this you are probably very disappointed and not impressed at all so I am not going to mention any of the other places that I went.  With such a limited amount of time, I wasn't able to see but a fraction of the places that I would have like to have seen, nor was I able pay any of these places the proper respect or consideration that a discerning and enlightened traveler should.  Basically, if you take anything from this journal entry it won't be cultural.  The only thing I have to offer is that the bus and the subway were excellent ways to travel the city.  Even if you don't speak French, as long as you can recognize letters, walk, and not get hit by traffic you will be able to get around the city and see all of the monuments and museums in the city.

If you read the summary to this blog you'll realize that the point of this rapid assault on Paris was basically to take some key photos that I could show off back home and sort of "check the box" on visiting Paris.  A layover presents the perfect opportunity to get out and to get a feel for a city.  It's a great tool for assessing a location to see if you want to come back and where you'd like to spend your time if you do.  So let's get out there folks and take some great layover pictures!  Hold your head up high and say "Yes!  I went to Paris and it was lovely."  No one says you have to mention that you were only there for a couple of hours.

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Got back from my first trip to Paris yesterday. Jet lag sucks!
I'm posting pictures soon and will put up some reviews and such.
First things first... finish the work day and nap time!

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I got up fairly early on Sunday to make my way through the sights I still hadn't yet seen. To start, I went to the Maison Europeenne de la photographie (photography museum!) and they had an exhibition on from this guy:
http://www.mep-fr.org/actu_1.htm
Fascinating use of perspective. The photos with the big black hole in the middle are just creepy.

For the next while, I wandered through the two islands on the Seine before the tourists (well, tourists other than me) got there. I walked in the very happening Eglise St-Louis en l'Ile, full of organ music, and outside there were the sounds of chanting monks, whose disembodied voices seemed to be coming from the roof.

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I woke up with a pit in my stomach, knowing my quick journey was coming to an end and I had to fly back to NYC and head back into reality.  I took the RER-B from St. Michel to CDG airport and the Continental area was PURE MADNESS.  I immediately became CRANKY.  Luckily, since I am a silver elite member on SkyTeam Alliance, I was able to check in early and not wait in the madness.  It was really nice :)

As the plane took off, I started getting tears in my eyes and I fought really hard to blink them back.  I think every single trip for me is a learning experience.  I know that sometimes travel gets the worst of me when I travel with people and sometimes I find out that I am stronger and confident than I thought I was.  I try to work on the former a lot - I still have a lot of work to do but I'm trying to get better.  I didn't get cranky or stressed when I was with Cat at all, which is a good sign!!! The latter - for some reason it's only when I travel that I become fearless.  When I'm back at home, I'm still fearless to an extent, but not the way I am when I am on holiday.  I hope that someday I will be able to be as fearless as I am on vacation, all the time.  When I travel, I feel like I am the best me that I can possibly be...except when I get cranky!!!!

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I woke up feeling so much better!

I didn't have any specific plans today except visiting some pâtisseries - specifically Gérard Mulot, Dalloyau, Ladurée, Lenôtre, and Sadaharu Aoki.  I am obsessed with pâtisseries, it's kind of a sick obsession.  Especially since I'm not really a fan of sugar, probably because my parents didn't really let us eat it.  I am not a fan of like Twinkies, Ho-Hos, etc...general American sugary snacks like that.  But put me in a pâtisserie and I am a sugar addict.  Ladurée is my favorite pâtisserie of them all.  I will admit - a lot of the lure of Paris for me is going to pâtisseries. 

Although I could survive on eating pastries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it's not exactly healthy.  It was a gorgeous day, so I decided to visit the Jardin du Luxembourg.  I stopped by in Monoprix and picked up some stuff to eat for lunch (baguette, cheese, chips, etc.) and stopped by Dalloyau for some croissants, pain du chocolat, and some pastries :( I sat near the fountain and just people-watched, daydreamed, and wrote in my journal.  It was a nice relaxing experience.  I crave solitude which was why I love traveling solo.  It gives me time to think and clear my head. 

After sitting there forever, I walked over to Sadaharu Aoki pâtisserie and got a Bamboo cake.  WOW...it was amazing! It was a take on the Opéra cake, only with green tea and matcha powder.  I made a pit stop at Gérard Mulot and walked by Pierre Hermé pâtisserie...I am not a fan of the pastries there but the line seemed long so good for them! I strolled along the Seine for awhile and wandered around the St. Germain-des-Pres and Latin Quarter  heading to Ladurée one last time to pick up some macarons for friends and family and also some pastries to eat for myself :)

I was totally sad knowing that this would be my last time in Paris for awhile.  I don't know, but I love this city.  I do not think I could ever imagine myself living there, but I love visiting it. 

I was also totally depressed that I would be heading back to NYC the next day and it was the end of my holiday.  It started off crazy and I was so glad it ended on a relaxed note.  It was definitely an interesting vacation and I'm glad to know that Cat and I are good travel partners and that we didn't kill each other after being together for like 5 days straight.

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When I arrived in Paris, all I wanted to was rest and relax and just detox my body from alcohol.   Instead I just filled my body with sugar from those delicious French pastries.

I arrived at CDG around 9:30 am and took the RER-B to St. Michel and checked into my hotel, Hotel St-Andre-des-Arts.  It's a really basic hotel but it's cheap and I have my own room and private bathroom.  I freshened up and walked over to the Marais but first making a pitstop at a creperie to for a ham and cheese crepe and eating it near Notre Dame. 

Okay I will say this - I love to eat...so...the next stop after eating a crepe was to get falafel at L'As du Falafel.  I love their falafel in a pita! Plus the Israeli guys who work there are cute. I then trudged over to Monoprix and then walked all the way from the Marais to the Champs-Elysees.  I love walking in Paris...even though it makes my feet hurt.  I stopped by my favorite place in Paris - Laduree - and picked up some macarons and pastries including my favorite, St. Honore rose framboise.  I was starting to feel tired but I only had two full days in Paris so I forced myself to stay awake and got some espresso at a cafe nearby.  I walked from the Champs-Elysees to the Eiffel Tower and at this point I was getting REALLY tired.  But not too tired to stop by Dalloyau for some croissants and pastries...!

I got back to my room around 7 pm and was EXHAUSTED and bleary-eyed.   I thought I did pretty good for running around Paris on 1.5 hours of sleep!!!

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"Aux Champs-Elysées, aux Champs-Elysées, Au soleil, sous la pluie, à midi ou à minuit, Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elysées" - from Joe Dassin's "Aux Champs Elysees". Our early evening walk along Champs Elysees boulevard was nothing short of romantic. Moreover, I could say that our Paris experience has become the centrepiece of our European tour. TO BE CONTINUED...

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STAY AWAY!!!!! if i could give this place negative stars, i would. you've been warned. this was by far the worst experience ever in paris-and we were mugged on the first night there. i'd take another mugging over dealing with the staff here. they refuse to give you a receipt for your payments (regardless if it's 20 bucks or 300-like we paid), they're rude, not helpful, disrespectful, and bitchy. it by far basically ruined our stay there. we tried not to - i've been there and i know it's a great city, but it just put such a damper on the begining and ends of your days. in addition you won't find any negative reviews as the receptionist (who says her name is melanie but i wouldn't count on it as she refused to give us her name numerous times) has control over the reviews on hostelworld.com. (she was stupid enough to point that out to my bf) apparently the company busabout has a stop near by, as that's how our roomate booked this place. according to him they only mention this place because it's close by-all the busabout passengers know to book there as a last resort to avoid problems. a previous busabout passenger actually left early after paying for 3 nights after a huge argument with the same b***h. (who has a reputation but you wouldn-t know because she deletes all the reviews) that's another thing-they refuse to refund money for night's not stayed there-saying that it says "no refunds" on their hostelworld.com page--which it does not-i've checked numerous times. we told them 3 days in advance we needed to cancel-we still have not received our money back yet. we were told we need to write a letter with our cc info to the manager and leave it with ms. melanie who would deliver it in order to request a refund. they also do not accept credit cards-which was not on their website either until another roomate we stayed with had an argument regarding that with them as they would not accept her card when she showed up. after she had numerous fights with them-it's finally on the website. towels are included-sometimes-whenever they feel like apparently as one day the bathrooms were cleaned and re-stocked and another day they were not. there's two big cats they lay around everywhere and get hair on everything and everywhere. if you're just looking for a place to crash, it's decent enough. but once you have to talk to staff for ANYTHING, it's ruined. and further ruined when you have to stand there and waste an hour and a half of your day arguing with them. seriously the worst experience ive had by far. STAY AWAY-you've been warned.

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After a breakfast of very strong coffee, croissants, bread rolls and juice (only 1 glass allowed though), a group of the girls from the tour and I took the metro train to the Arc de Triomphe, took some great pictures, then strolled down the Champs Elysees for a couple hours in beautiful sunshine on a cloudless day. We stopped for ice cream (sadly hagen daas and not local, but still so, so good), then made it to the Musee de Louvre where we managed to find the entrance with no line, only to realise that we had managed to visit on one of the sundays where the entrance fee was free. Sadly, we did not have a lot of time in the Louvre to even touch the surface, but we managed to see several of the classic pieces, lose half of the group, get lost several times and get caught up in the huge procession and fuss that is viewing the Mona Lisa.

After the Louvre, we had a quick bite to eat at a cafe near the Seine River (tried crepes - so good), then walked through to Notre Dame for a wander around (did not get time to climb to the top of the bell tower), then caught the metro to the Eiffel Tower and waited and waited to take the lifts up to the 3rd level for breathtaking views of Paris, before meeting our tour group for a picnic dinner under the Eiffel Tower.

From the tower, most of the group went to a Cabaret show that was complete with a cheesy MC, topless dancing girls and men wearing a lot of lycra. An amusing and fun night out and a good introduction to the french beer 1664, which i consumed a few more of later that night at a bar near the hotel, plus some other french drinks including a liquor that was very, very green and tasted like toothpaste. A few of us kicked on into the night, heading to the St Michel district where they had some cool local bars, including smarmy french men on scooters.

A great introduction to Paris, but so much that we did not get to see.... another time...

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After a fabulous few days in London, I was in travel mode and ready to join the tour for a nice and early departure from London, taking a bus to the ferry at Dover across to Calais, where our bus driver and coach met us for the drive through to Paris. There are 37 people in the tour group, with 80% coming from Australia!! A good mix of people ( a lot of couples!!) - some are more after seeing the sights and those that are determined to get tanked in every country for the cheapest price. Our tour leader is a lovely Kiwi girl called Lauren and the bus driver is Brian (originally also from NZ, but has been doing this for the past 16 years - read: extremely good at getting very drunk on his non driving days).

After checking into our hotel in Paris (pretty basic, but OK I thought, but others kept referring to how we were staying in the ghetto!!), we were dropped off in the Monmarte area where we had a great 3 course meal for only 11 euros (love the 3 course thing that europeans seem to be into!!), then went on a night driving tour of Paris to see the main sights and the rose and champagne coloured car lights down the Champs Elysees (damn Austrian keyboard throwing off my typing - why do you need to swap letters around on the keyboard!!??)

We had a pretty early night, with a massive day of sight seeing planned for the next day....

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I went to London by bus, it was a lot cheaper than the train as I did not plan my trip in advance (55 € return with Eurolines).

The International coach station of Paris is on the terminus of the 3rd line (Gallieni). I left Paris at 10PM, had a break on the boat, and arrived at Victoria Station in London just before 6AM. It is not the most comfortable way of travelling, but anyway I manage to have a little bit of sleep in the bus to appreciate my stop in London.

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Basically, all the big sights.

Important observations:

• The sewer museum (in a working Parisian sewer) is fairly small, smelly, but worth it.
• The Eiffel Tower is huge.
• the front of the Palais de Chaillot (I think that's what it's called, at least) is a happening place on a saturday.
• L'arc de triomph is huge.
• Champs elysees is huge. Also, there are Haagen-Dasz cafes here.

The photos tell the rest.

-Andrew

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I suppose this day was a bit morbid. A mass grave, then a massive graveyard, right? It turned out to be a good idea though: Paris was ridiculously hot, and the coolness of the catacombs was welcome, as was the shade of the graveyard.

The Catacombs were absolutely excellently scary and weird and awesome and totally unlike what they were in the Deus Ex videogame I came to learn of them from. Which is probably good. It was creepy as hell though... I eventually got the sense that the crunching sound from the gravel underfoot was from me stepping on bones that had dropped off the impeccably arranged stacks around me. It was weird. I probably started walking quicker. It takes a while for you to realize that these are bones, human bones, that surround you, despite the fact that the first thing you see when you're exposed to the mass grave part of the tour is three well-lit, definitely creepy skulls just hanging out on the periphery of your vision. It's surreal.

I figured I'd make a trip after that down to the Bastille area, where there's an opera house that you can get damned cheap tickets at if you're a student, and also where there's the lovely Promenade Plantee, a former elevated metro track converted to a flowery and beautiful concourse, under which the gaps of its' arced structure have been filled in with art galleries, expensive furniture shops, and other such businesses. It was a fantastic walk, and I was too absorbed in it to take many pictures.

Piere Lachaise graveyard was a tad confusing, but I checked out all the graves I wanted to. Most of them are musicians: Chopin, Jim Morrison, Rossini, Edith Piaf. Victor Hugo's dad was also buried there, and Oscar Wilde was too: his grave, of course, is covered in the lipstick of the kisses of a thousand or more gay guys. He's a player even in death. Seeing Jim Morisson's grave was one of those things I had on my list of things to do before I died, so I figured I might as well get it done with.

Oh, when I was in the graveyard, the camera ended up being set on some ridiculously low framerate, making some photos way overexposed and most of them blurry. Which sucks.

-Andrew

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