Welsand's in London

Paris in the Springtime

Well it felt like spring for a few hours on our first day in Paris on Friday March 16. We arrived in Paris via the Eurostar going through the Chunnel (under the English Channel) without incident before noon. It felt a bit early leaving the flat at 5:30 am, but it was a good thing we left as early as we did. We found out that night that there was a fire near the English coast which affected the Eurostar for the remainder of Friday and all day Saturday. Luckily our weekend in Paris with Jeremy's sister Michelle and her husband Brad still happened.

So on Friday after we arrived at the train terminal and sorted out finding the toilets, having to pay 1 Euro to use it and someone trying to scam Brad during this process, we purchased our metro tickets and headed to our hotel. The Hotel Westminster was a nice 4-star, but as it was Paris our rooms were quite small, so small that when we got our room assigned and Brad and Michelle's was not quite ready the staff told them that their luggage would not fit in our room with ours (and we all packed light!).

The sun was out and there was a park nearby so we decided to purchase some sandwiches for lunch and enjoy lunch in the park (Jardin des Tuileries). As we got to the park it was interesting as it didn't have any grass, it was all gravel. There was a play area for kids which Sophie took full advantage of after we ate, but have to say I haven't seen a park yet without grass. There were some green shrubs and gorgeous statues at one end just no grass. Next we made our way down the Avenue des Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triompe. Commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon, shortly after his victory at Austerlitz, it was not finished until 1836. Beneath the Arch is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and eternal flame commemorating the dead of the two world wars. Michelle, Brad, and I braved the 284 steps to the viewing platform which has a fantastic view over Paris. Jeremy was kind and stayed with Sophie who was napping in her buggy. There are no elevator options at the Arc. Gorgeous views! The city is huge! For some reason I didn't think the city was as spread out as it is. There are also true gardens on the tops of some of the roofs which surprised me as well.

After the Arc we decided to get even higher views of the city by heading to the Eiffel Tower. By this time in the day the sun had gone hiding, the wind picked up and spring was gone like that. And when we saw the queues (line) for the Eiffel Tower we were not sure we should brave it, but we did. An hour and a half later we were finally making our way up the lift (going slightly sideways), bypassing the first level at 187 feet, heading to the second level at 377 feet (115 m) high. Here there are gift shops, food, and of course great views of the city! I have to admit I was having a small issue with the height and taking photos, plus I was freezing! Sophie is without fear looking straight down at all the cars and stating that she can see the mermaids in the Seine River. We made our way onto the 1889 hydraulic lift straight up to the top viewing gallery at 906 feet looking over Paris! Amazing! On this floor there is an indoor and outdoor viewing area which was nice and it was actually warmer up here as they pumped heat out on the platform. Since we were close to the non-existence sun setting, we decided to stay a bit and see the city in the evening. Again gorgeous! Paris is a beautiful city with amazing architecture. We enjoyed the night view as much as the day view. As it was Friday evening and starting to get very busy we took our pictures and heading back to second level to change lifts and then onto the sturdy ground. What a great experience, but what a relief to be back down. We were so exhausted on the way back to the hotel that we stopped at a SuperMarche (supermarket) for some snacks and light dinner which we ate at the hotel and fell asleep shortly thereafter.

We all spent Saturday morning at the Musee du Louvre, one of the world's most impressive museums. It has more than 350,000 priceless objects and is unbelievable huge! It was build as a fortress by King Philippe-Auguste in 1190, Charles V (1364-80) was the first king to make it his home. In the 16th century Francois I replaced it with a Renaissance-style palace and founded the art collection with 12 paintings looted from Italy. Revolutionaries opened the collection to the public in 1793. Shortly after Napoleon renovated the Louvre as a museum. The entrace to the musuem is a glass pyramid. It is really cool, but we didn't realize this was the entrance there are no signs anywhere, I guess this is one of things you are supposed to know if you are going there. There are many famous pieces in this museum, one of the most famous, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinco. We made our way to that piece first. While there was a group surrounding this most famous painting we were able to get as close as you can to view it. Sophie loved the Mona Lisa. She has a book about a little girl named Katie having an adventure with her. Everytime we saw something with the Mona Lisa on it (which was often!) she yelled "Mona Lisa!" Very cute! As there is so much to see at the museum we had to pick and choose our priorities. We split up our visist from Brad and Michelle and enjoyed more Italian and French paintings, the Greek Antiquities, and Objets d'Art. There was great diversity in the musuem from paintings, to sculptures, to antiques, jewels, and rooms recreated from Napolean's time. The rooms of the musuem themselves were worth looking at. After 3 hours we felt overwhelmed and Sophie said "I am ready to go outside now". So we did. We ate lunch at a greek restaurant, all had decent meals but I was silly and ordered pizza bad choice.

Notre Dame was next on our list for Saturday sightseeing so we walked there. The Notre Dame is the heart of the country both geographically and spiritually. It has a glorious entrance with three elaborately carved portals. The stained glass inside is truly art, gorgeous! Jeremy and I paid an extra fee to go into the Treasury where it contained relics. (A relic is an object, especially a piece of the body (most were bones it seemed) or a personal item of someone of religous significance, carefully preserved as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some denominations of Christianity and other relations). We have seen them before and it always a little freaky to see small pieces of human bones in a container.

As we made our way back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner, we shopped. The shops do start to all look the same, but we bought a few gifts for family along the way, freezing as we went. Jeremy and I were tempted to buy a piece of art but we have so many city scenes we just couldn't do it, well during this trip anyway, we will be back in Paris in another two weeks.

Dinner that night was great, a nice size Italian restaurant close by the hotel, which was as far as any of could walk. The portion sizes were American style which was surprising, but all very good. An excellent meal. I guess we were all carb loading that night as we ate a ton after walking a ton! Another great night of sleep...

Sunday was a short day for us as we slept in a bit before we checked out of the hotel and we had to catch our train back to London in the late afternoon. Michelle and Brad did their own thing as they had to catch an earlier train than us heading to Amsterdam, the last leg of their European vacation. Jeremy, Sophie and I had a 20 Euro breakfast at Starbuck's (I know ridiculous) on the way to the Musee d'Orsay. We walked all the way there and found the queue to be extremely long, we guessed at least an hour or more, and it was raining. So we opted to make our way to the Musee Picasso. We enjoy Picasso and this smaller museum was worth the walk and metro ride for us. It is a favorite of Parisians and tourists. It holds an extensive collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings and other works. This was a real treat! After a terrible lunch at a local cafe, we made our way back to the hotel to collect our luggage. On the way we saw this huge antique mall near the Louvre, we simply strolled the first floor, there was also a lower and upper level, and it was incredible! No prices were listed on anything, so I'm sure we couldn't afford anything, but it was window shopping at its best! A great way to end the visit.

After we collected our luggage, we made our way to metro, then train station to catch our 5:45 pm train back to London where we arrived safe and sound. We made excellent time back to our flat by 8:00pm GMT. See you again in two weeks Paris. For all the photos from this trip, please see our Shutterfly account.

posted by Chris @ 4:08 PM