After the emotional weekend of attending the monaco grand prix, the trip heads north, Paris. Sightseeing baguettes, croissants and every dodgy looking man offering you something Eiffel related for 1 euro. Be it key rings 5 for 1 euro, light up towers, bigger towers, water, beer, champagne, cigarettes, scarfs and of course the obligatory knock off products of Dolce and Gabbana and Louis Vitton. Doesn't matter where you are touristy you'll be able to get an Eiffel tower something. We hop of the train at the station where Mr Bean got his tie caught in the vending machine. A nice half hour stroll to the hotel, it looked a lot closer on the map, apparently maps aren't to scale. Imagine of they were, good luck folding that one! The hotel is pretty cool, much better than the damp smelling shit hole I stayed at last time. It was basic, chic and pretty cheap. Expect to pay a bit more for everything is Paris. And it's worth scrimping on hotels in other areas that aren't as touristy, so when you get to that expense city you'll get the comfort and amenities you need after walking many kilometres all day. So free wifi, sixth floor with a balcony, good towels, nice shower and 24hr reception. The hotel was called pavilion nation on wotif.com. Highly reccomend it. After checking in I touched base with stephan to discuss our plans. For some reason they didn't want to do Disney!! Haha! So we made Tuesday a Disney day, Wednesday morning Palace of Versailles, which I missed last time and mum nearly disowned me. Put me back in the will now mum, that tea cosy is mine! Then we'll meet Stephan and Alena for the afternoon and explore gay Paris (pareeee).
So girlfriend, check, map of Paris, check, ok time to pound the pavement. Liz's legs feel up to a walk to monparnasse 56, 6.2km from where we are now it'll take about one and a half hours according to google maps. I've never been up monparnasse 56, in fact I didn't even know about it until it was advertised on our map. It better not be over €10...... oh look €10. it's 200m high and has a great view over Paris including the eiffel tower. As my travel luck would have it the rooftop terrace was closed, closed! Why couldn't you do the work to it in winter, when I didn't even know about it then! The cafe area was still open and the view is still 360 degrees. My problem was the glass, hard to get a good clean shot of Paris at dusk without having dirty glass, reflections or half of the 360 view closed for a function. We did get to see the closed part just before it became officially closed off, but the small area that remained to see the eiffel tower was packed three to four deep. And they had they're shitty cameras with their flashes going off, bouncing off the glass and ruining their photo. I felt like getting into a super hero costume (well I do most of the time) and saving their holiday memories. Step aside, it's photography man with his trusty tripod! I'll capture this beautiful moment properly and you can all have copies! Thanks photography man! Then I came back to reality, I'd left my cape at home. So I'm just Luke, sitting three deep waiting on my chance to shine. The light was diminishing, the colours were fading and the hourly twinkle had finished. Even from afar the 5mins of twinkling is a beautiful moment. Sharing it didn't happen, I was on one side, Liz had front row on the other side, I hope she loved it as much as I did. After seeing it from afar we decided to get a bit closer, her legs were a bit sore but up for another little stroll. It was about 10:45 pm and there was still a faint light in the sky from the sun setting an hour ago. I love that the sun sets so late, I'm not sure if it's daylight savings over here but it gives you so much time to see everything. I just have to remind myself to eat! As we approach the champs du mars park, Liz questions it being safe. I laughed and told her just wait a second, it may be nearly 11pm but it's Paris and the Eiffel tower was only lit up just before 10pm. Soon enough she saw the abundance of people, families and the gypsies. So yeah it's safe. I wanted to get the shot I miss last year, well not missed, but didn't have to right equipment to do it justice. This time i did! Liz sat on the grass, and I stood constantly taking photos with setting changes after nearly every shot. It's quite hard to know where your horizons are in the evening so they aren't as straight as they could be. But I'm much happier with the results, far sharper, better colour and it wasn't overcast or bloody freezing like last time. The 11pm twinkling was very beautiful, but it wasn't as romantic as the first time I saw it. Sure I had my girlfriend with me, but there is only one time when you first experience something. And I think that's how I can compare the two experiences. Last time it was cold, dark early, I was alone, but I had breathtaking memories that I'll have forever. This time I felt like a tour guide, organizing things, getting us from A to B, it's kinda felt like that for the trip. Liz would sleep and I'd keep an eye out and an ear out for announcements in Spanish and French. And boy does three weeks fly! But for tonight, a beautiful night in Paris!
Another early start which seems to be the theory for the last few days and the days coming up. Today we'll be experiencing Disney, yurop style! I loved Mickey as a child, even had a plush Mickey as a child which I think a relative gave to me after a trip overseas. Not sure who, I was very young and I apologise to whom the credit goes to.... But I loved it! I was going to get one the same size but it wasn't in the budget! We had two choices, Disneyland or Disney studios. Well i knew Liz wasn't going to be a big thrill ride person so Disneyland it was! I don't mind big rides, you gotta try them once! Wow, what a great park! Well it really should be! It's got a great brand and a constant stream of guests. Apparently the fourth most visited park in the world.... Apparently?! We start of slow with the kids area, and some of them have half hour waits, for the shittest ride ever! Small world was first, Australia...... No aborigines, oops sorry indigenous Australians! Don't wanna piss off the over sensitive people out there. Ahhh fuck em! You're reading my blog, no aborigines! At least I thought of them when I see something that was supposed to represent Australia. Then a few more kids rides, which included the famous tea cups, snow white's scary adventures and peter pan's first flight. Not everything was open retail wise, but all the rides bar one were and open when the park opened. But as I said they do have a very steady stream of guests! Park was immaculate, gardens colourful and well manicured and the place looked fresh and vibrant! Next up was a proper ride, the first looping ride in Europe, Indiana jones and the temple of peril. I had no idea it had a loop, and for most of it neither did Liz. It took a bit of convincing but i had gotten liz to come along. It was a short line and as soon as she saw the loop she bolted, as if a giant boulder was chasing her. So i was left to explore this one. I had just had lunch beforehand, but it didn't budge. A very cool mine train style of ride with the smallest loop I've ever been on, she missed a good one! I wanted to do the big thunder mountain but Liz was a bit apprehensive and the 45 min wait was also a deterrence. So we went to the haunted house, a cool ride which probably made sense to us if it was in english. Some cool effects but not scary enough for me to change my underpants! Then we headed off to the pirates of the caribbean, it lacked characters you could relate to, it just seemed like another pirate themed ride. I managed to do my asleep ride photo, but Liz had opened her eyes at the wrong moment. After that I'd convinced Liz that a proper 'non wuss' ride was in order. There was no loop and it's a bit of a Disney icon, big thunder mountain. The queue gets split up into two lines, we chose the right and probably cut 10mins off waiting. The people in front of us chose right and I couldn't even see them or the welsh girl scouts that pushed in front! I didn't know when the photo point was so I missed doing another ride photo of me pretending I was asleep! It was a very cool rider with some great bend and dark sections where you just keep dropping. The other coaster Liz wussed out on was the space mountain, mission two. Now this was a cool ride, one loop and two corkscrews. This is a complete indoor coaster. Firstly it shoots you up out of a cannon and you hurtle through space for some french reason. It was very cool visually, and it had a great dr who type warped lighting that was very impressive. There is so much merchandise, it's well designed and well thought out. My only qualm and yes there is one, I bought a present to surprise a friend, they removed the ink tag, but failed to remove the second one.... Which I discovered later the NEXT DAY! Bugger! Overall it was certainly worth the money and I'm glad we made time for it!
Wednesday was a fight to get out of bed, did we really wanna go to the palace??? Getting there at 9am soon turned into 10am OK 10:15. But we were there! The Palace of Versailles is a palace that housed the French monarchy since 1682 to 1790 with King Louis XIV originally turning a hunting lodge in to a massive palace.
Sure it was big, heaps of shiny gold things and several massive gardens and fountains, but for me it lacked something. I think when you travel you get to see a lot of cool and unusual places and things, sometimes you see things that are similar to something you've seen before but somewhere else. I'm not into seeing where people sleep, I don't care to see where mark webber sleeps. I care where I sleep! Understanding how people live, the fortunate and the not so fortunate is interesting to me. This was a palace for the people who were fortunate. Amongst the oversized gardens you'll find arches, heaps of rusty looking arches. It looks like giants were playing with giant horse shoes.... Cause it would be silly for them to play with normal horseshoes! You could explore the vastness of the grounds and the nearby chateaux but to walk, non. On a golf cart oui! As we were about to leave we stopped at another of the ugly arches to take a photo of Liz standing on one. Soon enough we are told off, needless to say she wasn't around for the thousands of footprints already on the arches. Art, bollocks! The female security(?) guard told us off in french and pointed to the sign, I asked her for english and she kept going in french.... Then proceeded to tell us to get out, leave.... In perfect english!!! If she looked to the other arches she would find people climbing, standing and even sleeping in them. It's not art, it's a jungle gym for people to play on it. Anything you want protected, put a fence around it, like the several things that have fences. What i love is the fact that the sign had a word interdit, now in my multi language dictionary, interdit means - stupid. I'm guessing interdit is prohibited as interdie = prohibit. When I got the stupid translation, I agreed, they do look stupid!! Now I've been reading into the artist and his arches. The creator is Berner Venet an artist who was encouraged after coating a canvas with tar and exhibited as a pile of coal as a sculpture. It sounds like Homer Simpsons attempt at outsider art - The BBQ attempt was my favourite. Don't get me wrong the palace was impressive but nothing with a wow factor. Our next stop, shower and meet my good deutsche friends Stephan and Alena. Now this is something I have been looking forward to! It feels like I've known these guys for many many years. They are fun to hang out with and Stephan and I are not only the same page but on the same line! Good time are just around the corner, or so they thought. Our shower and change time was running a bit late but by chance our hotel was being difficult to find! The hotel is called pavilion nation, though the banners say les hotel de paris. There is a small sign on either side that says pavilion nation. Information phone line didn't know, a local shop didn't know it existed. I'd like to say it was my cunning plan but I'm not that smart! In the end we found each other. Liz had gone into the supermarche to buy an energy drink for herself. We were all standing out the front waiting. The first time I met them I had a girlfriend, and I told them, but for some strange reason in which I will never know she didn't want to come with me to have dinner with them!?! So they thought she didn't exist, an now I say I have one, and she doesn't appear for about another 5mins. I started to tell them that I don't have one, it's all a joke, I thought I could pick one up while I'm around traveling yurop! Finally she appeared! See she's real! And she doesn't have a valve! So to the metro we ventured, and the top of the eiffel tower SOME of us are walking up, some are taking the lift. Stephan and I take the stairs and Liz and Alena take the lift. We got to the first level, walked around then headed to level two, the level the first lift goes to. It took us 18mins from purchasing the tickets to getting to level two. The girls managed to buy their lift tickets one minute before we arrived at level two. And about 15mins later they make it up to us. And really it's not that far to walk up the stairs, and there is some interesting info as you walk up. The view, as always, is beautiful. It got a bit cool and windy, so the lip balm got a workout. I wanted to capture the tower and it's shadow being cast over the buildings but it just wasn't working the way I had envisioned it. Not too bad but it'll have to do. It was Alena and Stephan's first time up and Liz's first time to the very top. Our next stop was arc du triomphe, and it was bathed in a a gorgeous sunset. Once we'd taken in the arc from all angles I was part of a knighting ceremony right at the foot of the arc. We had been to many places and conquered many castles together, so Stephan knighted me with a pen. The pen is mightier than the sword remember. I was handed my coat of arms, which included the logos of F1, photography, soccer and great white sharks. The surrounding crest is in green and gold with a blue stripe on the helmet adorned on the shield. He remembered ad thought of everything. I even got a holy grail (eggcup) and a tshirt with my Wormald crest on it. After the coolest knighting ceremony we head down the champs élysées for a bite. Now a bite in this part of Paris is gunna cost a few euros, too many euros in fact! So we look around, aimlessly for more restaurants. If you'd like to know where there isn't a restaurant between champs élysées and concorde i can show you the path we walked! We took the metro to a stop near our hotels then change our mind for another choice, hard rock cafe. Luckily there was tonnes of restaurant choices because as we know hard rock is never cheap! So we chose this quaint "railway themed" Italian restaurant. I dare say it wasn't as impressive as the themed coach we sat in. I left a train ticket as payment, but I don't think they understood the irony.
Another late dinner and another early morning. A trip to the louvre to drop Liz off. Stephan, Alena and I head to a cafe to steal some wifi, we drop Alena off to the park to write on some postcards and Stephan and I head for the Disney store on the champs élysées to see if we can get that ink tag removed! It's a bank holiday so we were a bit unsure if anything would be open. Walking arid earlier most of the shops and stores were closed, but thankfully Disney was open and they removed the tag! Ohhh, what a sigh of relief! I dreaded getting to Disneyland and back on my final day in Paris just to get that ink tag removed. On the way back nature called and i managed to find a bathroom boutique! It's cost €2 and it was pretty schmick! They had some expensive toiletry items as well as designer toilet rolls. I couldn't help myself, I had a bit if spare cash so I bought two rolls of paper. I do wonder what Stephan was thinking when I came out of the toilet with a bag... "Takeaway?" he said. "Couldn't finish so you got a container to go?" Well now I can say I've made a purchase on the champs élysées! Stephan and I head back to the park and await the message from Liz that she was done. A two hour tour of the Lourve turned into a 3.5 hour epic and no contact with us, the three of us were getting a bit concerned that she was lost or had been arrested. So we were a bit behind on our things to do. We had notre dame, sacre cœur and we did want to see the cemetery where Jim Morrison's grave is. A slow walk along the waters edge taking in the little market style bookshops along the way (mainly Liz and Alena) to notre dame. This time I went inside, another church, similar to the many I visited last time, there was a service going on and I just don't feel right being in there when people are worshipping. So I did a quick lap and headed out. We jump on the metro, off to sacre cœurand the artists corner in Montmartre. This place looks cool from any high part on the city, and it's seems so far away. This time it was pretty busy. But there was a strong police presence so there wasn't so many gypsies. Once at the top we said our goodbye to our German friends. I really appreciate their friendship and for coming all the way to Paris to see me. I love my new crest and I'll wear it with pride!
I took Liz around the artist corner and through the sacre cœur. I know I was a bit tired, and trying to catch up lost time. We headed to the wrong cemetery for Jim Morrison and then when we made it to the right cemetery it was closed! Hmm a wild goose chase for the front man of the doors, one of my brothers favourite bands, and many of the songs I knew from hearing his headphones blasting at night!
All in all Paris was a great part of the trip. It's different with friends and a girlfriend. Not as romantic as last time, but as I said you only get to do the first of something, once.
What to do, where am I headed? Home.
