14th November, Paris Day 6

Paris Day 6 is the Maccas' last day in France and we fly out for home tomorrow, Friday 15th at 12.00 MD (Paris time).

Today was spent rather slowly and relaxed meandering around the Marais area and discovering and exploring some more of the territory that we have been living in for the past week.  

We are busy packing now and trying to fit everything in and keep below the weight limit, but we have 30 Kgs allowance each and should make it. 

This "Notre Aventure Française, 2013" is over, apart from getting to the airport. 
We hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures as much as we have enjoyed experiencing them.

Typical Marais Street

13th November, Paris Day 5

The Avenue des Champs Elysée and the Arc de Triomphe are another two iconic Paris landmarks that everybody recognizes instantly. They are in the same category as the Louvre, Sacre Cour, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and the Opéra are. They both attract crowds but, they also attract cars, buses, trucks, scooters, pushbikes and rickshaw type conveyances - thousands of them which are all fitted with a louder horn than the others. 
The amazing thing is that there are no lane markers either on the Avenue or the roundabout around the Arc. The only traffic controls I could find were traffic lights on the pedestrian crossings.  It appears that every driver of whatever type or size vehicle is trying to drive in the "lane" that somebody else is occupying and the use of the horn is very important in achieving this. However, the French drivers are very good at navigating in these circumstances and are able to squeeze into the narrowest and smallest of spaces, without the slightest touch to another vehicle, no matter what size of  vehicles. I understand that there is no right or wrong at the Arc de Triomphe and in a crash situation both drivers are considered equally at fault.  
This driving technique is not restricted to the Champs Elysée or the  Arc de Triomphe and can be seen in operation right throughout Paris.
 
The  Champs Elysée though is full of expensive looking shops, restaurants, apartments, hotels and expensively dressed and groomed people doing their thing - mainly walking up and down and looking at the other expensively dressed and groomed people.

The parks on both sides along  the Eastern half of the Champs Elysée from the Place de la Concorde, are being converted into what will be a big Christmas Market with the erection of fairly impressive looking white structures. It will start this Friday and  run until 4th January. It is big and I am sure will be quite attractive, as only the French can do, when up and running.

Traffic jockeying for position

Champs Elysée property

Arc de Triomphe

I wouldn't like to take on the traffic in this one

12th November, Paris Day 4

We are getting pretty good at using the public transport system here and it is really great. There are 109 different bus routes alone in Paris and although some of them cross over each other at times you can really get to anywhere you want. Add the underground Metro train system and moving around this city is a breeze. We haven't used the Metro as we  get to see more from the bus. 
We are using the bus as a "door to door" tourist bus. For example this evening we caught the Number 69 bus 10 meters from our door and toured through the city, past the Hotel de Ville, Le louvre then St Germaine and past the Musée d'Orsay, Les Invalides and finally Champ de Mars, the park leading to the Eiffel Tower. All of these buildings are lit up at night and can be seen in all of their glory from a public bus. We got out at the Champ de Mars and walked down to the Eiffel Tower and, although it was partially clouded in, we were able to see it "sparkle"  as it does for the first 5 minutes of every hour until 1 am. After a 30 minutes' visit we boarded the 69 for the return journey to our door.

The French also love to shop and there are some very impressive shopping extravaganzas here to satisfy that urge. Perhaps the most impressive is the Galleries Lafayette, described as Le grand magasin capitale de la mode, (The department store capital of fashion). The "store" covers several buildings and anything and everything fashion wise can be purchased there. But the displays of the individual fashion brands is incredible but not as much as the store itself.  Victorian readers will know the Daimaru store in Melbourne - it would not hold a candle to this place. The dome, glass, mobile display and presentation overall is far beyond what we have seen anywhere.

The central display under the dome in Lafayette

The glass dome

Balconies circling the centre space

A brand display

Display from above

The Eiffel Tower sparkling

The Eiffel Tower appears from the clouds

11th November, Paris Day Three

Paris has a lot to offer the visitor.
I have difficulty in coming up with the appropriate adjective to describe it. This space is deliberately left for you to add your own.


Today we put the public transport system to the test to deliver us to the Pigalle, and bus 67 did it admirably. It was from here that we set off to find the Funiculaire Railway to take us up to visit the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur and the Village of Montmartre.  
  
A popular landmark and one of the must sees, the Basilica is located at the summit of the Butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city and is a relatively new addition to the landscape having  been commenced  in 1875 and finished in 1914. It was consecrated after the end of World War 1 in 1919.

With the Basilica built on Butte  Montmartre, it is a mere stroll from visiting it to the Village of Montmartre, the artist haven. Many artists had studios or worked around the community of Montmartre and names such as Salvador Dali, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh come to mind.
  
The area of Montmartre, including Pigalle, has had a colourful history which is best covered elsewhere but it is suffice to say that it was the site of bohemian activity and still is the home of the Moulin Rouge.

Montmartre also contains the Place du Tertre,where today it is known for the artists who paint tourists for pleasure (and also money) - their work that we saw today was pretty impressive as was the work of the other artists who were demonstrating their skills and selling their works.

After lunch we caught the 67 bus back to reality but stayed on it past our stop and used it as our tour bus for the afternoon through some backstreets which we had previously walked and some we hadn't. But it took us through Ile St-Louis and southern parts of Paris that weren't on our list to visit such as Place d'Italie and other areas we hadn't heard of. These are the sort of adventures we like.  We stayed on board after it terminated and took the return journey via a different route. We were on board for probably an hour and a half  and disembarked about 20 meters from our front door. We then did a bit more exploring around the apartment but in the opposite direction and found a few more gems.

What a great day!!
 

Steps up to the Basilica. We took the Funiculaire

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur 

Montmartre artists' work on display

Montmartre souvenir shop

Artists at work in the shadow of the Basilica

Artists at work in the Place du Tertre

Ann is all smiles in the "Georges Larnicol" sweet shop
 just down the road from our apartment

10th November, Paris Day Two

I just love the French language. I can't speak it very well, if at all, but I can get myself into trouble and out again if I need to but what I mean is how some of the words and phrases when pulled apart and broken down tell you how they were derived. I have noticed that the French are able to convey a message or write a notice using at least twice, or maybe three times, the number of words than English speakers do. Two small examples are:-

• Papillon de nuit - literally means "butterfly of the night", or, in English, moth. Isn't the French so descriptive and why use one little word when you can use three?

• Parasol - means "sunshade" or  "protection from the sun" (soleil), whereas Parapluie means "rainshade" or "protection from the rain" (pluie). Both articles look the same, are interchangeable, so why not use one word like umbrella?

Yesterday we went out without our parapluies and it started to rain during lunch and we were a little distance from home, but hadn't yet visited the Tourist Bureau as was our intent. It would have added quite some additional time walking in the rain as it was now set in.We got home a bit bedraggled and without the tourist information like which metro and bus lines do we use to get to the next must see Parisian monument. We got there today and are now armed to ride the Paris public transport system with our 72 hour tickets and maps.

On our walks though we have managed to tick off some more sights, monuments and unbelievable buildings, including the Palais Garnier, the 1,979-seat  Paris Opera House built between 1861 to 1875. This is another symbol of Paris like Notre Dame and the Louvre.

The areas and streets immediately around the more famous places are pretty well packed and I can't imagine what it's like in peak times of summer. The crowds can be avoided though by navigating through the back streets and exploring and discovering some other unmentioned gem. The street our apartment is in one of the main thoroughfares in Paris and it carries a lot of pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
The restaurants in these areas are full at lunch time and coffee breaks come at a price. In the countryside of the last ten weeks, two café au lait could be had for around 5€. In touristy Paris locations near the Opera House, for example, it cost us 10€20 this morning.
But we compensated by having lunch in a little "Japanese" restaurant in a back street where the restaurants were of predominantly Asian persuasion. The local Parisians were frequenting the one we chose and it was an excellent choice.

Right next door and around the corner from our apartment is a multitude of cafés, restaurants, crêperies and sitting down and watching the world go by places. We haven't got the time to do that just now - there is too much else to do and see. 

Tomorrow is Armistice Day (Armistice de la Première Guerre Mondiale) and a public holiday in France. We are aware that the French President will be giving a speech at the Arc de Triomphe tomorrow on this solemn day but I think we will stay away. I can imagine what the crowds will be like there. The metro will be closed from 9 am till whenever for security reasons and it will probably be chaotic. We will be able to observe it from our 4th floor apartment in comfort if need be.

The Paris Opera House

An iconic French lamp post 
outside the Opera House

Rear view of the Opera House

A hidden "Gem" Gallerie de Vivienne

An empty back street, 
two removed from the crowded streets

Fill it up please!! 
Plug in and get your battery topped up.

Our apartment building. 
We are one floor from the top, 
the two windows to the right of the flower pots.

Restaurants, cafés etc on our corner.

9th November, Paris Day One

We awoke today to a market set up directly opposite our apartment selling fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, cheese, flowers (we bought a bunch of roses for the apartment), an assortment of clothing, Persian rugs and Moroccan dishes. We couldn't resist it and bought provisions for the next couple of days. It operates Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings.

The area our apartment is in, the Marais, is renowned for its shopping for European fashion in individual and stylish boutiques, restaurants, cafés and bars, and the Rue de Rivoli (our street) is home to the Musèe du Louvre about  500 meters west (not 100 as we thought) and it is one street removed from the Seine and the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris across the river.

So today's adventure was devoted to exploring the immediate area to the west of us, along the Rue de Rivoli, past the huge Hotel de Ville (the Paris Town Hall), over the Seine, along the Rue d'Arcole and its numerous souvenir shops to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. There were long queues waiting to get inside the Cathédrale, so we settled on an external circumnavigation of  it on foot. Its construction commenced in 1163 and its 850th anniversary was celebrated this year. It is huge.

We walked further west along the left bank before crossing over the Pont Neuf and heading towards the Musèe du Louvre. 

We passed by  plants and garden markets and shops on both sides of the river with multitudes of bulbs and seeds and potted plants available.   They appeared to be targetted at the apartment dwellers to grow their  flowers in their balcony gardens as we can't see any household gardens unless they are secluded behind the apartment blocks.  

Wow!! As soon as you turn into the Rue de Louvre it is there. Big and inviting through its Eastern portal and on through to the Pyramide and all of the time surrounded by these incredible buildings, which house the collections, and which were the former palace of the Kings of France - and then on through to the gardens. It all covers a large area and I am sure would require a large portion of our week in Paris to really explore it properly. We did though visit the area under the Pyramide with its ticket booths, cafés and a "souvenir" shop of some really fine articles and where you could really put the credit card through its paces.

Lunch, as always, is a serious affair in France as far as the food goes but today's was a fun day as we interacted with our neighbouring table diners. They were two Italian businessmen in Paris for an Expo, and with a mix of English, French and  Italian we shared an enjoyable hour and a half together.

Paris' Hotel de Ville

The Seine

Western facade and entrance to Notre Dame

Southern facade of Notre Dame

Western facade of Notre Dame

First sighting of the Eiffel tower

Plants, bulb and seed shops on the way to the Louvre

The Louvre from inside the Pyramide courtyard

The Pyramide

Entrance to the Pyramide courtyard from the Cour Carrée (Eastern Portal)

The Louvre from inside the Pyramide courtyard  #2

  

8th November, Paris

We arrived in Paris about 3 hours ago after a 300 kmh dash from Avignon in the TGV. If we had driven along the tolled autostradas for about 700 kms, it would have taken us in excess of 7 hours and probably more Euros in fuel and tolls than the 1st class train fare. It took 2.5 hrs in the TGV. But we had dropped the car off in Avignon before we caught the train, anyway.

More about the Paris Adventures when we do some. 

See some photos though, out of our 4th floor apartment, of buildings in the Rue de Rivoli. I think the one with the flags is L'Hotel de Ville - The Town Hall, not of Paris but of the 4th Arondissement, known as Le Marais. We are  just west of Le Louvre, by about 100 meters we believe, also in Rue de Rivoli.