Going Old School - France 2007

Remember when...



We went to France?

Really though, the title should be "Remember when we went to Paris and Nice and a few other small places in France?" It's not like we actually experienced all of France, but we did get about 14 days of touristy France.

At the end of May 2007, Erin and I travelled to Paris, France. We spent most of the first week in Paris (sunday afternoon through friday evening).

The first night was a miserable mess of rain. We couldn't find our hotel at first, and we were tired from the long trip, which had taken us from BWI to Keflavik (Iceland) and on to Paris (CDG).

Most of the next day was also a miserable mess of rain, so we did what any sensible tourist in Paris does on a rainy day: we headed to the Louvre!

 



This is a picture of a statue.



Although we are two very classy ladies, we must admit that art is not our strongest suit. We went to see Mona (Lisa) (of course), we saw the crown jewels, and we saw the statues. And of course, lots of cool stuff as we wandered around trying to find Mona and Venus De Milo.




 




posing like the statues is completely normal

 



After the Louvre, we headed out a different entrance/exit and up to the pyramids and le carousel.

If you have ever seen the Da Vinci code, this should look familiar to you.

 


ominous rain clouds in the background

 

 

We continued our tour on a quest to find the Eiffel Tower. Our first view of the Eiffel tower was dominated by the theme of the day: rain

Still though, we had several really great days, despite the shifty weather. We enjoyed wandering the streets with only vague plans for the day. We did shopping, ate in different cafes and restaurants, saw old churches, rode the metro a lot. It was alot of fun to just wander around and come across alot of the things that are not always mentioned in the tourist guides.

Anyway. One night we met some American at our hotel. We decided to go to bars following a grand old tradition of underage American college kids in Europe.

We got some pretty drinks. We did something super smart: we mixed beer, drinks, and wine. Hey, you're only young in Paris once, right? Erin bought a giant beer, and if I recall correctly she barely touched it.



seriously, it's the size of her head!


In order to further our cultural education, we also spent an afternoon/day at the Versaille castle. It was beautiful. Really. And we got these nifty little headsets and walkmans, and then you walk around like you are in your own little bubble with your own personal tourguide. My only complaint would be that it was a bit overcrowded, and that some of the tourists had some issues with invading personal space, cutting in front of you, and walking into your pictures.



Hundreds of pretty photos from Versailles, and I chose this one?
 Seriously, what is wrong with me?
Achoo.



One of our goals was to do a boat tour of the Seine. We found some coupons one day and decided to use them. The tour was surprisingly good, especially for the price. Pretty sure it was the best 11 Euro I spent on entertainment that week.



This was the boat we were on, we took the sunset cruise and it was beautiful.
This is right after the cruise. or right before. I don't remember.



Another goal we had decided on from home was that we were going to go up the Eiffel Tower. I know alot of people have mixed opinions of the Eiffel Tower, but I was truly fascinated by it. So one morning we went to get in line for the Eiffel Tower

the tower is protected by lots of men with big guns

After about 3 hours of waiting we finally made it to the top. It was every bit worth the wait to see Paris from above. It was a fairly clear day, and we could see very far. We had already wandered about the city a bit, so it was fun to recognize things from the top. The funnest part was looking down at all the little lego people walking around on the ground.



does this picture make you dizzy?



A few days later, we went to buy our tickets to continue the travels to Nice.We wanted to buy them ahead of time because we were confused Americans and did not fully understand the French railway. For good reason, we would find out later.

It was another day of chilly weather, rain, and other unfortunate events. Even though I don't remember these unfortuante events, I do remember that by lunch time we were both tired, Erin was in a bad mood, and we were both hungry (especially the diabetic...)

This was where we got the infamous burger with the bernaise dressing on top, after we had specifically spent ALOT of time convincing the very French waiter that we wanted a burger with NOTHING on it, only bread and meat. He almost succeeded - except for the dressing. since I had ordered chicken, we ended up switching food, and everything was all right in the end.

Ordering the right food was another ongoing theme of the trip, especially since most menus were only in French or poorly translated English. We had to rely on my very limited knolwedge of french, waiters with bad accents, and our little translation guide, in order to order food.

Like I said, I am fascinated by the Eiffel Tower, which was probably also why we went to visit it several times. Before we left to go to Nice, we wanted to make sure we would see the Eiffel Tower by night at least once ( spoiler alert: we saw it by night more than once..)

  

This would not be a complete travel description without a description of our hotel and our neighborhood. We already knew our hotel was on the cheaper end and that it was located close to the old red-light district. However, it was also located very clsoe to the metro and very close to the Moulin Rouge.

The main street was full of erotic stores, even an erotic supermarket. One day, on our way to see the Moulin Rouge, we passed an Erotic museum. We decided to come back to visit it one day, and we did just that:

this picture was taken at the Erotic museum. It was very educational.

Finally, we also went to see the Moulin rouge several times, as we wanted to see it by day and by night. It was also conveniently located nearby out hotel.

 

I should be a postcard photographer. Seriously.

 We then decided to splurge and buy tickets for a show at the Moulin Rouge! Apparently you are not allowed to take pictures inside, but we did get away with this little picture (kind of). I had, of course, somehow turned the flash back on, and a very upset French man came and yelled at me "NO Photo Mademoiselle!!"

That was the last night in Paris. The next way we took the train south, all the way to Nice.

To be continued....