Paris
Moon Song
Laura & Alan Grayson
Wed 13 Feb 2008 22:31
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Ah ! Gay Paree !!! What can we say
about this.... Well quite a lot really. But first, British Airways, they have
their drinks sorted out. All complimentary and they were even asking if we
wanted another while the plane was descending. That doesn't happen very often.
So we are off to a good start, Then we hit the Paris Subway at 8.30pm. Lets just
say it is not as good as London's and count our blessings that we made it to the
hotel in the same day ( note to self. leave lots of time to get back to the
airport).
Continental Breakfast..... even smaller than
London, maybe that's why all the women are hot and skinny!!! Ah gay
Paree !! Off to the Louvre. Nice little walk thru the streets to get a
feel for the place. They put posts in the footpaths in real funny places,
normally right across the road from hot looking women, go figure. Enough
said!
   The Louvre, we spent from 10am to 4.30pm and all we got to see was 2
floors of 2 wings... This place is huge. You could spend so much time in here
that you wouldn't see the rest of Paris. We were wondering why so many people
were just walking through and not looking at any of the exhibits, I guess they
were wanting to see the whole place rather than see anything that interested
them. We did see the Mona Lisa, bit of a let down actually. Signs everywhere
saying no photo's or videos, well we could hardly see the picture for all the
flashes going off and the picture had a sheet of glass in front so none of the
photo's would come out anyway not to mention the glare we had from the flashes.
They have a very good Egyptian section which we spent a whole lot of time in. It
was a good top up from King Tut's exhibition in London. The Louvre had 2
floors allocated to the Egyptians and we spent most of our time there and seeing
as how others weretaking photo's we took a few
ourselves.
It's a nice long walk from the Louvre to Arc
de Triomphe. There is about an 8 lane round-a-bout to get to the Arc,
glad they had an underground walkway! The walk up to the top was a bit of
a mission as our legs are getting a little tired from all the walking. It seems
as though our small boat is not big enough to get in the appropriate mileage
each day, not to mention the last month was spent pretty much entirely on a boat
of one sort or another. Sure am glad we walked each morning while we were in PLC
before we left otherwise this would have been real hard. Spectacular views from
up top. Had a good view of the Sacre Coeur which is where we are planning on
going tomorrow. The weather was great with blue skies with just a hint
of mog in the air. It seems that all roads in Paris begin at the
Arc. I counted 12 roads joining up at the round a bout.
   Then off
to another "ABC"... another bloody church (castle). Sacre Coeur
basilica - might have to see a few more of these Gothic
churches before Laura gets her fill. I remember when Dave Morgan and I
went around Europe when we were just young fellas. Saw a lot of churches then as
well. Walked into a service once again (is this a sign) Laura enjoyed
the organ & the choir singing during the service. You
have to give it to the churches they sure know how to get the accoustics right.
We stopped in a Irish pub for dinner which consisted of a great veggie soup but
I think the best part was everything was in English. I must admit English sounds
good when you hear it. It seems as though I don't know what is going on half the
time at the moment.Next day it was time for a long walk along the
Seine in the sunshine, and low and behold one of the smallest cars we have
ever seen. A little Smart car. This is the perfect place for these car. They
manage to park these things in the smallest places and some of the funniest. If
must give the traffic cops nightmares figuring out if they need to give them a
ticket.We carried on walking until we arrived at through Notre Dame. More
gargoyles on this one than I've seen before. These churches are
huge! After the hundreds of steps to the domes of these churches
for the view, it's hard to pass up the sidewalk cafe's. On the walk back to the
hotel, damned if we didn't find a couple more cafe's.... was about as
challenging finding the hotel as it was finding our way in the subway. I
think we have our timing on this trip pretty well sorted, after 2 days of
hard sightseeing then we have a slower day and just see something in the
morning and chill out in a cafe or two in the afternoon. The weather has
been great allowing us to sit outside in the cafe's in all three cities so
far.
Travel day to Copenhagen was a bit of a nightmare.
We gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport. Left the hotel at 8.30am
to catch a non flight and got to the airport at 9.10am. The subway worked like a
charm, then we were supposed to hop a flight to London at noon then catch a
connecting flight to Copenhagen but the flight got cancelled due to fog in
Heathrow, so instead of spending all day in a couple of different airports we
spent all day in One. Charles De Gaulle. I must applaud British Airways they put
us on a direct flight to Copenhagen with no fuss. It just meant we spend a bit
more time in the airport bar than anticipated, actually it was quite bad as we
had to pay for the beers rather than get them free on the plane.. Boo Hoo to us
heh!!
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