Last Day In Paris

Another day of walking.  At least we don't feel bad about all the sweets we are eating!

We keep seeing these double decker carousels, but they must cost too much to ride since we never see anyone on them! 

We walked to the Sacre-Coeur Basilica.  There were lots of people, & there was a mass happening when we got there, so we sat for awhile.  I found it funny that they still let people in to look around while they are having their services.  I don't think I've ever been in a church in Canada or the States that has tourists wandering around during the service! 

We stumbled upon the Gare du Nord train station.  We didn't bother going into it since most train stations are alike inside. 

We were almost home when I spotted this shop.  I had to get a photo for my dad, since Mello Yello is his favourite soda! 

We had a quiet dinner at the flat & tried to finish up the contents of the fridge before leaving.  I had been on a quest for a crepe most of the day, but had never found one for what I thought was a reasonable price.  So we headed back to Notre Dame since there were quite a few creperies in that area.

We found one!

But I wanted another one, so I went back for more!

I asked the man for another crepe sucre with more sugar.

He poured it on, "is this enough?" he asked.

"Yes, that's good," I replied.

Then he added more before telling me with a grin, "This is really bad for your teeth!"

I promised I'd brush them afterwards.

On our way back to the flat Chad spotted an ice cream shop that had pistachio ice cream!  He couldn't resist, & the lady working there rewarded him for not asking for a sample of every flavour by giving him an extra scoop of pistachios on top!

Total Distance walked: 13 km

Total Distance for the week: 61 km

Paris From Above

We headed once again to Notre Dame to get in line nice & early to climb to the top of the cathedral.  There were not many people ahead of us, but the line grew quite a bit as we were waiting.  We managed to be in the second group that got to go up, so we were pretty happy about that!

 There are lots of gargoyles & animal drain spouts on the cathedral.

 We had a nice view of the city, & it wasn't raining!

We even got to go into the bell tower

We had seen "The Great Canadian Pub" the day before, & we decided to stop for lunch there.  I had poutine, it was ok, but not great.  The restaurant was really dirty though.  As Chad said, "it looks like they had a busy night last night & didn't have time to clean up afterwards."

This photo captures my thoughts on how good the experience was...

After lunch we headed to the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, which was basically a very, very expensive department store.

We came, we saw, we couldn't afford anything!

 More walking lead us to stumble upon the Centre Pompidou which is a modern art museum among other things.  We came, we saw, we did not go in.

As we walked home we stopped at a shop & purchased some macaroons.  They were also delicious!

Total distance walked: 8 km

Paris Is Closed

Day one of free time for Chad!  It was a little bit rainy, so we decided it would be a good day to be inside.  We had wanted to climb to the top of Notre Dame, so we went a bit early to check how long the line was.

The line was longer than our patience, so we decided we'd check back later or come another day.

On to the Louvre!

 It was Tuesday.  The Louvre was closed as it is every Tuesday.

On to the lock bridge!

I had read that the locks had all been removed from the lock bridge, apparently this is now the lockless bridge.  They put glass on the side so you can't put locks on the railings anymore.  Instead they filled the bridge with strange sculptures.

On to the Eiffel Tower! 

We made it!

Unfortunately there was a union strike, & the Eiffel Tower was closed.  We checked online this morning & it doesn't look like it will be reopened while we are here at all.

On to the Arc de Triomphe!

I almost lost my will to carry on after everything else was closed, but we persevered!  We arrived, but we couldn't figure out how to make it into the centre without dying.  Granted, we didn't try too hard.  We were hungry, & we wanted to eat.  We strolled down the Champs-Elysees in search of sustenance and found a nice cafe where I had a delicious lunch of mussels & a crepe.

After lunch we headed back to the flat.  We'd done a lot of walking & were pretty much done for the day.  We stopped at Notre Dame again, but the line was still too long, so we continued on.  Chad noticed a little patisserie & we decided to reward ourselves for all the exercise we had done by buying some treats.

I don't really know what they were, but they were delicious!

Total distance walked: 13 km

Paris at Night (Kind of)

One of Chad's classmates offered to drive us around Paris at night so we could see the monuments lit up.  Unfortunately when they picked us up at 9, we discovered that we were going to see the city at dusk rather than full darkness, but we carried on anyway & got some nice photos.

The Institute de France 

The Eiffel Tower with a football hung in the centre because of the Euro Cup which is happening now.

Here we are!

The Arc de Triomphe.  We drove around it in the crazy round-about!

The Louvre

We drove past the Eiffel Tower the night after Chad's graduation & I got this stellar picture.  The lights also twinkle every hour for a few minutes.

The traffic was a little lighter at night than it usually is during the day, but it was still pretty crazy.  The drivers seem to be pretty aggressive, but they also let other cars merge quite regularly, & they don't honk their horns much.  It was interesting to experience.

Total Distance walked: 9 km

The Parisian Flat

We had left booking a place to stay til the last minute because we weren't quite sure if we wanted to stay in Paris the whole time, or be closer to the school for the graduation.  We ended up deciding it would be nicer to just stay in one place the whole time, so I set about looking on AirBnB, Hotels.com, & VRBO.  Hotels were pretty much all expensive if we wanted to stay central (which we did), so I perused the sites looking for flats we could stay in.  There ended up being a glitch in the VRBO system, so I was quoted a really low price for one awesome looking flat.  When the owner got back to me he told me he couldn't give it to me for the price I had been quoted, but he would still give me a discount from the regular rate.  By the time we finished negotiating, it was only 2 days before our trip!

If you are going to stay in Paris, this is the way to do it!  There were 2 days that Chad had meetings all day with some of his classmates, so I was left to my own devices.  I'm not one to go out alone in a city I don't know, especially when I don't speak the language, so I mostly stayed in the flat (except for when I went out in search of chocolate truffles!).  I was very thankful that I wasn't stuck in a tiny hotel room! 

The flat had a loft area which had the washroom & a bedroom.   The flat sleeps 6-8.  The only downside is that there is only one washroom, & it's off the upstairs bedroom, so you'd have to know the people you are sharing the flat with quite well. 

The bathtub was huge & it was awesome after getting caught in the rain one day!

Here you see the entrance to the flat & the stairs up to the loft area.  Just to the right is the entrance to the kitchen.

Nice big kitchen.  There was also a futon in this area.

This is the entrance way again, looking toward the living area.  

This is a futon, there is also a double bed to the left of the TV, & across from the TV is a hide-a-bed couch, which I was sitting on in yesterday's pictures.

Off the living area is the terrace.  When it wasn't raining, we enjoyed sitting on the terrace & having our coffee.

The owner of the flat also has places in Rome & Istanbul.  We may have to go check them out too!

We Arrived in Paris!

Chad & I went to Paris for a week so he could attend his graduation for his (third) Master's degree, & so we could enjoy the city.

 Here we are in the airport, ready to go!

This is the little street that our flat was on.  It was quite close to Notre Dame which made it easy to walk everywhere.  when we arrived at the flat we could leave our luggage, but we were too early for check-in time, so we had to go exploring for a bit.

We walked along the Seine for awhile, but we were thwarted by all the mud that was covering much of the walkways due to flooding from the week before.

You can see on the bridge how high the water was, just under the circles. 

The sun came out when we got to Notre Dame, & we were delighted to discover they had free wifi in the Square Jean XXIII behind the cathedral.

After being up for 23 hours & walking about 5 km we were tired & glad to be able to get into our flat!

Saturday Fry Up, & Meet Up

Saturday I headed to Fiona's house to have a full English breakfast... for lunch!  I took a few busses to get there, but it was a relatively easy journey.  I got to meet her kids & husband, who were very welcoming, & lovely.  I had a fun afternoon just hanging out & chatting about British music & TV shows & movies.  We have similar tastes & it was nice to be able to talk to someone who has seen a lot of the same shows & listens to a lot of the same bands.

Later in the day I met up with Chad, & we stopped at a pub so he could have some good British Sausage & Mash.  We headed back to Geoff & Margaret's to spend the evening with them before heading back to Canada on Sunday.

We are very thankful for the blessing Geoff & Margaret have been to us.  They opened their home to us 13 years ago, when we were poor students struggling to find an affordable place to live in London, & failing miserably.  We have fond memories of walking their dog Tess, helping out when their 2 year old granddaughter Lucy was over for the day, & playing in the wading pool with the older grand-kids when the weather was hot.  We would have had a totally different experience of London if we had not lived with this generous couple.  They taught us what true hospitality was, simply by inviting us in.

Sadly, it was time to leave again, & hopefully it won't be another 7 years before we are back!