Paris

Ladies and Gentlemen, ready your wallets, you've arrived in Paris! 10 Euros from the airport into town on public transport? That's nothing! Merely a taste of what's to come. But I shouldn't complain, the public transport is only so expensive because you're paying for the extra bonuses that come with the Paris metro; the horrendous smell combination of old garbage, human urine and filthy homeless people. And the best part, not a policier to be found. Good lord...

Having arrived in Paris with plenty of time to get to our hostel, we boarded the disgusting train and set off to our destination. Many stops and a few near vomits later, we found our hostel and prepared to take it nice and easy for the rest of the day, until we found out that it was National Night of Museums, the one day a year when most major museums all over the continent open their doors for free, into the late hours of the day. Well, that was the end of our plan to rest, and we once again braved the metro down into the heart of the city of light, to go see the Louvre. We walked around inside for hours, seeing all the "big" pieces (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged victory, etc.) and most of the little ones, including Napoleon's apartments which were still fully furnished and quite beautiful, if a bit musty. I think that the building itself was the most beautiful part of the museum; an ancient French palace full of frescoes, gold metalwork, and every other conceivable form of French ponce and opulence. When we walked outside the sun was just setting and set just the right light on the whole place, including the glass pyramid, which I captured in one beautiful panorama, one of my favourites of the trip so far. That night we treated ourselves to some Italian food in the heart of Paris, after walking past what looked like a riot but turned out to be a soccer rally, complete with burning flares... go figure.

Sunday we decided to head to the Arc de Triomphe, then we walked to the Eiffel tower. We accidentally ran into the place where Diana died; there were fresh flowers and pictures all over the place on top of the tunnel, beside the replica of the flame from the statue of liberty. I personally didn't care much when Diana died (or rather I cared only as much as I care when I hear of anyone's death), but obviously it was and remains very significant to a lot of people. Later that day, the arrogant little French guy working at the hostel told us that the flame was a gift from the US to memorialize Diana's death, which is completely erroneous; the flame was there long before Diana's death and hence could not have commemorated it, even though it's used as a kind of unofficial memorial. Other poor advice from the arrogant French guy included the assertion that there are no replicas of the statue of liberty in Paris (there are actually two). Woops! That night we ate dinner out at a wonderful French restaurant by l'Hotel des Invalides: I have to thank Lana for forcing me to actually spend a bit of money on food in Paris, because it was worthwhile every single time. After all, French cuisine (and eating out in general) is an important part of French culture, which I likely would have missed if Lana hadn't been there to prod me along in that direction.

On Monday Lana went clothes shopping in the morning while I stayed at the hostel to relax a bit, and that night we went down to the Eiffel tower again to see the lights show, which was absolutely spectacular! The full moon swung right through the top arch of the tower as the sun was setting; I couldn't imagine a more picturesque moment if I tried. I felt nice and rested for Tuesday, when we went out to super tourist trap Versailles, thickly populated by tourists from all corners of the compass crammed into hot tour buses and lining the halls of the palace. Versailles is absolutely huge! I had no idea it would be that big, but the French don't do anything half-assed. Our favourite part of the entire complex was Marie Antionette's estate, complete with an entire village worth of cottage style houses where the servants lived. The pond was full of huge carp, birds and lillypads, which made the place even more picturesque. We just walked around and explored the place until our feet were tired, and then we went back to Paris and tried not to throw up on the metro.

Wednesday brought us to the Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur and Notre Dame (luckily both were free, as I'm not in the business of paying to go into churches), which were atleast mildly entertaining if not monumental tourist traps. In fact, in both churches we found automated Jesus coin vendors... really? But that's what you get in Paris; you are never alone to contemplate the wonders that surround you, there is no solitude in a city like this. There's always a Parisian trying to sell you a bracelet, a tourist running into you and the sounds and smells of the city are always clawing at your senses. I wasn't the biggest fan of Paris, but I'm glad I went and tried it out. It's a pity I didn't have time to travel the rest of the country, as I think I would have loved it. Next time :)

On Thursday we left for London on the train (which is so much nicer than flying), and arrived to find that Kelly was waiting for us at the gate, having arrived earlier that day from Vancouver. After a couple of months without my Kelly, I can tell you I was more than slightly pleased to see her, to say the very least. So ended my duo travels with Lana, and I have to thank her for helping me see more culture in Paris than I otherwise would have, and dragging my ass out to a few places that I wouldn't normally have gone, but where I ended up having an awesome time. Now, I know it took me a few weeks to write this blog, which is due mostly to my constant business over that period (including Dan's wedding!), but look forward to my posts about London and Edinburgh in the coming few days, so that I can catch myself up and start writing about my travels as they happen.

C