The overnight train was a 13 hour affair, but time passed quickly since almost 8 hours of it was spent sleeping and another hour or so was laying in the couchette. Sleeping was not quite like being in a bed, but was cool (maybe a little chilly) and quiet except when another train passed…much easier than sleeping on a plane. Our roommates, two Australian men, were heading to Belgium and were planning to follow the Tour de France for the first 10 stages, cycling ahead of the riders for each stage. I was a little jealous of their cycling trip. They were friendly and hopefully we will cross paths with them again if we decide to visit Le Tour later on.
Finally out of the train, we arrived in Paris. Since Berlin did not provide us much (anything) in the way of Wi-Fi we had no opportunity to plan ahead of our arrival so found a café for breakfast that offered Wi-Fi and began to Hostel hunt. We were unsuccessful. Paris is an expensive and busy city this time of year apparently. After accepting our failure, we visited the tourist info desk in the train station where we were booked in the last room in a small hotel nearby. The walk from the station took us down some questionable streets, but at least it was midday. Luckily we were in a much more comfortable area by the time we arrived at the hotel, near Republic Square and a large metro stop in the 10th Arrondissement. Our room was not ready, but they let us check our bags for the time being.
Unburdened we grabbed some of the food we intended to have for dinner/snack on the train and headed toward the city center. Finding a nice shady bench next to the Seine in front of the Louvre, we stopped and dined comfortably for a bit. After lunch, we walked along the river toward Notre Dame before turning away from the river and heading to Center Georges Pompidou (which is maybe the ugliest building I’ve ever seen) and to Place de la Bastille, which is now a monument and a modern Opera house.
Our lunch spot 
The Louvre 
Centre de Pompidou & Place de la Bastille
Packed in like sardines
By this point, it was mid afternoon and it was HOT…a mixture of it being summer and Paris being an urban heat trap overrun with tourists. Our room was set to be ready so we returned to the hotel for an afternoon recovery session (and much overdue showering) before heading out for the evening.
Rested and cleaner we ventured back out to the Paris afternoon, catching a metro to Montmartre brought us to the base of the hill to Sacre Coeur. The white church and the hillside park leading up to it were beautiful and littered with tourists and souvenir salesmen (plus some guys selling Heineken bottles from a case). Cloud cover and a light breeze had moved in and made the climb much more enjoyable than our city hiking earlier in the day. After visiting the church where mass was again underway, we settled on the steps overlooking the city skyline and watched a street performer do some dancing and tricks with a soccer ball.
Susan towering over Paris 
Jeff with Sacre Couer 
Talented street performer
As evening rolled around we descended from our perch and caught another metro over to the Arc de Triumph. Once we snapped some pictures and looked down all the 13 avenues that feed into the traffic circle around the Arc, we strolled down the Champs Elysees but avoided shopping at the high end stores, before veering down a side street to the river. Following along the river brought us near the Eiffel Tower where Susan grabbed some daytime photos (at 8:15pm) from a pedestrian bridge. Then we found a small Italian café for dinner a few blocks from the tower for dinner.
Susan feeling triumphant 
The Champs Elysees with the Arc in the background 
First shot with the Tower
Since the sun was still setting when we left the restaurant we moved over to the park next to the Eiffel Tower for some sunset/evening photos. Looking beneath the tower we also spotted the Hyundai Eurocup fan park (they are in all the major cities) and it was buzzing with activity since the Germany Italy game was just getting into the second half. Curious to see the action we moved to the park which was packed and tried to find a place to watch. We couldn’t get any unobstructed lawn space without blocking the views of other fans and I wasn’t about to cross European “football” fans. We left before the end of the game (but later found out Italy pulled off the upset) and stopped at a stand for ice cream to eat as we strolled along the river back to our Metro station.
Eiffel Tower at dusk 
With the tower at sunset 
The fan park with the tower in the background 
Ice Cream for our scenic walk
Tomorrow brings another day in Paris…
No comments:
Post a Comment