Paris Part 1: Summary

This past weekend I was lucky enough to be able to take 2 days off work and go on a 4 day mini holiday to the most visited city in world, Paris. Paris is roughly a 4.5 hour train ride from Venlo. Connecting the Netherlands to Paris is a highspeed train that runs from Amsterdam or Rotterdam through Brussels to Paris’s Gare Nord. However, due to my very convenient location, I didn’t take the train from the Netherlands, but instead hopped on 4, short, intercity trains to Brussels and took a 1 ½ hour highspeed Thalys train to Paris. The whole weekend was pretty jam-packed with activities, because Paris has a lot to see. I will first tell you what I did, and then I'll let you know how I felt about it.

Thursday
Leaving work about thirty minutes early, I arrived in Paris at 10:30 at night. I would now take the time to gush about how fun the train ride was, but I may do another post entirely about my train travel in Europe, and writing about Paris is probably more interesting anyhow.

I met up with Sarah at the train station, and took the subway back to her apartment in the 15th district. Her apartment was pretty darn small. I don’t mean to insult her living conditions/lifestyle, but I don’t think I could live in a space that small with another human being. At least there was a double bed, which was an improvement to the single bed we shared when she visited me.

So her modest and tiny place consisted of a kitchen area, which was hidden behind the front door, a small bathroom (with a washing machine and shower, no bath) and a main living area, which for the most part was a futon. I got to meet her boyfriend, who was really nice. He made us tea and slept on the floor so I could have the bed, so that’s pretty nice.

So on Friday, we woke up semi-early (we were both pretty tired, me from taking the train the day before and Sarah from showing her friend around Paris the day before. She should get paid for her travel guiding people around this beautiful city. Trying to avoid the weekend-traffic, we went to the Louvre, Orangerie museum, the tuliteries and ate lunch in a park, wandered through the city a bit, went through the Gallerie Vero Dodat, went to Saint-Michel Square and then found ourselves at Notre-Dame. We walked through The Notre-Dame then a few blocks over, went to Saint-Chapelle and the Conciergerie (at the Palace of Justice), headed back to Notre-Dame where we saw the line-up for the clock tower tour, decided to save it for another time, before checking out the crypts below the Notre-Dame Square. We went back to her place to make some French Galettes and then climbed the Arc de Triomph to watch the sunset and got some cliche snaps of the Eiffel tower.

Saturday we decided to go see Chateau Verseilles, which is about half an hour outside of Paris. It is a MASSIVE chateau and gardens. Because of the rain headed our way we decided to skip the gardens (and save 6 Euros) to head back to Paris and check out the Musee D'orsay. Staying until Closing time we then wandered toward the Eiffel Tower (I ate some Chinese on the way). Once my stomach was satisfied (and Sarah's less so, due to here egg, gluten, diary free diet) we took the 500-some stairs to the second deck of the Eiffel Tower. We stayed there until twilight and then headed back to her place with the intention of a movie and sister time, but we called it an early night (almost immediately).


SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!
So to avoid buying food again, Sarah decided to make a yummilishous rice dish to bring with us. Sadly, she did this right after I had made myself a galette for breakfast, and while checking if the element was hot by putting her entire palm on it, she burnt the ba-jesus out of it. After putting it in cold water for a while, she put on a brave face, and we headed out to the Musee d'armee. A museum that I was particularly excited for. It featured, you may have guessed it, war! It was the history of war in France from Louis the VII to the end of WWII. I dished out 4 Euros for the interactive Audio Guide. Sadly, Sarah's burn was worse then originally thought, so she left to go get some cream from the pharmacy to alleviate her pain. After getting lost, and help from her boyfriend to find an open pharmacy, she returned to my side about 1.5 hours later and at the end of the French revolution. She was frustrated, and I was a bit bored with the museum, we quickly went to the tomb of Napoleon and the Domed Chapel before eating lunch outside. We wandered and saw some other Paris things, like Pont Alexandre. In the evening, I went to check out the Pompidou Center and Sarah headed back to her place for a nap and dinner and she saw her boyfriend who had been out of town all weekend.

So I walked to the Pompidou, which is different area of Paris, took my time, and stayed til closing. Then walked back to the Saint-Michel area where I grabbed a shawrma and sat on the Seine before meeting up with Sarah. We were going to go to the clock tower of the Notre-Dame, but it was closed *Sad face here* so instead we walked along the Seine to watch the sunset.  Sarah's need for a Bathroom led us to a cafe where I had an expensive beer before heading home again (but not after a couple of Sarah's long exposure night shots)


MONDAY!
I had my train at 3:30 in Paris Nord, so we took the opportunity to see Sacre-Coeur in the Montemarte District. This involved more stairs to the highest point in Paris, and a very nice view of the skyline. We wandered around the district, where we saw another church and a park. Saw the famous Moulin Rouge then subwayed to the train station where I enjoyed a French Crepe before leaving Paris in my Highspeed Train.


So because I haven't been blogging much, in my effort to blog more, I will take Paris and split it into multiple blog posts. Here was my first one, that summed up everything (rather quickly and without much thought) but there will be ones specifically about the museums, the Churches, Landmarks and the food. Hopefully I'll get them all posted before the month is over. So that I won't have a backlog once I have started my Europe Trip in August.