EntriesParis Travel Pictures
It’s almost been two months since I’ve returned from my Europe Trip and I’m finally at the last travel picture post! After leaving Rome, the next 12 nights were spent in Paris before flying back to Toronto.
The first six nights were spent at IBIS and the last six in an apartment. Both had their advantages but I preferred the apartment living style over the hotel. That said, the hotel does have nicer perks than an apartment.
On our first full day in Paris we participated in a walking tour with New Europe. Our guide was an American who decided to stay in Paris after his running gig went south. We started at St. Michel’s square and visit the top sites of Paris.
The walking tour also covered the famous Pont Neuf. If you look at each sculpture on the bridge, they are all different. The story is that King Louis XIV got all his friends drunk and hired someone to sculptures to cast onto the bridge. It was his way of saying Thanks.
After a 5 hour walking tour, of which we stopped taking photos since we were going to revisit all the sites, we went to the Louvre. It’s free on Friday evenings from 6PM to 10PM for those under the age of 29.
Not to far from the IBIS hotel is a park were we had a couple of picnics before starting our day. It was pretty relaxing and quite the thing to do in Paris. Each day there were bigger and bigger crowds of people having a picnic. I think the largest was in the order of 30 people.
We didn’t visit too many bars or clubs during our trip but while in Paris we meet up with a couple UofT Engineers and we embarked in a Paris pub crawl which included free screwdriver shots.
By the end of the night (3 hrs), I think I had something in the range of 5 shots, a beer and two glasses of wine.
The true way to drink in Paris of course in style. On one night my dad treated Karen and I on a cruise down river Seine. We got to wine and dine while seeing all the Parisian sites. It was quite nice and definitely worth doing. I believe it was 120 Euros for the two of us. Champagne was the started and we also had a bottle wine to drink. To eat, I had a foie gras appetizers, seared perch and a fruit crepe. Karen had a seafood casserole, steak and fresh fruit in a raspberry milkshake. Delicious is the only was to state that meal.
From our cruise, we got a great view of the Eiffel Tower and the mini Statue of Liberty.
After the tour, we made our first visit to the Eiffel Tower. It was around 9PM and the sky was overcast. It was actually overcast for most of our stay in Paris. We had good weather on the last two days and the odd period.
Another major site in Paris is the Notre Dame, everyone has heard of the Hunchback of Notre Dame and it was that story that kept this church from being taken down.
We had to make two trips to the Air and Space Museum because it was closed the first day we went. So if you ever want to visit the Air and Space Museum, don’t go on a Monday! However, once we did get to go, it was definitely neat to walk around and check out some of the old planes, including a 747, concord and a few fighter jets.
A less popular site is Sacre Coeur which is a church at the just north of the downtown area. The church is situated on a large hill which allows visitors to get a great view of the city. It’s also free to go to which is perfect for the budget traveler.
Speaking of great views, there’s the obvious in Paris: the view from the Eiffel Tower. It is indeed spectacular. We arrived at the top just before sunset and got to watch the sky light up red.
In addition to the Louvre, we visited the military museum that holds Napoleon’s Tomb. The story is that Hitler once came to visit the Tomb but because Napoleon was buried in such a manner you have to bow down to him to actually see his tomb. Hitler of course did not want to bow down to Napolean so he ordered his troops to set up an array of mirrors for him to look at. Upon Hitler’s arrival, the mirrors were out of place which prevented him from seeing Napoleon’s tomb. While backup to leave, Hitler bumped into one of his troops and knocked his hat off his head. In bending down to pick up his hat, he was said to have bowed to Napoleon.
His tomb is under the gold dome in the picture above. Another muesume we visited was Museum D’Orsay.
One of my favourite gardens/parks in Paris was the Gardens of Versailles. This park is absolutely gigantic. It stretches about 4 kilometers, There are fountains scattered throughout the main park area. Something in the range of 3600 cubic meters of water is used during the water festival which we attended.
Given the option to just visit the garden for the day, visit the chateau or both, I would have just visit the garden. You can easily spend a day wandering through it all.
Taking the advice from another couple on the boat cruise, we went for a walk along River Seine towards the Eiffel Tower to get a really nice picture of the tower. On the way we also passed by Princess Diana’s memorial.
In Parisian style, we had one night picnic by the Eiffel Tower with champagne and dessert.
On our final day, we wandered around visiting the Paris Pantheon and watched the sunset by Notre Dame while enjoying a Parisian favourite: the crepe.
On June 10th 2008, our trip came to an end as we boarded our Air Canada flight back to Toronto.
Those who say a grad trip is an eye opening experience is definitely correct. The trip went by so fast and every second was memorable. If you have the opportunity, I definitely recommend you take a few weeks off and travel Europe. You can bet I’ll be back, maybe not soon but I’ll definitely be returning!
Tags: Air Canada, Champagne, Chateau of Versailles, EIffel Tower, Europe 2008, Gardens of Versailles, Grad Trip, Hitler, IBIS, Louvre, Museum D'Orsay, Napoleon, Napoleon's Tomb, Notre Dame, Pantheon, Paris, Princess Diana, River Seine, Rome, Sacre Coeur, Statue of Liberty