P-A-R-I-S

We spent our two days in Paris exploring the town and getting a grasp of where different sites are and how to use the metro system. Our first day we went on a walking tour with NewParis run by Sandemans i think they're called. it is a company that believes every traveler has the right to a tour of a city so they run free tours and then accept tips at the end. but there is no obligation to tip, if you want to just walk off you can. the tour was quite good, it went for about three hours and covered Notre Dame Cathedral, Pont Neuf which is the oldest bridge in Paris, The Louvre (from of the outside only), the Eiffel Tower, Tuileries Gardens, Arc De Triumphe, Museum de Orsay and lots lots more.After the tour our guide took us to a French bistro for lunch. me and ewen both had Croque Monsieurs which is basically a very expensive ham and cheese toasted sandwich. The only difference is that the order goes like this.., Bread, Cheese, Ham, Cheese, Bread, Cheese. Soooo much cheese!!! After lunch we set off to look for the metro and got the train to the Montmartre district to have a look at the Moulin Rouge building and walk up to the Sacre Coeur Basilica. We spent probably 20 minutes watching a street performer outsisde the Sacre Couer who was doing crazy things with a soccer ball. After this we went for a walk past the oldest vineyard in Paris which is now in a residential area just behind the Sacre Couer and then got the metro to the Latin Quarter just near the Notre Dame. We wandered down towards the Notre Dame but by the time we got there it was 6pm and closed.

Our second and last day in Paris we got up early to be at Notre Dame by 9am which turned out to be a very good idea. we didnt have to line up at all and just walked straight in. the cathedral was huge with lots of stained glass windows. its hard to say if it was more/less impressive than other cathedrals we have seen as they all kind of blend in together by now. we have seen so many! after looking inside we walked around the outside of the cathedral snapping some photos and then went off in seach of a book store we had heard about. It is called Shakespeare and Co and is full of English books. It looks like a second hand book store but it all all new books (well mostly) upstairs is about half full of old vintage books that are not for sale but are only there to be read in the store and they have lots of couches and arm chairs and different nooks for people to sit in and read for as long as you want. they also have a piano that anyone is allowed to play as well as a section of wall that you can write a note on and stick it to the wall. people had written all kinds of random things from recommending books and places in paris to go and see to declaring their love for someone to saying hi mum. They also had a great collection of childrens books and little notes you could write book recommendations on and then hide them in random books for people to find later. We ended up going back to this store twice over the course of the day. annnoyingly i had already got some books at Copenhagen airport so i didnt buy anything but Ewen got himself a book.
After the bookstore we got the metro to the Catacombs and stood in a very very long line for about half an hour, in this whole time it did not move at all. We decided to come back to the catacombs next time we are in paris and got the metro to a shopping street just near the lourve. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking in different shops, i got a new handbag because my old one was falling apart and we got a guidebook for Britain. We headed back to the hostel in the late afternoon to do our washing. while our washing was in the dryer we went to a supermarket/kmart type place to get some snacks for our bus trip the next day and Ewen saw a woman filling her bag with chocolates zipping it up and walking away. Apparently she basically filled the entire thing with chocolates and was not very subtle about it. Weird French kleptomaniacs. We got the metro back into the Latin Quarter for dinner which is where we both tried escargot (SNAILS!) for the first and probably last time. It's not that they taste bad, they just taste like garlic but they are so slippery and chewy. I kept nearly gagging because i couldn't stop picturing snails slithering along the ground. After dinner we went back to the awesome book store and then headed back to the hostel to pack up our stuff ready for Switzerland the next day.
Paris was awesome and i cant wait to go back and see more of it!

The oldest bridge in Paris

The faces on the bridge

On the same bridge from Sex & the City finale where Big told Carrie she was the one

The Louvre

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If you can see the little orange dot well done, you would qualify to be a fire fighter in Paris. All over the Louvre are these little orange stickers showing fire fighters which windows they are allowed to break in the event of a fire

First sighting of the eiffel tower for the day

Yay! Eiffel tower!

A fancy hotel that all the celebrities stay in

Even the lamp posts are fancy in Paris

Sacre Coeur

A crazy street performer at the Sacre Coeur

Ewen paying his respects

Street in Paris

The oldest (and possibly last) vineyard in Paris

The oldest department store in Paris, sadly they had to close it down a few years ago (something to do with fire hazards)

Notre Dame

The worst Hunchback impression EVER

Inside the cathedral

Some fancy pants windows

Notre Dame Cathedral from the back

Statues

Me & Ewen at Notre Dame

Ewen playing outside the cathedral

Ewen running amuck

A very cool building

This was a decorated building on one of the shopping streets we went to...

Escargot

Ewen struggling to get out his garlic slug