Paris

Given a relaxed attitude about the pace of our travel, we opted to take a low cost, albeit much longer (7 hours) bus to Paris, as opposed to the 2 or 3 hour train. The ride was a lengthy one, through rolling green pastures and the like, and the scenery made it a tad more bearable, as did the surprisingly comfortable seats which much to my annoyance, were sans drink holders.

We arrived at a bus terminus fairly central in Paris, and made our way to St Denis, a suburb on the outskirts of Paris where we'd be staying with a Couchsurfing host for the next few days. With some local information on lesser known sights, local cuisine and other Parisian tidbits, we were set for a busy couple of days.

Thankfully a lot of the 'main' tourist attractions are within a (long) walk of each other. After a long first day, we worked out we had clocked up over 20 kilometres seeing the usual Parisian monuments, from the Eiffel Tower, to the Louvre, to Arc De Triomphe, Champs Elysee, and so on. We ended up the Eiffel Tower in the late afternoon/early evening, and spent a little while braving the chilly winds as the sun set over the city.

Louvre

Eiffel Tower

View from the Eiffel Tower

View from the Eiffel Tower

Pont de l’Archevêché

A house warming party in outer Paris was a pleasant but unexpected way to spend our night, as we joined our hosts Pierre and Connie in a party in their friends new apartment. I really don't know what I expected, but for some reason it was a little surprising to find EVERYTHING exactly the same, from the music (which I've seen noticed, no matter where we go, American music dominates, even though no-one has any idea what they're singing), party customs, it's hard to describe, other than there was nothing really different at all... although, this was a new take on a familiar house party experience, perhaps the most notable being the views of the Eiffel Tower out of the windows, inclusive of a light show on the hour, every hour.

The following day we had a bit more time in Paris, and got to enjoy everything at a much more relaxed pace, which was necessary given the 5am wake up to stream the AFL Grand Final over the internet. Our morning started in Montmartre, on the steps below the Sacre Coeur, overlooking the city of Paris with wonderful panorama views. Buskers and performers kept us entertained as we took in the scenery, before heading down to Abbesses to grab some lunch from the nearest boulangerie/patisserie. Needless to say, our diet consisted heavily of a variety of baguettes, pastries and coffees throughout most of our time in Paris and throughout France in the coming couple of weeks.

Montmartre

Montmartre

Canal Saint Martin near Stalingrad Station provided us with a view of a dfferent side of Paris, and was a recommendation from Pierre. Besides the Canal itself, the area was a lot less polished than what we had seen the previous day, and much less of a tourist attraction (if it could even be called that), which resulted in an ability to explore an interesting without hordes of other tourists around.

Canal St Martin

Canal St Martin

Canal St Martin

The same could not be said for Pere Lachaise cemetery, with an solid supply of tourists (not withstanding ourselves, of course) wandering around and through many of the the large and for most the part extremely extravagant burial sites, including those of Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde, the latter two of which were covered in a ridiculous amount of tributes, or graffiti, depending on how you want to look at it.

Pere Lachaise 

Pere Lachaise 

A final walk along the Seine in the evening, admiring the sights of the city once more topped off an amazing couple of days for us. I was a big fan of Paris after coming here a few years back, and whilst many people seem to find issues with the city, I couldn't be anything other than impressed with how wonderful it was. Maybe it was the picture perfect weather and a hassle free couple of days, but for meI still think Paris is right up there.