Waking up in a very misty and raininy Paris. Obviously a bit dissapointed about the weather, but nothing was going to temper our excitement about the day. For a few months Nina has worked on the itinerary for our three days/ four nights in the French capital.
Just a litle intro to Paris: The charming french capital sits on the banks of the River Seine and was build 2 000 years ago. The history is fascinating – from Gallic origins to Roman conquerers, through opulence, bloody revolution, raging wars and much more!! From a small medieval village, it became the capital of Napoleon’s empire. Do not forget the French Revolution and the Nazi occupation during World War II in 1940.
We were realy excited to depart on our exploration…
We still had to deal with the rental car…remember, way back in Ghent, when we picked it up, there was a big mix-up with our booking. So the plan was for Arno to drive the rental all the way back to Ghent, get a train back to Paris and join us again later the morning. He left realy early and execute the plan very well.
In the meantime, the rest of us, took the Porte de Versailles green underground line into the city to meet up with our first Free walking tour of Paris. We booked this in advance with the on-line app,Civitatis. Our meeting point was the Hotel de Ville, close to the Paris tourist office.
Hotel de Ville has been die location of the Paris city halls since 1357. Today it is the largest munisipal building in Europe. The prestiges building, also come with some gruesome history – In 1794 Robspierre and his allies were guilotined without a trial in the square beside the Hotel – and Place de la Revolution was established as the public execution ground.
Back to our tour…. It was a general introduction to the city and all it’s beautiful architecture and stories. Well, we got dressed warmly, since it was early January in Europe – but the drisseling weather got te better of me. Thomas wanted to stay with the tour, but the girls all wanted to walk a little bit faster to combat the cold. In hind sight, we did miss out a bit, but we walked ourselves over to the next item on Nina’s Paris day 1 itinerary - the Paris Opera Ballet,which moved to the Palais Garnier in1875 and delighted ourselves in the beautiful interior.
(For years we have watched 'Find me in Paris' - a beautiful tale of a russion princes, who time-travelled to Paris to attned the Royal ballet School at the Garnier. We were all so excited to be here at the location of 'Find me in Paris' )
At least we could warm up a bit in there!! Unfortunately no ballet performances took place during the time of our visit in Paris, but there will defo be another visit….
Arno actually found us, while we were browsing some of the top brands in the myriad of little tiny shops. Quite impressive – me think, for him to found us there!!!
Next – a meander along the Champs- Elysées. This street which connects the Place de la Concorde with our next stop, Arc de Triompf, is considered by many as the ‘most beautiful avenue in the world’. Being one of the world’s famous comercial streets too, we could not stop ourselves from dipping into a few shops. An electrical, gadet and much more store, captured the attention of the clan….it took a while to get all six of us back on target – climbing the 284 steps of the Arc to reach the viewing deck at 50m high.
With the Paris 2-day pass, I booked us a few sights to get fast access to and miss the long crowded ques. So eventhough I’ve booked the Paris pass, I still had to book specific time-slots at the spesific points/places of interest. Luckily at the Arc, we could use our passes at any time.
The Arc de Triomphe honours those wo fought and died for France in the French Revoluionary and Napoleonic Wars. Beneath its vault lies die Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. Presented also a viewing platform over Paris, all the way down the Champs Elysees, to the modern arc at La Defence.
Winter early dusk was setting in, but we still had a few stops to make. The atmosphere in the streets were magical, with little drabs of leftover christmas décor, brigthening the raininy afternoon. We were all fascinated by the effort the fashion houses make to decorate their shops!! Quite bteathtaking!!
Louis Vitton and Dior
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| Galerie of Modern Art |
Our feet took us all the way, down River Seine, passed the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (unfortunately we missed the last entrance with 5 minutes) to our final sight for the day, the twinkling Eifel Tower. The girls were dressed for their planned photoshoot at the foot of this iconic landmark. Jackets, hats, scarves came off, drapped over the arms of the very tired, not-so-impressed male members of the traveling party, and squells of delight made even the passer-by’s smile. We crossed over the Seine for a wander in the Eiffel park and some more photo’s.
Now we were all ready to get back to our hotel…but oh…it turned out to be a bit of an epic mission to get ourselves to the correct underground-combination-station. Needless to say, we were dog tired, when we got home. We still had to make dinner….
It was a long day…but soooo worth it.
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