We arrived on a Friday night and spent our first weekend in Paris by visiting a couple of flee markets on the outskirts of the city, and a few other sites in different arrondisements of Paris. For instance, the amazing cemetery where Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison, amongst other notable people, are buried.
We also walked along the famous street 'Champs élysées' to the Arc de Triumph, making our way gradually to the Eifel tower. We decided that we weren't that interested in climbing the tower, particularly due to the massive lines. We also visited the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens which were really nice and a great place to relax. We were lucky that the weather was perfect for this!
Over this weekend we also tried lots of traditionally French food, including lots of baguettes, cheese and even snails. They tasted good but I think that was mainly attributed to the pesto sauce they were cooked in.
On Monday we went to the Louvre, which was just as we had imagined - gigantic and beautiful. Some of the artwork that we saw included the Mona Lisa (which was actually bigger than what we had thought), the Venus de Milo (that some of you would know from the simpson's gummy de Milo that gets homer accused of sexually harassment), lots of French paintings and sculptures and Egyptian artifacts.
In the evening we went to see a show at the famous Moulin Rouge, which we were told was a must do. It's hard to explain what we thought of this. It was
definitely entertaining. Maybe the best word to use for it on the
whole was tacky. Luke and I couldn't stop laughing for the first five minutes about how it's like a topless version of a rock eistedford and also much like a eurovision song contest entry.
On Tuesday we went shopping to a street full of guitar shops and some clothing stores that Erin had recommended (thanks ez). Bought her some cute shoes for her birthday that I hope to send home soon.
We dedicated our Wednesday in Paris to visit the Catacombs. We had intended to go the previous day but there was a long queue that would have taken hours to get through. After waiting in line for two and a half hours we were able to get in this time. It was very interesting the way that the bones had been stacked up those hundreds of years ago; kind of like a piece of artwork. It's hard to believe that they were all people like us, who had lived their own lives. It's actually quite sad..
Thursday was Bastille day, the day that signifies the country becoming a republic, so we went to the Palace of Versailles which is about a half an hour train ride from the city. One of the official events celebrating the day includes the Republican's Party that takes place on the banks of the Palace's Grand Canal. Lots of French families and friends came together in white clothing for a picnic. And we took part in this also! We also looked around the surrounding gardens and properties of the palace, which go on forever. It was a lovely site and we were fortunate to have great weather.
On Friday we visited the Musee D'Orsay, that mainly focuses on Impressionist painters from the 19th century, including Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh. A favorite of mine was Maurice Denis' 'The Muses'. We stopped in at Shakespeare & co, an English bookstore, before heading to the 10 and 11arr for a nice walk of the supposedly bohemian area.
In the evening we took a bottle of red wine down to the banks of the River Siene and watched the sun go down. It was lovely.
On Saturday, our last full day in Paris, we went in search of vinyl record stores. Unfortunately a couple of the stores had closed and this had not been updated on google, but thankfully one remained open and Luke found a couple of records to purchase.
Our last night in Paris was great fun. Luke played at a French friend's 30th birthday party, which was held at a bar in the 15arr. Luke met him while playing in Tasmania in January last year. The gig went really well and we met some really nice people.
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