We continue our Eurotrip journey the next day departing London, UK, to our second country, France. In France, we’re only staying in one city just like the UK, and of course it is Paris! For the next four days Paris will be our home and we’ll be touring all around the city.
Paris was definitely on the top of my to-visit cities in the world. Too often you see it portrayed as one of the most romantic and luxurious cities in the world, on posters, billboards, TV, and movies (of course, Da Vinci Code). With a bit of conversational French under my belt and slightly better reading comprehension of the language, I hope that it would come in handy.
Something I’ve always wanted to do when and if I reach Paris – speak with the locals in (poor) French, and have a cup of coffee on the streets of Paris, haha.
One thing I should mention is that there is free admission to all the museums in France on the first Sunday of every month, so that’s basically what we planned this whole trip around. There are way too many museums and sights to visit here, but we kept it at a decent pace, not wanting to rush through anything (learning from our experiences in London – rushing burns us out way too fast!).
Continue reading and we’ll start off the day early at 5:30am departing the hostel for the morning train…
As I brought along my small camera, I was able to take some movie clips along the trip, so I’ll try this out to see if video incorporates well with the photoblog.
To start off, that’s where we’re located geographically, at the edge of England, almost going across the English Channel.
Finally reaching our Hotel for the next 3 nights. We found out that they messed up and thought we were coming in the next day. Oh boy. So they transferred us to another hostel for the night…
After a couple of metro stops and some walking with our heavy luggage, we finally reach our place for the night, Hotel Paris Magenta Strasbourg. Actually the photos make the rooms look nicer than it is…
We arrive at the famous Arc de Triomphe, which is a war memorial monument in the middle of Charles de Gaulle Plaza. It’s one of Paris’ most recognized landmarks with its unique design which cars circle it (with no traffic lines between the lanes!). It is also directly parallel to the Louvre via the famous Champs-Élysées (expensive shopping!).
To get to the monument is certainly interesting. You can only get to the centre of the circle by going in an underpass and coming out the other side. As traffic is almost non-stop above ground, it is usually not advisable to run across the street :-P
After dinner was finished and we walked a bit of Champs-Élysées, we decided to head over to the Louvre for some night shots. It was getting late at 10:30pm, but we didn’t want to miss the night scene. And it didn’t disappoint at all. If you’re ever in Paris, you definitely need to visit the Louvre at night.
As I walked through the arches that lead to the main plaza of the Louvre, and there stood the pyramids, right in front of me. I paused for a moment and looked in awe. This is one of those rare moments during the trip where I got the shivers. I thought to myself, “so this was what it looks like in the movies, on TV, but much much bigger.” The lit pyramids were so beautiful.
June 27th, 2009 at 12:05 am
Perfect symmetry, very nice!
June 28th, 2009 at 4:16 am
I had been to Louvre many times but did not know the beauty of the night. Very enjoy seeing these~~ Very good!!
June 28th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Thanks :-) One of my favourite spots on this trip!