Day 7 - Place des Vosges and arrival in Avignon

Our last day in Paris began with a walk around the streets around the hotel in Nation (while we waited for our laundry to finish).

Evan had wanted to see Place des Vosges before we left, which is reputed to be one of the most beautiful squares in the world. The 17th century buildings were impressive, but their contents (hotels and boutiques) were largely uninteresting.

We had a quick final lunch at Le Pain Quotidien (and Evan bought their cookbook) then got on the TGV to Avignon.

The trip took about 3 hours and was very comfortable, and took us through some pretty French countryside which gradually became drier as we headed south.

After arriving in Avignon that afternoon we checked into the aptly named Hotel Mignon (Cute Hotel) which is inside the still standing old city walls.

In front of the Papal Palace in Avignon.

The Hotel Mignon.

We took a walk around the city taking in the sights and labyrinthine mediaeval alleys, followed by dinner at one of Avignon's many 'Chinese-Vietnamese' restaurants.

Day 6 - Sainte Chappelle & Musée d'Orsay

This morning was taken up with checking out of our ultra budget shoebox and depositing our bags at Gare de Lyon for the day.

Then to Sainte Chappelle, a small (by French standards) mediaeval chapel on Île de la Cité surrounded by the newer Palais de Justice. Sainte Chappelle is remarkable for its near absence of walls, being nearly all stained glass. It is one of the most impressive interior spaces in the world.

It's worth commenting on the security checks we had to go through to get into Sainte Chappelle and other monuments. Bag checks and X-rays, and metal detectors make for very slow and long queues everywhere. The reasons for these checks is not always apparent and E didn't remember them being there in 2004. We can only guess it is a result of the London bombings.

The amazing interior of Sainte Chappelle.

After Sainte Chappelle we wandered a bit aimlessly and dropped into an old patisserie founded in 1802, Dalloyau, for cakes and macaroons. We enjoyed these in the Jardin du Luxembourg with some of the first sunny weather of our stay in Paris.

A delicious cake...

...and macaroons.

The Jardin du Luxembourg.

After our sugar break we did some fragrance shopping at L'Artisan Parfumeur and could not resist buying some more sweets at La Maison du Chocolat.

That afternoon we visited the Musée D'Orsay, famous for its impressionist paintings. A particular highlight was the collection of Art Nouveau objects.

The Musée D'Orsay.

A fantastic Art Nouveau room in the Musée D'Orsay.

We met up with friends Arwen and Alejandro for a delicious vegetarian dinner at a restaurant in le Marais whose name translates as 'The Supreme Victory of the Heart'. Evan had met Arwen through the Paris Quaker Meeting in 2004.

Arwen, Alejandro and David at The Supreme Victory of the Heart restaurant.

Our new hotel for one night was clean and comfortable.

Day 5 - Versailles

Today we ventured by train out to Versailles. We headed, of course, up the wide leafy bulevards straight to the palace - the Chateau de Versailles.

The palace was impressive from outside. Almost as impressive was the huge crowd that had turned up on this wet and windy day.

The palace was just as impressive on the inside; huge guilt rooms with painted scenes on the ceilings. Half of the Hall of Mirrors had been renevoted, with the other half covered up.

Even though we walked through many rooms, we saw only a fraction of the palace. What we saw was packed with visitors and, appart from a handful of pieces, was lacking furniture. It was hard to get a feeling of how the palace was in its heyday.

Everything is big in scale at Versailles.

The Orangery.

The gardens are incredible - especially the distances. We walked through the gardens to the pink marble Grand Trianon: a pretty amazing building when you consider it was built so the King could escape the rigors of court life at the Chateau. Unlike the Chateau, the crowds at the Trianon were more bearable, and many rooms were decorated with furniture from various periods.

A room at the Grand Trianon.

Next we walked to the Petit Trianon - built for Marie Antionette as a mini getaway castle. Inside was interesting, but more fascinating were the grounds around the builing; especially the Queen's Hamlet. The Hamlet is a little pretend village where the Queen could come a play with the pretend villagers. It is obvious that the royalty were out of touch with the poverty of the commoners.

The Queen's Hamlet.

After the long walk back, we treated ourselves to a drink at a Salon de The, and then some sweet things from a patisserie.

A treat.

Back in Paris, for dinner we tried a French vegetarian restaurant in the Marais. The food was good and the service was friendly.

Day 4 - The Louvre

An exhasting day. We continued to have bad weather: Cold and wet.

We started the day at Galeries Lafayette - a huge department store with a spectacular main hall and opposite the Opéra. We needed to find an electrical adapter, and afterwards we browsed the designer clothes (a little shocked by the prices). Anyone that knows David would know he couldn't leave without visiting the foodhall. lt was packed with beautiful cakes, breads, cheeses, chocolates and more. We bought some cheese and baguttes for lunch.

What a department store!

Lunch in the park.

After lunch in the Jardin de Tuileries, we ventured into the monsturous Musée du Louvre. We barely scratched the surface of this incredible collection, but still saw to much to list. Some highlights included:

• The medieval moats of the old fortress.


• The ancient Egyptian collection.


• The Winged Victory of Samothrace.


• The crown jewels.


• The Mona Lisa (of course).


• Napolean III's apartments.

If we were to go again, we would probably not try to see so many things - we were a bit rushed. We would also consider the audioguide; the items are displayed with very little context.

The Louvre.

Napolean III's apartments.

Afterwards, we browsed the stores at the nearby Jardin du Palais Royal. One of the stores was Salons du Palais Royal, which only sells fragrances designed by Serge Lutens, most of which are only available in this store.

That night we had Japanese in the Marais.

Day 3 - Montmartre, UNESCO & St Germain

Today we visited:

• Montmartre, narrowly avoiding the hawkers at Sacré Coeur, followed by lunch of toasted sandwiches at our first French brasserie and a compulsory sighting of Moulin Rouge.
  

Metro station at Montmartre. What you can't see if the never-ending spiral staircase we had to climb to get out of here!

Sacre Coeur is in a great spot with views of all of Paris. It's a little gloomy inside, however.

Café des Deux Moulins, where Amelie worked.

The Moulin Rouge.

• Hôtel des Invalides where we were impressed by the grandeur of Napoleon's tomb (his sarcophagus is enormous) and the stone suits of armour decorating the garret windows.

The huge and detailed garret windows of the Hôtel des Invalides.

• UNESCO, where we joined a tour group (the only way to see this out-of-place brutalist building since September 11)

Garden at UNESCO.

• St Germain, including the old, old church and Laudurée (yes, again), where D had a chocolate religieuse and E an Ispahan (rose macaroon filled with raspberries and lychees).

A shop window in St Germain. Look at how small those dolls get!

Later we had a beautiful French meal at Le Petit Chatelet overlooking Notre Dame, followed by a browse around the bizarre Shakespeare & Co English language bookshop.

Day 2 - La Tour Eiffel & the Champs Elyses

Last time E was in Paris, he ‘discovered' a wonderful café in Le Marais called Le Pain Quotidien, so that seemed like a good place for our first breakfast in Europe. On the way there E picked up a copy of the ‘Gay Vinci Code' (with a Dictionary of gay French included & a recommendation by the Oscar Wilde on the back!) and D a copy of a French boardgame magazine. Le Pain Quotidien's breakfast consisted of huge basket of different types of breads (you could help yourself to the spreads - mostly chocolatey - on the table)and a bowl (!) of hot chocolate.

Breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien.

We arrived at the Eiffel Tower early to be amazed by the queues--it seems everyone else got there early to avoid the crowds too! The weather was also unseasonably freezing, so when we made it to the summit we quickly admired the view and descended again to seek shelter in a gift shop.

The crowds at the Eiffel Tower.

View from Eiffel Tower, towards Montmartre.

David at the Eiffel Tower.

Having done the Eiffel Tower we walked to the Arc de Triomphe. The views from the top were beautiful and the views of the Parisian traffic navigating the roundabout below truly frightening.

From there we walked down the Champs Elysées, ate bad French pizza, looked in a fragrance shop and visited the unique church, La Madeleine. To E's delight we stumbled on a Ladurée near La Madeleine, so an abundance of macaroons were enjoyed shortly after in Les Jardins des Tuileries before heading back to the hotel & collapsing.

Awful pizza near the Arc de Triomphe. We promise not to eat any more pizza in France!

Evan at the Arc de Triomphe.

Eight 'lanes' of high speed madness around the Arc de Triomphe.

Day 1 - Arriving, ice creams on le St Louis

We arrived in Paris at about 10am, feeling almost too tired to be excited. It all went a little pear shaped from there, mainly on account of our luggage. Suffice it to say we were dropped off by the airport bus at a different terminal from our luggage, and we later discovered someone had rifled through both our suitcases. Ugh!

We did manage a 3 hour walk while waiting for check-in time during which we had a look at Notre Dame and ate ice creams on Île St Louis. Walking back to the hotel to check-in to the tiniest hotel room I've ever seen, we had a browse through the Pompidou Centre gift shop and a wander through the gay/Jewish quarter, Le Marais.

For dinner we went to the Latin Quarter for an Indian meal (the fresh food was heaven after 25 hours of airline food!)

View from our hotel room.