Day 6 & 7 - Paris

So here we are in Paris.

So many people say you need to be ready for the locals to be rude and arrogant. Certainly I found that on my last visit. But not this time. We were told to have a go at french with at least a "bonjour" and "merci" and to explain we were from Australia and not "English". The result has been a very pleasant experience indeed.

Day 6

We thought we would walk to a few places and see how we got on.

First up Notre Dame. After visiting the cathedral in Amiens this was a bit of a let down. Nonetheless an impressive building.

Mrs Gazza trying her hand at getting stamps at a local La Poste

Next the Louvre. Huge. Home to the Mona Lisa and vast amounts of other art. We didn't go in. This is the East Entrance.

This is the West (Main) entrance.

It seemed to us that everywhere we went there were guys from Senegal selling mini Eiffel Towers they get you in by showing the large ones but giving you the price of the small ones. 1.00 EUR each. The big ones are like 10 EUR but they want to haggle so we got one for 4.00 EUR and a small one thrown in.

Nice guy - eventually we learned to simply shake our head. If you engage them in conversation then they do not let up.

From the Louvre we kept walking west towards the Arc De Triomphe through a massive garden filled with statues.

This one needs a caption. Meme anyone?

One the way down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees we stopped in at the Abercrombie & Fitch store. The place is located in what from the outside looks like a small mansion and on the inside is fitted out like a night club. A truly amazing retail experience. Especially because we bought nothing.

Arc De Triomphe. The Arc is in the center of a round-a-bout. No lines marked and seemingly no rules. Its a mad house. The monument commemorates world war I. The sculptures on the arc are intricate and detailed.

That was enough walking so we jumped on the Metro and headed back to the Hotel for a rest.

That night we had dinner at a local Chinese. The food was fantastic. Possibly the best Chinese I have ever had.

Then after a quick stroll to walk it off it was back to the the Hotel for sleep.

A HDR image of the Notre Dame at night.

This guy was looking for money so I swapped him. 1 EUR for being able to take his pic. Fair deal I reckon.

 Day 7

Today we did a recon for tomorrow morning's early start to catch the train to Switzerland. We need to get to Gare De Lyon station. So rather than work it out in a rush tomorrow we thought we would do a dry run today. All good we then went to see the Eiffel Tower.

Having got that out of the way we went to Montparnasse Bienvenue station. Mrs Gazza read something about a shopping centre so we went to check it out. For lunch we found a nice little Patisserie and bought some food then looked for a park to eat it. I had downloaded a map app for my iPhone (Ulmon) which showed a large park nearby so we found a seat and enjoyed our local fare. We were nearly finished when a security guard politely informed us we were not allowed to eat in the cemetery. Ooops!

There was also a tall building nearby - Tour Montparnasse that lets you go to the roof on level 59 where you can get a panoramic view of Paris. So I went up with the camera while Mrs. Gazza went shopping. Another fair trade.

View from Tour Montparnasse