When we visited Montmarte, the highest point in Paris, there were the usual suspects, hucksters trying to sell people bits of string that they braid on to their wrists. But they don't actually tell you they're selling them. They come up to you and just stick some string on you and start braiding. And they're rather aggressive about it too. We pushed our way through the first group, and took this picture from the next level up on the hill. At that level, Tiffany saw a lady get pulled in by one of these hucksters. She told him no, and tried to get away, when he grabbed her hand and started braiding. Tiffany yelled at him telling him that she said no, giving her time to get away. Then the guy started yelling at us calling us names and stuff. I was this close to yelling back at him accusing him to be a pickpocket.... which he wasn't, but it would bring him enough unwanted attention that it would be worth it for him to shut up. But we just started up the hill again.
The church itself, is really pretty. We walked inside, and did a little cattle line around the inside of the church. I've felt a little funny inside churches as a tourist. People inside are praying, and we're inside going ooh and ahh at the architecture and stained glass. I think I'm pretty churched out on this trip.
Walking to the artist area from the church, was this puppeteer. He was making his puppet sing Oasis' Don't look back in Anger. It was really fun to watch. We didn't have any euro coins to give him unfortunately. I felt bad that I wasn't able to tip him. There are so many people in Paris just begging for money, that when I see someone really earning it, I feel obliged to give. Speaking of which, the French have always had a snotty reputation, and beyond the hucksters, beggers, con-artists and the ONE rude waiter that we've had, the French have been absolutely wonderful to us. An old man stopped to give us directions to Montmartre, as we were clearly lost tourists staring at a map, and looking around at the street. A tobacco shop owner who didn't speak english, was very patient with me trying to figure out that I wanted stamps for postcards, and when I got what I wanted we had a mini-celebration together! The Parisians are great, and I can't say enough nice things about them.
Walking back down from the church, we ran into this precious scene. A man and his daughter playing soccer in the street with two other friends, a very young boy, (maybe his son?) and a twenty something. Every so often a car would come by, they'd move aside, and start playing again. This continued until the young boy accidently kicked the ball over a wall. It was definately one of the highlights of my day. I think watching people is far more intersting and fun than seeing paintings on the wall (not to say that isn't fun either).
Moulin Rouge is down the hill from the Montmartre district. I took a few more pictures between this sight and the last. Maybe about 75. But you're not allowed to see them, as I want to keep this blog family friendly. :) Lets just say that there was a museum involved.
To cap off our trip to Pais, the Eiffel Tower. We got there pretty late, this is about 9:00pm there. Yeah, it doesn't get really dark until about 11:00pm. To give you an idea, Seattle Washington is 47 degrees North. Paris is 48 degrees north, and London is 51 degrees. So it takes a while for it to get dark, especially in the summer.
You have to buy tickets to use the elevator. There are a couple of floors on the tower. The first floor (what Americans would call the second) which has a restruant on it, the second floor, which is an observation deck, gift shops and some food, and the third floor which is the top. the elevator goes to the second floor, and if you want to go to the first floor, you need to take the elevator down, or use the stairs. Yes there are stairs. 710 steps total. We took the elevator all the way up to the top. To get to the top, however, you have to use a second elevator from the second floor to the third.
This is Tiff on the second floor of the Tower. We're waiting in line. Lets set the stage. We waited almost 45 minutes in line just to buy a ticket, to use the elevator, then about 15 minutes to use the elevator (which is right after we buy the ticket). Then we have to wait in line again to get to the top. I don't know how long we waited in line to get to the top, but it was pretty long. Notice the sky... its pretty cloudy...
When we finally made it up to the top of tower, all you could see was clouds. I was foresighted enough to bring my trench, but it was still pretty cold and windy.... and rainy.... We were out on the upper observation deck for maybe 3 minutes, at the most. It was fun to see clouds pass below us. But it was just too cold to stay up there, and so we got in line to get back down. They closed the stairs to the top, so you had to take the elevator. Now at this point, I would tell you that if you ever find yourself in Paris, don't go up to the top of the tower, since the waiting in line, really is not worth the sight. We were able to see through the clouds, and the view isn't that much more spectacular than from the lower level, since Paris is mostly flat anyways. But, I know that if I were other people, I wouldn't really listen to that word of advice, because we've travelled nine thousand kilometers, I'm going to the top of the darn thing. So I won't give you that advice. Instead, I'll give you this piece of advice, take the stairs down if you can. More on this later.
By the time we made it back to the third floor, they had turned on the lights of the tower. We got a bite to eat, all they had for us to eat was french fries.... again (I don't know how often we've eaten french fries in Paris, but it was way too often at least once a day I think.)
Then I talked Tiffany into taking the stairs down. She didn't really want to, because she was tired, but I gave a little pouty face and she gave in. So we took the stairs down and seeing the tower from the stairwell is really amazing. Unfortunately, its kind of hard to take pictures of the tower, since they have safety barriers up so you don't start getting any ideas about climbing on the tower. But going down the stairs (at least from the third floor) isn't very bad at all. The handrail is a little grimey, but it was a lot of fun. They also had these signs up telling you about the history and construction of the tower. I'm pretty sure that the signs were a temporary exhibit though. The best signs were the signs around the first floor, which showed how they lit up the tower in different ways throughout the years. E.g. for the countdown to the new millenium, a full 1000 days before new years eve, they lit up the tower with a giant countdown clock. They had plans for building two side towers next to the main tower at one point.
Every hour after they light up the tower, the tower gets sparkly for 5 minutes. When we were walking back to the hotel. It did this while we were in the tower too, and people started freaking out and running out to take pictures of it. I really couldn't understand this, since from on the tower, all you would see would be a strobe light flashing on and off, which wouldn't be terribly exciting. But from far away, it really does look pretty nice. We left the tower at 11:00, and made it back to our hotel, which is by the Louvre which is about 3 kilometers, by 11:40. We were pretty beat, and we had to be up and ready to leave for London by 10. We were pretty wired, too, since we were having fun watching the bats fly around at night.
Speaking of our hotel.... This is our hotel's elevator. Most of the hotels in Paris are converted apartment buildings, and some of them never had elevators. So at our hotel, they stuck an elevator in the empty space of the stairwell. It fits two people. Its pretty awesome! Getting our luggage in and out of it however, not very cool.
So that was our last day in Paris. We took a cab to the train station, I gave the cabbie my last euros, and the train to London was pretty quick. We got to the hotel, went to the grocery store and got some real food, walked around the hotel garden, met a very cute kitty cat, who smelled really good (yes I smelled it). We're both just rather happy that we are in a place that speaks english, and can get some food besides french fries and eclairs. Not to say that eclairs are bad either.... just too much too often.
Walking back down from the church, we ran into this precious scene. A man and his daughter playing soccer in the street with two other friends, a very young boy, (maybe his son?) and a twenty something. Every so often a car would come by, they'd move aside, and start playing again. This continued until the young boy accidently kicked the ball over a wall. It was definately one of the highlights of my day. I think watching people is far more intersting and fun than seeing paintings on the wall (not to say that isn't fun either).
Moulin Rouge is down the hill from the Montmartre district. I took a few more pictures between this sight and the last. Maybe about 75. But you're not allowed to see them, as I want to keep this blog family friendly. :) Lets just say that there was a museum involved.
To cap off our trip to Pais, the Eiffel Tower. We got there pretty late, this is about 9:00pm there. Yeah, it doesn't get really dark until about 11:00pm. To give you an idea, Seattle Washington is 47 degrees North. Paris is 48 degrees north, and London is 51 degrees. So it takes a while for it to get dark, especially in the summer.
You have to buy tickets to use the elevator. There are a couple of floors on the tower. The first floor (what Americans would call the second) which has a restruant on it, the second floor, which is an observation deck, gift shops and some food, and the third floor which is the top. the elevator goes to the second floor, and if you want to go to the first floor, you need to take the elevator down, or use the stairs. Yes there are stairs. 710 steps total. We took the elevator all the way up to the top. To get to the top, however, you have to use a second elevator from the second floor to the third.
This is Tiff on the second floor of the Tower. We're waiting in line. Lets set the stage. We waited almost 45 minutes in line just to buy a ticket, to use the elevator, then about 15 minutes to use the elevator (which is right after we buy the ticket). Then we have to wait in line again to get to the top. I don't know how long we waited in line to get to the top, but it was pretty long. Notice the sky... its pretty cloudy...
When we finally made it up to the top of tower, all you could see was clouds. I was foresighted enough to bring my trench, but it was still pretty cold and windy.... and rainy.... We were out on the upper observation deck for maybe 3 minutes, at the most. It was fun to see clouds pass below us. But it was just too cold to stay up there, and so we got in line to get back down. They closed the stairs to the top, so you had to take the elevator. Now at this point, I would tell you that if you ever find yourself in Paris, don't go up to the top of the tower, since the waiting in line, really is not worth the sight. We were able to see through the clouds, and the view isn't that much more spectacular than from the lower level, since Paris is mostly flat anyways. But, I know that if I were other people, I wouldn't really listen to that word of advice, because we've travelled nine thousand kilometers, I'm going to the top of the darn thing. So I won't give you that advice. Instead, I'll give you this piece of advice, take the stairs down if you can. More on this later.
By the time we made it back to the third floor, they had turned on the lights of the tower. We got a bite to eat, all they had for us to eat was french fries.... again (I don't know how often we've eaten french fries in Paris, but it was way too often at least once a day I think.)Then I talked Tiffany into taking the stairs down. She didn't really want to, because she was tired, but I gave a little pouty face and she gave in. So we took the stairs down and seeing the tower from the stairwell is really amazing. Unfortunately, its kind of hard to take pictures of the tower, since they have safety barriers up so you don't start getting any ideas about climbing on the tower. But going down the stairs (at least from the third floor) isn't very bad at all. The handrail is a little grimey, but it was a lot of fun. They also had these signs up telling you about the history and construction of the tower. I'm pretty sure that the signs were a temporary exhibit though. The best signs were the signs around the first floor, which showed how they lit up the tower in different ways throughout the years. E.g. for the countdown to the new millenium, a full 1000 days before new years eve, they lit up the tower with a giant countdown clock. They had plans for building two side towers next to the main tower at one point.
Every hour after they light up the tower, the tower gets sparkly for 5 minutes. When we were walking back to the hotel. It did this while we were in the tower too, and people started freaking out and running out to take pictures of it. I really couldn't understand this, since from on the tower, all you would see would be a strobe light flashing on and off, which wouldn't be terribly exciting. But from far away, it really does look pretty nice. We left the tower at 11:00, and made it back to our hotel, which is by the Louvre which is about 3 kilometers, by 11:40. We were pretty beat, and we had to be up and ready to leave for London by 10. We were pretty wired, too, since we were having fun watching the bats fly around at night. 
Speaking of our hotel.... This is our hotel's elevator. Most of the hotels in Paris are converted apartment buildings, and some of them never had elevators. So at our hotel, they stuck an elevator in the empty space of the stairwell. It fits two people. Its pretty awesome! Getting our luggage in and out of it however, not very cool. So that was our last day in Paris. We took a cab to the train station, I gave the cabbie my last euros, and the train to London was pretty quick. We got to the hotel, went to the grocery store and got some real food, walked around the hotel garden, met a very cute kitty cat, who smelled really good (yes I smelled it). We're both just rather happy that we are in a place that speaks english, and can get some food besides french fries and eclairs. Not to say that eclairs are bad either.... just too much too often.
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