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| Tower of Saint Jacques Rue de Rivoli. |
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| It was recently cleaned, it took years to finish. |
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| Fountain near Les Halles. |
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| A Blurry 'Nike', sorry, there were so many people, it was amazing. |
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| I think it was a Botticelli. |
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| 'The battle of San Romano, by Uccello. |
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| Oopps I forgot this one too, but it's on the way to 'Mona Lisa'. |
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| Mmmm Monkey from a building... |
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| Arch at the Garden du Carrousel |
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| Yep the entrance to the Louvre. |
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| The Seine, view of the Museum d'Orsay. |
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| looking towards Ile de la Cité, with Notre Dame behind. |
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| Fabulous Antique shop window, in the right bank. |
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| The antique shop next door. |
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| Looking down rue de Rennes, at Montparnasse Tower...a foggy day in Paris. |
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| The Pomidou Centre, Paris. As close as I got to the Munch exhibition. |
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| Niki de Saint Phalle fountain at Pompidou, I just love it! |
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| Opposite the Saint Phalle fountain. |
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| Hotel de Ville, Town Hall. |
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| Rodin Museum, 'The Thinker', thinking about 'Invalids'. |
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| Sculptures in the Rodin Gardens. |
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| Views from the shop 'Printemps' maison (home) store, on the 9th floor observatory deck & cafe. One of my favorite places for eating, drinking and drawing. |
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| View of Opera. |
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| View of the Eiffel Tower. |
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| The shops below at Bd Haussmann. |
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| View of a grey Sacre Coeur. here is how the day went... First of all, Max was sick, coughing all night long. I laid awake nearly all night long listening to him coughing. So I thought that I might have to cancel my trip. But Yves was very gracious and said 'go to Paris'. I felt guilty leaving Yves and the kids, but he gave me the confidence to go. So I was up early and ready to go... I caught the 8.16am bus giving me enough time to get my ticket, a snack and casually walk to my train. My train was leaving at 8.56am, as it was a TGV it was on time. But that wasn't so. They are working on the roads near the station, and I wasn't sure which bus stop was the right one. I almost asked, but thought...no there will be another stop before the station. Opps, before I knew it my bus was wizzing as fast as it could, away in the other direction of the station. There was some swearing and then some power walking back to the station. Going past the Pompidou- Metz and the glorious road works, which had made my morning. I finally made it to the station with 10 minutes to spare, but I had to get my train ticket from the automatic machines. Of course the machine right at the entrance was being used by someone and so I had to walk 3 minutes to the other end of the entrance. I found the very next machine, also reading rapidly the number of the platform that I needed. I then punched in my codes, put in my credit card and waited anxiously for my tickets to print. I had my tickets and then went to a drink machine for a cold bottle of water. I walked speedily to the platform and then to the right carriage - no.18. It was the last one and then I found my seat. I had one or two minutes before the train left on time... Phew! But I was already sweaty from walking and stressed getting to the station. 'Oh great!' Anyway the train was soon going at maximum speed to Paris... I arrived at 10.24am, and then proceeded not to freak-out, but take my time in getting organised to get tickets and grab a Metro and go firstly to the Pompidou (Paris), and try and see the Munch exhibition. As always, with a main station it was full of people. Many where also going to the area where the metro was, I waited at the automatic ticket machine to buy my 10-garnet tickets. The best way to buy tickets, it's cheaper! Good, I had my tickets... then to find the right metro line... at home we had a big map book of Paris, and so I left it there, relying on the big posters at the metro stations... So that went well, I decided to go to 'Les Halles' and walk from there. So it's always busy on line 4, so I had to act like a sardine and stand up all of the way. At 'Les Halles', the exit is at a shopping mall, it use to be like a shopping mall in 'Redfern', but I noticed not too many sleezy people and loads more shops, that was a nice surprise. I finally made outside and was even more happy to see them renovating the exterior of the building. In the old days it was where the merchants went to Paris to sell their wares... like a big market. But someone in the 70's had this grand idea of curving glass for an archtiectural nightmare... well that was my opinion. I glimpsed a part of the Pompidiou building and headed for it. When I got there, 'oh my', there was a line to enter with thousands of people there. Mmmm, not a good idea... so I headed towards 'rue de Rivoli', to get a bus towards the Louvre. I got a bus soon enough, and then stopped near the entrance to the 'Carousel du Louvre', the entrance underground, with a food hall, shops and loos. But when I went down the escalator, 'yikes', there was the line to enter the Louvre almost at the bottom of the escalators... 'that's not good', so I turned around and went back outside, where I noticed a sign saying 'ticket holders use the pyramid entrance', so off I went. Then I saw to my horror that there were many people lined up as well. 'Buggar'. Then I decided to try the secret entrance, this is where Louvre pass holders can go... as I use to have one... but now I have an "Artist's Card", and cool, it worked, I walked straight in. There was/is an exhibtion of 'Alexander the Great and Macedonia', I lined up and waited and waited, okay I got in for free, but still... I had to wait 20 minutes... with a french lady bashing her bad into me every two minutes. Sometimes the French have no idea of personal space, this has been my experience everywhere in France. So I stood stall and tried to stand strong and not let her bag bashing bother me, but of course it did! Thankfully eventually we were let in. Unfortunately it was a "Blockbuster", which means I saw lots of heads, well the back of lots of heads... I spent 10 minutes in there and was glad to get out. I did a spot of shopping and then tried to see some other stuff, I should of gone to the ancient area, but I was a bit silly and went into the popular area, on the way to 'Mona Lisa'. I saw some great old favorites, Botticelli's etc, but it was so busy I didn't really enjoy it. I think the time between Christmas & New Year is not a good time to visit tourist spots in Paris. (Noted for next Paris trip). So I left the Louvre and had a look at the shops in the 'Carousel du Louvre ',... most of them had changed since I was there last. There was the biggest 'Apple' shop I've ever seen and it was packed. But I found a cool arty farty shop called 'Arteum',I could of went nuts, but I was very reserved and bought a Keith Haring plate for Max and a Paris colouring book for Alex. I then decided to go to an art shop just across the river, called 'Sennelier', it has a great collection, and men who wear white coats and take their job very seriously. But it was closed for lunch...oh well next time. So I walked up to Saint Germain, and found a great chain store cafe for lunch and a loo. It was of course filled with other tourists. Then I was thinking I might try the Pompidou one more time to see if it was still crazy for Munch. So back on a Metro, back to 'Les Halles', but I was sad to see there still was a huge line. So what to do.... Then I remembered Yves talking about a great exhibition at the Rodin Museum... so off I went. At the entrance there was a line not too long, but I thought I would give my 'Artist's card' a go, and like magic I was let in and I got in for free! Yippee!!! And the exhibition was fantastic! Over 300 nude drawings done by Rodin, they were exquisite and very inspirational... I even bought the catalogue. Then I went to the Cafe and had a lovely cup of tea and muffin. I strolled around the gardens did a bit of drawing and took a few few photos. I was a bit arted out, so I went to the big shopping area at the Bd Haussmann. I went to 'Printemps', on the 9th floor is a cafe, observation deck of Paris. One of my favorite places for a snack and to get a bit of atmosphere... the cafe had been redesigned and I thought it was a bit chaotic, which was a bit sad, but I guess they needed to update. Anyway, I walked towards Opera and down Avenue de Opera, towards the Louvre. I visited some shops I use to know, like Brentano's and Monoprix. Overall I found a few things quite surprising... I found that all of the people I spoke too were super nice and friendly and lots of shops had changed. I walked back to the Louvre, thinking I might head back in, but I had over done it. I could hardly walk and my back was killing me. And after almost missing the train in the morning, I headed back to Gare de L'est... It was good to write a few postcards, rest up, reflect on my day and eat a bit of dinner before I went back to Metz. The train was on time and I was glad to get home and rest up after a big day being a tourist. I was also very grateful to Yves, who looked after the kids, while I was in Paris. Now I just have to get organised for the next visit.... |
