What happened in Paris - Paris trip part 1
Hi!
I know I know, it's been ages! But I'm back!
Let's talk holidays!
My first glimpse of this years really long holidays was a short trip to Paris and Disneyland!
What's the better way to celebrate the end of exams session than going on a trip! So we gather a group of friends and family and decided to go to the capital of France. It was May 28 when we headed to Warsaw Airport. Early in the morning, we had a flight to Paris Charles De Gaulle. At about 11 o'clock we went out of a metro station and saw Paris for the first time (actually it was my 3rd time there, but for the rest of the group it was a first time). Have you seen Disney's Ratatouille? Why? Well... the first thing we saw was a humongous rat that run in front of us right after we went out of the metro station. And that reminded me of this movie. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend!
Ok, this will be so basic and lame.. we were walking for 40 minutes around the park to find a coffee but we didn’t succeed haha. We found one Starbucks on a really nice street.
I would say that the whole trip was spontaneous so there will be more lame stuff like this one later :P We drunk coffee and chared our phone there's. After that, we jumped into the metro again and went to our hotel. We left metro on Gare de Lyon. Our hotel was one block away. On our way there we spotted that lovely street so here is the first picture from the trip:
After the check-in and a quick rest, we started exploring Paris. First, we walked towards the river bank. Paris is famous for its beautiful bridges and buildings on both riverbanks as well as small islands on the river. We followed the river till Bastille were we took a metro to Champs Elysee. Of course, this street is pretty awesome. It's wide, straight with the hedge of trees on both sides. And shops.. lots of shops. But we didn't have time to even check them out. We went straight to the Arc de Triomphe. It is one of the most popular landmarks in Paris. Build in 1836 this massive arch represents everyone who fought during the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. We went up on the roof it and the view there is breathtaking! Absolutely stunning, just have a look at these pictures:
In the first one you can see the city and in the background, there is the modern business district called La Defence.
Then we were walking around, went for a dinner and we came back to the hotel because everyone was tired. After one hour our friends finally came to the hotel and they went the same route we did a few hours earlier. We stayed in the hotel.
In the evening we all met under the Eiffel Tower. Everyone was very impressed! Picture time! PS we look like million dollars, right? :D
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| Fame! |
The next day started with the quick breakfast on a cute street and we started our tour. The first target was Notre Dame. We decided not to take the metro because you can't really see anything from there. We walked through few bridges, on islands Ile Saint-Louis and finally to Ile de la Cite. After a good hour walk, we approached the cathedral. There was a long photo shoot cuz girls had to have the best picture. Da! Here is one with all of us.
The next stop was.... who can guess? Starbucks of course! hahaha I know I know just look at this:
When we were full of those drinks we realised what time it was. We rushed to the Louvre.
Then we went inside this famous glass pyramid.
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| Musee du Louvre |
We only had time to see the most popular pieces in the museum, one of which was, of course, the Mona Lisa. We were lucky I have to say because we managed to go through the crowd of iPad's photographers and we saw the painting from as close as possible.
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| Mona Lisa |
In the museum, we saw also Venus de Milo sculpture and Winged Victory of Samothrace. Then we went to the Apple Store to charge our phones. Really great when everyone has an iPhone. :P We ate a quite healthy dinner in Pret a Manger and we gathered some snacks for a next stop. Generally speaking, Paris is monumental! Every building is so beautiful and together they create a unique urban tissue. Enlarge the next picture for the details ;)
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| A larger panorama from Arc de Triomphe where you can see a uniqueness of Parisian urban tissue |
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Typical street :P
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We decided to sit on the Champ de Mars with a view of the Eiffel Tower. We bought some wine and then things started to go out of control... We had a nice picnic there.
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| Snacks, wine, friends, Eiffel Tower |
We were chilled, even shared our wine with a polish beggar. And then two things happened. First of all the weather decided to switch from sunny to stormy and rainy. Just in one second... We were not prepared for it too much as you can see in the picture above. The second thing was that we decided to go on top of the Eiffel Tower during the storm. You know.. the wine and stuff probably started to work. Apart from making friends with American people in the queue underneath the tower we were calm and quiet. Or were we? Haha.
But we really did it. There were thunderbolts everywhere, the temperature dropped and we were going up the tower. And I will just remind you that constructed from steel and with a height of 300 meters it is a one big lightning rod. Btw. I'm afraid of heights but I didn't care that much then. So at the top, we were taking pictures, of course, we had some beer and I suggested to celebrate this event with some small sweets. Macaroons!!
We spent approximately 2 hours having fun it the rain, observing the city above the clouds.
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| Paris during the storm! |
When it got dark we went back to the hotel but I don't remember that part well... But it was not the end of our day. At midnight we had to catch a taxi to go to Disneyland because the trains were already not operating. It was a long and wet night for us! Haha
Part 2 coming soon!
XoXo
Chris
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