JB's Blog

Sacrea bleau!   

Today was our most difficult one for motivation so far! We didn’t sleep very well and for some reason started feeling dazed again. Any case we had a mission to enjoy Paris and dammit we were going to do that! First up was the Sacred Heart Church, and the hundred or so steps up to it.

Around 20-30 Africans were panhandling/begging at the entry steps, these guys were organised and made sure that no matter what entry you took a couple of them would intercept you. There tactic was quite forward, they come up asking were you are from and grab your hand to tie a string on it. They talk to you telling about the plight of Africa and ask for money to send to their families/friends/etc.
I spearheaded our way through and made it most of the way, until one big guy grabbed my arm and wouldn’t let go asking where I’m from. He was pretty pissed with me that I was non-engaging and I was getting ready with my ‘A’LAAAIDE’ line (french for Help) but they eventually gave up and just looked pissed at us.

After a decent workout walking up the steps we finally made it to the Sacred Heart Church!   

Entry is free to the Church, and you kinda walk around the sides checking out the architecture. A massive church by anyone’s standards, but I was little disappointed with the amount of stuff for sale inside. I guess this is what happens when you have millions of people pouring through the doors all the time, but it just seems to cheapen the Church.

Paris’s Metro system is pretty good, but to supplement it they have these awesome bikes for hire! If you’re a local you can buy an annual card which grants you access to these bikes any time you wish. There are hundreds of automated stations where these bikes are where you can pick one up and you’re off! I wish we had picked up bikes earlier as they’re a fantastic way to get lost in the city.

I really wish I could use my iPhone for GPS here. Global roaming with Optus my carrier in Australia lets me use data here for 0.20c AUD per kilobyte or about a bazzilon dollars per google map. Thinking I’d do what I did in America back in 2004, I purchased an Orange 3G PrePaid card here in Paris to take advantage of local rates. Well turns out PrePaid data here in Paris is about the same here. It cost 30Euro to buy the SIM and then I loaded around 10Euro (around $18AUD) credit on it.
How long do you think 10Euro would last you data wise here? Oh about 100kilobytes….. I asked about three people before I bought the damn thing here what the data rates were before I bought it, but no one could give me a straight answer. Seems like Data over 3G is a ‘new’ concept for the Frenchies, and these sales guys were fathomed on why I’d want to use internet on my phone when I could use WiFi at a coffee shop for around 2Euro for 30 mins….   At this rate it would have been cheaper just to buy the maps on my damn Garmin GPS for every country we’re going to.

Jumping back on our L’OpenBus again we headed to the triumph of Engineering for the 19th Century… the Eiffel Tower. Holy crap this thing is tall. I realise I’ve been on taller structures, but the French have made sure that no other buildings are near it, which consequently made hands sweaty with fear. Unfortunately, the line-up to climb the tower was about as long as the tower is tall!

I didn’t get to see the tower at night, because the sun doesn’t really set here until 10ish! Though I did read you can climb the tower until midnight, and I would think that would be pretty damned cool.

Because our train to ‘get the hell out’ of Paris leaves at 7ish from a station about 30 minutes travel away we made sure we had an early night. I found an awesome hole in the wall Pizza store and grabbed a Salad and PIzza. I managed to strike up a conversation between the owner and a customer which was fantastic! Finally I thought I’ve found some people who weren’t arrogant French bastards! Turns out I was wrong, they were from Canada hehe! In any case they were pretty dang cool and chatted about our travels so far…

After a peaceful 6 hour rest it was time to shake off the jet lag and view Paris in all its historic glory! Scoffing a croissant or two we jumped on the Metropolitan train system. I remember fondly of the New York Subway system and how cool it was to get to places fast. Some people in my travels have told me the French Metropolitan system was far superior…. however I don’t really see how! It’s very similar to the NYNY Subway, but I suppose there are more trains and easier access. At least the doors open automagically on the Subway.

Our first destination was the Louvre. Cara had warned me about this place telling me the first thing to know about the Louvre is that it’s fraking big. Not as big as Napoleon’s ego, but close. I found my neck was starting to creak from looking high so much! The Louvre is indeed amazing, the level of detail in this building is second to none and seeing all these artefacts of humans through out time was heart warming and awe inspiring.

On our way out we noticed a series of tour busses coming and going and we did the touristy thing and jumped on L’OpenBus. This bus had a second story and was missing a roof, which was great to check out the streets of Paris. An automated English voice system was telling us various interesting factoids of the buildings we were passing which I found invaluable.

I learnt quite a bit about French modern history, and man did they kill a lot of people to get where they are today. Pretty much every corner of Paris has had blood shed; the Square del’l'afe Maria where the revolution executions were held had over a thousand guillotine executions over a week. There was so much blood that stories say of Oxen refusing to go in there because of the stench of Human blood.

Jumping off at the Notre Dame we checked out a Crypt and looked for some food. The Notre Dame is quite amazing in it’s Classic Gothic style, though it stank pretty bad of stale water. Instead of eating at the numerous cafe’s around Notre Dame we decided to venture a little of course and just kept walking. We discovered a fantastic long narrow street full of quirky stores, bakeries and ice cream! Paris needs more narrow streets full of ice cream in my opinion.

After our quite stroll we had a little kiss and jumped back on L’OpenBus to finish our day at Napoleon’s Tomb. This building is quite large overlooking the Eiffel Tower, and also has a museum of Word War I & II memorabilia. It was quite sobering walking through the museum stepping through the years of these terrible wars. There were numerous movies showing footage of WWII in particular showing the desperation of the French people during their occupation. There were periods in Paris during WWII where there simply was no food due to the German occupation and residents were forced to eat rats. The pigeons were smart enough to get the hell out of there.

It was interesting to see the history unfold there and I found it the city even more amazing realising quite a lot of the city has been rebuilt after the war. The best was left to last though, as we found Napoleon’s Tomb.

This place is awe inspiring, and has to be the best part of Paris I’ve seen yet. Napeolon’s tomb is massive and placed on green marble, and each wing has a tomb to other great French men through out time. A massive golden Jesus Christ being crucified oversees the tombs, and the acoustics of the room make for large ‘bangs’ when the main doors open and close. Because we were there late (15 minutes before the place shuts) there were hardly any other people there which made it even cooler.

Here’s a shot of Cara coming out of the Crypt, you can’t see it in this shot but the structure to her left holds the statue of Jesus Christ.

The sun didn’t set in Paris till around 22h (10pm for you english folk) and we were buggered. Taking our chances we opted for a dodgy cheap Indian restaurant. The tables are so close together in Paris and again we had French speaking people next to us. I wanted to talk to them but the seemed quite engaged. One lady asked me in French where I bought the bottle of Wine but I could only answer her in English; luckily she understood me but I wish I could speak to more people.

Today was an awesome day!!! Cara and I have seen so much of the ‘famous’ Paris areas so we’re planning on having more of a chilled out day tomorrow.

Drinking last night I was reflecting with Cara on how tight the car spaces are here in Paris.

Parking spaces are understandably quite tight, and there whilst we were having a quite beer at 1AM in the morning a small grey Renault showed up and started parking. Thing this, there was less then 30-40cm spare space aside of the length of the Renault.

So how do you park with only 30cm of space to play? Simple. You just keep going backwards until you feel a bump.

This Renault driver had a cunning tactic of reversing with feathering the brakes until he felt a bang, then he’d do the same going forward. He bumped the car in front of him and rear around a dozen times until he was happy.

The really funny part is about 30 minutes after the Renault driver walked off the car in front of him drove away… only to be replaced by a BMW 323 who promptly backed up and jammed the Renault. The BMW driver didn’t even bother to creep forward, instead jumping out of his car with the Renault’s suspension still groaning from being smashed from the front.

Yup I reckon Scooters are the way to travel here.

We made it!

After over 24 hours travelling we’ve finally arrived in Paris! We spent our first day on a lazy Saturday drinking coffee, eating pizza, and of course getting lost.

Here’s a lovely couple we saw on the streets, they literally just stepped of a plane and onto the streets!

Man jet lag sucks.

I’ll give a tip to anyone travelling. Don’t spend the previous week staying up late with your groomsmen and collect a massive sleep debt… because you won’t get it back on the plane.

Any case we decided it was best if we stayed up for as long as we could. So without a shower and without a clue we ran around the streets of Paris. So far most people we meet speak a little english which is very handy.

Being a Saturday most shops were open so we took advantage and checked out some shops. Wowsers we found this pretty cool 4 level shop selling Girly things. Cara was slightly chuffed.

I wish I knew more French. I can say please, thank you, excuse me and ‘Where is the Toilet’ but that’s about it. Sitting down having a massive Pizza with Cara the crowded restaurant was just begging to have a chat with some locals. Problem is that we don’t know French, and whilst people seem approachable I can’t really talk to them much other then say “Hi my name is JB… do you know where the toilet is?”.

So after a massive meal, Cara hit the ‘Stop’ button and called a time out. We moseyed back to our Motel room to have an afternoon nap and recover from the massive pizza infusion.

11 hours later, I wake up at midnight to large bangs.

We never figured out what the loud bangs were, but it gave us enough incentive to wake up and head out. It was quite cold for us tropical types, but we braved the rain and walked down to the Moulin Rouge. The city is very different at night, and it was heart warming to see so many happy/drunk frenchies on the streets.

We found a pub, and grabbed a drink. First warning bells started ringing when we weren’t allowed to order from the bar, and instead had to sit and order. The waiter spoke a little english, and we managed to coax a beer out of him. He asked if we wanted medium or large. Being the rough Australian I am I chose the later, and viola a Litre of beer!

It was so good I had two! Unfortunately for us, turns out that litre of beer was $18euro… or around $30 australian dollars! Yikes! We paid and headed off into the night… and found a ‘Down Under’ bar.

Cara thought we might find some Australian back-packers or alike in there, so we headed in. Man, this pub was like no other pub I’ve been in Australia. It was more like a night club with a live DJ and a whole bunch of drunk frenchies dancing on tables. It was a happening place! Soooo many people dancing and so many couples making out. We grabbed a pint of ‘fosters’ (yikes) and had a little dance.

So far so good, we haven’t been lost too badly yet and Cara and I luckily aren’t sick of each other yet. Then again it’s only day one.