PARIS (Part I)
Jun. 10th, 2002 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fluffymarkMe and Val, four days in the romantic capital of Europe to escape the Jubilee. Warning : Long, dreamy and full of little tit-tats.
I wanted to be anywhere but London. And then an offer too tempting to refuse appeared - Val was having her birthday in Paris, on her way home from a month traveling around France and Italy. So I booked a coach to take me away and meet up with her.
Saturday morning, after no sleep, got on coach to flee England. And a million other people also had the same idea. Worst traffic jam *ever* just outside dover. Evil traffic. Bad bad bad. The coach took 5 hours to move the last 2 miles into the ferry port. It was however a very nice sunny day (yay!), and everyone just sat on the side of the motorway, or in the middle of the motorway and there was a lovely street party atmosphere. A friendly spanish lorry driver offloaded a crate of strawberries and we happily munched our way through those. Yay for spanish lorry drivers!! Finally got to dover at the time scheduled for arrival in Paris. Oh well. Got to Paris about 5-6 hours late. Val is such a star - she was waiting for me there with food and wine, which was *just* what I needed. Got to the Youth hostel (near the Place de la Bastille), made ourselves ham and salad rolls (yumyum!) and I drank most of the bottle of 80 Euro-cents Wine (Val getting poor innocent me very drunk!). By now it was after midnight, and I was very wobbly, and Val showed me around the local area (Marais) which was very pretty and full of lots of little cute bars and squares and narrow streets. There was even a goth club (!!) but we decided not to go in. Then (I think....I was *very* wobbly) we headed for the Seine, and crossed the river via the Ile-St-Louis and listened to the people playing music on the riverbank by Notre-Dame. It was all very very pretty. We then headed back to the Hostel, and I think it was very late (after 3am) when we returned to the hostel. I must have slept like a log.
Prodded awake by Val the next morning at around 8am. Oh dear...lazy again as usual! On 1st Sunday of the month many museums in Paris are free entry and we decided we'd take full advantage of that. So we headed straight for the Louvre (early before the huge queues formed). I'd been once before but it was still fascinating. Pretty Egyptian things. Yay! We decided that the Venus de Milo is in fact really really ugly. Greek/Roman wing mainly closed though, so not good. Mona Lisa overhyped. Napoleon's apartments fascinating. Somehow we managed to spend all morning in there, and then it was time for lunch. Found a boulangerie and bought a nice baguette and also found a cheap bottle of wine. So we had a picnic in the Jardin de Tuilieries near the Louvre and made more yummy ham and salad rolls. There were some people in the park making strange noises by banging pots making them go 'boink' and playing tunes. Fab. Found some icecream, and then about a million people on roller blades went past. Odd. Went to a little church (Eglise St-Merri) near the Centre Pompidou for a free performance of some classical music. This sounded very pretty but we tired of it eventually and headed for a park (Les Halles) to have a rest. Found one of those amusing little chess-tables they have over there. Unfortunately it appears we had to provide our own chess pieces (shocking oversight!) and we couldn't have a game. The Modern art museum at the Centre Pompidou was also free entry today, so we had a good look around there. I now adore Kandinski. Wow! So pretty with many rainbow colours and amazing patterns. There was the scary room which was most disturbing. Eeeeek. And the room covered in leaves. Another room was playing odd, but very gothic style short videos. So there I was watching and listening to a Fischerspooner video they have playing there Yay! *bounce* Very nice. And so to find some dinner. We found a restaurant serving Moules Frites (Mussels and chips). My first ever time eating Mussels and I was scared, but Val insisted I should try so I was willing to give them a go. They are in fact totally yum! Like eating nice fish in a divine sauce, but think Pistachio nuts. More wine was drunk, and I somehow managed to win a beer glass from some scratchcard thing that the restaurant had. Yay! Lucky me. (Val didn't win one). Back to the Hostel, where we stayed up until midnight to see in Val's birthday.
To be continued....
I wanted to be anywhere but London. And then an offer too tempting to refuse appeared - Val was having her birthday in Paris, on her way home from a month traveling around France and Italy. So I booked a coach to take me away and meet up with her.
Saturday morning, after no sleep, got on coach to flee England. And a million other people also had the same idea. Worst traffic jam *ever* just outside dover. Evil traffic. Bad bad bad. The coach took 5 hours to move the last 2 miles into the ferry port. It was however a very nice sunny day (yay!), and everyone just sat on the side of the motorway, or in the middle of the motorway and there was a lovely street party atmosphere. A friendly spanish lorry driver offloaded a crate of strawberries and we happily munched our way through those. Yay for spanish lorry drivers!! Finally got to dover at the time scheduled for arrival in Paris. Oh well. Got to Paris about 5-6 hours late. Val is such a star - she was waiting for me there with food and wine, which was *just* what I needed. Got to the Youth hostel (near the Place de la Bastille), made ourselves ham and salad rolls (yumyum!) and I drank most of the bottle of 80 Euro-cents Wine (Val getting poor innocent me very drunk!). By now it was after midnight, and I was very wobbly, and Val showed me around the local area (Marais) which was very pretty and full of lots of little cute bars and squares and narrow streets. There was even a goth club (!!) but we decided not to go in. Then (I think....I was *very* wobbly) we headed for the Seine, and crossed the river via the Ile-St-Louis and listened to the people playing music on the riverbank by Notre-Dame. It was all very very pretty. We then headed back to the Hostel, and I think it was very late (after 3am) when we returned to the hostel. I must have slept like a log.
Prodded awake by Val the next morning at around 8am. Oh dear...lazy again as usual! On 1st Sunday of the month many museums in Paris are free entry and we decided we'd take full advantage of that. So we headed straight for the Louvre (early before the huge queues formed). I'd been once before but it was still fascinating. Pretty Egyptian things. Yay! We decided that the Venus de Milo is in fact really really ugly. Greek/Roman wing mainly closed though, so not good. Mona Lisa overhyped. Napoleon's apartments fascinating. Somehow we managed to spend all morning in there, and then it was time for lunch. Found a boulangerie and bought a nice baguette and also found a cheap bottle of wine. So we had a picnic in the Jardin de Tuilieries near the Louvre and made more yummy ham and salad rolls. There were some people in the park making strange noises by banging pots making them go 'boink' and playing tunes. Fab. Found some icecream, and then about a million people on roller blades went past. Odd. Went to a little church (Eglise St-Merri) near the Centre Pompidou for a free performance of some classical music. This sounded very pretty but we tired of it eventually and headed for a park (Les Halles) to have a rest. Found one of those amusing little chess-tables they have over there. Unfortunately it appears we had to provide our own chess pieces (shocking oversight!) and we couldn't have a game. The Modern art museum at the Centre Pompidou was also free entry today, so we had a good look around there. I now adore Kandinski. Wow! So pretty with many rainbow colours and amazing patterns. There was the scary room which was most disturbing. Eeeeek. And the room covered in leaves. Another room was playing odd, but very gothic style short videos. So there I was watching and listening to a Fischerspooner video they have playing there Yay! *bounce* Very nice. And so to find some dinner. We found a restaurant serving Moules Frites (Mussels and chips). My first ever time eating Mussels and I was scared, but Val insisted I should try so I was willing to give them a go. They are in fact totally yum! Like eating nice fish in a divine sauce, but think Pistachio nuts. More wine was drunk, and I somehow managed to win a beer glass from some scratchcard thing that the restaurant had. Yay! Lucky me. (Val didn't win one). Back to the Hostel, where we stayed up until midnight to see in Val's birthday.
To be continued....
no subject
Date: 2002-06-12 04:01 pm (UTC)Next time I go somewhere, would you (and casby) like to come along too? I've got ideas about prague and poland around christmas/newyear. :) :) :)
Re:
Date: 2002-06-13 07:55 am (UTC)