Lunch In Paris

5th June 2007
Just so happens to be Mark's Birthday - Happy 21st babe!

We had a pretty early start, but if you're planning to go to Paris just for the day then I guess it's to be expected - and the sunrise at 4am was beautiful!










Taking the Eurostar (not actually as expensive as Id first thought especially seeing as they do youth rates for under 26's) we arrived to the station at 10:30 and Adeline met us there. It was great to see her again and we recognised each other straight away even though its been almost two years. The first thing we did (after grabbing a quick crossoint for breakie) was head straight up to Basilique du Sacre Cour, it was a beautiful building and so were the views from the top of the hill out over the city.










Having Adeline to show us around was amazing (especially seeing as we didnt really have time to get lost). We wandered through the artsy markets of Monmarte, a guy made a silhoutte of me out of a single piece of black paper and scissors and we tried on buree's - look how French I am! (okay so when you're writing this down it doesnt seem so funny but in my head you should have a French accent when you read this : P)










We wandered back down the hill towards the town and hopped aboard the Metro, gotta love the great public transport connections in all major cities in Europe! For our one meal in Paris we decided to get crepes from a street vendor, Ive had them in Japan and England with sweet toppings on but for lunch I went for ham, cheese and egg and it was delicious. We took a break to soak up the rays, eat lunch and wave at all the tourists on the floating restaurants on the Le Siene (river that runs through the city) before another wander.

With Adeline guiding us we just happened to stumble upon Notre Dame and later on, the Lourve. Unfortunately the Lourve happened to be closed on Tuesdays (something to keep in mind if anyone else is crazy enough to go to Paris just for the day - not that you'd be able to get around the whole thing in one day anyway!) But it was nice to chill outside for a little bit.












We walked past the Place De La Concorde and through Jardin Des Tuilertes (a big park in the middle of the city - kind of reminded me of the National Mall in DC with the Washington monument!) and then we wandered along Champs De Elysees to sit down a little cafe for a bit of afternoon tea and a coffee. We were just sitting quietly chatting and enjoying the afternoon sun in the outside part of the cafe when all of a sudden a group of armed policeman made a row along the footpath in front of us and about ten minutes later a group of protestors showed up. Adeline said it was something to do with them outsourcing a call centre of a telephone company and explained that protests were at the essence of French culture, so I had to get a photo looking like a hippy in from on the armed policemen!



















The two big "must-see's" in France were a great way to end our trip, we wandered all the way to the end of Champs De Elysees to be greeted by the Arc De Triomphe - I still dont understand why they build these amazing structures in the middle of roundabouts... the same thing happened in Madrid too but it makes it so hard to take a decent picture! And we finished off the day with a photo of the three of us in front of Tour Eiffel.














Mick was pretty tired after an intense day covering as much of Paris as we could so she chilled in the park for a bit while I went up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower. There were huge queues to take the lifts up but none for the stairs so I decided to walk up (you can only walk up as as high as the second level) and although I didnt have time to take the lift right to the top, the views from the Eiffel Tower out over Paris in the late afternoon were still pretty amazing.



















Well, we managed to cram about as much into Paris in a day as possible. It was a great chance to catch up with Adeline and awesome to take Mick to another country for the day on her visit. Had an amazing experience with you guys : )