Where We Have Been - Europe - France

We arrived into Gare de Lyon station in  Paris on the TGV having spent the better part of a day travelling across Spain and France, and then up though France from Barcelona. It is somewhat surreal watching the scenery scream past while resting in comfort with the speed display showing that you are travelling well in excess of 200kph.

Once in Paris we once again jumped on an open top tour bus to explore the inner city, orientate ourselves and get our first look at the beautiful city that is Paris. Our first impressions were of a city that was clean and well maintained and therefore clearly loved.

Travelling in the road chaos that encompasses the Arc de Triomphe, caused in part because of the twelve avenues that radiate out from it, we found it somewhat disconcerting to see people on scooters disappear out of sight around the front of the bus and pop out on the other side. We thought the Italians were crazy drivers, the Parisians may just give them a run for their money!

After a trip down the Champs-Élysées we found ourselves in the Place de la Concorde, (Harmony Square), with it’s stunningly maintained sculptures and fountains.

It is renown as the location where many famous people were publicly executed during the French Revolution including King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre. At that time the square was temporarily renamed the Place de la Révolution (‘Revolution Square’).

The centre piece of the Place de la Concorde is the Luxor Obelisk, an around 3,500 year old ancient Egyptian Obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II that was gifted to France in 1829.

David has developed a bit of a thing for Obelisks during our travels finding them in many places, not just Paris, also in Istanbul, London, New York, Rome and even Vatican City.

After having spotted the Eiffel Tower from the open top bus we made the mandatory trip to visit, actually we went back a second time so we could wander around below as the weather was not great the first time. The queues to get tickets and then on the first elevator , were pretty long but we had come to expect them in Europe so we stuck it out. Eventually we caught the first elevator , an interesting ride up the leg, to the second floor and then the next one vertically to the third floor, which is as high as the public can go, to have a good look the Paris. While it took quite some time to finally get to the top, damn queues, the view to the Musée national de la Marine, down the Champ de Mars, along the Seine and more make the Eiffel Tower well worth the effort.

We visited Notre Dame, (Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris), one of the many churches we visited in Europe as the history and architecture really must be experienced and seen. Not the most impressive of the churches we have visited but a must visit even if only because of being famous because of Quasimodo, Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

After leaving Notre Dame we stumbled onto this stunning looking place with an impressive set of entrance gates. As we explored  further around the corner we noticed a long queue to enter. Thinking it must be worth a look we joined the queue. As we got closer to the front Carolyn commented that some of the people were in suits and carrying cases. We also noticed some Police and what appeared to be a metal detector on the door. Carolyn went forward to see where we were, it turned out we carefully queueing to enter the side entrance to a place called Palais de justice, a court!. Time to exit stage left!

While in Paris also took the opportunity to visit the Les Invalides where we called in to have a look at Napoleon’s tomb and also the Musée d’Orsay, an extraordinary old train station, that houses a large collection of Impressionist masterpieces including works by Claude Monet, Renoir, Cézanne and van Gogh to name just  few.

It was outside the Musée d’Orsay where we had an experience that we joke about to this day. As we were a little hungry we chose to try Nutella Crepes from a stall, basically crepes stuffed with a significant amount of Nutella. Needless to say they were very nice BUT extremely messy and we ended up resembling a couple of toddlers with Nutella spread all over our faces, hands etc.  laughing our heads off standing amongst the animal sculptures.

We took a day trip to the Palace of Versailles which is well worth doing. The opulence under which the rulers of those times lived is very difficult to comprehend let alone describe in words. It truly is something that needs to be seen first-hand. The Hall of Mirrors, the Gallery of Battles and its immense paintings, the Royal Bedrooms, the Fountains, including the Apollo Fountain, the Statues and last, but by no means least, the very expansive and impressive Gardens. Quite frankly a day does not allow enough time to do it justice!