Paris, Paris

Je t'aime toujours!

I know you had to wait a bit for this post, but we are having a slight bug infestation problem in our house. Kitty bugs and such. The past four days were all about cleaning and washing....

But, Paris!

Paris was lovely. We saw so much in the three full days we were there. We did not do the full tourist thing, just a few Parisian highlights, we tried to soak up as much atmosphere and culture as possible strolling through certain neighbourhoods of the city.

We went to Paris by train (just as our first time, two years ago) and it is truly a very relaxed way to go to France. I really can recommend it.

Our appartment layed in the Marais neighbourhood, close by the Musee du Arts et Metiers. For us it was in between Place de La Republique and Forum des Halles.


We arrived around dinnertime and we dumped our bags and went to the City. Isle de la Citee to be exactly, where we found something to eat. We strolled on the Isle the la Citee in the dark looking at the beautifal lit Notre Dame, Pont Neuf, and the Louvre.

Louvre in the evening

Pont Neuf

The Three Grace

The next day we started by visiting the Louvre, and we enjoyed the Greek and Roman statues, French and Italian paintings and well, we walked by Mona Lisa. She is pretty, but really, as Big Man stated "an overrated post stamp".

I absolutely loved the big painting of the coronation of Napoleon and his Josephine. Unfortunately, he divorced her about the time the painting was done because she could not give him children.

I also took lots of pictures of the floor tiling at the Louvre. They are really beautiful, lots of quilt-like patterns. I was probably a bit of an oddball, pointing my camera at most rooms to the floor, instead of the statues or paintings. I will post these pictures in a post about "Creative Paris"!

 

After the Louvre, we went into the Tuileries, the garden behind the palace of the Louvre. It was warm and sunny, we were very lucky. We walked from the Louvre, through the Tuileries, onto the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. Quite a walk, but very lovely.

We walked so much. With this kind of weather for the first two full days it was ridiculous to go by metro (we did a lot with the metro too) so short distances we walked.

Tuesday, our second full day, we visited Pere Lachaise, the great Parisian cemetary, where famous people like Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and ofcourse Jim Morrison lay at their final resting place. Lots of "sepultures" and quite a nice scenery.

After that, we went to Galeries LaFayette, the great department store and strolled a bit there, looking at all the luxury. I wanted to get something from the hair department (Evita Peroni hairtoys) but unfortunately, everything was gone.

On foods and drinks, well, at the end of the afternoon we settled down in some sort of cafe (a real one, or an Irish pub). And in the evening we tried several types of restaurants. French food is great.

Unfortunately, croissants in the Netherlands are absolutely not the same, so for breakfast I went to the bakery in our street and the little supermarket around the corner for real croissants and some orange juice.

Well, these were just a few highlights. We had an amazing trip, and thanks to our parents both Little Man and Little Lady were well taken care of. Soon I will take you on a tour along litte shops I found in Paris. With yarn. O, and some tiling pics.

Have a pleasant evening, and I say "Good Night" because tomorrow is a normal working day for me and the alarm clock goes off very early in the morning.....