Paris

Nanjan and I had a fabulous time in Paris. The Parisians were all very friendly and helpful - maybe because it was the beginning of the tourist season, and they all spoke enough English that I rarely had to attempt French. I did use the only French I remembered from High school which I knew one day would come in handy - un glace a la fraise ,s'il vous plait (strawberry icecream).

The Metro system was very easy to use, we bought a carnet(CAR-ney) - ten tickets for 10 Euros, which did us for the 4 days we were there, we also bought a two day "on/off bus" ticket for 28euro to minimise the walking we had to do around the city.

One thing that amazed me the most was the size of the Eiffel Tower - I knew it was going to be big, but it was actually humungous. At night it is lit up like a Christmas tree complete with fairy lights that flashed on and off on the hour.
Eiffel Tower duck pond


We did two tours. The first was to Giverny to visit Monets gardens and home. The gardens were in full bloom - the water garden, with water lillies of yellow, cream, baby pink and magenta; rhododendrons and Japanese maples(reminded me of our garden in Blackheath); rows of bearded iris; enormous poppies with seed heads the size of your palm and flowers as large as a babies head; poeny roses; willows that dipped into the edge of the water and of course the green bridges covered with mauve and white wisteria.
Monets home

Water Garden

Bearded Iris


The second organised tour was a "night-light" cruise of the Seine River with a show at the Moulin Rouge-"Feeries". The show was worth the money. The show started just after 11pm and was everything I had expected and more(or less in the case of the costumes!-although Dieter had seen the show a few weeks before us and had warned me about that). Glitz, glamour, feathers, rhinestones, sequins and pearls(instead of clothes in some instances) comedy, shadow puppetry, gymnastics and all topped with a complementary glass of champaign.

We also visited Sainte Chapelle, Notre-dame(I also did the Crypt), Arc de Triumph(and attended one of the nightly 6:30 unknown soldier ceremonies),strolled the Champs-Elysées, Tuilleries and the Steinbourg gardens. The food was scrumptious, especially the flaky chocolate croissants, marinated bacon and salmon salads.
Notre dame

Sainte Chapelle

Also Sainte Chapelle

Steinbourg Gardens


Jan left early on Tuesday morning not looking forward to her 24 hours of flying back to Aust, but looking ready for a really long sleep. My flight was the late flight back to Prague, so I walked around Paris for the day and caught the metro to the airport - which was really easy (for around 7euro RER B fast train from Denfert-Rochereau metro station straight to Charles de Gaulle airport).