Third time lucky

What a surprise - our third time in Paris and we finally had a great time. I mean, we finally learnt to appreciate how nice everything was and just enjoyed being there. Paris has now even jumped up a few places on our favourite places list. Our picnics were great, the weather was kind to us, we found a nice restaurant in Montmartre, we went to our favourite spots and sights, and (I don't know how we missed it last time, but) the wine was soooo cheap and delicious (from less than £1 or AU$2.50 a bottle!). It was even more fantastic to just get out of the UK for a bit.

We had a long weekend so we left after work on Friday night the other week on the Eurolines coach from Victoria Station. It was a nine hour overnight trip and we got to cross the Channel by ferry from Dover, which was pretty cool as we also got to see the White Cliffs of Dover. We arrived at the coach station in Paris at about 6:30am and then we made our way to our hostel to drop off our bags. Forgot that I knew French and tried to speak to the reception man in English. Needless to say, he wasn't very helpful, but let us leave our stuff in the office. Kicked myself on the way out for being stupid and not speaking in French, then we went and grabbed a caffe au lait at a nearby bar. After coffee we made our way down to see what was open grabbing a deliciously fresh butter croissant along the way. Knowing that not much is open on the weekend we had lined up a brief visit to a perfume museum and then just down to hit the shops.

Here's a nice view of the Sacre Coeur behind the Notre Dame de Lorette.


We just missed the (free) tour inside the Fragonard perfume museum and it was quite packed inside so we went up and had a quick look around. Wasn't too amazing, but it sure smelt pretty. This is inside the very very nice Galeries LaFayette department store.


The ground floor full of perfumes and other expensive designer stuff like that.


Next up was Printemps where we had a look around and then went up to the roof where they have (sort of) an observation deck and a cafe.


Not a bad view.


And here's the metro station in front of Printemps


It was then time for lunch, so we found a Monoprix supermarket and bought a baguette, compté and brie cheese, cherry tomatoes, some ham, a bottle of cheap rosé, and some plastic cups. Then we headed over to the Jardin des Tuileries, nabbed some chairs and set up a nice picnic lunch.


A picnic perfect position.


Already having a good time.


Then we took some photos of the Louvre, which was over that way on the left...


This is the lesser known Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. The "other" one.




Here's the Hôtel des Invalides, where Napolean is buried.


No, we didn't go in. We just checked out the cannons and gardens and inside the little church that leads to his tomb. Look, the Eiffel Tower!


The Little General


And then we visited the Rodin Museum. We cheapskated again and paid the €1 just to check out the garden. Which is a bargain basement price considering that's where his famous bronze "Thinker" statue is.


And nicely maintained gardens too.


Looks dangerously like an activity that everybody does everyday, and not necessarily just "thinking".


Meeting Balzac




Rodin's Gates of Hell. If you look close, you can see a miniature of the Thinker statue sitting up the top. There are also other miniatures of his other status, like the Three Shades at the very top.


Tam taking in the statues near the pond.


Then, back again to the Hôtel des Invalides for a photo with cannons.


We then made our way back to our hostel to put our bags in our room and have a shower and get freshened up (we'd had a full day of work on the Friday, followed by the long coach ride, and then walking around Paris - surprisingly, we didn't pong at all!). I remembered my French this time, and freaked out the dude at the reception who was a different guy to the morning, but had apparently been informed about us. He seemed a bit miffed that we now knew French, looked Chinese but were Australians, and also that we were paying with a British credit card.

Feeling much better, we headed back out to the Eiffel Tower. Here's me and the Tour Eiffel and a nice yellow truck.


One of the reasons we came back to Paris was for the vanilla and strawberry ice cream from the ice cream truck underneath the Tower. We walked all the way (we walked pretty much everywhere!) and rewarded ourselves with an ice cream each. Sensational! And worth the €3.50 (AU$5.85).


Then, following the Lonely Planet, we tried to find this Vietnamese restaurant in Montparnasse for some tasty pho. Damned thing was that although we followed and checked the location in the guide book, we couldn't find it! We searched up and down the road, around corners and everything. But, it was nowhere to be seen. So, we ended up going to a restaurant called Paradise, where they gave us a free shot-sized glass of sangria. Food was ok, but not spectacular. Then we popped over to Montmartre to have a walk around before we headed back to our hostel and had some more French wine. We only managed to get through a half a bottle before I fell asleep.

The next day we had planned to visit the Chateau de Versailles (Palace). After another coffee and croissant like the day before, we caught the train 35 minutes out of Paris to Versailles. We had also planned on going further out to Chartres (to see the Cathedral and the little mosaic house) but the train fare was too expensive to justify heading out that way. We had thought that a return ticket from Versailles (about halfway) would be cheaper than from Paris, but it strangely seemed to cost exactly the same. So, we just stayed at Versailles. The weather started off quite nice and we had decided on another picnic. So we walked up to the Marché Notre Dame, an large outdoor food market full of fresh cheeses, sausages, roasted chickens, all types of fungus and mushrooms, breads, meat, and fruit and vegies. Awesome. We hadn't known about the markets beforehand and had already bought a baguette, some tomatoes, some pâté (we got a two-pack of country-style Pâté de Campagne, which was fantastic and some Pâté de Canard, which is the duck kind and was very rich... So rich and fatty it was almost sickening). We just bought some more cheese and this fantastic ham. Very nice.

Proving that you don't have to spend a lot to have a good time in France, we opted for a ticket just for the huge and amazing gardens. It's normally free to visit and check out, but they have this thing on where they turn on the fountains at certain times of the day and play some music to accompany it. It's called the Grandes Eaux Musicales and when that's on you've got to pay €7. It sounds like a nice and interesting idea, but when the time came, I think the fountains looked much nicer sans water. After being exposed to the sights and smells of the market beforehand, we first set up a picnic at the top of the steps and ate our food, saving the bottle of wine we'd bought for later.

This is just behind the Palace looking down the gardens. The body of water at the far end looks so surreal. It appears as though its still but also inclined, as if ignoring the laws of physics.


And looking back up the Bassin de Lantona (Fountain of Latone) towards the Palace.


The Bassin d'Apollon (Apollo's Fountain) which glints like gold when the sun hits it.


The Bassin de Flore (Fountain of Flora)


At the Bain de Nymphes (Bath of the Nymphs)


Not sure what this one is called. I actually thought it was the nymphs fountain, but apparently not.


...And then the music starts and the water pumps. Another funny thing is that although there are lots of fountains around and water and stuff associated with water (like sounds), there aren't too many WC's around if you need to go. You can duck into the gardens, which is what we saw some people doing, but then we also saw some couples ducking in there for a romantic pash and maybe more, so you've gotta be careful where you go in case you find someone else already there.


We had our wine and continued on with the Fountains. This is the Bosquet de la Colonnade, which is very very nice.


After we'd had enough, we made our way back up to the Palace and checked out the lovely gardens on the side. This is Tam sitting on the forbidden-to-climb-onto fence overlooking the Orangery (near), Parterre du Midi (middle) and Pièce d'Eau des Suisses. I don't think you can actually go down there though.


This is me in my cool Zinedane Zidane shirt (that I got from the Portobello Markets). It features the famous World Cup final headbutt (which is one of the only things I remember from the World Cup this year - Australia did well, Italy cheated, and Zidane headbutted an Italian... I don't even remember who won!).


Renovation Rescue strikes again. I'm sure it'll look magnificent.


We then caught the train back to Paris. We must have caught a quick one as we were back in about ten minutes! Just in time a delicious crêpe. Tam (naturally) had a nutella one, whereas I went for the more adventurous chestnut.


Then fully energised again, we made our way to my fave spot in Paris, Jardin du Luxembourg, where we briefly watched a game of petanque.


And found that they had some sculptures and artworks up.






Very lovely.


We hung out for a while people-watching and just relaxing. Then we got hungry again and made our way over to Montmartre for some dinner at the Relais Gascon. We even walked past that elusive Vietnamese restaurant, which was not where the LP said it would be. But, even if we had found it, we were disappointed to find that they were closed for holidays anyway. Well, now we know where to find it next time we come back (if we do). The Relais Gascon was packed when we got there and for good reason. The food was excellent. Tam had one of their famous large salmon salads but I went for a leg of lamb. They were delicious. It was, besides our previous meals at crêperies in Montparnasse, perhaps the best meal we'd had in Paris. And it wasn't even expensive either.

After the meal, we followed a tour of Montmartre based on the movie, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (aka Amélie). This is the cafe that she worked at!


Monday was our last day, and we made our way out to explore the St-Germain area (which we hadn't been to before) checking out the upmarket boutiques and cafes. It was a crappy rainy day and wasn't too much fun walking in the rain. We checked out the other major department store Le Bon Marché, hoping to find some food, but didn't realise that their famous La Grand Epicerie de Paris was actually next door. We found it eventually and stocked up on some picnic goods to eat on our coach ride back to London. We had had a good trip and had realised that we now do love Paris. It has grown on us. And it was quite annoying that we had to return to London as we felt that we could've stayed much longer in Paris.

To make matters worse, our coach ride back turned into the coach ride from hell. We caught the early afternoon coach hoping to arrive back in London around 7:30pm (i.e. in time for dinner). We didn't make it back until 11:30pm. We didn't catch the ferry this time, instead catching the Eurotunnel (which is where your car/coach/motorbike) drives onto a train and you sit in your vehicle while the train crosses underneath the Channel. The trip lasts only about 30 minutes, but bloody hell. We were four hours late without explanation from our two drivers or an apology. There were people on board complaining that they were missing their connecting trains! So, we've now been on almost all modes of transportation between London and Paris, the only exception being by plane. If there is a next time, we're definitely going to give the Eurolines coaches a miss. But yes, it was a good break away from the UK and we managed to easily have a great time in Paris.