Paris

Recently, Ali and I just got back from our long 9 day fall break in Paris. It was AWESOME! We took a bunch of trips to places around France and Paris. I didn't bring my computer because Ali was bringing her iPad but then we forgot the cord that lets me transfer photos from my camera to Ali's iPad so I wasn't really able to make any blog posts while in Paris. Now I have lots of photos so the next few days may be filled with posts from our Paris trip. I think I will start with a post about the city we stayed in, Paris.

I thought Paris was so fun and I just love big cities. It was so fun to see all the monuments, museums, parks, ride the metro, and walk around to all different places. To me, Paris seemed like a mix of Washington DC and New York City.

 Like New York City, Paris had a good contemporary art scene. This Pop art gallery was right down the street from our hotel and we passed it every day. Evan Hughey, if you are reading this, I thought of you when I saw this alligator.

 Cool Public art street sculptures. That would be fun to skateboard on.

 I loved riding the metro in Paris. This is a Paris Metro ticket. Ali and I bought many of these, especially around halfway through our trip. For the first half of our stay in Paris, we walked pretty much everywhere. Eventually, there got to be a point that we had seen everything in our neighborhood and walking to the train station and the Eiffel tower was nice but it just took a few hours and all the walking was starting to eat up our time. For 3€40 (3.40€), Ali and I could ride the metro to anywhere in the city and for 13€, we could buy a "book" of 10 metro tickets giving us a discount. They had unlimited passes but we never felt that we needed those.

Ads were everywhere in Paris and in the Metro. I like this one, Joe Bonamassa is a really good blues guitar player. Too bad I wont be in Paris in March..... maybe if I win the lottery I can make it a weekend trip from Alfred!

 While walking along the streets in Paris, we would come across these drains with water bubbling up from them and little rivers of water flowing down the streets.....

This is actually the way Paris cleans its streets. They have these "drains" overflow and then they have people sweep the trash into the river of water that flows down the street into a receptacle somewhere before another drain.

 We caught the river mid flow. Some places in Europe (Florence) seem to be pretty water conservative. Paris is not one of them. I guess they do have the Seine River that runs through the city....

 The Seine River, (pronounced "seen") is the river that twists and turns through the center of Paris. It splits off here and there and has a really fast current. You can see the tourist barges get pushed downriver by the current when they go to turn around on the river. The Seine is pretty at night, so is most of the city.

While in Paris I had to dine out once. I took Ali to a mildly fancy (for Paris) restaurant for dinner. While there I had to try a glass of French Champagne. It wasn't really cheap but when your in Paris, you can't pass up the opportunity. We did NOT eat any escargot, Frog legs or any of the strange French foods as we simply just weren't interested and there were plenty of good things to eat. We barely ate at any restaurants and most of the time we would get food to go or at small cafes because it was cheaper (and still delicious)!

This was probably my favorite places to eat at. "Snack Time" was not really cheap but they did have really good pizza and baked food. Their "3 Fromage" Pizza had gorgonzola on it and it was amazing! I want to try putting gorgonzola on my pizza. For 1 slice of Pizza at Snack Time it was 5€! At night the price increases to 5€60! Its nuts but the pizza is delicious and it is a pretty decent portion. Its a great "Snack".

 Typical of European cities and towns, Paris had its fair share of old buildings and elaborate churches. The architecture in France's old churches was very gothic and very different from the Italian style churches. With flying buttresses, rose windows and gargoyles, the French churches really stood out. I thought they were neat.

Like much of Europe, Paris also had a bunch of electric cars. They don't dominate the street, but you do see them and I think they are really neat.

 These "Twizy" cars are my favorite electric cars. They are awesome and I want one. They have doors that open like fancy sports car and they run totally silent. They fit 2 or 3 people and even plug into ordinary wall outlets! You could charge your car on an outlet that you find! Mount a bin to put a tent in on the top and some solar panels and you have yourself an awesome road trip mobile! Talk about Euro Gypsy lifestyle! Travel for FREE! (Just bring extension cords) The Twizy's are like the sporty electric cars. I want one in America.

The French are very good bakers. I loved the chocolate filled croissants in Paris. They aren't nutella balloons like in Italy. In Paris they also had delicious chocolate chip cookies. I don't think the Italians understand what a chocolate chip cookie is. This is a photo of an amazing bread place called, "Eric Kaiser Artisan Bread". The bread there was AWESOME! I want to make bread like this!

ERIC KAISER NUT BREAD! I forgot exactly what this bread was called but it had a lot of nuts in it and the inside was highlighter yellow colored. It tasted like no other bread I had ever eaten and was delicious. I ate it on the plane ride home.

Speaking of flights, this was the international gate on the flight to Paris. The International airport was tiny and flying international was like a regular flight in the states. On both the flight there and the flight back, they only asked to see our passports when we checked in for the flights and we never went through any customs and they never stamped our passports. Security was a breeze. It was awesome. Flying the ultra budget "RyanAir" was an experience in itself. I could write an entire blog post on our travel, particularly our flight to Paris but thats another post if I even post it.

 Paris has Crepes and they come from France. We DID go to the region that is famous for their crepes and we had some of the salty style crepes. They were very good. In Paris, we mostly ate dessert crepes with Nutella. Ali LOVES Nutella crepes and would eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I let her.

 Through most of our trip, I didn't think Paris seemed like a very touristy city and thats because Ali's dad booked our hotel in a part of town that was not touristy at all. Ali kept telling me that Paris has its touristy parts. One night, we were coming back from sitting in front of the Eiffel tower, eating Pizza (thats how you eat in front of the tower) when we wanted dessert. We stopped at this place near the tower and immediately saw the tourist influence. We wanted to see how much a crepe would be and we were shocked by the 8€90 price! we pay 3€ for our Nutella crepes and never more than 4€. This is prime example of why if your on a budget, you should avoid the touristy parts of Europe. This is why people say that everything in Europe is expensive. That "Banane Nutella" Crepe at the bottom of the menu should be 3€50 not their outrageous 13€90. Also the crepe stands near the Tower all had their crepes pre made and they were thick like pancakes. Crepes should be thin, and should never be confused with "pancakes".

 Paris has lots of little "districts" or zones. One day when we were walking, we walked through the video game district with all of these video game stores lumped together.

 It is interesting that in Paris, some of the video game stores actually would fix broken consuls. They must be owned by families or not big corporations.

Game store after game store, it was really neat.

 One night we were walking somewhere when we stumbled upon a Barbie store that must have been having some sort of event because there was a line to get into the store that stretched way out into the street.

 Paris has lots of really big gardens scattered all around the city.  They are very beautiful and very well kept. There are modern art sculptures in some of the gardens and pathways and benches. It would be fun to have a picnic at one of the gardens on a nice day.

 Like New York City, Paris had LOTS of high fashion stores. It seemed almost every clothing store was high fashion with nice displays and very high prices

 Ali's dad picked out our hotel and it was great! He gets special deals on nice star hotels so he found a good one of us. Hotel De Nesle was a small hotel that was south of the Louvre in a part of town that made France not seem touristy at all to me. It was a small and nice hotel but it wasn't super super fancy and Ali's dad got it for a very reasonable price. The artwork on the doors and the signs was all hand done. It was really cool.

 There was this neat spiral staircase that you used to go up and down. The rooms didn't have bathrooms in them, just sinks. The bathroom is on each floor right across from the spiral staircase and they were very small. Since most buildings are probably very old, I believe they were just small closets and they were probably converted into bathrooms later on hence the term, "Water Closet".

 The French LOVE several American Presidents. They really like Kennedy and they have named streets and buildings after him. Franklin D. Roosevelt has probably the nicest metro stop in Paris named after him. France and America seem to have been buddies since the beginning of the two nations when the French helped the United States in the Revolution, to when Napoleon sold the Louisiana purchase to cover some debts, to when we helped them rebuild after World War 2. Pretty Neat!

 In Italy, there is a tradition of putting locks on bridges and throwing the keys over the bridge into the river. This is here in France too except I think it is magnified and very touristy. Ali and I believe around once a year, they go around and cut off most of the locks as most all of the locks appear to be from this year or fairly recent. There are lots of vendors selling locks and playing accordions on this bridge especially when it gets crowded with people wanting to visit the Louvre.

 The Louvre is one of the biggest art museums in the world and its located near the center of Paris. Like many things in Paris, It really is GIANT. The Louvre has antiquities and art from all around the world. They do not have much contemporary art, but there is a separate museum for that.

 The Louvre's giant pyramid entrance. Much of the Louvre is underground and east of the museum, there is an underground mall called, "Le Carrousel du Louvre".

In Le Carrousel du Louvre, there is an apple store that we stopped at to use their computers, (and play with the cool new gadgets and see the new iPhones). The French keyboards are way different and it was challenging to use them. The new iPhone 5S was way light and looks super cool.

 In Paris, there is a Roman Arch du Triumph. When the Romans conquered cities, they would build these massive arches as a sign of their reign over the city and their military triumph (Arch du Triumph).

Ali and I visited the Arch du Triumph in Paris. It was very very big and was inside a big multilane traffic circle. Ali and I wandered into Chinatown one day and got lunch and took it in front of the arch to eat. It was great! You can see people in the background standing next to the arch. It is really really big.

 In Italy, the main church of the town/city are called' "Duomo". In France, they are called Cathedrals or, "Notre Dame". This is the Notre Dame of Paris. It is a really neat gothic, French Cathedral and it is about 800 years old. One night, we came over to here and there was some sort of "reception"with all of these people from Peru. They filled the church and carried around an altar with jesus on it and there was what sounded like a middle school band playing drums along with a bunch of of people waving burning incense holders. It gave the old church a pretty neat atmosphere with all the smoke in the air and the sound of drums and strange chanting.

 The flying buttresses in the back of the Notre Dame. These hold up the walls of the church.

 The Gargoyles drain out water from the roof. They are really neat.

 This was a movie theater right by our metro stop, "Odeon". It was a really neat movie theater and it would be fun one day to see a movie there. I heard, "Gravity" was really good, especially in 3D and they leave it in english and just add subtitles.

 There are lots of these big boulevards in Paris. Look at all the traffic lights! I cant imagine driving through all those! The trees look very nice though.

 The buildings in Paris are neat. I like them.

Paris had several nice flower stores that we saw walking around. One day, I got Ali some flowers and took her out to dinner. It was great!

Ali was so happy! So was I! They called the flowers, "Dippets" but Ali thinks they are carnations.

Here is the super fancy Franklin D. Roosevelt subway stop. I think it is the nicest in Paris. I think it is on the yellow "1" line.

 I love riding the metro! Its so fun! In Paris, the doors on the train only stay open for about 7 seconds! Its pretty quick! People go on and off really fast and the trains get way packed. Its awesome! most trains go on for a long ways and the tunnels snake left to right and even up and down! It can be super cool to look down the train when it isn't as crowded and see the way the train moves. The metro is fun!

Here is a walking street that Ali and I found. This was actually in a network of walking streets. I love walking streets where there are no cars, just pedestrians everywhere. Its so great! 

 Here we stopped at some place for lunch. Ali likes her sandwiches.

 I love my Quiche! I discovered Quiche in Paris and it is amazing! At this restaurant, I ate Quiche Saumon and it was delicious! On the bottom they put "epinards" (spinach). I wanna make Quiche!

 New York City is like a grid of streets. Paris is like a tangle of spiderwebs. Its so cool to have intersections where cars go every which way! Its cool to walk through, Im not sure if I would ever want to drive in it though.

While in Paris I saw lots of skateboarders! It made me want to skateboard soooooo bad! I really wish I brought my skateboard here. If I spoke french better, I would talk with the skateboarders and see if I could use their skateboard to do a few tricks. 

Big groups of skateboarders.

 Skateboarders at night.

 This Plazza de Republica was full of them! The ground was super smooth and there were awesome granite benches that you could grind on. It was like a park. There were families with their kids rollerblading here too, it was great! I really wish I could skateboard here!

 While in Paris, Ali and I saw art from famous street artist, "Space Invader". Seen in the documentary film, "Exit Through the Gift Shop" Space Invader uses tiles as his medium in his 8 bit retro video game style graffiti. It is neat to see his work in person in places all around the city. I think Space Invader may be from Paris but Im not sure, I would have to watch the movie again. He may have come here just to do some, "work".

 Space invader Star Wars, Chewbacca and C3P0. These were right near out hotel.

 Some of the tiles are falling off of this one. SPACE INVADER!

 One time we hopped on a crowded metro and there were some performers on the train. A clarinet and saxophone duo, they were pretty good and while the saxophone guy went on a long solo, the clarinet man went around the crowded metro and collected some tips. I gave them 10 cents. They played their way right on out the door when their stop came up. It was really cool!

 Odeon was our stop. We rode the "M4" line. Whenever we were really far away we could just go down any metro station and find out where the nearest connection to "4" was and go that way. That little pink 4 dot became like our home. The metro is so neat!

 In France, there are no 7-11s or convenience stores like in america. The closest thing they would have would be a Tabac store. Every Tabac store was marked with a red neon diamond somehow. Some of the diamonds were really cool and were like a giant neon diamond spring. In addition to selling tobacco products, Tabacs sold a variety of other things like lotto and bus tickets and a few drinks but not many. The best place to get cokes or water or something would be one of the little city grocery stores. We paid 2€50 a few times for out 1.5 liter water bottles before we found them for 20 cents at a grocery store! 20 cents is crazy cheap for that much water and I haven't even found it that cheap in Florence!

 The Eiffel tower is HUGE! You really have to see it in person to appreciate it. It is so big, when Ali an I would get food to go take to eat in front of the tower, we never knew when to buy food because it always looked like we were close to the tower (you just look up and you see it) but as you move closer, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. In this photo, you can see some of the lines of people waiting to get tickets to go to the top. You really have to visit and see it in person, its huge.

 The Eiffel tower going into the clouds.

 At night there is a double sided, spinning, spotlight that shines out over the city. It is great for navigating as you just look up and no matter what street you are on, you will always see the big beam of light shining through the sky.

 You always think your so close but really, you could still be another half hour walk away!

 Here is a good example of the train tunnels in Paris. Not only do they go left and right, but they also go up and down too! Its really neat and you don't feel it at all when you ride but you can see it if you look down the center walkway of the train. It is really neat.

Here is an overhead view of the French countryside- very pretty. More on that in future posts.

 This was a fun store right down the street from us near St. Germain street. I liked St. Germain street.

I took lots of photos on this trip and just wasn't able to blog them at all in Paris. Now that Im back in Florence at my computer, I can resume my blogging so expect more posts about France and Paris in the coming week or so. Im behind on the blog a bit but its ok. Im cooking and learning to bake things. I have been inspired by the french and I want to make quiche and bread. I think we had a great break though. J'aime Pari!