Pretty overwhelming day today.
Got up early and headed out of the hotel, grabbing some takeaway breakfast on the way, and off to St Pancras. I thought I'd left myself plenty of time, but as I was walking through St Pancras I looked at my watch and realised checkin closed in like a minute! Slight panic and a bit of a run, but made it just in time. Through security and passport control and into the Eurostar lounge. Had about a minute there before they opened the train. Sadly I got an aisle seat, and the girl beside me slept the entire way - #grunt. Apparently further back in the train there were *heaps* of seats. Le sigh.
Eurostar train I caught from London to Paris
So two and a quarter hours later arrived at Paris Gare du Nord. Pretty good time for 490km!
Walked to my hotel - it's like two minutes from the station - best location ever! Tiny little room, but perfectly adequate. Luckily I was able to check in and dump my crap.
My room at Hotel Avalon
Headed straight out again because it was sunny, and decided to travel light so wouldn't have to lug my backpack around.
Southern façade of Gare du Nord station
Gare du Nord is *huge*. And the automatic ticket machines only seemed to take coins, but I wanted a carnet, which I didn't have enough coins for, so queued to buy tickets. Fifteen minutes later .. hrmm. Eventually got my tickets, and eventually found where to go to get the train I wanted. Paris' metro signage is not nearly as user-friendly as London's :(
So into town I trundled.
Got out of the station and it's freezing cold and cloudy. WTF?? And of course I didn't bring my jacket, because it was *sunny*. Le sigh.
Anyway, got out at Notre Dame. Had a look, but the queue was all the way back along the plaza in front of it. So just wandered up and down the Seine having a look.
Notre Dame Cathedral
Continued walking along the south bank. Came across a bridge that was covered in padlocks. And realised how much I missed the sweetie :(:(:(
Street vendors on the south banks of the Seine
Locks on Pont de l'Archeveche
Statues and spire on Notre Dame
River boat passing under Pont Neuf
Pont des Arts
Institut de France
Institut de France
Eventually was opposite the Louvre so went across and had a look around. The queue for people *with* tickets was all the way across the plaza. I don't even know where the people were that needed to buy tickets.
South walls of the Louvre
Arched roadways under Pavillon de la trémoille
The Louvre
The Pyramide du Louvre
The Louvre and fountains
The Louvre and Pyramide du Louvre
The Pyramide du Louvre
The Pyramide du Louvre
Headed west, walking through the little arch, and through the gardens to see the obelisk which is the pair of the one I saw last week in Luxor.
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
Under the archh of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
View west to the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe and obelisk in the Place de la Concorde
View across the Place de la Concorde towards the Eiffel Tower
Statue at the western entrance of Jardin des Tuileries and obelisk
Fontaine des Fleuves
Kept walking up Champs Elysée or however you spell it. It was nice through the park section of it, but then the shops hit and it was crazy crowded.
View west along the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe
Grand Palais
Finally got to the Arc de Triomphe. Crowded. So crowded. I couldn't remember if this was covered by the museum pass or not, so just decided to do it, since I was there. Fifteen minutes queueing later.. hrmm. I think it was actually on the museum pass, which if I'd had I could have walked straight in. Le sigh.
Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
Went up and the view was pretty good. 194 steps in the sprial staircase to the first layer, more after that to the upper layers.
Spiral staircase in the Arc de Triomphe
Interior of the Arc de Triomphe
View west along Ave de la Grande Armee towards the modern city
View south
The Eiffel Tower from the Arc de Triomphe
Came back down and it started raining.
Arches of the Arc de Triomphe
The ceiling arch with 21 sculpted roses
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Arc de Triomphe
Then it stopped, so kept walking.
Headed south-west and had a look at the Eiffel Tower from the north west side. There was sun for a while, but not when I was in a position to photograph it. Le sigh.
Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine (Museum of Architecture and Monuments)
Eiffel Tower and Jardins du Trocadéro
Eiffel Tower from Esplanade du Trocadéro
View through the base of the Eiffel Tower along Champ de Mars
Carrousel and Eiffel Tower from Jardins du Trocadéro
Pont d'Iena and Eiffel Tower
Went under the tower. They were setting up for a concert or something so couldn't stand in the middle and look up :( Edit: they were actually building a glass floor extension on the first level. Why do I always seem to have crap timing for these sorts of things? Sussed out the queues. There's a lift broken so you can't buy tickets in advance (I tried when I was still at home - they were sold out til like June - now they're sold out til July). The lift queue looked *insane* and the stairs queue was like an hour and a half long. :(
Looking up the Eiffel Tower
Looking up the middle of the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower from the west
Bird on a lamp post
I'd had enough at this point so headed back to Gare du Nord. Really don't like the signage here :(
Found a semi user-friendly café and had some veal and veggies (I'd been craving meat and veggies since had too much doughy stuff today).
Then back to the hotel. The sweetie was still up after his last day at his Japanese school, so we had a skype chat which was pretty emotional for me. Have I mentioned how much I miss the sweetie?
I can't find my Euro electrical adapter. I had it in Cairo but it's gone now. Will pull apart all my luggage to see if I can find it. Gonna be a pain if I have to buy a new one :/ Also realised this morning that the camel bone letter opener I got in Egypt was smashed in my suitcase :(
*SIGH*
Distance covered on the GPS: 490.3 km on the train, 13.5 km walking around Paris
Steps walked: 26692
Photos on the Canon: 213
Photos on the Sony: 51
Videos: 2
EUR Spent: 43.80
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